Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh has started seeing frequent flooding of Rapti, Rohini and Ghaghara rivers, displacing thousands of residents. In 2021, 312,000 people in 391 villages were impacted and 56,000 hectares of land submerged. This is the story nearly every year. “Recurring floods are the primary root cause of trafficking in this region. The link may not necessarily be direct, but it is there and often overlooked,” Brijesh Chaturvedi, programme head at Safe Society, a Gorakhpur-based non-profit, said. According to the 2011 Census, 20.9 million people left their hometowns in UP and Bihar, accounting for 37 per cent of India’s total migrant population.
‘Climate disasters in Bihar, UP make children more vulnerable to trafficking’, Down To Earth
