Rural housing resilience in India: Is it reliant on appropriate technology or labour skills?

The aim of this paper is to identify key approaches to housing reconstruction in India which demonstrate success in the: i) (re)building of resilient houses, ii) enabling of house-hold autonomy, and iii) enhancing of artisanal skills over the longer term (i.e. greater than 7 years since disaster). With the rising frequency and complexity of natural hazards, the need for resilience to be 'built in' to housing reconstruction projects is urgent. To achieve the research aim, a mixed methods methodology and 'case study' approach is used. Four good practice reconstruction projects in India are selected for comparative analysis, these are: i) Hodko and Patanka in Gujarat (post 2001 earthquake), and ii) Orlaha and Puraini in Bihar (post 2008 floods). This paper discusses findings from empirical investigations conducted using an analytical lifespan framework with the timescale tools reflecting an Input, Output, Results and Impact examination. The findings suggest that for reconstruction to be successful and, importantly, effective in terms of housing resilience the 'process' must support the confidence of local households, use/employ the local labour fource and the up-skilling of these builders (who may also need on-going support for linkages to livelihood)