Mangroves to Metros: Climate-Induced Migration and the Feminization of Care Work in West Bengal

While India’s metropolitan landscape has witnessed accelerated urban and economic development over the past few decades, Kolkata has struggled to keep pace with cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. This stagnation is deeply rooted in a legacy of deindustrialization, inadequate infrastructure, and fragmented governance. Simultaneously, the state of West Bengal, particularly its coastal Sunderban region, faces acute climate vulnerability—rising sea levels, soil salinization, and livelihood collapse have forced large-scale male outmigration, leaving women to assume both domestic and economic responsibilities. A significant number of these women migrate to Kolkata and enter the unorganized labor economy, especially in caregiving roles such as domestic help, elder care, and child-rearing. Despite their centrality to sustaining Kolkata’s urban households, these care workers remain economically marginalized and structurally invisible. This study, grounded in mixed-methods fieldwork across coastal and urban regions, analyzes how climate-induced displacement feminizes informal labor and exposes the limits of existing welfare programs. It argues that targeted interventions—such as revised eligibility in schemes like Lakshmir Bhandar and the introduction of travel-free policies—could not only improve the lives of these workers but also stimulate inclusive urban growth. By centering the needs of care workers, the paper proposes a developmental model that reimagines Kolkata’s economic future through gendered empowerment, environmental resilience, and redistributive justice.