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Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on the adaptation strategies and governance challenges in the implementation of the national affordable housing policy in a flood-prone Indian coastal town. It highlights the importance of contextual institutional frameworks for social policy and climate resilience integration.

Paper long abstract:

Scholarship in social protection and climate adaptation domains increasingly emphasize the need to mainstream climate adaptation and resilience into social policies to enhance community resilience to climate change-induced disasters. In line with this, the national affordable housing policy of India (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana) has recently promoted technologies for climate-resilient housing and converges with existing urban development schemes to promote climate resilience. However, there is limited understanding of the existing implementation of this policy in climate-sensitive regions, the climate adaptation outcomes, and subsequent governance issues. This paper addresses this question by empirically examining the adaptation strategies adopted by the scheme beneficiaries and perceptions of policy actors around climate change and affordable housing, in a flood-prone coastal town in India. The surveys and interviews reveal four key findings. First, behavioral changes to the built environment account for a significant share of adaptation strategies. Second, these strategies require approximately 4 times beneficiary allocations. Third, while the housing may be resilient to intermittent floods, beneficiaries incur debts thus reducing long-term adaptive capacities. Fourth, limited access to developable flood-resistant land, transport infrastructure, and formal housing finance are key impediments. The findings indicate that while the scheme has been beneficial in pushing the adaptation agenda, the success of this integration and its translation into governance are varied. Long-term climate resilience needs institutional integration among disaster, land use and building codes, city-level infrastructure and services, housing finance, and livelihood diversification, thus underscoring the need for contextual institutional frameworks that ensure resilience and justice outcomes.