Excerpt

India is one of the more vulnerable and high-risk countries in the world. Disaster loss is rising every year with grave consequences for the survival, dignity and livelihood of individuals, particularly the poor, and poses a severe setback to hard-won development gains. Growing concentrations of people and assets in cities are exponentially increasing their propensity to disaster risk. While disasters are known to compound vulnerabilities, with increasing densities in cities and access to services and resources becoming more contested, people’s vulnerability to disasters is growing, making it a vicious cycle.

This policy brief outlines the need for making the cities resilient, where among them are risks concentrated, and their causes of this concentration, current policy and implementation gaps, and the way forward.