How effective are coping mechanisms in securing livelihoods against climatic aberrations? Evidences from rural India

Purpose - This paper aims to examine the consumption behaviour and effectiveness of coping mechanisms adopted by households living in disaster-prone regions of rural India to cope with climatic aberrations and extremes using household-level data. In developing countries like India, poor households living in rural regions face risks to their livelihood due to climatic aberrations like deficient monsoon spells and rainfall gaps. Although these risks are covariate, the impact depends on location and the relative capacity of the people to cope with them. Design/methodology/approach - Using household-level data, this paper attempts to examine the consumption behaviour and effectiveness of coping mechanisms adopted by households living in these areas to hedge against the risks. A tobit and a multivariate probit model is used in the process. Findings - Based on the empirical analysis, and subject to the assumptions and the usual limitations of data, the findings suggest that households resort to consumption smoothening by liquidating their assets or decreasing consumption. Originality/value - They adopt a wide variety of ex-post risk-coping measures with limited success to overcome the shocks to their livelihood. Household-specific characteristics like age and education level of the household head are important in the choice of a particular coping option along with other key variables.