Impact of JFM and migrant women worker on social sustainability: A comparative study of jhabua and mandla districts of Madhya Pradesh

While environmental impact assessment has focused mainly on the physical and biological properties of natural environments, social impact assessment (SIA) is concentrated on distinctively human side of human environment. The main objective of this paper is to assess the impact of JFM and migrant women worker on social sustainability, secondly to study the socio- economic status of migrant worker, thirdly to find out the reasons and causes of migration and the last objective to suggests remedial measures of problem, issues and challenges ahead. For this paper Jhabua and Mandla districts form Madhya Pradesh and five villages from each tribal districts have been selected for in-depth study, based on many criteria. For this study data and information was collected and gathered through structured questionnaire under various studies carried out by the first author as Principal Investigator and as workshop coordinator from 1990-2015. The primary data and comparative data/graphs, before and after analysis has been used to understand the social impact assessment. he last portion of the papers suggests how the issues could be tackled down and recommends the measures based on the ranking method of major issues, These issues have been categorized based on Ranking of social Issues : A = Very Important issue (75% and above); B = More than medium Important (65% to 74%), C = Medium important (55% to 64%) and D = Less important but cannot be ignored (below 54%). Based on the analysis the important reasons and causes of migrant workers are, increasing population marginal size of land holding, low agricultural productivity, low income, housing condition, occupational structure, low livestock productivity, illegal electricity connection, low level of capital formation, absence of microfinance and micro- credit at low rate of interest. It is recommended that Social auditing of the activities undertaken in the villages should be made after every two years to monitor changes in progress. For this a rigorous framework should be developed and tested at the village level, related to migration how many people males and females are migrating out from each village. Concurrent evaluation studies on migrant women workers should be taken up by the Government/ Forest Institute’s/ NGOs to under stand the pattern and changing trends in migration, to evaluate success or failure of different government programmes. Some recommendations like Creating Public Utility/ infrastructure, Employment.; Formation of more SHGs; and Checking seasonal migration in the study area, creation of employment opportunity, Infrastructural- Health facilities, transportation, settlement issues, drinking water, safety and security of migrant women worker. Very important from the point of view of social sustainability.