INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 8, ISSUE 12, DECEMBER 2019 ISSN 2277-8616 1525 IJSTR©2019 www.ijstr.org Environmental-Induced Displacement: Impact On Rural Women Of Dibrugarh District Of Assam Rashmi Baruah Abstract: Displacement is a worldwide phenomenon. It is multidimensional in nature which affecting the lives of people including economic, social and cultural spheres. The displacement affects men and women adversely, but women are affected more than men. Knowing the causes of displacement is the most significant aspect to understand the plight of women and womanhood. The causes are mainly responsible for the activities of women after displacement to survive themselves in a new situation. Displacement is one of the social phenomena which impacts the life chances and lifestyle of human beings. The consequences of displacement also raise the gender issues. Therefore, this paper is an attempt to explore the causes and consequences of displacement of women in Dibrugarh district of Assam. Keywords: Displacement, Women, Causes, Consequences, Environmental-induced displacement. ——————————  —————————— 1. INTRODUCTION The term displacement symbolizes the disorganization and even complete rupture of societies that come under the influences of different phenomenon. It invokes images of mass catastrophes and suffering brought about by natural as well as men made factors. The natural factors may include flood, erosion, earthquake, drought, famine etc. On the other hand, the men made factors of displacement include planned urbanization, planned industrialization, and other such political-economic endeavors. The natural force of river can wipe out vast tracks of inhabited land or the construction of big dams may cause huge displacement of populations residing on the surrounding areas. The „destructured conflicts' or „low- intensity wars' have also generated displacement for a long time. When displacement occurs, both men and women are forced into restricted mobility, living with new regulations and entering new social relationships which may challenge old ties and kinships. But displacement has different consequences for women and girls than for men and boys. Women face new demands in providing for themselves and their children, with increased workloads and limited access to and control over the benefits of goods and services. As a result of conflict and the breakdown in law and order, women and girls face increased risks of sexual violence and abuse. Displacement has a greater negative impact on women than on men. It has been generally noticed that men are engaged with jobs and had some control over the forest and land resources. As a result, women were deprived of their livelihood as well as from their Common Property Resources (CPRs). Generally, it is seen that women depend on men to access their basic goods and services, and lack of their individual identification increases the potential for exploitation of women. The challenges women face when displaced often have implications for the wider household. Moreover, the new roles women take on as income-generators and heads of the household during displacement can be sources of tension and violence in their households and communities during displacement. Statement of the Research Problem Assam is more prone in terms of natural disaster especially annual flood and river bank erosion. Dibrugarh is one of the flood-affected and erosion-prone areas of Assam. A huge population of Dibrugarh district displaced because of river bank erosion by the Brahmaputra River. Displacement forced the individual as well as communities to displace from their original place to another place. They lost their previous livelihoods, their natural resources, cultural heritage, and their integrity. The people become landlessness, joblessness, homelessness and the social fabric of the place totally destroyed. In this situation, though both men and women were suffered some previous studies revealed that women were more suffered due to displacement. They faced different problems in the place of relocation and rehabilitation. Their economic power becomes deteriorate as they were lost their agricultural economy in their previous place. Therefore, the present study tries to find out the causes and consequences of displacement of women. Objective of the Study 1) To know about the causes of displacement. 2) To explore the consequences of displacement of women. Field and Methodology As the domain of the study is concerned with rural displaced women, the fields were two villages of Assam i.e. Udalguri and Garpara Konwar Gaon were selected purposively. The respondents are displaced from the region of Rohmoria to these two villages. Each village comprised of 50 respondnets making a total sample of 100 women respondents. In this study, purposive sampling was used as a sample which is the part of non-probability sampling. In this sampling, the respondents were selected on the basis of research purpose which is also judgmental in nature. The study selected 100 respondents i.e. married, widow, and divorcee as sample unit from the universe. The information, which required for the present study was collected from the primary and secondary sources. The primary sources such as interview schedule, interview guide, observation, focus group discussion, case study, photographs etc. The secondary sources are books, magazines, newspapers, paper-clips, journals, published works made by the scholars, different statistical reports, internet, website etc. The interview schedule included _______________________  Rashmi Baruah  M.A, M. Phil, Department of Sociology  Dibrugarh University, Assam, India  PH.:6000650997  Email id: rashmibaruah95@gmail.com