Abstract
The 21st century has witnessed a sudden move in climate-induced disasters such as rising sea levels, glacier recession, extreme flooding, drought, tsunamis, and other natural calamities that have provoked a large-scale displacement across the globe. In India these phenomena have forced many people to leave their houses not due to war and conflict but due to environmental collapse. These people, commonly known as climate refugees, are recognized as without homes and legal rights. Climate has played a crucial role in the decline of several civilizations and the rise of climate refugees. Despite the scale of this internal migration, India doesn’t legally recognize “climate refugees.” The existing legal structures fail to deal with their issues and needs for identity, shelter, and rehabilitation.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has recognized the urgent need to safeguard climate-displaced individuals and has initiated measures to assist in their relocation and protection. Recently, the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) ruled that no nation may return a refugee to a country where their life is at serious risk due to the impact of climate change. India is among the nations that experience significant migration inflows from its neighboring countries. This research article aims to highlight the socio-legal gap that exists in India’s response to climate-induced displacement and argues for the recognition of rehabilitative citizenship as an evolving constitutional right under Article 21 of the Indian constitution. Further, this research paper explores the creation of a new legal status, protective documentation, and decentralized mechanisms to ensure access to fundamental rights, and this paper concludes that rehabilitative citizenship is not merely an administrative obligation but a constitutional necessity to uphold human dignity in an era of climate vulnerability.
Keywords
Climate Refugees, Internal Displacement, Citizenship, Rehabilitation, Article 21, Constitutional Rights.
Introduction
Climate change has become both a humanitarian and legal problem in the recent decades; thus, it is not only a question of the environment. Increasing global temperatures, erratic monsoons, melting glaciers, desertification, and frequent floods have rendered many livelihoods insecure as well as rendering millions of people homeless. As most of the attention of the world community is still concerned with cross-border migration, the issue of the internal displacement caused by environmental factors tends to be overlooked. The effects in such a country as India, which is one of the most climate-exposed countries in the world, are severe. In India alone, climate-related disasters displaced over 2.5 million persons in 2022 alone, and such displaced persons remain, in India, legally unrecognized and mostly unprotected under Indian law. “Climate refugee” is an official terminology that has no legal basis either locally or internationally. The Refugee Convention of 1951 fails to put the environment as sufficient cause of refugee protection. India, not being a signatory to this Convention, has given shelter to a number of displaced populations living in a neighboring country with the humanitarian cause. Nevertheless, IDPs caused by climate change, those persons who do not cross the international borders, are not highly or not at all focused on in the field of law or policy. Such individuals tend to be denied access to commodities like shelter, education, health, identity papers, and worst of all, the right to engage in civic activities. They are, in a real sense, nonfunctioning citizens in exile with no standing or voice to speak of. A way forward can be the Indian constitutional law, whose legally unconstrained interpretation of the right and commitment to human dignity may be adopted. The Supreme Court has understood Article 21 of the Constitution, which gives a right to life, as not only providing the right to live but also to live a life of livelihood, shelter, health, and dignity. But such rights cannot turn into actual entitlements of displaced persons unless backed up by an organized rehabilitative system. Existing laws, like the Disaster Management Act of 2005 and the state-level relief codes, are majorly made to combat the emergencies and temporary rehabilitation. They would fail to respond to the displacement that is set out by more sluggish by-products of climate, such as sea-level rise, groundwater drawdown, or a long-term drought. It is against this setting that the model of rehabilitative citizenship would be important. This is not the granting of new citizenship, but the idea that the term does refer to re-establishing the eligibility of displaced people to enjoy legal identity, fundamental rights, and political participation. It is not only an Indian constitutional value, but it is also an international principle of human rights. Instruments such as the 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement or the 2010 Cancun Adaptation Framework request states to adopt proactive and adaptive policies to guard individuals at risk of climate-related displacement. Legal invisibility of climate-induced population displacement in India is an aspect of a larger policy vacuum. Those communities that have to move regularly because of the encroachment of the land due to the rising levels of water (Sundarbans) or the erosion along the banks of the river (Assam) are never recognized and have no sustainable help even when given a form of rehabilitation (housing, education, or work). They are further isolated by the loss of important documents during displacement, like the Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, ration cards, land records, and so forth. Without these documents, most of them cannot access government benefits or prove their identity in their home country and are left as stateless individuals in their own country. This article aims at evaluating the legal position of climate-displaced internally displaced persons (C-IDPs) in India and explaining why rehabilitative citizenship should be considered a constitutional requirement. It is all about three fundamental questions: What is the meaning of the right to life and dignity in the displaced context in the Indian constitution? . What are the existing gaps In the law and policy in the context of serving the needs of the climate-displaced populations? . Which legal reforms and institutional organization are required in order to establish rehabilitative citizenship? The study has a doctrinaire and analytical approach, and it is based on the constitutional provisions, enactments, judicial precedents, and the international legal doctrine. It also reflects case studies of affected areas and also dabbles in the current literature and policy papers. The main thesis is that the inability to identify and protect climate refugees in India is not only a policy gap but also a constitutional collapse that threatens the integrity and rights of millions of people. Although migration and climate change have been studied in the academic setting, the legal and rights-based discussion in regard to internal governance of climate displacement has not been properly examined in India. Framing this problem in the context of constitutional rights as well as promoting the idea of rehabilitative citizenship, the paper will lead to the development of the new discourse at the intersection of environmental justice, human rights, and legal reform.
Research Methodology
This paper adopts the doctrinal research approach as it is based on the interpretation of legal texts, constitutional articles, court cases, and statutory systems. The researcher is in possession of pertinent case laws, particularly those that interpreted Article 21, and secondary literature, including scholarly articles, policy, and principles such as those issued by the UN known as the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. This goal can be achieved by investigating whether the existing Indian legislation approaches the climate-induced displacement properly and whether rehabilitative citizenship could become an effective constitutional solution. There is no fieldwork or empirical information adopted; all the research is qualitative and analytic.
Literature Review
The problem of environmentally driven movement of people has become an Increasingly popular topic of scientific research over the past few years. Nonetheless, most of these works on this literature revolve around cross-border climate refugees, thus leaving little studied the issue of internal displacements in India. As per the report by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, millions of people are displaced due to floods, droughts, and cyclones every year in India, but their reports are more statistically oriented and relate to nothing regarding legal and constitutional deliberations.
Some other legal scholars, such as Usha Ramanathan, have criticized India’s relief-oriented approach in providing relief by pointing out that displaced people tend to exist outside the legal structure of enforceable rights. Namita Wahi has also criticized disparities in how displacement has been provided relief through the legal system, particularly when rehabilitation efforts have not been linked to constitutional rights.
Although the questions concerning the right to shelter and interim relief provisions have experienced some discussion, the concept of rehabilitative citizenship, re-establishing legal identity, socio-economic rights, and civil or political inclusion has not gained sufficient attention so far. This paper is one step towards entering into that debate by viewing internal climate displacement as a constitutional challenge more than a humanitarian disaster
Understanding Climate Displacement in India
The changing climatic condition is causing a silent yet drastic transformation in the demographic trends in India. It is not a voluntary migration of people to economic opportunities but rather due to the necessity of the communities that have been displaced because of floods, droughts, cyclones, and erosions that render their habitats inhospitable. Although such displacements are patterned, they may not be identified in official documentation and legal systems.
Climate displacement is usually slow and repetitive, unlike conflict-induced migration. In areas such as the Sundarbans, families have continually been displaced multiple times because of rising sea levels and the increased salinity of soil and water. The riverbank erosion in states such as Assam has changed village boundaries permanently, leaving people displaced over time. In Bundelkhand, a region that has experienced erratic rainfall and a shortage of water, seasonal migration has turned into a routine way of life near permanent displacement of farming communities. Eco-refugees cannot find a place in the statistics of refugees, nor are they assigned any specific rights. Results of the work by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre note that India suffered over 2.5 million displaced people caused by climate disaster in the year 2022 alone. However, these people are not usually considered as a part of the discourse when discussing citizenships, welfare, or protracted rehabilitation.
In addition, climate displacement is usually mixed up with other vulnerabilities. Vulnerable populations, including the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as well as rural women, are the worst hit. In case of disaster, these communities are deprived of resources, information, and support mechanisms so they can evacuate in safety or make claims to entitlement.
The image of an individual running from a flood or cyclone is necessary to obtain the maximum understanding of climate displacement in India. The displaced here can be the farmer who has to leave dried-up land, the fishing community who can no longer fish as the ocean has warmed, and the family that has to leave their villages as the environment erodes in a gradual manner. What comes out in these narrations is that they form a single strain of a wider crisis that is difficult to comprehend in terms of existing definitions of law and policies, as well as the concept of a citizen with its rights.
The Legal vacuum: Why Climate Refugees Remain Unrecognized in India
Although the number of people whose homes were destroyed as a result of climate-related conditions is growing annually in India, no express legal framework defines climate deportees in the present legal systems of the country. There’s no description in the Indian legal system to describe what a climate exile looks like, and there’s no methodical form of protection or medium- to long-term recuperation programs to cover those persons that move due to the environmental changes. This legal silence places millions of people on uncertain footing—displaced, insecure, and constantly denied essential boons.
This event occurs at the transnational position as the Protocol of 1967 and the Convention of 1951 regarding deportees present the foundation regarding the protection of refugees. Nonetheless, the description of these instruments is restrictive in the sense that an exile is a person who’s being bedeviled because of race, religion, nation, or political opinion. They don’t include environmental regulation. Also, India isn’t a signatory to this convention, which further makes it an uphill task to have any transnational exile protection scheme applied in the country.
At the domestic position, the legislation we presently retain (Disaster Management Act, 2005, among others) dwells more on immediate disaster operation counteraccusations similar to exigency requirements, evacuations, and short-term backing. Likewise, there’s a great difference across countries in the quality of relief canons and perpetration, as there’s little uniformity or certainty to the individualities displaced. Identity reconstruction is one of the factors that’s left bereft in the wake of this legal vacuum.
The displaced individuals lose their documents, like the Aadhaar card, portion card, and land title, and find it hard to get access to public-grounded schemes, houses, seminaries, or jobs. The climate-displaced individuals find no distinct legal status that makes them nearly invisible to be seen within the system, even though they’re citizens of the nation.
Failure to realize isn’t just a policy gap but a suggestion of a beginning structural gap. Laws in India are yet to change to acclimatize to the challenges posed by climate relegation, which is unique. Displaced people land in this kind of limbo—officially citizens, but without any rights or admissions.
Legal Citizens, Displaced Lives: Why Rehabilitation Should Be a Priority as a Constitutional Right
The Indian Constitution is quite broad and comprehensive in its conception of the right to life, especially through the interpretation of Article 21. This right, according to the Supreme Court, extends beyond survival and involves the right to shelter, livelihood, health care, and human dignity. The SC has a progressive view, but it is in practice that persons affected by such climate-related disasters have been denied these rights.
The Indian Constitution is quite broad and comprehensive in its conception of the right to life, especially through the interpretation of Article 21 . This right, according to the Supreme Court, extends beyond survival and involves the right to shelter, livelihood, health care, and human dignity. The SC has a progressive view, but it is in practice that persons affected by such climate-related disasters have been denied these rights.
Rehabilitative citizenship is not only the emergency shelter or temporary relief. It is the concept that individuals who are displaced out of their homes because of the environment made changes need to be positively replaced in the civic, legal, and social arena of the society. This entails entry to documentation, welfare schemes, and legal recognition and possessing the capability of taking part in democratic processes. Sadly, displaced people tend to misplace vital pieces of ID such as Aadhaar cards, voter IDs, and land records, thereby rendering them unable to claim fundamental rights and entitlements.
The current policies, including those enacted under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, only consider short-term planning and crisis management and do not envisage long-term rehabilitation and legal integration of the displaced. Such policies do not consider slow-onset disasters, such as drought or rising sea level, which leave the displaced in indecisive limbo.
The inability of constitutionally supported promises to transfer into actual policies puts displaced individuals in a denuded legal vacuum. They may have their rights on paper, but with a lack of an enabling structure to enforce them, the rights may as well go unrealized. The acknowledgment of climate-displaced persons as rehabilitative citizens would imply guaranteeing their prospective legal, social, and economic incorporation.
In order to bridge this gap, India requires an explicit legal framework that should view displacement not merely as a humanitarian aspect but rather as a justice aspect of the constitution. It is then and only then that these imagined values of dignity, equality, and inclusion that the Constitution offered can become real such that they are lived by the climate vulnerable.
Presentation of the Displaced: What Has to Change in the Law and Policy
The present legal and policy frameworks in India are not sufficient to deal with such dimensions of climate displacement. The vast majority of reactions to environmental crisis are presented as emergency relief efforts, and have no long term vision. In order to establish the constitutional right to dignity and protection of climate refugees, a rights-based model as opposed to a charity-based one is required with great urgency. This implies the engagement of climate-displaced persons as active participants rather than having them as passive receivers to aid.
One of the initial steps toward this direction is the legalization of climate-induced displacement. India is not a signatory of the 1951 Refugee Convention, but the state can use the UN Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (1998) and the Cancun Adaptation Framework (2010) as soft law actors in the development of a national framework. These instruments that are international in nature indicate that the displaced persons should be allowed enough housing accommodations, livelihood, education and health services. Indian policy should internalize, these norms and make them fit local circumstances.
On the constitutional front, there has been a growing tendency of courts having expanded Article 21 to permit the right to shelter, yet execution is patchy. The climate displacement needs a specific legislative approach. A law of this nature should outline what the internal displacement caused by climatic changes would be, the institutional obligations and entitlements to be provided should be made portable (such as ration cards and voter ids), and a system of long-term rehabilitation rather than temporary relief be established.
Moreover, the local self-governments and the disaster management authorities should play a strong role in identifying vulnerable populations and organizing the activities of resettlement. The involvement of communities in the resettlement process can enhance resilience and minimise the feelings of alienation, which characterise displaced groups.
Suggestions and conclusion
India is at an immense point where the problem of climate change can no longer be viewed as an obscure environmental threat but as an immediate and current human disaster. The increasing population of displaced people due to climate change, particularly in the vulnerable areas such as Assam, Odisha, and the Sundarbans, necessitates a quick and careful legal solution. Such citizens, in most times, are legal citizens but are robbed of the reality of citizenship through lack of shelter, lack of documents, and lack of access to state services. It is not only a policy requirement but also a constitutional imperative to address their plight based on the entitlements of dignity, identity, and equality. In order to progress, what India needs to do to recognize climate-induced internal displacement is to do it as a formal legal and social category. This realization may occur in the form of specific legislation or can be accomplished by broadening the range of current systems like the Disaster Management Act, 2005, to encompass the term long-term displacement by Indonesian slow-onset climate events. Second, the national registry of climate-displaced persons is necessary, and the displaced people should be entitled to document the cap and receipt of the welfare programs and resettlement advantages. Moreover, entitlements in portable form, which include ration cards, voter Ids, and health cards, should also be introduced to bring about continuity of rights as the communities change locations. Above all, the concept of rehabilitative citizenship needs to be instilled within the Indian legal and administrative structures. It would not only imply restoring the lost documentation or housing but also the possibility to become fully integrated into the civic, economic, and democratic life as a displaced citizen.
In conclusion, climate displacement in India cannot be managed under the temporary relief or ad hoc programs. The only thing needed is the change of emergency response to a longer-term constitutional reasoning that should view rehabilitation as a right, not a favor. It is necessary to acknowledge rehabilitative citizenship as a legal instrument that could be used to make the displaced people connect to the state, their rights, and their future. Only after that can India be said to be doing its part of the constitutional promise of dignity and justice to all, particularly those who most suffer due to the changed climate.
References
[1] Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees art. 1(A)(2), July 28, 1951, 189 U.N.T.S. 150.
[2] Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1998/53/Add.2 (Feb. 11, 1998).
[3] Conference of the Parties, Cancun Adaptation Framework, Decision 1/CP.16, ¶¶ 11–35, U.N. Doc. FCCC/CP/2010/7/Add.1 (Mar. 15, 2011).
[4] Chameli Singh v. State of U.P., (1996) 2 S.C.C. 549.
[5] Olga Tellis v. Bombay Mun. Corp., (1985) 3 S.C.C. 545.
[6] Disaster Management Act, No. 53 of 2005, India Code (2005).
[7] Usha Ramanathan, Illegality and the Urban Poor, 41 Econ. & Pol. Wkly. 3193 (2006).
[8] Namita Wahi, State Responsibility for Internal Displacement in India, in Disaster Law and Policy in India 165 (Amita Singh ed., 2018).
[9] Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, India Country Profile (2023).
[10] India Const. Art. 21.
Author:
Iqra Fatima
Aligarh Muslim University Centre Murshidabad