‘Between 2020 and 2035, 200 million people are projected to move to Indian cities , reflecting the tremendous potential that they have to shape India’s sustainable development trajectory’
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The Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which was passed in the Lok Sabha in December 2024, offers great promise to combat increasing climate woes that plague Indian cities. In 2024, like many of the years preceding it, cities experienced severe water shortages, floods, cyclones and extreme heat. However, the mismanagement of these extreme events is inextricably linked to the inability of those governing cities to allocate resources, plan for and respond to climate change.
The proposed amendment’s decree to establish urban disaster management authorities is a welcome step, but it risks perpetuating the exclusion of informal settlements with a business-as-usual approach. With nearly one in five urban Indians living in informal areas, these communities are at the frontlines of climate change. However, planning and disaster response often excludes these settlements, leaving millions without the infrastructure and services needed to weather climate risks.
Between 2020 and 2035, 200 million people are projected to move to Indian cities, reflecting the tremendous potential that they have to shape India’s sustainable development trajectory. This rapid urbanisation presents both a challenge and an opportunity — cities must integrate informal contexts into long-term resilience strategies. Fortunately, several home-grown solutions already exist.
In the recently launched report, From Informality to Impact: The Untapped Potential of Scaling Urban Resilience Innovation in Informal Settlement, Transitions Research and the Global Resilience Partnership ‘assessed more than 130 resilience solutions being implemented in informal contexts across cities in the Global South’. The report uses scalable solutions that are already yielding results in countries such as India, with lessons to ensure impactful resilience outcomes at scale.
Leveraging local knowledge, partnerships
Solutions co-created with communities and built on local knowledge can deliver long-term impact. Communities living in informal settlements often develop adaptation practices that can provide invaluable insights into building resilience. In Jodhpur, Rajasthan, the Mahila Housing Trust and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) partnered with local women to map extreme heat risks leading to the Jodhpur Heat Action Plan, which is first in Rajasthan to include a detailed vulnerability assessment. By involving the community in data collection, the initiative identified at-risk populations and key adaptive resources such as health centres or water bodies, enabling the city to prioritise interventions where they are needed the most.
Partnerships are key to building long-lasting and scalable resilience innovations, especially in informal contexts. Support from donors and the private sector can help test novel ideas, building the evidence needed to attract public financing to scale. Practical Action’s sustainable sanitation in Odisha, reducing contamination of water sources and risk of waterborne diseases especially during extreme weather events, exemplifies this approach. Philanthropic funding and private sector partnerships supported the development and testing of innovative waste-processing plants which used mobile technologies to connect service providers with residents to facilitate same-day tank emptying, while also improving the working conditions for workers. Piloted in the cities of Angul and Dhenkanal in Odisha, the solution demonstrated delivery of sustainable sanitation services for small towns to local authorities and has since transitioned to local municipalities for project management and day-to-day delivery. The evidence generated has also secured long-term commitment from the State government to roll out construction of plants in every town.
Digital tools, diversified financing for resilience
Inclusive digital solutions can enhance urban resilience in informal communities by equipping them with the knowledge needed to navigate climate hazards. Some tools go even further, enabling communities to participate in decision making by sharing on-ground insights during extreme events. For instance, the Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS) collaborated with Microsoft’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Resilient Cities to combine weather data and satellite imagery to identify areas highly vulnerable to heatwaves in several cities including Delhi and Nagpur Using these AI generated maps, SEEDS has been able to map at-risk homes, prioritise early warning outreach, and support health-care workers in taking proactive measures, thereby reducing the burden on the health-care system. By partnering with local communities, SEEDS prepared residents and designed targeted solutions, having reached 72,000 individuals in 2023 alone.
With limited access to traditional finance, solutions targeted at informal contexts benefit from diverse models such as micro-finance, community savings or public–private partnerships. For instance, solutions such as solar energy and electric rickshaws can improve working conditions for indoor workers and rickshaw drivers during extreme events, reducing dependency on unstable grid power. However, high technology costs can often be a barrier to access. Three Wheels United, a fintech startup, addresses this challenge by offering customised loan products that provide low-income drivers with a viable pathway to purchase electric auto-rickshaws. Drivers are offered debt financing for 100% of the auto-rickshaw cost with lower interest rates and no collateral requirements. Moreover, through a community-driven loan collection system, timely repayments are encouraged while minimising the risk of defaults. With this innovative approach to financing, Three Wheels United has been able to incentivise 20,000-plus drivers to switch from conventional to electric auto-rickshaws while more than doubling their daily income, when compared to renting.
A much needed pathway
Today, investing in resilient futures in India’s informal contexts is not only a moral imperative but a strategic pathway to sustainable urban development. Policymakers, donors, private-sector and urban practitioners must seize this untapped opportunity by prioritising and investing in these urban resilience solutions. This calls for integration into government action, through local/State budgets, city-level climate action plans, urban development programmes, and critical pieces of legislation such as the Disaster Management Act. While innovation exists and must be further encouraged, lessons from Informality to Impact underscore the need for strengthening policy and fostering finance mechanisms as critical to creating an enabling environment for these solutions to scale.
Only by ensuring the inclusion of informal settlements in planning and resilience efforts, can India build cities that are equitable, sustainable, climate resilient and capable of driving the country’s long-term development and climate goals.
Ashali Bhandari is the Managing Director at People’s Urban Living Lab (PULL) at Transitions Research. Evita Rodrigues is an Urban Governance Associate at Transitions Research
Published – February 21, 2025 04:00 pm IST
