The devastating floods in Bihar offer, sadly enough, a timely, opportunity to advance the national agenda of making

India safer. The regional Commonwealth roundtable on “strengthening role of civil society and media in climate change adaptation and disaster mitigation in Asia”, held this past month in Pondicherry brought together some 30 representatives of civil society organisations from across South and Southeast Asia. The ideas discussed in Pondicherry may be of use to those in the government or donor/ UN bodies planning beyond relief, to flood risk reduction in Bihar.

Risk reduction agendas in Asia are moving beyond relief, rescue and rehabilitation, to power and control of victims over recovery processes, just resource allocation for reducing risk, and promotion knowledge that emerges from a diversity of discourses on risk. There is Asia-wide agreement on the central role of civil society in the process of risk reduction in order to bring it to the local development agenda. But in India, authorities have yet to meaningfully join hands with civil society.

The response in Bihar should make India’s national agenda far more local, community-centred, and consultative — focusing on social and environmental justice, poverty alleviation and green and clean recovery. How could a framework simultaneously address issues of governance and risk management? The elements of the framework that emerged in Pondicherry have been grouped by Christoph Woiwode, expert on disaster risk communication, into four sets of interrelated twin concepts: power and control; justice and fairness; trust and credibility; and rationality and knowledge.

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