For millions across South Asia, displacement is no longer an exceptional consequence of disaster. It is becoming part of everyday life. Floods, cyclones, landslides, droughts, river erosion and increasingly dangerous heat are repeatedly pushing people away from homes and livelihoods.
Yet the region still largely treats disaster displacement as a temporary humanitarian problem rather than a long-term development and governance challenge.
That approach needs to change.
The scale of the problem is already significant. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), South Asia recorded more than 4.6 million disaster-related internal displacements in 2025.
Although this was lower than the 9.2 million recorded in 2024, the decline largely reflected fewer major cyclones and floods rather than a disappearance of underlying risk. Around 14 million people were still living in internal displacement across the region at the end of 2025. IDMC’s 2026 Global Report on Internal Displacement
These figures reveal an important distinction: fewer displacement movements in one year do not necessarily mean less vulnerability.
People can return home after a flood, only to be displaced again months or years later. Repeated displacement can gradually erode savings, livelihoods, education and social networks, turning a temporary evacuation into chronic insecurity.
Climate displacement is not simply a movement problem
Climate-related displacement is often discussed as though people will simply leave dangerous places and settle somewhere safer. Reality is much more complicated.
People do not move from one climate-risk-free location to another. They often move towards cities that are themselves experiencing heat stress, flooding, water shortages and inadequate infrastructure.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identifies several South Asian cities including Dhaka, Chittagong, Chennai and Mumbai as areas that may simultaneously face climate impacts and increasing migration pressures. IPCC Sixth Assessment Report
This creates a dangerous cycle. A family displaced by river erosion may move to an urban settlement where housing is cheaper but exposure to flooding, fire or heat is higher.
A farmer whose livelihood has been damaged by repeated floods may enter informal employment without social protection. A child who changes schools repeatedly because of displacement may lose educational opportunities.
Displacement, therefore, should not be measured only by the number of people who move. We must also ask where they move, what they lose and whether they can rebuild their lives.
The poorest are often left with the fewest choices
Climate displacement also exposes a fundamental injustice. The people most vulnerable to climate impacts are frequently those with the fewest resources to adapt. Wealthier households may be able to reinforce homes, relocate voluntarily, insure assets or move before a crisis becomes unavoidable. Poorer households often cannot.
This means that migration itself can become unequal. For some, mobility is an adaptation strategy. For others, it is a forced response to the loss of viable alternatives.
The World Bank’s Groundswell report estimates that climate change could drive as many as 40 million people to migrate within South Asia by 2050 under a pessimistic scenario. Importantly, the report also argues that decisive action on emissions, resilient development and adaptation could substantially reduce the scale of future climate migration. World Bank, Groundswell
The implication is clear: climate displacement is not an inevitable future that governments can simply prepare to manage. The scale of displacement can still be influenced by decisions made today.
South Asia needs to move beyond disaster relief
South Asian governments have made significant progress in early warning, evacuation and disaster preparedness. Bangladesh’s experience with cyclone preparedness, for example, demonstrates how investments in warning systems, shelters and community-level preparedness can save lives.
But saving lives is only the first stage.
The next challenge is ensuring that people can recover with dignity.
Governments need policies that connect disaster management with housing, social protection, employment, urban planning and climate adaptation. Relocation programmes should not simply move people away from hazards; they should provide access to land, livelihoods, schools, healthcare and essential services.
Cities also need to prepare for climate-related migration before settlements expand informally. Climate risk assessments should become a routine part of urban planning, while affordable and resilient housing should be treated as a core component of adaptation policy.
Most importantly, displaced communities themselves must have a voice in decisions about relocation and recovery. A technically safe relocation site can still fail if it separates people from employment, education, social networks or cultural ties.
The answer cannot stop at national borders
South Asia’s climate risks do not respect political boundaries. The same river systems, monsoon patterns and Himalayan ecosystems connect multiple countries. Floods in one country can be influenced by conditions upstream in another. Glacier-related hazards in the Hindu Kush Himalayas can have consequences far beyond the communities immediately surrounding them.
Recent disasters in the Himalayas have once again demonstrated the importance of cross-border information sharing and early warning. The devastating August 2026 flash floods in Nepal have renewed calls for stronger regional cooperation on glacier monitoring and disaster data.
Regional cooperation should therefore extend beyond emergency response. South Asian countries need stronger mechanisms for sharing hydrological and climate data, coordinating early warnings, developing common approaches to displacement data and learning from one another’s adaptation experiences.
From “disaster victims” to citizens with rights
Perhaps the biggest shift required is conceptual. People displaced by climate change should not be viewed merely as victims waiting for relief. They are citizens whose rights to housing, livelihoods, education, healthcare and security must continue after displacement.
South Asia has repeatedly demonstrated that it can innovate when faced with disaster risk. The challenge now is to apply that same ambition to displacement.
Climate change will continue to test where and how people live. But whether displacement becomes a cycle of poverty and insecurity or an opportunity for safer, more inclusive development is not predetermined.
The region still has choices.
The question is whether South Asia will use them before millions are forced to make choices of their own.
Shaimila Nahin
Syeda Shimila Nahin is an undergraduate student in the Institute ofDisaster Management and Vulnerability Studies at the University of Dhaka,with academic and research interests in climate change, disaster risk reduction, climate-induced displacement, and climate justice. She isinvolved in youth-led climate initiatives, research and has contributed toadvocacy and awareness efforts concerning environmental and social issues.
