Climate change vulnerability and perception of different occupational groups of household in the hill regions of Darjeeling District, West Bengal

The present paper attempts to measure climate change vulnerability of different occupational groups of households like tea garden labourers, casual labourers, and workers in the informal sector, petty businessmen, tourist guide cum driver and workers in the formal sector in the hill regions of Darjeeling district of West Bengal. In addition, the present paper examines the socio-economic conditions of such occupational groups of households to understand the nature of vulnerability. Besides, the paper tries to measure the perception index of such occupational group of households and to investigate the relationship with the vulnerability. The Livelihood Vulnerability Index (LVI) of Hahn et al (2009) and modified LVI-IPCC index have been used to measure such vulnerability. The paper is based on primary data collected from 150 households from four villages in the hill regions of Darjeeling district of West Bengal, India, in 2018 with the help of a structured questionnaire. The results of the paper revealed that on the basis of such indices values (both measures of LVI) the tea garden labour, casual labour and workers in the informal sector are more vulnerable than that of other occupational group like tourist guide cum driver, workers in the formal sector and petty businessmen. The climate change perception index for tea garden labour, casual labour and workers in the informal sector are very low compared to other occupational groups of households like petty businessmen and workers in the formal sector. This indicates that the occupational groups of households who have lower perception of climate change are more vulnerable and vice versa. This paper has an important policy implication for enhancement of adaptive capacity as well as betterment in the perception for vulnerability reduction measures.