As climate change upturns lives in Odisha, women grapple with trauma and anxiety

Rows of nondescript houses, some left half-built and some still under construction, are neatly spread out in Bagapatia in Odisha’s Kendrapara district. Since 2018, the village has been home to 571 families that were moved here as the Bay of Bengal began to inundate their old homes in Satabhaya village. This makes Bagapatia India’s first rehabilitation settlement for people displaced by coastal erosion.

It had rained the day before when we visited in June and the roads had muddy puddles of water. When we reached Malati Baral’s house, her four grandchildren were prancing around. “Every time it rains, we have water all around,” said 62-year-old Baral. “At times, our houses are flooded.”

Waterlogging is only one problem Baral faces. In their old village, she said, the family caught their own fish and grew their own vegetables. But Bagapatia is 12 km inland. Besides, the 10 decimals of land that each displaced family received – an area a little smaller than a basketball court – is uncultivable.

Though the government gives the family 20 kgs of rice each month, it is not enough to feed her household of seven.

Baral, who was married when she was only 12, had spent 50 years in Satabhaya village, a cluster of seven villages sprawled...

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