Does Flood Affect the Intensity of Livelihood Diversification? - A Study in the Flood-Affected Areas of Assam, India

Abstract

Diversification of livelihood strategies is one of the most sought livelihood strategies of the people around the globe. People diversify their livelihood due to the uncertainties prevailing around the households. In certain other cases, people diversify their livelihood due to emerging opportunities that arise due to socio-political and economic changes. The Livelihood strategy of the rural people of developing countries is a function of multiple factors ranging from access to resources and vectors of demographic, geographic, and socio-economic factors. Most of the factors are common in rural areas of India. However, in certain pockets of the country natural calamities affect the livelihood pattern of the people. Flood, being the most severe natural calamities in the state of Assam, has a significant impact on the livelihood strategies of the people of the state. With this backdrop, this study aims at constructing and comparing the livelihood diversification index in the flood-affected areas and the flood-free areas adjacent to the affected areas. The livelihood diversification index for this study is constructed using the Herfindahl-Hirschman index. The livelihood diversification index of the households of the study area is 2.4470. The study finds that the livelihood diversification index of flood-affected areas (2.5196) is significantly higher than the flood-free areas (2.2308).