Economic Crisis and Rural Children in North-East India: A Study of Impact, Coping Strategies and Ongoing Responses

An attempt has been made to examine the impact of economic crisis on children of minority community at micro level, and to explore likely situation to evolve and ongoing responses and recommendations to mitigate sufferings and improve livelihood options. Before crisis, in 88 percent of poor households, at least one person per family had migrated as survival strategies. With onset of crisis, these households have affected adversely by fall in remittances. They are also affected by second-run effects on informal employment and depressed local economy. The deterioration of households’ economic situation is translating into poorer diet and decreased expenditure on children’s health and education, more poverty and debt, and engagement into low-earning, informal income earning activities. The main coping mechanisms adapted are reduced quality and quantity of food consumed, withdrawal of children from school and pushing them in labour, and curtailing health expenditure. Interventions in response to crisis should not only mitigate immediate effects on children in poor households but also continue to tackle basic causes of poverty and food insecurity, including improvement of services (health, water, sanitation, and education), infrastructures, agricultural productivity and access to credit.