Economic Vulnerability and Resilience in the Chars of Assam: A Critical Review of Poverty, Displacement and Adaptation

The paper reviews the literature on poverty, economic vulnerability and resilience in the char areas of Assam, where communities are affected by ecological fragility, institutional negligence, and widespread poverty. Based on the classical literature and new research, including theoretical as well as empirical research across the different countries in the world, the review focuses on the topics of displacement caused by riverine flood, financial inclusion, livelihood diversification, social protection, erosion and water conflicts. However, the corpus is mostly descriptive and causes are hardly inferred and there are few impact evaluations. The critical analysis of the available studies in the article points out the problem of coverage as well as identifies research gaps, also paying little attention to gender, education, and rigorous impact assessments. Although the literature together supports a multi-pillar approach to alleviating poverty, much of it falls short of providing concrete causal mechanisms. This review reveals crucial insights by unfolding the research significances of future studies and placing the chars of Assam in the global context of climate displacement, unstable livelihoods and inclusive development. However, reconceptualising study designs around causality and comparability has the potential to create actionable evidence on inclusive, climate-resilient development within one of the most vulnerable riverine landscapes of Northeast India.