West Bengal Floods and the Women Who Lead: SHGs Building Resilience in the Sundarbans

In the Sundarbans’ socio-economic milieu, where banks rarely reach and formal institutions falter, resilience is not built overnight or left to the government alone. The story of Shitama SHG exemplifies this: ordinary housewives who, armed with a ledger and a loudspeaker, map out lanes of hope and readiness long before a government Jeep or NDRF raft arrives.

When the floodwaters crept menacingly closer to Chhota Mollakhali in the Sundarban, it was Mamata Mondal’s resolute voice that sliced through the mounting panic like a beacon in the mist. As the head of Maa Durga women’s Self-Help Group (SHG), lovingly fostered by the NGO Change Initiatives in the Sundarbans, Mamata swiftly marshalled a chorus of alerts that rippled through each clustered household. With deft hands, she pooled the scarce emergency funds to amass dry food and essential medicines, transforming scarcity into sustenance. Guiding families with unwavering calm, she orchestrated evacuations toward the embankments as if conducting a delicate dance with nature’s fiercest rhythms. Her SHG was not simply bracing for the storm – they were spinning a resilient web of collective courage and care, a living shield woven from shared hope against the relentless tides.

The twin pillars of flood resilience: Mitigation and economic rebound

In this labyrinth of salty rivers and mangroves, where floodwaters ebb and surge unpredictably, SHGs have emerged as beacons of hope. More than savings clubs, these women-led collectives act as crucial nodes in disaster risk reduction and post-flood recovery. Housewives within these groups – maniacs of household ledgers and childhood memories – are forging pathways that marry economic stability with community strength, invigorating a region where climate shocks are an annual reality.

In the Sundarbans and across West Bengal, SHGs are not just financial cooperatives, but an integral part of the social fabric. Typically consisting of 10 to 20 women, mostly housewives. They carry out collective savings, provide microloans, and offer peer support. Grounded in neighbourhoods battered by floods, SHGs serve as reliable networks that multiply channels for risk information and foster coordinated responses. In the Sundarbans’ socio-economic milieu, where banks rarely reach and formal institutions often falter, SHGs become the guardians of trust and practical wisdom, especially for women managing the fragile economies of their homes.

SHGs as sentinels of flood preparedness

In a tide-stitched village of Gosaba, the women of Shitama Self-Help Group move like a quiet current. Born in 2023, this group in Chhota Molla Khali carries a simple pledge: save together, learn together, and stand together during the testing times of floods. TheRise spoke to its members to understand its functioning on ground.

Each monsoon, they prepare in both traditional and practical ways. Storing puffed rice and grain, sealing clean water in tins, buying medicines in advance, and moving livestock to higher shelters. These measures have worked “fairly well” in recent years, showing how everyday wisdom, passed from kitchen to courtyard to riverbank, helps the community cope with floods.

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“In floods, the group extends financial help so families can step across the first days of scarcity. Women contribute small amounts, borrow in emergencies, and repay when tides turn, keeping debt bearable and dignity intact,” said Pushpa Mistri, Head Didi of the Shitama SHG. The group’s small savings act as a shock absorber. Fixed monthly deposits create a common pool.

The group’s small savings act as a shock absorber. Fixed monthly deposits create a common pool; members draw low-interest loans to buy rations, repair roofs, replace nets, or restart home-based work.

Acting as an early warning system, these SHG members deliver messages door-to-door to ensure no household is left out. Panchayats, block offices, and other community institutions form the backbone of this system, with women at its center.

How coordination works with NDRF/SDRF

Coordination with disaster response agencies follows a clear chain. Early warnings move from district and block officials to Panchayats and frontline workers. Each SHG designates one or two “communication didis” to liaise with Panchayat control rooms. These Shitama’s leaders report ground realities such as embankment stress, water levels, and shelter occupancy. This enables timely requests for NDRF or SDRF deployment. Once units arrive, SHG volunteers support them by organizing queues, identifying priority evacuees (pregnant women, infants, the elderly, persons with disabilities), mapping hamlets for boat rescues, and monitoring shelters. They also relay hygiene advisories to prevent disease and act as roster-keepers—tracking who needs evacuation, who requires medical attention, and who is missing.

The SHG’s role extends beyond operations. Members compile beneficiary lists, assemble identity documents, and keep basic loss notes to ease relief distribution. They also join mock drills organized by Panchayats or block disaster cells and share post-event observations, highlighting which lanes flooded first, which shelters need repair, and what failed on the ground. While the river may decide the tide, these women of Gosaba decide the order.  Participation has changed how women stand in the room. With SHG backing comes confidence; a seat at decisions on preparedness and recovery, a say in household budgeting once the waters recede. Sometimes coordination works; other times the embankment gives way. Still, the women’s ledger and routine hold steady – store dry food, keep clean water, file papers, learn the next skill, save again next month.

Also Read: West Bengal Floods: How Women Become the Silent Backbone of Survival and Resilience

In the Sundarbans, resilience is not built overnight, nor left to the government alone. It is realised in the steadfast collaboration between frontline women’s groups, local governance, and specialised response forces. The story of Shitama SHG exemplifies this synthesis: ordinary housewives who, armed with a ledger and a loudspeaker, map out the lanes of hope and readiness long before a government Jeep or NDRF raft arrives. Here, when the river calls, it is answered not by panic but by the measured, collective courage of a community ready to endure and rebound – proving that, together, they are mightier than the flood.

“Basudha” : Sundarban Women Join hands to Plant Mangroves and Replenish their Beautiful Land

In the Sundarbans, where storm-tossed tides have gnawed at once-dense mangroves, a quiet restoration is taking root. Years of embankment cuts, unplanned use, and repeated cyclones left the forest flood-worn, threatening the delicate shield that guards both biodiversity and village life. Into this breach stepped Change Initiatives to reclaim stretches of vacant land in Chhota Mollakhali Gram Panchayat, planting the promise of a greener tide with 350,000 mangrove saplings.

The mangrove plantation in Chhota Mollakhali was a coalition of 38 SHGs, 1,528 women, collectively coordinating around 500 direct members and reaching over 50,000 villagers. At the heart of this effort stands Shitama SHG (Sabujsathi Sangha). Their work began long before the first sapling met the mud. They helped map vulnerable pockets, marked salinity lines, and chose species suited to the fickle brackish mix.  

Shitama SHG stitched community buy-in – organizing meetings with fishers and farmers, aligning planting days with tidal windows, and setting local watch schedules to deter grazing or trampling.

They turned restoration into routine: tallying survival counts (now above 85%), recording failures, adjusting the species mix, and flagging microsites that needed brush fencing. Their ledger of savings widened into a ledger of saplings: numbers that meant shade, carbon, crabs, and calmer waves. They turned intent into ground action, pairing scientific advice with estuary sense. Together, they learned with the tide that a sapling planted a day late can be a sapling lost; that a centimeter of elevation matters; that community memory of where the storm bit hardest is as valuable as any map.

One of their most pressing hurdles is the limited reach of formal flood insurance. While schemes exist, many women find the application process confusing or inaccessible, leaving households vulnerable to the full brunt of nature’s fury, dependent instead on modest emergency savings that often fall short. These emergency funds, though a lifeline, are typically too small to cover the costs of severe or recurring floods. When the waters rise high, families are sometimes forced to turn to costly informal loans or endure prolonged struggles for recovery.

Layered onto this are traditional social norms in certain pockets that restrict women’s mobility and voice. This subtle barrier keeps them from fully engaging in meetings, trainings, and decision-making forums essential for disaster preparedness and recovery. The weight of household duties compounds this, leaving little room for active leadership. As a result, many women miss out on vital information and opportunities, their potential muted by expectations rather than ability, a silent barrier that dims the bright potential of these women leaders.

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Physical infrastructure, from fragile embankments to inadequate shelters and sanitation, makes the flood threat more formidable, despite the best-organised local efforts. Coordination gaps also persist.  And beneath these visible obstacles lies the emotional toll – the unsung burden the women shoulder as caregivers, leaders, and bearers of communal hope, often with little access to mental health support.

“Because of illiteracy, some women face difficulties. To some extent — lack of mobile phones creates some barriers for full participation of the elderly.”, said one of the SHG members.

There are barriers – literacy, devices, distance- but the network fills the gaps with feet on the ground and voices in the lanes. Their asks from NGOs and the state are simple and specific: dry rations in crisis, support for health and sanitation, training that lasts beyond a workshop, and a more seamless bridge to relief funds.

As climate risks intensify in the Sundarbans, the Shitama Self-Help Group exemplifies the power of women’s leadership and collective action. Through seamless cooperation with disaster response forces and local institutions, these women are not only safeguarding their families—they are redefining resilience for their entire community.

METHODOLOGY

Data were collected using a researcher-designed questionnaire which consisted of 21 questions covering SHG of attention, Shitama SHG (NRLM CODE- 147987) of Chhotomollakhali GP, their issues, the flood preparedness, training activity, economic resilience, and leadership qualities in guidance of administration, govt., and local NGO.

Drishti Majumdar is an intern at TRIP

Edited and Mentored by Sneha Yadav

REFERENCES

Change Initiatives website –  https://changeinitiatives.in/case-studies.html

Project Basudha – https://changeinitiatives.in/programmes.html

https://changeinitiatives.in/pdf/Mangroves.pdf