Identities, Affiliations and Gendered Vulnerabilities in the Mid-hills of West Bengal

This paper explores the varied narratives of vulnerabilities faced by different groups of people in Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) region in the Darjeeling Hills, in West Bengal, shaped by their identities that are ever evolving. Identities come with deep-rooted structures of class, caste/ethnic group, history and geographic location. However, identities are not singular but multiple that continue to be influenced by both internal and external factors of development, politics and growing consumerism. Such new and changing social interactions give rise to new local level institutions, which often act as new arrangements of negotiation and agency for the communities, particularly for women and the most marginalized who do not have easy access to information, state or higher level decision-making. This study of gendered vulnerability in its different layers of identities and affiliations aims to show how such interlinkages and intersectionalities shape gendered and women’s vulnerabilities and capacities in the face of climatic and socio economic changes resulting in the constant evolution of the communities in adapting/coping to climatic changes and external developments.