Monsoon has always been an important part of life in India, especially for those who depend on farming. Earlier, it followed a fairly steady pattern, allowing people to plan around it. That consistency is harder to find now. Rain often arrives in short, intense bursts or is delayed for weeks. Some areas flood, while others stay dry longer than expected. The season has become less reliable, and that change is affecting many lives. For India’s marginalised communities, it is devastation.
The Weight of Unpredictability
A warmer atmosphere is changing how rain behaves. It pours heavily in short bursts, then disappears for long stretches. Systems built for earlier patterns, for instance drains, embankments, and irrigation, cannot keep up. Fields flood. Crops rot. Homes collapse.
People living in weak houses or flood-prone areas face the worst of it. A single heavy rain can wipe out a small farmer’s entire crop. For tenant farmers and daily wage workers, income stops overnight. With no insurance or credit to fall back on, even one bad spell can mean debt, hunger, or having to move.
When Shelter Fails
In flood-prone states like Odisha, Assam, and Bihar, the damage to housing is a recurring crisis. Kachcha houses, made of mud, thatch, or other temporary materials, are common among Dalits, tribal communities, and urban informal settlers. These homes have little resistance to flooding. They collapse easily, taking with them cooking stoves, school books, stored grains, and clothing. The loss is near total.
A study by ACAPS confirms that during major flood events, most destroyed homes are kachcha. Their occupants, already on the edge of subsistence, have neither savings nor access to quick recovery mechanisms. Shelter camps often serve as temporary patches, but rebuilding takes months, if not years, when there is no land title or collateral to secure assistance.
Learning Interrupted
Education is another casualty. Flooded schools shut down. Many are turned into relief shelters. But the disruption does not end with physical closures. Children from lower-caste and minority families, already more likely to face academic disadvantage, drop out in greater numbers after such events. School uniforms are gone. Mid-day meals stop. Families shift to temporary locations where access to education is patchy or non-existent. In the worst cases, children join the workforce to compensate for lost household income.
The long-term impact is difficult to reverse. Without catch-up mechanisms, these children fall behind and are less likely to return to formal schooling. This sets in motion a cycle of exclusion that extends into adulthood.
Gaps in Relief and Alerts
Disaster relief, when it does arrive, does not always reach everyone. Communities located in remote or informal settlements are often excluded from local government databases. Without official recognition, they fall through the cracks of aid distribution. Those living in unauthorised colonies or encroachments are frequently denied rebuilding assistance or compensation.
Communication is another critical point. Most early warning systems depend on internet or mobile access, assuming that alerts through apps or SMS will reach everyone. In reality, many of India’s rural poor lack smartphones or live in areas with patchy network coverage. Even when the technology is available, low digital literacy acts as a barrier. Messages do not get read. Instructions are misunderstood. Opportunities to move to safety are lost.
Invisible During Planning, Forgotten During Recovery
Most emergency planning frameworks do not account for the unique challenges faced by women, children, Dalits, and other marginalised groups during and after disasters. Relief materials often fail to consider menstrual hygiene needs, child nutrition, or the safety of women in overcrowded shelters.
Moreover, long-term rehabilitation plans rarely address structural exclusion. Families who lose homes in slums or on disputed land continue to live in temporary arrangements because they lack land rights. They are excluded from official schemes designed to ‘build back better.’ For these communities, recovery is not about resilience. It is about survival.
What Needs to be done
A few simple but focused steps can make a real difference in how relief reaches those who need it most:
Monsoons are changing, and extreme weather events are likely to become more frequent. While it may not be possible to avoid all damage, the impact on people can be reduced if systems are built to include those who are most exposed.
Investments in embankments and forecasting are necessary, but they are only one part of the solution. Planning must begin by identifying who faces the greatest risk. This includes people in low-income housing, informal settlements, and those without secure land or regular income.
The writer is a humanitarian and disaster management expert who speaks on enviornment climate