The national agenda must give more power and control to India’s citizen over risk reduction. This is related to the social status and social capital of the respective actors, the quality of the relationship and their interaction, the external and internal identity of the groups, and their roles and functions. The importance of this, especially for the vulnerable and victims in India, is twofold: it plays out in the distribution of risks and in interactive (communicative) relationships with markets or authorities. The poor without power make hopeless relief recipients. “Hardly any global risk reduction process talks about giving more power to the communities and control over the process,” argued Feryal Ali Gauhar from Pakistan at Pondicherry. The national agenda should focus on finding ways to give more power to communities to demand flood risk reduction by asserting their right to safety.

The national agenda should be fairer — the twin concept of justice and fairness relates to the practices of democratic principles, to what extent inclusive argumentation and participation in risk reduction decision-making are practiced, and the access to information and the distributive fairness of risks. Most risk reduction processes in India prefer men over women, urban over rural, formal over causal labour, industry over agriculture and rich over poor.

Equally important is citizen trust and all-round credibility. The reputation of participants, framing of messages, means of communication, duration of interaction, reciprocity of exchange, and transparency in communication needs to be reviewed. “Today the community has to prove its credibility to the national or state authorities and seek their trust to receive resources to reduce risk”, lamented Ajith Tennakoon of Sewalanka Foundation, Sri Lanka during the round table. Many authorities in India are subject to a high degree of suspicion and mistrust from marginalised groups “that have been repeatedly betrayed in the name of reducing flood or drought or other risks”, pointed out Shankar of SNEHA, a leading women’s fishery organisation of South India. By listening and responding in ways that show that they have heard, national and state-level stakeholders increase their chances of earning the trust of marginalised groups.

... contd.