India Ranks Third Highest Globally In Internal Displacement Numbers: Report

As per Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) 2016, released by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), nearly 2.4 million people in India were internally displaced due to conflict, violence and disasters in 2016.

Internal Displacement in India:

• With 2.4 million people displaced in 2016, India ranked third globally after China (7.4 million) and the Philippines(5.9 million).
• Out of 2.4 million, about 796,000 people were displaced as a result of conflict and violence.
• Monsoon season floods in Bihar between mid-July and October led to more than 1.6 million displacements.
• The report highlighted that in recent years; displacement in India has mainly been due to floods and storms.
• The report also cited that approximately 68% of India is prone to drought, 60% region in India is earthquakes-prone zone and 75% coastline is prone to cyclones.

Internal Displacement across the World:

• Around 31.1 million new internal displacements were recorded across the world in 2016.
• Out of 31.1 million new displacements, 6.9 million displacements were caused by conflict.
• Sub-Saharan African region witnessed 2.6 million displacements due to conflict.
• Out of the 24 million new displacements caused by disasters across the world in 2016, most of the instances were linked to sudden-onset weather hazards such as floods, storms, wildfires and severe winter conditions.
• South Asian region accounted for 3.6 million new displacements. However, this marked fifty percent drop from the 2015 figure of 7.9 million.

Countries which had a huge number of displacements due to conflict:

The GRID 2016 has highlighted that displacement will continue if underlying causes of conflicts and disasters are not addressed by giving necessary political attention and allocating sufficient funds to undertake measures for conserving the environment.