A Studies about Multiple Impacts of Droughts and Assessment of Drought Policy in Major Drought Prone States in India
Introduction: Drought is one of the most frequently occurring national disasters in India. With its increased frequency and expanded coverage in the recent years, about one third of the country is either drought prone or under desert areas. These areas are lagging behind in agriculture and also in overall economic growth. They experience wide year-to-year fluctuations in agricultural production and incomes and have a relatively high incidence of poverty. The poor in these regions are highly vulnerable to a variety of risks due to their low and fluctuating incomes, high indebtedness and low human development.
Helping the poor to come out of vulnerability and poverty and integrating the drought prone areas into the mainstream of development is a serious challenge faced by policy makers at present. Droughts and famines have received attention of rulers in India right from the 13th and 14th century. Muhammad Tughlakh was perhaps the first Sultan to take systematic steps to alleviate efforts of droughts by distributing grains to drought affected people in Delhi in 1343 AD (Loveday 1985). This approach was followed and improved upon by Mughals and many other kings and rulers later on. During the British period also efforts were made to provide relief to droughts / famine affected people by organizing relief works and food distribution, distribution of fodder, loans to farmers to start cultivation in the next season etc. Keep reading..
