Vulnerable yet aspiring: Insights from micro- and meso-level socio-economic vulnerability assessment of an aspirational district in central India

Climate change hinders development, while under development perpetuates vulnerability limiting resilience to climate change. Given limited public resources, targeted interventions in areas with poor socio-economic indicators can improve adaptive capacity to deal with climate extremes and enhance overall human development. India’s transformative aspirational districts program (TADP) aims to ‘quickly and efficiently’ address this. We evaluate the socioeconomic vulnerability of Barwani, an aspirational district in Madhya Pradesh, using the Socio-Economic Vulnerability Index (SEVI) at the village (micro), tehsil and district ( meso ) levels. SEVI framework encompasses sensitivity and adaptive capacity with 22 social and economic indicators, and uses census data. Of Barwani's 681 villages, we identified clusters of most (32) and least (57) vulnerable villages that exhibited higher sensitivity and lower adaptive capacity with SEVI values ranging from 0.60 in Khamghat (most vulnerable) to 0.23 in Khadki (least vulnerable). Nearly half (302, 44 %) of the villages were highly vulnerable, while 43 % (290) were less vulnerable. Pansemal tehsil had the greatest number of highly vulnerable villages. One-way ANOVA indicated significant variation among tehsils and villages for 15 vulnerability indicators, with different indicators (drivers) gaining prominence at micro- and meso‑ levels. Transport network, housing, and malnutrition were uniformly poor across the district, while literacy rate, market access, and health facilities were poor only in specific groups of villages, thus necessitating spatially differentiated interventions. We showcase SEVI’s potential to repurpose TADP by shifting the focus from district to village levels, reducing transaction costs and fast-tracking progress toward SDGs 2030.