Chinmoyee Mallik - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Chinmoyee Mallik
Disaster risk reduction, 2024
Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective, Dec 1, 2014
The rapid growth of metropolitan suburbs is the most striking feature of spatial transformation i... more The rapid growth of metropolitan suburbs is the most striking feature of spatial transformation in South Asian cities. Reduced carrying capacities of these metropolitan areas are pushing business and people out of their urban core, relocating them in the immediate suburbs and peripheries. Such relocation of industry and commerce or migrant residents are changing the very look and feel of the surrounding villages resulting into emergence of a zone of transition or peri-urban as it is popularly known, wherein urban and rural development processes meet, mix and inter-react (Narain, 2010). However, challenge lies in managing these transitory spaces sustainably as they are institutionally rural but look and feel urban. One of the critical gaps that policy makers often argue of is not having any specialized institutional arrangements and absence of any specific indicators for identification and delineation of peri-urban interface. Following article attempts to address this gap by determining the thresholds that meaningfully distinguish between the urban, peri-urban and rural areas across India. The idea is to go beyond the conventional spatial analysis to a process-based economic modelling, wherein the social dynamism and flux can be clearly brought out to classify 40 sub-districts/taluks of Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority's area.
Contributions To Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, Aug 14, 2023
Contemporary South Asian studies, 2017
The asset based framework for understanding livelihoods has evolved as a very effective tool for ... more The asset based framework for understanding livelihoods has evolved as a very effective tool for the analysis of vulnerabilities and opportunities that shape the lives of the people. This study is organized around the recent episode of agricultural land grab associated with the large scale land acquisition carried out by the West Bengal state government for Rajarhat New Town and the Tata Small Car Project at Singur that posits formidable questions over how the agricultural livelihoods would transform. This paper seeks to look into the various livelihoods strategies adopted and the outcomes experienced by the various factions of the rural population in response to a ‘shock’ i.e. the land acquisition (henceforth referred as LA) carried out during the last decade by the West Bengal state government in the process of developing a new town (Rajarhat) and industrialization (Singur) along the periphery of Kolkata. The case study is based on a sample of 253 farm households, among whom about 190 households have suffered land dispossession the rest being control group. The analysis uses mixed methods: questionnaire survey to collect quantitative data and semi-structured interviews for qualitative information that are combined for holistic understanding. The analysis has clearly indicated the following: firstly, the control households have been better placed compared to the land lost households irrespective of whether they own land or not; secondly, within the relatively larger land owners (semi-large & medium combined), control samples have better livelihood outcomes compared to land-lost counterparts; thirdly, in-spite of losing access to land, the land owners have been better placed compared to their landless tenant cultivator counterparts; and fourthly, those who sold land to the corporates have better livelihood outcomes compared to those whose lands have been acquired by the State. It must be noted that this pattern of outcome directly corresponds with their respective size of the asset pentagon suggesting a concordance between total asset position and livelihood outcomes. Although the differential outcome of the landed and pure tenant households have been somewhat expected, the significantly higher MPCE of the control samples relative to the land-lost counterparts within the relatively larger land ownership class (semi-large and medium combined) points out the complexity of land dispossession even within the land ownership categories. Also, that the fact that the households selling land to the corporates have emerged with better livelihood outcome points towards their higher monetary receipt as a reason behind such pattern. Conclusively it may be exposited that the asset position including compensation receipts have emerged as significant factor in governing the trajectory of livelihood outcomes of the households. The study has indicated that the implications of vulnerability contexts, the effective livelihood options and the connotation of asset ownership have come to be defined through the emergent political climate. There has also been a clustering of capitals including political capital and hence a correspondence between land owning households and better livelihood outcomes relative to the landless (pure tenant cultivator) counterparts. The regionally differentiated adaptation mechanism further highlights how the regional context on one hand and the asset livelihood nexus on the other hand emerge vital in determining effective livelihood adaptation following land dispossession. The study underlines the significance of policies directed to address the asset poverty and insecurity of the vulnerable groups in the context of livelihood transition.
Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Apr 16, 2018
The Indian state is empowered to acquire land on behalf of private companies by virtue of 'eminen... more The Indian state is empowered to acquire land on behalf of private companies by virtue of 'eminent domain' outlined in the Land Acquisition Act 1894. Several amendments to the 1894 Land Acquisition Act have broadened the purview of the 'public purpose' clause and have facilitated more state intervention in land acquisition on behalf of private capital. Rather than questioning the legitimacy of the prevailing practice of state intervention to resolve the glitches of access to land by private corporations, the New Act of 2013 has expanded the ambit of 'public purpose' to include public-private-partnership projects. This paper seeks to look into the political economy of why the neoliberal state must continue to acquire land on behalf of the capitalists in the liberalized economy. This paper also attempts to bring out the implications of divergent livelihood outcome under state acquisition and direct corporate land purchase for the land acquisition framework in India through the case study of Rajarhat New Town in West Bengal.
Until recently, land acquisition in India had been undertaken closely following the provisions la... more Until recently, land acquisition in India had been undertaken closely following the provisions laid down by the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 (i.e. during the time of this study) which was created by the colonial powers to seize private property in consonance with their imperialist motives. This Act has been amended several times by the State Governments. These amendments generally have pertained to the elaboration of compensation issues and have shrewdly retained the ambiguities to make way for corruption. The new land acquisition act has come to force only on 1 January 2014 and it has been referred to as "The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013" (henceforth refereed to as the New Act). Although it marks a step forward in sensitively addressing some of the earlier concerns, it is not without a few loopholes that need to be questioned. This paper discusses the critical elements of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 in comparison to the New Act, and through the case study of land acquisition in a village located in the urban fringe of Delhi, attempts to look into the nuances of the interlinkages between land dispossession and livelihood transformation. Specifically, this paper tries to assess the efficacy of the provisions laid down in the previous act in relation to the village study and attempts to comment upon implications of the livelihood outcomes of the farmers losing land to the state perpetrated land acquisition. This paper is composed of four sections. Section 1 contextualizes the study. Section 2 attempts C. Mallik (*)
World Development Perspectives, Dec 1, 2016
Based on the land acquisition case of Rajarhat and Singur, this paper seeks to look into the natu... more Based on the land acquisition case of Rajarhat and Singur, this paper seeks to look into the nature of transformation of social capital and its implications for transition of the rural livelihoods. Contrary to the collective action thesis, this paper illustrates how during abrupt economic stress the agrarian economy capitalizes on the structural inequalities. The study suggests that although the pre-existing horizontal linkages are deliberately replaced by linking social capital as a strategy to access the available opportunities, the emergent quality of ties have clearly marginalized the poor and the inherent forms of politically charged exclusions have re-entrenched the earlier forms of patron-client relationship in the livelihood transition process.
Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal
Data scarcity has hindered studies on the impacts of climate change on land prices in the coastal... more Data scarcity has hindered studies on the impacts of climate change on land prices in the coastal regions of developing countries. Focused on the Indian Sundarbans, this paper is at the forefront of such research. Market conditions in the region feature unregulated transactions, unenforced zoning, and a lack of disaster insurance. For many residents with hereditary land ownership, stark poverty eliminates any risk buffer provided by savings or other non-essential liquid assets. Using new household surveys and environmental data, our study hypothesizes that salinization and cyclone strikes have already adversely affected land prices. We quantify such impacts using a georeferenced panel of 342 salinity monitoring stations and a spatial raster database on all cyclonic storm strikes since 1970. Our econometric results reveal highly significant negative impacts for both factors. We use the regression results to predict land prices for the most and least favourable environmental condition...
Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography
The analytical inseparability of natural environment and society is reiterated by the findings of... more The analytical inseparability of natural environment and society is reiterated by the findings of this study which contributes to a genre of studies that centre-stages the socio-ecological system. This study seeks to understand the interplay of state-related and other modes of securing property rights in the context of pervasive coastal hazards through a case study from the Indian Sundarbans region (Sagar Island in West Bengal). This paper also contributes to research pertaining to slow-onset disasters and attempts to examine emerging dimensions of land scarcity as well as diverse modes of access to land in the context of progressive ecological vulnerability. The analysis highlights the varying shades of declining land access and investigates how existing land policies and disaster management mechanisms remain far from extending security to communities experiencing environmental crisis. The paper thereby examines how community and state agencies adopting means to allocate property may in fact refute legality and perpetuate informality. [] Mallik, C., Bandyopadhyay, S., Bandyopadhyay, S., 2023. Land scarcity and land access in a hazard-prone island: Sagar, Indian Sundarbans. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 44(2): 255–276. doi: 10.1111/sjtg.12493 [] Full text here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/BAACSFIXXM4GJWMTPJRS?target=10.1111/sjtg.12493
The rapid growth of metropolitan suburbs is the most striking feature of spatial transformation i... more The rapid growth of metropolitan suburbs is the most striking feature of spatial transformation in South Asian cities. Reduced carrying capacities of these metropolitan areas are pushing business and people out of their urban core, relocating them in the imme-diate suburbs and peripheries. Such relocation of industry and commerce or migrant residents are changing the very look and feel of the surrounding villages resulting into emergence of a zone of transition or peri-urban as it is popularly known, wherein urban and rural development processes meet, mix and inter-react (Narain, 2010). However, challenge lies in managing these transitory spaces sustainably as they are institutionally rural but look and feel urban. One of the critical gaps that policy makers often argue of is not having any specialized institutional arrangements and absence of any specific indicators for identification and delineation of peri-urban interface. Following article attempts to address this gap by determi...
Marginalization in Globalizing Delhi: Issues of Land, Livelihoods and Health, 2016
Until recently, land acquisition in India had been undertaken closely following the provisions la... more Until recently, land acquisition in India had been undertaken closely following the provisions laid down by the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 (i.e. during the time of this study) which was created by the colonial powers to seize private property in consonance with their imperialist motives. This Act has been amended several times by the State Governments. These amendments generally have pertained to the elaboration of compensation issues and have shrewdly retained the ambiguities to make way for corruption. The new land acquisition act has come to force only on 1 January 2014 and it has been referred to as "The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013" (henceforth refereed to as the New Act). Although it marks a step forward in sensitively addressing some of the earlier concerns, it is not without a few loopholes that need to be questioned. This paper discusses the critical elements of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 in comparison to the New Act, and through the case study of land acquisition in a village located in the urban fringe of Delhi, attempts to look into the nuances of the interlinkages between land dispossession and livelihood transformation. Specifically, this paper tries to assess the efficacy of the provisions laid down in the previous act in relation to the village study and attempts to comment upon implications of the livelihood outcomes of the farmers losing land to the state perpetrated land acquisition. This paper is composed of four sections. Section 1 contextualizes the study. Section 2 attempts C. Mallik (*)
The asset based framework for understanding livelihoods has evolved as a very effective tool for ... more The asset based framework for understanding livelihoods has evolved as a very effective tool for the analysis of vulnerabilities and opportunities that shape the lives of the people. This study is organized around the recent episode of agricultural land grab associated with the large scale land acquisition carried out by the West Bengal state government for Rajarhat New Town and the Tata Small Car Project at Singur that posits formidable questions over how the agricultural livelihoods would transform. This paper seeks to look into the various livelihoods strategies adopted and the outcomes experienced by the various factions of the rural population in response to a ‘shock’ i.e. the land acquisition (henceforth referred as LA) carried out during the last decade by the West Bengal state government in the process of developing a new town (Rajarhat) and industrialization (Singur) along the periphery of Kolkata. The case study is based on a sample of 253 farm households, among whom about...
Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective, 2014
The rapid growth of metropolitan suburbs is the most striking feature of spatial transformation i... more The rapid growth of metropolitan suburbs is the most striking feature of spatial transformation in South Asian cities. Reduced carrying capacities of these metropolitan areas are pushing business and people out of their urban core, relocating them in the immediate suburbs and peripheries. Such relocation of industry and commerce or migrant residents are changing the very look and feel of the surrounding villages resulting into emergence of a zone of transition or peri-urban as it is popularly known, wherein urban and rural development processes meet, mix and inter-react ( Narain, 2010 ). However, challenge lies in managing these transitory spaces sustainably as they are institutionally rural but look and feel urban. One of the critical gaps that policy makers often argue of is not having any specialized institutional arrangements and absence of any specific indicators for identification and delineation of peri-urban interface. Following article attempts to address this gap by determ...
Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 2018
The Indian state is empowered to acquire land on behalf of private companies by virtue of 'eminen... more The Indian state is empowered to acquire land on behalf of private companies by virtue of 'eminent domain' outlined in the Land Acquisition Act 1894. Several amendments to the 1894 Land Acquisition Act have broadened the purview of the 'public purpose' clause and have facilitated more state intervention in land acquisition on behalf of private capital. Rather than questioning the legitimacy of the prevailing practice of state intervention to resolve the glitches of access to land by private corporations, the New Act of 2013 has expanded the ambit of 'public purpose' to include public-private-partnership projects. This paper seeks to look into the political economy of why the neoliberal state must continue to acquire land on behalf of the capitalists in the liberalized economy. This paper also attempts to bring out the implications of divergent livelihood outcome under state acquisition and direct corporate land purchase for the land acquisition framework in India through the case study of Rajarhat New Town in West Bengal.
Journal Of Rural Development
Traditional understanding of rural transformation, although pertains to processes associated with... more Traditional understanding of rural transformation, although pertains to processes associated with agricultural development, rural poverty or urbanisation, the recent times have witnessed additional micro-processes in relation to state policies that not only affect rural lives but also compel them to undergo far-reaching changes. State- perpetrated land acquisition offers perhaps the most unambiguous shock to the rural lives as it directly impinges upon the economic base of the rural population. The recent massive land acquisition for the Rajarhat New Town project in West Bengal near Kolkata offers a pertinent case for the study of the nature of rural transformation invigorated by land dispossession. Attempting to analyse the trajectory of occupational transformation following land loss of the farmers (land owners as well as pure tenants) on one hand and on the other hand the role of access to assets in determining it, the paper has succinctly pointed out the following: firstly, a ra...
World Development Perspectives, 2016
Based on the land acquisition case of Rajarhat and Singur, this paper seeks to look into the natu... more Based on the land acquisition case of Rajarhat and Singur, this paper seeks to look into the nature of transformation of social capital and its implications for transition of the rural livelihoods. Contrary to the collective action thesis, this paper illustrates how during abrupt economic stress the agrarian economy capitalizes on the structural inequalities. The study suggests that although the pre-existing horizontal linkages are deliberately replaced by linking social capital as a strategy to access the available opportunities, the emergent quality of ties have clearly marginalized the poor and the inherent forms of politically charged exclusions have re-entrenched the earlier forms of patron-client relationship in the livelihood transition process.
Livelihood Enhancement Through Agriculture, Tourism and Health
• Sundarban • Hugli Estuary • Medinipur Coast by Chinmoyee Mallik
Risk, Uncertainty and Maladaptation to Climate Change: Policy, Practice and Case Studies (edited by: Sarkar, A., Bandyopadhyay, N., Singh, S., Sachan, R.), Springer Nature, Singapore: 125–138, 2024
The inhabited regions of the Indian Sundarbans of the Bengal Delta are threatened by dual process... more The inhabited regions of the Indian Sundarbans of the Bengal Delta are threatened by dual processes of sea level rise and persistent coastal erosion caused by regular tidal surges. A few islands of this region have already been completely eroded stimulating population movements. This case study seeks to bring out how a myopic understanding of the adaptation priorities have resolved the concerns only in the short run but in the long run has exacerbated the vulnerabilities turning them maladaptive. This chapter is based upon a fieldwork in the Sagar Island comprising of 240 households in 2021 to understand the implications of the two major adaptation measures undertaken in the region to combat coastal flooding and coastal erosion: embankment and resettlement of the environmental refugee population. It is evident from the study that embankments have been able to contain coastal flooding and coastal erosion only with limited success. Instead, they have interfered with the coastal processes by altering the sediment load dynamics, reduction in channel capacity, increasing the tidal amplitude, and have exacerbated the environmental crisis. The resettlement strategy has accommodated the displaced communities, but in the long run the economic as well as the environmental outcomes have clear indications of maladaptive practices. It has deteriorated the livelihoods of the relocated communities. Further, the location of the resettlement colonies being in the fresh accretion zones have interfered with the coastal processes aggravating erosion.
• Mallik, C., Bandyopadhyay, S. 2024. Peopling of the Sagar Island in the Indian Sundarbans: A Case of Maladaptation to Climate Change. In Risk, Uncertainty and Maladaptation to Climate Change: Policy, Practice and Case Studies. eds. Sarkar, A., Bandyopadhyay, N., Singh, S., Sachan, R., Springer Nature, Singapore, pp 125–138
Disaster risk reduction, 2024
Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective, Dec 1, 2014
The rapid growth of metropolitan suburbs is the most striking feature of spatial transformation i... more The rapid growth of metropolitan suburbs is the most striking feature of spatial transformation in South Asian cities. Reduced carrying capacities of these metropolitan areas are pushing business and people out of their urban core, relocating them in the immediate suburbs and peripheries. Such relocation of industry and commerce or migrant residents are changing the very look and feel of the surrounding villages resulting into emergence of a zone of transition or peri-urban as it is popularly known, wherein urban and rural development processes meet, mix and inter-react (Narain, 2010). However, challenge lies in managing these transitory spaces sustainably as they are institutionally rural but look and feel urban. One of the critical gaps that policy makers often argue of is not having any specialized institutional arrangements and absence of any specific indicators for identification and delineation of peri-urban interface. Following article attempts to address this gap by determining the thresholds that meaningfully distinguish between the urban, peri-urban and rural areas across India. The idea is to go beyond the conventional spatial analysis to a process-based economic modelling, wherein the social dynamism and flux can be clearly brought out to classify 40 sub-districts/taluks of Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority's area.
Contributions To Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, Aug 14, 2023
Contemporary South Asian studies, 2017
The asset based framework for understanding livelihoods has evolved as a very effective tool for ... more The asset based framework for understanding livelihoods has evolved as a very effective tool for the analysis of vulnerabilities and opportunities that shape the lives of the people. This study is organized around the recent episode of agricultural land grab associated with the large scale land acquisition carried out by the West Bengal state government for Rajarhat New Town and the Tata Small Car Project at Singur that posits formidable questions over how the agricultural livelihoods would transform. This paper seeks to look into the various livelihoods strategies adopted and the outcomes experienced by the various factions of the rural population in response to a ‘shock’ i.e. the land acquisition (henceforth referred as LA) carried out during the last decade by the West Bengal state government in the process of developing a new town (Rajarhat) and industrialization (Singur) along the periphery of Kolkata. The case study is based on a sample of 253 farm households, among whom about 190 households have suffered land dispossession the rest being control group. The analysis uses mixed methods: questionnaire survey to collect quantitative data and semi-structured interviews for qualitative information that are combined for holistic understanding. The analysis has clearly indicated the following: firstly, the control households have been better placed compared to the land lost households irrespective of whether they own land or not; secondly, within the relatively larger land owners (semi-large & medium combined), control samples have better livelihood outcomes compared to land-lost counterparts; thirdly, in-spite of losing access to land, the land owners have been better placed compared to their landless tenant cultivator counterparts; and fourthly, those who sold land to the corporates have better livelihood outcomes compared to those whose lands have been acquired by the State. It must be noted that this pattern of outcome directly corresponds with their respective size of the asset pentagon suggesting a concordance between total asset position and livelihood outcomes. Although the differential outcome of the landed and pure tenant households have been somewhat expected, the significantly higher MPCE of the control samples relative to the land-lost counterparts within the relatively larger land ownership class (semi-large and medium combined) points out the complexity of land dispossession even within the land ownership categories. Also, that the fact that the households selling land to the corporates have emerged with better livelihood outcome points towards their higher monetary receipt as a reason behind such pattern. Conclusively it may be exposited that the asset position including compensation receipts have emerged as significant factor in governing the trajectory of livelihood outcomes of the households. The study has indicated that the implications of vulnerability contexts, the effective livelihood options and the connotation of asset ownership have come to be defined through the emergent political climate. There has also been a clustering of capitals including political capital and hence a correspondence between land owning households and better livelihood outcomes relative to the landless (pure tenant cultivator) counterparts. The regionally differentiated adaptation mechanism further highlights how the regional context on one hand and the asset livelihood nexus on the other hand emerge vital in determining effective livelihood adaptation following land dispossession. The study underlines the significance of policies directed to address the asset poverty and insecurity of the vulnerable groups in the context of livelihood transition.
Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Apr 16, 2018
The Indian state is empowered to acquire land on behalf of private companies by virtue of 'eminen... more The Indian state is empowered to acquire land on behalf of private companies by virtue of 'eminent domain' outlined in the Land Acquisition Act 1894. Several amendments to the 1894 Land Acquisition Act have broadened the purview of the 'public purpose' clause and have facilitated more state intervention in land acquisition on behalf of private capital. Rather than questioning the legitimacy of the prevailing practice of state intervention to resolve the glitches of access to land by private corporations, the New Act of 2013 has expanded the ambit of 'public purpose' to include public-private-partnership projects. This paper seeks to look into the political economy of why the neoliberal state must continue to acquire land on behalf of the capitalists in the liberalized economy. This paper also attempts to bring out the implications of divergent livelihood outcome under state acquisition and direct corporate land purchase for the land acquisition framework in India through the case study of Rajarhat New Town in West Bengal.
Until recently, land acquisition in India had been undertaken closely following the provisions la... more Until recently, land acquisition in India had been undertaken closely following the provisions laid down by the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 (i.e. during the time of this study) which was created by the colonial powers to seize private property in consonance with their imperialist motives. This Act has been amended several times by the State Governments. These amendments generally have pertained to the elaboration of compensation issues and have shrewdly retained the ambiguities to make way for corruption. The new land acquisition act has come to force only on 1 January 2014 and it has been referred to as "The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013" (henceforth refereed to as the New Act). Although it marks a step forward in sensitively addressing some of the earlier concerns, it is not without a few loopholes that need to be questioned. This paper discusses the critical elements of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 in comparison to the New Act, and through the case study of land acquisition in a village located in the urban fringe of Delhi, attempts to look into the nuances of the interlinkages between land dispossession and livelihood transformation. Specifically, this paper tries to assess the efficacy of the provisions laid down in the previous act in relation to the village study and attempts to comment upon implications of the livelihood outcomes of the farmers losing land to the state perpetrated land acquisition. This paper is composed of four sections. Section 1 contextualizes the study. Section 2 attempts C. Mallik (*)
World Development Perspectives, Dec 1, 2016
Based on the land acquisition case of Rajarhat and Singur, this paper seeks to look into the natu... more Based on the land acquisition case of Rajarhat and Singur, this paper seeks to look into the nature of transformation of social capital and its implications for transition of the rural livelihoods. Contrary to the collective action thesis, this paper illustrates how during abrupt economic stress the agrarian economy capitalizes on the structural inequalities. The study suggests that although the pre-existing horizontal linkages are deliberately replaced by linking social capital as a strategy to access the available opportunities, the emergent quality of ties have clearly marginalized the poor and the inherent forms of politically charged exclusions have re-entrenched the earlier forms of patron-client relationship in the livelihood transition process.
Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal
Data scarcity has hindered studies on the impacts of climate change on land prices in the coastal... more Data scarcity has hindered studies on the impacts of climate change on land prices in the coastal regions of developing countries. Focused on the Indian Sundarbans, this paper is at the forefront of such research. Market conditions in the region feature unregulated transactions, unenforced zoning, and a lack of disaster insurance. For many residents with hereditary land ownership, stark poverty eliminates any risk buffer provided by savings or other non-essential liquid assets. Using new household surveys and environmental data, our study hypothesizes that salinization and cyclone strikes have already adversely affected land prices. We quantify such impacts using a georeferenced panel of 342 salinity monitoring stations and a spatial raster database on all cyclonic storm strikes since 1970. Our econometric results reveal highly significant negative impacts for both factors. We use the regression results to predict land prices for the most and least favourable environmental condition...
Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography
The analytical inseparability of natural environment and society is reiterated by the findings of... more The analytical inseparability of natural environment and society is reiterated by the findings of this study which contributes to a genre of studies that centre-stages the socio-ecological system. This study seeks to understand the interplay of state-related and other modes of securing property rights in the context of pervasive coastal hazards through a case study from the Indian Sundarbans region (Sagar Island in West Bengal). This paper also contributes to research pertaining to slow-onset disasters and attempts to examine emerging dimensions of land scarcity as well as diverse modes of access to land in the context of progressive ecological vulnerability. The analysis highlights the varying shades of declining land access and investigates how existing land policies and disaster management mechanisms remain far from extending security to communities experiencing environmental crisis. The paper thereby examines how community and state agencies adopting means to allocate property may in fact refute legality and perpetuate informality. [] Mallik, C., Bandyopadhyay, S., Bandyopadhyay, S., 2023. Land scarcity and land access in a hazard-prone island: Sagar, Indian Sundarbans. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 44(2): 255–276. doi: 10.1111/sjtg.12493 [] Full text here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/BAACSFIXXM4GJWMTPJRS?target=10.1111/sjtg.12493
The rapid growth of metropolitan suburbs is the most striking feature of spatial transformation i... more The rapid growth of metropolitan suburbs is the most striking feature of spatial transformation in South Asian cities. Reduced carrying capacities of these metropolitan areas are pushing business and people out of their urban core, relocating them in the imme-diate suburbs and peripheries. Such relocation of industry and commerce or migrant residents are changing the very look and feel of the surrounding villages resulting into emergence of a zone of transition or peri-urban as it is popularly known, wherein urban and rural development processes meet, mix and inter-react (Narain, 2010). However, challenge lies in managing these transitory spaces sustainably as they are institutionally rural but look and feel urban. One of the critical gaps that policy makers often argue of is not having any specialized institutional arrangements and absence of any specific indicators for identification and delineation of peri-urban interface. Following article attempts to address this gap by determi...
Marginalization in Globalizing Delhi: Issues of Land, Livelihoods and Health, 2016
Until recently, land acquisition in India had been undertaken closely following the provisions la... more Until recently, land acquisition in India had been undertaken closely following the provisions laid down by the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 (i.e. during the time of this study) which was created by the colonial powers to seize private property in consonance with their imperialist motives. This Act has been amended several times by the State Governments. These amendments generally have pertained to the elaboration of compensation issues and have shrewdly retained the ambiguities to make way for corruption. The new land acquisition act has come to force only on 1 January 2014 and it has been referred to as "The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013" (henceforth refereed to as the New Act). Although it marks a step forward in sensitively addressing some of the earlier concerns, it is not without a few loopholes that need to be questioned. This paper discusses the critical elements of the Land Acquisition Act of 1894 in comparison to the New Act, and through the case study of land acquisition in a village located in the urban fringe of Delhi, attempts to look into the nuances of the interlinkages between land dispossession and livelihood transformation. Specifically, this paper tries to assess the efficacy of the provisions laid down in the previous act in relation to the village study and attempts to comment upon implications of the livelihood outcomes of the farmers losing land to the state perpetrated land acquisition. This paper is composed of four sections. Section 1 contextualizes the study. Section 2 attempts C. Mallik (*)
The asset based framework for understanding livelihoods has evolved as a very effective tool for ... more The asset based framework for understanding livelihoods has evolved as a very effective tool for the analysis of vulnerabilities and opportunities that shape the lives of the people. This study is organized around the recent episode of agricultural land grab associated with the large scale land acquisition carried out by the West Bengal state government for Rajarhat New Town and the Tata Small Car Project at Singur that posits formidable questions over how the agricultural livelihoods would transform. This paper seeks to look into the various livelihoods strategies adopted and the outcomes experienced by the various factions of the rural population in response to a ‘shock’ i.e. the land acquisition (henceforth referred as LA) carried out during the last decade by the West Bengal state government in the process of developing a new town (Rajarhat) and industrialization (Singur) along the periphery of Kolkata. The case study is based on a sample of 253 farm households, among whom about...
Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective, 2014
The rapid growth of metropolitan suburbs is the most striking feature of spatial transformation i... more The rapid growth of metropolitan suburbs is the most striking feature of spatial transformation in South Asian cities. Reduced carrying capacities of these metropolitan areas are pushing business and people out of their urban core, relocating them in the immediate suburbs and peripheries. Such relocation of industry and commerce or migrant residents are changing the very look and feel of the surrounding villages resulting into emergence of a zone of transition or peri-urban as it is popularly known, wherein urban and rural development processes meet, mix and inter-react ( Narain, 2010 ). However, challenge lies in managing these transitory spaces sustainably as they are institutionally rural but look and feel urban. One of the critical gaps that policy makers often argue of is not having any specialized institutional arrangements and absence of any specific indicators for identification and delineation of peri-urban interface. Following article attempts to address this gap by determ...
Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 2018
The Indian state is empowered to acquire land on behalf of private companies by virtue of 'eminen... more The Indian state is empowered to acquire land on behalf of private companies by virtue of 'eminent domain' outlined in the Land Acquisition Act 1894. Several amendments to the 1894 Land Acquisition Act have broadened the purview of the 'public purpose' clause and have facilitated more state intervention in land acquisition on behalf of private capital. Rather than questioning the legitimacy of the prevailing practice of state intervention to resolve the glitches of access to land by private corporations, the New Act of 2013 has expanded the ambit of 'public purpose' to include public-private-partnership projects. This paper seeks to look into the political economy of why the neoliberal state must continue to acquire land on behalf of the capitalists in the liberalized economy. This paper also attempts to bring out the implications of divergent livelihood outcome under state acquisition and direct corporate land purchase for the land acquisition framework in India through the case study of Rajarhat New Town in West Bengal.
Journal Of Rural Development
Traditional understanding of rural transformation, although pertains to processes associated with... more Traditional understanding of rural transformation, although pertains to processes associated with agricultural development, rural poverty or urbanisation, the recent times have witnessed additional micro-processes in relation to state policies that not only affect rural lives but also compel them to undergo far-reaching changes. State- perpetrated land acquisition offers perhaps the most unambiguous shock to the rural lives as it directly impinges upon the economic base of the rural population. The recent massive land acquisition for the Rajarhat New Town project in West Bengal near Kolkata offers a pertinent case for the study of the nature of rural transformation invigorated by land dispossession. Attempting to analyse the trajectory of occupational transformation following land loss of the farmers (land owners as well as pure tenants) on one hand and on the other hand the role of access to assets in determining it, the paper has succinctly pointed out the following: firstly, a ra...
World Development Perspectives, 2016
Based on the land acquisition case of Rajarhat and Singur, this paper seeks to look into the natu... more Based on the land acquisition case of Rajarhat and Singur, this paper seeks to look into the nature of transformation of social capital and its implications for transition of the rural livelihoods. Contrary to the collective action thesis, this paper illustrates how during abrupt economic stress the agrarian economy capitalizes on the structural inequalities. The study suggests that although the pre-existing horizontal linkages are deliberately replaced by linking social capital as a strategy to access the available opportunities, the emergent quality of ties have clearly marginalized the poor and the inherent forms of politically charged exclusions have re-entrenched the earlier forms of patron-client relationship in the livelihood transition process.
Livelihood Enhancement Through Agriculture, Tourism and Health
Risk, Uncertainty and Maladaptation to Climate Change: Policy, Practice and Case Studies (edited by: Sarkar, A., Bandyopadhyay, N., Singh, S., Sachan, R.), Springer Nature, Singapore: 125–138, 2024
The inhabited regions of the Indian Sundarbans of the Bengal Delta are threatened by dual process... more The inhabited regions of the Indian Sundarbans of the Bengal Delta are threatened by dual processes of sea level rise and persistent coastal erosion caused by regular tidal surges. A few islands of this region have already been completely eroded stimulating population movements. This case study seeks to bring out how a myopic understanding of the adaptation priorities have resolved the concerns only in the short run but in the long run has exacerbated the vulnerabilities turning them maladaptive. This chapter is based upon a fieldwork in the Sagar Island comprising of 240 households in 2021 to understand the implications of the two major adaptation measures undertaken in the region to combat coastal flooding and coastal erosion: embankment and resettlement of the environmental refugee population. It is evident from the study that embankments have been able to contain coastal flooding and coastal erosion only with limited success. Instead, they have interfered with the coastal processes by altering the sediment load dynamics, reduction in channel capacity, increasing the tidal amplitude, and have exacerbated the environmental crisis. The resettlement strategy has accommodated the displaced communities, but in the long run the economic as well as the environmental outcomes have clear indications of maladaptive practices. It has deteriorated the livelihoods of the relocated communities. Further, the location of the resettlement colonies being in the fresh accretion zones have interfered with the coastal processes aggravating erosion.
• Mallik, C., Bandyopadhyay, S. 2024. Peopling of the Sagar Island in the Indian Sundarbans: A Case of Maladaptation to Climate Change. In Risk, Uncertainty and Maladaptation to Climate Change: Policy, Practice and Case Studies. eds. Sarkar, A., Bandyopadhyay, N., Singh, S., Sachan, R., Springer Nature, Singapore, pp 125–138
Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 44(2), 2023
The analytical inseparability of natural environment and society is reiterated by the findings of... more The analytical inseparability of natural environment and society is reiterated by the findings of this study which contributes to a genre of studies that centre-stages the socio-ecological system. This study seeks to understand the interplay of state-related and other modes of securing property rights in the context of pervasive coastal hazards through a case study from the Indian Sundarbans region (Sagar Island in West Bengal). This paper also contributes to research pertaining to slow-onset disasters and attempts to examine emerging dimensions of land scarcity as well as diverse modes of access to land in the context of progressive ecological vulnerability. The analysis highlights the varying shades of declining land access and investigates how existing land policies and disaster management mechanisms remain far from extending security to communities experiencing environmental crisis. The paper thereby examines how community and state agencies adopting means to allocate property may in fact refute legality and perpetuate informality.
[] Mallik, C., Bandyopadhyay, S., Bandyopadhyay, S., 2023. Land scarcity and land access in a hazard-prone island: Sagar, Indian Sundarbans. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 44(2): 255–276. doi: 10.1111/sjtg.12493
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