Flood‑prone communities in Assam and Tripura are better prepared through We4Resilience

The We4Resilience Campaign under Caritas India’s SARAL (Strengthening Adaptation, Resilience and Livelihoods) project, supported by Caritas Italiana, has strengthened climate and disaster resilience for 400 people across 10 flood-prone villages in Assam and Tripura through focused awareness and capacity-building sessions held on 21–22 January 2026. The campaign targeted highly vulnerable households in three districts, helping them understand how to reduce climate-related risks, improve preparedness and safeguard their livelihoods in the face of recurring floods.

Planned on the basis of a baseline survey, the campaign responded directly to the priorities expressed by local communities living in high flood-risk areas. It covered earthquake and flood safety, wetland conservation for flood mitigation, climate-resilient crop management, flood-tolerant rice varieties, millets as climate-smart crops, safe migration practices, access to government social security schemes and river erosion protection. These themes address both the immediate hazards that threaten lives and assets, and the long-term socio-economic vulnerabilities of families dependent on climate-sensitive agriculture and wage labour.

Participants reported strong learning outcomes from the two-day initiative. Community members shared that the sessions increased their awareness of local hazards, improved their sense of preparedness and gave them confidence to adopt resilient practices introduced during the campaign. One participant from Dhemaji district in Assam said that the campaign helped them understand government social security provisions and climate-resilient agricultural options that were previously unknown to their family, and that this knowledge would directly support their household safety and income security. This kind of feedback shows that We4Resilience is translating information into practical, community-level action.

The campaign is part of SARAL’s wider effort to help small and marginal farmers in multi-hazard-prone areas of Assam, Tripura and other states adapt to climate stress. SARAL promotes climate-resilient agriculture, diversified livelihoods and linkages with government schemes so that farming families can sustain and improve their incomes even when floods damage fields or disrupt crop cycles. By combining disaster risk reduction with livelihood support, the project moves beyond emergency relief to long-term resilience building.

In Assam and Tripura, SARAL has already supported farmers through training on climate-resilient agriculture techniques, including flood-tolerant paddy, crop diversification and integrated farming, while also orienting them on schemes such as crop insurance and disaster relief provisions. The We4Resilience Campaign builds on this foundation by taking risk awareness and preparedness messages to entire villages, not only to individual farmers, and by bringing in themes like wetland conservation, safe migration and riverbank protection that are critical in these flood-affected landscapes.

Encouraged by the positive outcomes of the January 2026 campaign, Caritas India plans to scale up We4Resilience under SARAL from 10 to 20 villages across four districts—Dhemaji and Lakhimpur in Assam, and Gomati and Dhalai in Tripura—with a projected outreach of more than 1,000 individuals. The expanded initiative will further strengthen community preparedness, promote climate-smart agriculture, encourage environmental stewardship of wetlands and rivers and foster collective action for disaster risk reduction.

Through SARAL, supported by Caritas Italiana, and the We4Resilience Campaign, communities in some of India’s most flood-prone districts are beginning to shift from a cycle of repeated loss to a pathway of resilience, informed decision-making and more secure livelihoods.