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Socioeconomic and infrastructural vulnerability of Indian population: a district level study

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Abstract

In India, very high disparities exist among different regions, states, and social groups in social, economic, political, and historical factors, leading to differential social vulnerability to disasters. This paper seeks to identify the determinants of social vulnerability in India and the most vulnerable districts using the inductive approach at the district level. The study attempts to assess the regional differences in social vulnerability across districts of India, and it also related these differences to the size of the states. For a better and in-depth understanding of social vulnerability, it has been divided into Socioeconomic and Infrastructural vulnerability. The study found that socioeconomic vulnerability is more pronounced than infrastructural vulnerability, and there are significant regional differences in the degree of social vulnerability within the country. ANOVA analysis and spatial autocorrelation techniques signify a concentration of vulnerability in districts belonging to bigger states, especially the "Empowered Action Group" states which are located in India's Central and East Zones. The main determinants of social vulnerability are found to be dependence on the agricultural and allied sector, the proportion of economically and socially dependent population, levels of education and work participation, and access to basic assets and infrastructure. The most vulnerable districts identified in the study are predominantly tribal districts and require effective interventions to reduce their vulnerability. The study can find wide applications in district-level planning and identifying targets for vulnerability reduction.

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Source: Authors’ preparation using QGIS.

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Source: Authors’ preparation.

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Notes

  1. Main workers- worked for more than six months in the year preceding the date of enumeration of the data source (Definition by Census of India,2011).

  2. Marginal workers- worked for less than six months in the year preceding the date of enumeration of the data source (Definition by Census of India,2011).

  3. Agricultural and allied sector in India consists of cultivators and agricultural laborers, workers in plantation, livestock, forestry, fishing, hunting, and allied activities etc.

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Acknowledgements

The authors express our sincere gratitude to the Senior Research Fellowship provided by University Grants Commission, India to the first author for conducting doctoral research in the field of climate change.

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  1. School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Indore, Indore, India

    Alinda George & Pritee Sharma

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  1. Alinda George
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Correspondence to Alinda George.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Figs.

Fig. 7
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Source: Authors’ preparation using QGIS.

Components of socioeconomic vulnerability (1 and 2)

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Source: Authors’ preparation using QGIS.

Components of socioeconomic vulnerability (3, 4 and 5)

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Fig. 9
figure 9

Source: Authors’ preparation using QGIS.

Components of infrastructural vulnerability

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See Tables

Table 5 State wise Number of Districts
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Table 6 Descriptive Statistics of selected variables used for develo** SeVI and IVI
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Table 7 Rotated Component Matrix of PCA for SeVI
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Table 8 Rotated Component Matrix of PCA for IVI
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Table 9 Districts with very high level of vulnerability under each index
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Table 10 Results of zone wise ANOVA of SeVI
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Table 11 Results of zone wise ANOVA of IVI
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Table 12 Results of zone wise ANOVA of CSVI
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Table 13 Number of districts in each state under different levels of vulnerability
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Table 14 Percentage of state population in each level of vulnerability
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George, A., Sharma, P. Socioeconomic and infrastructural vulnerability of Indian population: a district level study. GeoJournal 88, 1841–1871 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-022-10712-6

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