Soon, if all goes according to plan, at least some of Delhi neighbourhoods will be "mapped," their disaster preparedness gauged and their residents sensitised, reports Times of India. The Disaster Research Programme of Jawaharlal Nehru University (DRP-JNU) is collaborating with Delhi colleges for "participatory neighborhood mapping" to identify and map vulnerable areas. In the first phase, students of four colleges including Lady Shri Ram College (the nodal college), Miranda House, Gargi and Kamala Nehru will map areas around their own colleges.
Anita Singh of DRP-JNU also points out that it isn't sufficient to just get a sense of the geography of the neighbourhoods. "During disasters you also encounter the politics of the area and efforts at disaster management will fail if the politics isn't appropriately handled," she observes.