Cities Provide Transformational Opportunity To Reduce Risk Accumulation

This paper is an attempt to analyse the current status of risk in India – how is risk defined, where is it concentrated and what are the current institutional and policy gaps – which if addressed holistically, can build a more resilient society. The primary objective is to identify policy interventions at various levels to enable urban resilience. Another motivation behind this research is to support the Rockefeller Foundation and ACCCRN’s current work in India on resilience, and provide an overview of the status of risk in India.

The paper intends to move the current debates and policy frames from risk reduction, to a much larger goal of enhancing lives by building capabilities. It is argued that the capabilities approach is best thought of not as offering a detailed road map for policy, but as providing a critically different conceptualization of the purpose and principles of public policy (Orton, 2011). The paper seeks to underpin the ideological narrative in this idea, from which policy development can flow. The policy and programmatic focus needs to move from the idea of disasters to the concept of risks which are a composite of hazards (including climatic), vulnerabilities, exposure and capacities. Risks may accumulate over time or can be due to high intensity events. This paper also analyses where risk is accumulated in India, and the ways forward for reducing this risk