Developing Sustainable Livelihood Index for the Coastal Belt of Indian Sundarbans

Sustainable livelihood is a broad concept that incorporates several aspects and is a continuous process. Just like Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Sustainable Development Index (SLI) is also a combination of several broad categories consisting of multiple subcategories. This study focuses on the people of coastal areas of the Indian Sundarbans—a UNESCO heritage. The people of Sundarbans are heavily dependent upon the usage of two natural resources—forestry and fishery. These two natural resources bear an immense impact on the livelihood generation of people in these areas, but in modern society, several other factors also play crucial roles in the livelihood earnings of the people and their sustainability. Hence, any effort to prepare an index of sustainable livelihood must consider all these elements. This study looks to construct a Sustainable Livelihood Index (SLI) for the people of the coastal belt of Indian Sundarbans, based on the primary survey of 750 households from three coastal parts of Indian Sundarbans—Basanti, Gosaba, and Namkhana. Our SLI is built up based on eight subindices, each of which is developed based on certain variables or attributes whose total number is 28. Hence, it is an index that not only covers eight broader areas of life but also gets into a detailed discussion of each of those eight aspects by using different indicators. The study also considers comparative analysis among the three coastal regions of the study area. The study also conducted stepwise regression to check which indicators have the most impact on the SLI of the people. A comparative study reveals that Namkhana is in a better position than the other two coastal parts. Stepwise regression analysis shows the factors that bear the most significant impact on the SLI of the people of Sundarbans.