Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, No. 46 (2019): 103–118 http://doi.org/10.2478/bog-2019-0037 BULLETIN OF GEOGRAPHY. SOCIO–ECONOMIC SERIES journal homepages: https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/bog/bog-overview.xml ISSN 1732–4254 quarterly http://apcz.umk.pl/czasopisma/index.php/BGSS/index The impact of population displacement due to river bank erosion on the education of erosion victims: a study in jangipur sub-division of murshidabad district, West Bengal, India Debika Ghosh1, CDFMR, Abhay Sankar Sahu2, MR Krishnagar Govt. College, Faculty of Geography, Department of Geography, Krishnagar, Nadia, West Bengal, India; 1phone: +918926059023, e-mail: [email protected] (corresponding author); Department of Geography, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, West Bengal, India, 2phone: +919830620422, e-mail: [email protected] How to cite: Ghosh, D. and Sahu A.S. (2019). The impact of population displacement due to river bank erosion on the education of erosion victims: a study in jangipur sub-division of murshidabad district, West Bengal, India. Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, 46(46): 103-118. DOI: http://doi.org/10.2478/bog-2019-0037 Abstract. The present research aims to find out whether population displacement Article details: due to river bank erosion has any impact on education of the erosion victims of Received: 7 July 2019 the developing countries or not. To fulfil the objective of the study, 19 erosion af- Revised: 12 August 2019 fected study units were selected along the banks of the Ganga-Bhagirathi river in Accepted: 27 September 2019 the Jangipur sub-division of Murshidabad district, West Bengal. Pearson’s corre- lation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were performed using SPSS Key words: software. The result of the study shows that frequency of population displace- river bank erosion, ment due to bank erosion and percentage of child labour are positively and sig- population displacement, nificantly correlated (r = 0.51). A low mean year of schooling has been observed erosion victims, in almost all selected study units. The result of multiple linear regression analy- child labour, sis shows that river bank erosion has an adverse impact on the education of the mean year of schooling, people living along the river banks. protective strategies. Contents: 1. Introduction . 104 2. Study area ............................................................................. 105 2.1. Limitation of the study.............................................................. 105 3. Materials and methods .................................................................. 105 3.1. Sample design ..................................................................... 105 3.2. Sources of data..................................................................... 108 3.3. Data base preparation and data analysis............................................... 108 © 2019 (Debika Ghosh and Abhay Sankar Sahu) This is an open access article licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommer- cial-NoDerivs License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). 104 Debika Ghosh and Abhay Sankar Sahu / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series / 46 (2019): 103–118 4. Results and discussion .................................................................. 110 4.1. Problem of river bank erosion in Jangipur sub-division................................. 110 4.2. River bank erosion and population displacement ...................................... 111 4.3. Population displacement and its impact on the education of erosion victims ............. 112 5. Conclusions ........................................................................... 115 Acknowledgement ........................................................................ 116 References ............................................................................... 116 1. Introduction due to Ganga river bank erosion in the Maldah district of West Bengal (Laha et al., 2013). Guite and Bora (2016) commented on the Subansiri riv- River bank erosion is a natural and inevitable phe- er bank erosion in the state of Assam. They said nomenon of rivers. River bank erosion is a dynamic that lateral migration of bank lines caused a total natural process. It involves the washing out of mate- of 461.49 square kilometres (sq. km) loss of agri- rials from the banks of a river. Bank erosion gener- cultural lands and 134.05 sq. km loss of forest areas ally happens when the magnitude of flowing water in the state of Assam between 1956 and 2010. This overtakes the strength of materials on the basal part natural disaster is observed to have an adverse im- of river banks (Ghosh and Sahu, 2018; Das et al., pact on human livelihood (Ferris, 2018). Displaced 2014). A normal condition is indicated when there people lose their profession and fall into depression is balance between rate of river bank erosion and and trauma. River bank erosion has an adverse im- rate of sediment accumulation at the base of river pact on the socio-economic sectors of erosion vic- bank. But problems start in the flood plain area of a tims (Ghosh and Sahu, 2018; FPMP, 2014; Laha et river when the rate of sediment accumulation at the al., 2013; Briggs et al. 2008; Rudra, 1992). Accord- base of the river bank is lower than the rate of sedi- ing to interviews with the people of erosion-affected ment removal. This is a situation of active and con- areas in the Jangipur sub-division of Murshidabad tinuous river bank erosion (Charlton, 2008). When district, it can be opined that population displace- rate of bank erosion exceeds rate of bank deposi- ment away from river banks is one of the important tion, there is continuous river bank erosion (Char- impacts of river bank erosion. This population dis- lton, 2008). River bank erosion has a considerable placement has a considerable impact on the liveli- impact on physical as well as social environments. hoods of erosion victims. The present research deals In the lower Brahamaputra flood plain of Bangla- with identifying the impact of river bank erosion on desh, people are displaced from their own land due the education of erosion victims and tries to find to river bank erosion (Haque et al., 1986). The River a connection between child labour and river bank Ohio is gradually washing away its banks and creat- erosion in erosion-prone areas. The present study ing various erosion-induced problems (Hagerty and not only contributes to the existing literature but Ullrich, 1981). In the mid-1970s, huge numbers of also practically shows the real impact of river bank people were displaced due to devastating erosion in erosion on the education of erosion victims in de- the Dhulian municipality of the Murshidabad dis- veloping countries. This study helps the policy mak- trict of West Bengal (Rudra, 1992). Population dis- ers of the Jangipur sub-division to adopt remedial placement is one of the main consequences of river measures to minimise the impact of bank erosion bank erosion, and creates a chain effect in socie- on the education of erosion victims. The adopted ty, generation after generation (Ghosh and Sahu, methodologies can be applied to other erosion-af- 2018). River bank erosion creates huge econom- fected areas to reveal the impact of river bank ero- ic losses and it has a long-term chain effect in the sion on human livelihood. The study presumes that society. The adverse consequences of bank failure river bank erosion has an adverse impact on the ed- of the river Penobscot in USA is observed (Briggs ucation of erosion victims. et al., 2008). Huge losses to real estate are found Debika Ghosh and Abhay Sankar Sahu / Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series / 46 (2019): 103–118 105 2. Study area from zero to 61 degrees (Fig. 3). It is found that the slope in almost all of study area is zero to five de- grees. According to the district statistical handbook The study area was selected in the Jangipur sub-di- for Murshidabad (2010 to 2011), the climatic condi- vision of Murshidabad district, West Bengal (Fig. 1). tions in the Jangipur sub-division are more-or-less The study area is the Jangipur sub-division located similar to the Murshidabad district. The district between 24˚13’14’’N to 24˚52’15’N and 87˚48’00’’E has very hot summers and high humidity through- to 88˚15’39’’E (Fig. 1). The main river of the study out the year. Rainfall occurs due to the south-west area is the Ganga and its distributary river, the Bha- monsoon from June to September. The economy of girathi. The total area of the sub-division is 1097.82 Murshidabad district mainly depends on agricul- sq. km (Census of India, 2011). The study area is ture. According to the district statistical handbook situated very close to the India–Bangladesh bor- for Murshidabad (2010 to 2011), the majority of the der area. To serve the purpose of the study, 19 ero- population is engaged in agricultural sectors and a sion-prone cadastral units (small administrative small proportion in industrial activities. The litera- units in India) along the banks of the Ganga-Bha- cy rate of the Jangipur sub-division is 60.95% as per girathi were selected as study units (Fig. 2). the 2011 census of India report. The study units, with their Jurisdiction List num- bers (J. L. No.) (Census of India, 2011), are: Farak- ka barrage township, Kuli (058); Arjunpur Census 2.1. Limitation of the study Town (CT); Paranpara Census Town, Dhulian mu- nicipality, Nimtita (108); Aurangabad Census Town, Jangipur sub-division