Some Dimensions of Vulnerability: A Study of the Urban Poor in Kolkata

Abstract

More than one billion people worldwide are mired in extreme and inescapable poverty, while millions of others are on the brink of poverty. They face risks which are further exacerbated by natural hazards and ill-health. However, those who are poor today may not necessarily be poor tomorrow. Again, many of those who are non-poor today face a high chance of becoming poor after experiencing an adverse shock. Thus, a better understanding of the vulnerability concept is pressing, particularly in the context of the Third World cities like Kolkata. This article attempts an analysis of the vulnerability, and its impact on the livelihoods of the people living in slums in Kolkata. A simple bifurcation of the sampled households in terms of poor and non-poor is examined in terms of a constructed vulnerability index. As many of our surveyed slum households are found to be “vulnerable” (although they may not necessarily be “poor”), the government should assess the levels of vulnerability of households and use that as a yardstick (instead of income alone) at the time of distribution of various benefits so as to avoid “targeting error.”