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NATIONAL DISASTER MANAGEMENT
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- The Disaster Management Act, 2005 (DM Act 2005): It lays down institutional and coordination mechanism for effective Disaster Management (DM) at the national, state, district and local levels. As mandated by this Act, the Government of India (GoI) created a multi-tiered institutional system consisting of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) headed by the PM, the State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) headed by the respective CMs and the District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) headed by the District Collectors and cochaired by Chairpersons of the local bodies.
- More than mere relief-centric: These bodies have been set up to facilitate a shift from the earlier relief-centric approach to a more proactive, holistic and integrated approach of strengthening disaster preparedness, mitigation, and emergency response.
- National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP): It provides a framework and direction to the government agencies for all phases of disaster management cycle. The NDMP is a “dynamic document” in the sense that it will be periodically improved keeping up with the emerging global best practices and knowledge base in disaster management. It is in accordance with the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, the guidance given in the National Policy on Disaster Management, 2009 (NPDM), and the established national practices.
- What is in the NDMP: It recognizes the need to minimize, if not eliminate, any ambiguity in the responsibility framework. It, specifies who is responsible for what at different stages of managing disasters. The NDMP is envisaged as ready for activation at all times in response to an emergency in any part of the country. It is designed in such a way that it can be implemented as needed on a flexible and scalable manner in all phases of disaster management: a) mitigation (prevention and risk reduction), b) preparedness, c) response and d) recovery (immediate restoration to build-back)
- Sendai Framework: The NDMP is consistent with the approaches promoted globally by the United Nations, like the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. It is a non-binding agreement, which the signatory nations will attempt to comply with on a voluntary basis. India will make all efforts to contribute to the realization of the global targets. The four priorities for action under the Sendai Framework are:
- Understanding disaster risk
- Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk
- Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience, and
- Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to “Build Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction
- By 2030, the Sendai Framework aims to achieve substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods, and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural, and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities, and countries.
- The Vision of NDMP: Make India disaster resilient, achieve substantial disaster risk reduction, and significantly decrease the losses of life, livelihoods, and assets – economic, physical, social, cultural, and environmental – by maximizing the ability to cope with disasters at all levels of administration as well as among communities.
- Multi-Hazard Vulnerability: India, due to its, physiographic and climatic conditions is one of the most disaster prone areas of the world. Vulnerability to disasters/emergencies of Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) origin also exists. Heightened vulnerabilities to disaster risks can be related to increasing population, urbanisation, industrialisation, development within high-risk zones, environmental degradation, and climate change.
- Roles and Responsibilities: The DM Act of 2005 and DM Policy of 2009 consider disasters to be natural or human-induced for defining the roles and responsibilities. The human-induced category includes CBRN disasters. Besides, with the natural factors discussed earlier, various human-induced activities are also responsible for accelerated impact and increase in frequency of disasters in the country.
- Role of Union: The role of the central agencies is to support the disaster-affected State or the UT in response to requests for assistance. However, the central agencies will play a pro-active role in disaster situations. In the domains of DM planning, preparedness, and capacity building, the central agencies will constantly work to upgrade Indian DM systems and practices as per global trends. The planning framework has arranged the actions envisaged for risk reduction under five thematic areas for action with one of the four priorities for action of Sendai Framework as its dominant feature.
- Response: Response measures are those taken immediately after receiving early warning, anticipating an impending disaster, or post-disaster in cases where an event occurs without warning. The primary goal of response to a disaster is saving lives, protecting property, environment, and meeting basic needs of human and other living beings after the disaster. The immediate focus will be on search and rescue of those affected and to evacuate those likely to be affected by the disaster or secondary disaster that is likely to happen.
- Coordination: At the national level, the central government has assigned nodal responsibilities to specific ministries for coordinating disaster-specific responses. The NDMA will be coordinating with relevant nodal ministry. The disaster-specific nodal ministry will ensure liaison with the state government where the disaster has occurred and coordination among various relevant ministries and departments to provide quick and efficient response. The state government will activate the Incident Response Teams (IRT) at state, district, or the block level as required. The IRTs will coordinate with the state EOC.
- Recovery and Building Back Better: Globally, the approach towards post-disaster restoration and rehabilitation has shifted to one of betterment reconstruction. While disasters result in considerable disruption of normal life, enormous suffering, loss of lives and property, global efforts consider the recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction phase as an opportunity to build back better integrating disaster risk reduction into development measures, and making communities resilient to disasters.
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