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Are Multidimensional Poor more Vulnerable to Climate change? Evidence from Rural Bihar, India

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Abstract

Does deprivation of assets imply an increased likelihood of vulnerability to climate change? Our study attempts to answer this question by analyzing the multidimensional poverty in rural Bihar, followed by deciphering the link between the developed poverty index and vulnerability of agriculture to climate change. Vulnerability index used in the present study was developed under the National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) by the Government of India. As most people in rural areas and those dependent on rural based livelihood activities (such as agriculture, forestry and livestock) are more vulnerable to vagaries of weather, related attributes (i.e. land ownership, livestock ownership as well as access to agriculture equipments) are included in our analysis. We found that the extent of multidimensional poverty in rural Bihar was 0.278 indicating that rural poor were deprived in 27.8 percent of the total potential deprivations that they could experience overall. It varied from 0.19 to 0.39 across districts. The findings highlight that a majority of the population were deprived in living standard dimension, followed by health and education dimensions. Further, the districts where the multidimensional poverty was high were also more vulnerable to climate change. The study advocates for formulation of district specific programs that can target major contributing factors resulting in reducing the extent of multidimensional poverty and vulnerability.

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Fig. 1

Source Authors' calculation using the DHS data

Fig. 2

Source Author’ calculation using the DHS data (2015–16)

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Notes

  1. Anganwadi literally means courtyard shelter is a type of rural child care centre initiated by Government of India in 1975 as a part of Integrated Child Development Scheme to combat child hunger and female health.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the Editor-in-Chief and reviewers for their constructive and useful comments in improving the quality of the manuscript. The authors acknowledge the support and infrastructure facilities rendered by the Director, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, India for carrying out the research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Dairy Economics, Statistics and Management, ICAR- National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, 132 001, India

    Manjisha Sinha, B. S. Chandel, Ravinder Malhotra & Ajmer Singh

  2. ICAR-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal, Haryana, 132 001, India

    R. Sendhil

  3. Division of Dairy Extension, ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana, 132 001, India

    Sujeet Kumar Jha & Gopal Sankhala

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  1. Manjisha Sinha
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Sinha, M., Sendhil, R., Chandel, B.S. et al. Are Multidimensional Poor more Vulnerable to Climate change? Evidence from Rural Bihar, India. Soc Indic Res 162, 123–149 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-021-02827-z

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