Assam: ‘Left-Behind’ Women Wage Lonely, Futile Battle Against Extreme Floods

Sonitpur, Assam:  “Izazul… Izazul…,” Muklesa Parveen (22) called out for her husband as she saw the flood water seeping into her one-room hut on the night of July 2, 2024, in Assam’s Bihagaon chapori.

She lay on a wooden bed, nursing her infant, panic rising with the floodwaters as the power went out, plunging everything into darkness. But her husband was over 3,500 kilometres away in Tamil Nadu for work.

She kept calling for help, clutching her daughter close as the water steadily filled her hut. It was nearly an hour before neighbours heard her cries and came to help her evacuate.

“The water rose three feet above the ground. One wall of my hut collapsed under the heavy rain and strong winds. Our farmlands were inundated, our crops destroyed," Parveen told 101Reporters in March 2025.

“But this is normal for us,” she added in the same breath.

“We witness at least one flood every year, sometimes even three… Our homes and fields are destroyed, and we move to a temporary location… Once the water subsides, we come back and rebuild our lives from scratch. I have suffered worse floods,” she said.

Parveen and the roughly 1,000 residents of Bihagaon Chapori live along the flood-prone silt-laden riverbanks, or chapori, of Jia Bharali, one of the major tributaries of the Brahmaputra river. The village is about 25 kilometres from Tezpur — the cultural capital of Assam — and is accessible via a narrow, sandy road that becomes especially challenging during monsoon.

Like neighbouring villages, Bihagaon Chapori survives at the mercy of the river.

One of the most flood-prone states in India, Assam, regularly faces severe flooding in the Brahmaputra and Barak river plains. Much of the flooding impacts the char and chapori regions. Chars are temporary river islands, while chaporis are silt-laden banks/floodplains, both highly vulnerable to erosion and flooding.

With floods destroying crops and homes each year, and few jobs available locally, most men are forced to migrate.

Muklesa Parveen with her daughter outside their hut in Assam's Bihagaon Chapori. Parveen's house was destroyed during last year's floods, which she rebuilt a few months ago.

Missing men

Farmer Akram Hussain (56) of Bihagaon Chapori explained, “In at least half of the households in our village, adult men between 22-48 years work as informal labourers in urban areas. Only old and infirm men are left behind. Most men will migrate sometime or other when need arises.”

While no macro-level data exists on migration from char and chapori areas, field visits provide a clearer picture of the ground reality.

When this reporter visited Bihagaon Chapori in March, she interacted with the residents of at least 25 of the village’s 170 households, clustered within a 300-metre radius. In 18 of them, adult men were away, working as informal labourers outside Assam.

In Number 4 Sialmari and neighbouring Bagaribari—two char villages in Darrang district—locals said nearly every household has at least one male member who has migrated for work.

"Otherwise, where are the jobs here? These men are either illiterate or school dropouts. They know how to till the land and grow rice and vegetables. However, rains, floods, and the constant shifting of the Brahmaputra often destroy their agricultural produce. As a result, they seek employment in cities as daily wage labourers. Currently, Kerala is the most preferred destination for villagers," said Haider Ali (34), Gaon Bura or the village headman of Bagaribari.

Both villages, with about 100 households and 1,500 residents each, lie deep in the riverine terrain.

This reporter reached Dalgaon, the nearest town, after a 90-kilometre drive from Guwahati, followed by a motorbike ride through narrow, sandy tracks. Bagaribari, situated across the Dhansiri river, required a stretch on foot and crossing a precarious bamboo bridge—the only access point, often submerged or destroyed during floods.

Woman vs nature

In this precarious geography, women are left behind to manage households, farmland, livestock, and care for the elderly and children, all while living under the looming threat of the next flood.

Parveen’s husband sends her part of his Rs 15,000 income from Tamil Nadu, but it isn’t enough, since he also supports his mother, who lives separately.

To make ends meet, Parveen manages a small farm, where she grows brinjal, cabbage, cauliflower, and maize, and works as a labourer in nearby Makua Chapori while raising her toddler alone. Her earnings never exceed Rs 1,500 per month.

“Sometimes, I feel it’s pointless for him to work so far away,” she said, “but at least it’s a stable job—unlike farming here, always at risk from floods.”

Just a kilometre away, Musfiya Begum (38) shares a similar struggle against “prokritir pagalami” or the whims of nature, as she said.

Her husband, now remarried, abandoned her and their two sons. A daily wage labourer, she’s rebuilt her flood-ravaged hut five times in the past decade on an income of Rs 200 per day.

Bagaribari’s Sanu Begum (30) also shares how she has been managing her home and three children alone since floods damaged their land last July, and her husband migrated to Kerala for work. He manages to earn about Rs 20,000 per month.

“This is the story of almost every woman here,” she said.

Women tend to stay behind in flood-prone villages as migrating with their husbands is too expensive and leaves no one to manage the home, land, and family.

Sabeni Beya (67) from Number 4 Sialmari said she has grown used to floods damaging her home each year. “When the water rises, we climb a ghat—an elevated bamboo platform—and stay there for five or six days with little food and water, waiting for the flood to end. Even at this age, I will do the same when the flood water arrives again,” Beya said.

The worsening climate emergency

“While floods and erosion are natural in river systems like the Brahmaputra, the climate crisis has intensified these events,” Director of Research and Development at the Centre for Environment and Climate Action Foundation in Guwahati, Kamal Kumar Tanti, said.

“We are experiencing not just the usual seasonal flooding but also an increase in the intensity, frequency, and unpredictability of natural disasters,” he added.

Flood mapping data shows that between 1977 and 2015, flood frequency in the Kopili river basin—one of the Brahmaputra’s most flood-prone areas—has increased two-fold, especially since 2007.

In 1977, one flood was recorded; in 2015, there were 10. The highest was 21 in 2010.

Experts say floods now arrive faster and hit harder.

According to Assam's Water Resources Department, the state faced major floods in the years 1972, 1974, 1978, 1983, 1988, 2000, 2004, and 2012.

But in recent years—2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2024—Assam has been hit by flash floods almost every year, along with prolonged periods of waterlogging. These flash floods happen due to the rivers flowing down from the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.

According to Tanti, these climate extremes are driven by erratic rainfall, rising temperatures, and accelerated glacial melt, and subsequent glacial lake outbursts, complicated by increased erosion in riverine areas. More frequent and intense rainfall can lead to greater erosion and higher amounts of sediment entering water bodies like rivers and lakes.

“Although these regions have always been dynamic, the climate crisis has transformed a natural rhythm into a destructive and erratic onslaught, pushing communities beyond their capacity to cope. It is a clear manifestation of the impacts of climate change hitting the most vulnerable populations first and hardest,” Tanti said.

A humanitarian crisis, unfolding across decades and distances

According to the Water Resources Department, 3.105 million hectares—about 39.58% of Assam's total area—are flood-prone, accounting for 9.40% of India’s total flood-prone land.

Every year, around hundreds become homeless due to floods in the state. Additionally, Assam faces an annual loss of Rs 200 crore from devastating floods, with nearly 40% of the state's land classified as flood-prone by the government.

Notably, from 1953 to 2005, there has been a fluctuation in the flood-affected areas, according to the Flood Hazard Atlas for Assam (2016).

In 1953, 2.29 million hectares were affected. This rose sharply in the early 2000s, peaking at 8.03 million hectares in 2004, before dropping to 3.38 million hectares in 2005.

In a memorandum to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Assam Government reported that floods from April to October 2022 claimed around 200 lives, impacted nearly 35 districts and 8.9 million people, and destroyed crops across 246,000 hectares.

The Flood Hazard Atlas further shows a sharp rise in flood impact between 1953 and 2005. Flood deaths rose from 37 in 1953 to 1,503 in 2005, with the highest toll in 1977 at 11,316 lives. Crop damage increased from 0.93 million hectares in 1953 to 2.24 million hectares in 2005.

Salema Khatun, 53, from Bihagaon Chapori in Sonitpur district, Assam, cooks a meal at her workplace in Tezpur(Photo - Maitreyee Boruah, 101Reporters)

Suspended in a vicious cycle

The constant flooding also results in land shifts in the char and chapori villages in the Brahmaputra basin.

They often disappear entirely.

In South Salmara-Mankachar district alone, at least 132 villages have been wiped out by floods and erosion, said Hafiz Ahmed, a Guwahati-based poet, originally from the riverine region.

“Nearly two million people from riverine regions have been internally displaced because of river erosion in Assam. When a village is destroyed, the residents seek refuge in another char or chapori, often travelling several kilometres in search of new habitable spots,” he added.

“Many, left homeless by floods, migrate to cities and live in slums, while most go back to the familiar char or chapori region because of no other option. They rebuild despite knowing the risks,” he added. “The cycle continues.”

When floods hit, families climb onto the ghats—seven or eight feet above ground—and wait for the flood to pass. They are suspended like this for days, unaware of who or what has survived the raging waters below.

They don’t wait for government help, which often arrives too little and too late.

“This has always been the case here,” Salema Khatun (53) from Bihagaon Chapori said, recalling the July 2007 floods. “The entire village fled, fearing for their lives, and sought shelter along the roads near Tezpur town, around 25 km away,” she added.

“It was only after a few days that the government provided shelter for the women and children in a school. We were given rice, pulses, oil, salt, and kerosene stoves to cook with, but staying there was extremely difficult.”

“There were no toilets and bathing facilities, and the water provided was dirty and unfit for drinking. There was no privacy. We stayed for a month until the water receded, then returned alone to our flood-ravaged village,” Khatun said.

Nawahar Ali, a teacher from Number 4 Sialmari village in Darrang district, said that ideally, villagers should be evacuated during floods, but this rarely happens.

"Moreover, villagers also don't leave their homes thinking they might lose whatever little they have, and it is better to stay in the village and save as much as possible," he added.

Active climate-resilient policies and action

According to Syed Tahidur Rahman, Director of the Minority Affairs and Char Areas Development Department in Assam, the government issues a high alert when a flood is about to hit a region. Alerts are sent via SMS by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority, and official notices are shared with grassroots-level officials to inform communities about the impending floods.

“This usually happens 24 to 48 hours in advance or as soon as we receive information from the India Meteorological Department,” he said.

However, Rahman acknowledged that due to the “precarious geographical conditions of the riverine areas, it is not always easy to reach these communities when floods and erosion occur.”

In these remote villages, flood alerts rarely reach women like Parveen, who must scramble to protect their children and belongings against the rising water. It’s only when the waters enter the courtyard of their homes that they realise that it is time for them to move, the women said.

Experts say that government intervention to combat climate extremes typically includes disaster relief, embankment construction and repairs, some relocation efforts, and flood forecasting.

According to the Director of Research and Development at the Centre for Environment and Climate Action Foundation in Guwahati, Kamal Kumar Tanti, “The current efforts are simply not keeping pace with the escalating climate crisis in the char and chapori regions.”

"We need a paradigm shift from reactive disaster management to proactive, climate-just adaptation and resilience building. This approach must fully integrate community participation and address the underlying vulnerabilities while also demanding stronger global action on emission reductions,” he said.

The climate scientist further said that enhanced early warning systems and evacuation infrastructure, like building multi-purpose raised platforms or flood shelters, are also critical to combat the climate extremes.

At the local level, Tanti said there is a need for community-led adaptation planning and climate-resilient agriculture. "This includes promoting flood-resistant crops, employing floating agriculture techniques, and diversifying crops,” he said.

“Additionally, investing in ecological restoration—such as wetland conservation and strategic afforestation using appropriate native species—is essential,” Tanti added.

Arrested development

Floods in the char and chapori regions have long hindered development activities, leaving communities trapped in a cycle of vulnerability. The recurring devastation prevents any meaningful progress.

A look at the population matrix of these regions shows that the already-vulnerable Miya Muslim community — estimated at around 1.8 million — forms the majority in these areas. Other communities, including Mishing, Deori, Sonowal, Kochari, Nepali, and Bengali Hindus, also reside here.

"These areas face extreme poverty, high illiteracy, and poor healthcare," said Ahmed.

In response, officials said development efforts are underway.

“We are focusing on building infrastructure — schools, toilets, hospitals — and providing agricultural support and solar panels to help these communities adapt,” said Syed Tahidur Rahman.

When asked whether these structures are at risk of being washed away during floods, Rahman said efforts are made to make them as flood-resilient as possible.  “Building this infrastructure is important—it helps improve the quality of life for people in these vulnerable areas,” he added.

The government should also focus on skill development, including providing training and support for alternative, non-farm livelihoods that are less vulnerable to climate impacts, Tanti said.

“Until that happens,” Abdul Mazid (51), a former boatman and community leader from Bihagaon Chapori, said, “men will continue to migrate and women will continue to be the martyrs of climate disasters.” 

Maitreyee Boruah is a freelance journalist and a member of 101Reporters, a pan-India network of grassroots reporters.