Awareness raising programs, training of communities and volunteers, capacity-building of people and regular mock drills, are some interventions that are ongoing. This publication is an attempt to document the various initiatives. Most importantly, we have tried to present the many community-led innovations that have made this programme both sustainable and replicable.

When the Government of India and the United Nations Development Programme, India launched the Disaster Risk Management Programme in 2002, little did they anticipate then that it would become one of the largest such initiatives in the world.

After six years of trials and errors, the programme has succeeded in galvanizing policy-makers, service-providers, civil-society representatives, non-governmental organizations and, most importantly, the most-affected community members themselves. Today, an estimated 300 million people in disaster-prone regions are proactively involved in achieving the objectives of the initiative and are truly living-up to the spirit of the Programme.

The seeds of the programme were sown for achieving sustainable reduction in disaster risk in the most hazard-prone districts in the country. The endeavour was to strengthen the response, preparedness, management and mitigation capacities of communities, local governments and district administrations in 176 multi-hazard prone districts in 17 states of India, i.e., Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Orissa, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Through the efforts of the community members, the respective state government officials, the United Nations Volunteers, civil society representatives, and many others, a strong foundation has been laid. The programme is progressively changing the perceptions of the people towards emergencies and has come a long way in empowering the people on the ground to be more proactive and not rely solely on external support when disaster strikes.

Awareness raising programs, training of communities and volunteers, capacity-building of people and regular mock drills, are some interventions that are ongoing. This publication is an attempt to document the various initiatives. Most importantly, we have tried to present the many community-led innovations that have made this programme both sustainable and replicable.