After men migrate for work, women of Mousuni Island in the Sundarbans in West Bengal have to struggle for survival, losing land and livelihood to floods and erosion.

In Mousuni Island, salinity ingress has rendered agricultural land uncultivable for years. Tidal flooding that occurs twice a month makes it difficult for the salinity level to come down. Embankments, some of which have existed since colonial times, have weakened over the years. It is due to a combination of natural events like floods and erosion and anthropogenic factors such as lack of maintenance and deforestation. These weak, and in some cases, partially built embankments, prevent swift back-flow of the flood waters in some parts of the island, resulting in inundation for an extended period of time.