HISTORY OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN INDIA

SUBJECT: DISASTER MANAGEMENT LAW

SUBMITTED To:

MS. K. SUDHA

Submitted by:

AKSHAYA

2016009

IX SEMESTER

DAMODARM SANJIVAYYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY,

VISAKHAPATNAM

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Acknowledgment
I, Akshaya, a student of DSNLU is extending my heartful thanks to Ms. K. SUDHA, the faculty
of the subject “DISASTER MANAGEMENT LAW”. It would not have been possible without
her constant support and help.

I would also like to express my thanks to the librarian of DSNLU, my friends, families and who
so ever made this research paper possible.

Thanking you,

Akshaya – 2016009

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENT...........................................................................................2

Introduction...............................................................................................................4

Vulnerabilities in India..............................................................................................5

The History of Disasters in India...............................................................................7

Disaster Policy.........................................................................................................11

Organization of Disaster Management....................................................................16

Challenges and Opportunities..................................................................................20

Conclusion...............................................................................................................22

References...............................................................................................................23

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 Introduction
“India is the largest democracy in the world with 1.2 billion population. It is the second most
populous country in the world with about 6 billion people. That means on an average, every fifth
person on the earth is an Indian. Seventy-two percent of the Indian population lives in rural
India. Nearly 60% of the workforce is engaged in agriculture, and India now ranks second in the
world in farm production.”

“India was economically the richest country in the world till Mughals invaded for looting. India
knew mining and processing of diamonds, and all the great diamonds belonged to India. Mohd.
bin Qasim robbed Sind of 630 million dirhams in the 11th century. Mahmud Ghazni raided India
17 times to loot temples and palaces, including the Somnath temple which had offerings of
centuries accumulated. A tiny ruling group consisting of the Mughal Emperor and 8,000 or so
nobles (of a total population of 100 million ) actually collected over half to one-third of the GNP
as revenue after imposing their rule over India for over seven centuries (Raychaudhuri and
Habib 2007). The per capita GDP in 2005 was only $ 736, and India stood at 128 th among the
countries in terms of the Human Development Index (UNDP 2007). Poverty is the main root
cause of disasters in India.”

“Simplistically speaking, a hazard is an event which is a possible source of danger. Floods,

droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides have been recurrent hazardous phenomena in
India. Seventy five percent of the annual rainfall is received during June to September monsoon
making almost all the rivers carry heavy discharge during this period. The flood hazard is
compounded by the problems of sediment deposition, drainage congestion and synchronization
of river floods with sea tides in the coastal plains. The monsoon failure or excess in some part of
India creates hazard for the agricultural communities.”

“In contrast, drought is a temporary reduction in water or moisture availability significantly

below the normal or expected amount for a specific period. This condition occurs either due to
inadequacy of rainfall, or lack or irrigation facilities, under-exploitation or deficient availability
for meeting the normal crop requirements in the context of the agro-climatic conditions
prevailing in any particular area. Rajasthan is the most drought prone state of India. Cyclones are

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other hazards in India that generally strike the East Coast. However, some of the Arabian Sea
Cyclones strike the west coast of India, mainly the Gujarat and North Maharashtra coast. Out of
the storms that develop in the Bay of Bengal, more than half approach or cross the east coast in
October and November. The Himalayan and sub-Himalayan regions, Kutch and the Andaman
and Nicobar Islands are particularly earthquake hazard prone.”

“Hazards in India are spread throughout the country. In one part of the country there could be
heat wave, while at the same time in another part there could be cold spell. In one part of the
country there may be floods, while another part there may be drought. Complicating the regional
nature of hazards, some parts of habituated India are not easily assessable by road or railways or
even waterways.”

“Apart from natural hazards, India faces intended and unintended terrorist attacks and
technological hazards, which have been increasing recently. Technological hazards include the
well-known Bhopal chemical disaster. India is also considered to be one of the most terrorist
prone countries in the world. Examples include terrorist attack on the Indian parliament and in
the Mumbai in Taj Hotel and other places in November 2008. There are 174 terrorist, insurgent,
and extremist groups in India; many of the unknown groups are operating across the country,
according to the South Asia Terrorism portal.”

Vulnerabilities in India
“Vulnerability could be due to the human related factors or natural features. The human related
factors that increase vulnerability of India could be intended or unintended, and include apathy,
poverty, corruption, illiteracy, land use pattern, technological misuse, and terrorism. Poor land
use planning and inconsistent emergency management systems lead to vulnerability to floods,
drought, cyclones, earthquake, heat and cold waves, and landslides.”

“As mentioned, India has a highly diversified range of natural features. Its unique geo-climatic
conditions make the country among the most vulnerable to natural disasters in the world.
Disasters occur with amazing frequency in India and while the society at large has adapted itself
to these regular occurrences, the economic and social costs continue to mount year after year. It

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is highly vulnerable to floods, drought, cyclones, earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, etc. Almost
all parts of India experience one or more of these events.”

“Many regions in India are highly vulnerable to natural and other disasters on account of
geological conditions. About 60% of the total area of the country is vulnerable to seismic
damage of buildings in varying degrees. The most vulnerable areas, according to the present
seismic zone map of India, are located in the Himalayan and sub-Himalayan regions. Kutch and
the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which are particularly earthquake hazard prone. Over 8%
Indian area of 40 million hectares is prone to floods, and the average area affected by floods
annually is about 8 million hectares. Of the nearly 7,500 kilometers long coastline,
approximately 5,700 kilometers is prone to cyclones, and 68% area is susceptible to drought.
Disasters are no longer limited to natural catastrophes. Man-made emergencies also cause
disasters in terms of fatalities and economic losses.”

“With urbanization and concentration of population in metropolitan cities, more and more people
are becoming vulnerable to locational disasters (Planning Commission 2008, Vol. 1, 207). For
instance, a quarter of Indian population lives within 50 km of the coastal line. The population
within 1 km of the coast is 1.6 million, and 3.4 million within 2 km of the coast. These people
are vulnerable to river flooding, and coastal surges following cyclone or tsunami.”

“By and large in the lower and middle management in the public sector, there is wide spread
apathy, due to which professionalism, effectiveness, efficiency, and equity in public service is
lacking. The public perception of politicians and bureaucrat is not good. The government
employees, due to lack of rewards for better performance on the one hand, and near impossibility
of firing them become apathetic and are not motivated for better performance. Additionally, the
affirmative action of reservations for recruitment and promotion (with comparatively lax merit
standards) for the scheduled casts and scheduled tribes (the historically disadvantaged and
legally defined cast groups) also leads to apathy, although it benefits scheduled casts and
scheduled tribes.”

“The percentage of the population below the official poverty line was 28% in 2004-2005. The
absolute number of poor people was 302 million in 2004-2005. Forty six percent of the children
in the age group zero to three years suffered from malnutrition in 2005-2006. India has been

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ranked a lowly 74, among countries of the world on the worldwide Corruption Perceptions
Index, prepared by independent international agency Transparency International. Corruption is
wide spread and percolates most of the sections of the society. Corruption is not only wide
spread, but is also blatant. The literacy rate has steadily gone up to 64.8% in 2001, the number of
illiterate persons still exceeds 304 million, making India the country with the highest number of
illiterate persons in the world (Planning Commission 2008: Vol. 1). Some parts of India still do
not have even electricity and/or telephone connectivity. All of these factors – from illiteracy and
poverty to infrastructure inadequacy and apathy, indicate that India is highly vulnerable to
disasters.”

The History of Disasters in India

“With the Bengal famine, Orissa Super Cyclone, Latur earthquake, Bhopal chemical disaster,
Andhra cyclone, Gujarat earthquake, recurring floods, Mumbai 2008 bomb blasts and many
other disasters there is no foyer in the world with space large enough to exhibit the collective
pain on the face of India. India has ranked at the top or near top in almost all type of disasters
with number of deaths and people affected. India does not appear in the world tally of damages
in financial terms due to disasters because of poverty and lack of infrastructure. Indian history is
dappled with so many disasters that it is difficult to cover in a section of the chapter in a book.
Therefore, only a sample of disasters is given in this chapter. Some type of disasters and some of
the disasters need to be excluded due to space limitations.”

The main droughts were:

 Drought of 1900, killing 1.25 million people.

 Drought of 1942, killing 1.5 million people.
 Drought of 1943, in Easter part of Bengal (now part of Bangladesh) killing 1.9 million
people.
 Drought of 1965, killing 1.5 million and affecting 100 million people.
 Drought of 1972, affecting 200 million people.
 Drought of June 1982, affecting 100 million people.
 Drought of May 1987, affecting 300 million people.

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  Drought of April 2000, affecting 50 million people.
 Drought of July 2002, affecting 310 million people.

The main famines were:

 In the year 650, famine throughout India.

 1022, and 1033, great famines, entire provinces were depopulated.
 1344-1345, great famine.
 1396-1407, the Durga Devi famine.
 1630-1631, there was a famine in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
 1630-1632, Deccan famine in India killed 2 million (Note: There was a corresponding
famine in northwestern China, eventually causing the Ming dynasty to collapse in 1644).
 1661, famine, when not a drop of rain fell for two years.
 1702-1704, 2 million died of famine in Deccan.
 Great Bengal Famine of 1769-1770 covered Bihar, Northern and Central Bengal and
estimated to have resulted in the death of about 10 million people, which was one-third of
the population.
 The Chalisa famine of 1783-1784 was severe and covered present-day Uttar Pradesh,
Delhi region, Rajputana (present day Rajasthan), eastern Punjab region and Kashmir
areas. It is estimated that 11 million people died and large areas were depopulated.
 1788-1792, another 11 million people may have died in the Doji bara famine or Skull
famine in Hyderabad State, Southern Maratha country, Gujarat and Marwar.
 1800-1825, 1 million Indians died of famine.
 The Agra famine was in 1837-1838, killing 800,000 people.
 1850-1875, 2.5 million died in Orissa famine, mostly in 1866.
 The Rajputana famine of 1868-1870 was blamed for death of 1.5 million people.
 Bihar famine of 1873-1874 was responded by generous relief effort by import of rice
from Burma (now Myanmar) avoiding deaths.
 The Great Famine of 1876-1878, also known as South India Famine, spread from
Southern India to Central and Northern parts of India. It covered an area of 670,000

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 square kilometers and affected 58.5 million people. In the aftermath of the famine about
5.5 million people died of starvation.
 Indian famine of 1896-1897 covered almost whole of India and resulted in the death of
about 8 million people.
 The Indian famine of 1896-1897 was followed in quick succession by the Indian famine
of 1899-1900 estimated to have caused death of 1.25 million to 10 million people.
 India experienced the second Bengal famine of 1943 (first was 1769-70). Scanlon (2005,
15) says, “The British colonial government imposed wartime censorship on the Bengal
famine of 1943 in which over 2,000,000 died, to avoid pressure to divert resources from
the war effort.” Some estimates of death put the figure of over 3 million people died.
 In 1965, there was nationwide, except in south, famine killing 1.5 million people.
 In 1966, there was a 'near miss' in Bihar. The USA allocated 900,000 tons of grain to
fight the famine.
 A further 'near miss' food crisis occurred due to drought in Maharashtra in 1970-1973.

“Floods recur every year during the monsoon season in India. On an average every year, 1,588
lives are lost, 7.5 million hectares of land is affected, and the damage caused to crops, houses
and public utilities is 18 billion Indian Rupees (Rs.) due to the floods. Between 1953 to 2005, a
total of 84,207 lives were lost due to the floods in India, with maximum of 11,316 in 1977, and a
minimum of 37 in 1953. The only other year that had less than 100 deaths was 1965.”

“The data regarding each year’s flood damage, with totals, averages, and maximum losses from
1953 to 2005 in terms of human lives lost, cattle lost, population affected, monetary value of
damage to public utilities, and total monetary damage loss, area affected, crops damaged, and
houses damaged could be seen in National Disaster Management Guidelines: Management of
Floods.”

“On average, 32 million people are affected due to flooding. The maximum people affected were
in 70 million in 1978. The total damage due to the floods during the 1953 to 2005 period of half
a century was Rs 977 billion, a staggering figure for a poor country. The maximum damage was
Rs 88 billion in 2000, and the average damage during 1953 to 2005 was Rs 18 billion. Heavy

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flood damages have occurred during the monsoon years of 1955, 1971, 1973, 1978, 1980, 1984,
1988, 1989, 1998, 2004, 2005 and 2008.”

“There were wide spread floods in Gujarat in the beginning of July 2005, taking away lives and
disrupting many lives. This was followed by the eighth heaviest ever recorded 24-hour rainfall
figure of 994 mm (39.1 inches) which lashed the Mumbai metropolis on July 26, 2005, and
intermittently continued for the next day. That day 644 mm (25.4 inches) rain was received
within the 12 hour period between 8 AM and 8 PM. Apart from Mumbai, many parts of
Maharashtra state were also flooded. Many people in the cars on the roads of Mumbai could not
open their car doors to escape and died. Due to disruption of the transport system people could
not reach their homes in the night. At least 1,000 people are feared to have passed away.”

“In 2008 there were floods in many parts of India. There was diversion of water by Nepal near
the India-Nepal border which lead to the flooding of the Koshi (is a Hindi word that literally
meaning angry) river in Bihar. The severe floods made it difficult to reach the marooned people
due to logistic difficulties. Many people remain trapped in flood waters for days. Approximately
1,500 people died due to Koshi river flooding.”

“India also has history of suffering from cyclones. World’s 2nd and 4th to 8th deadliest epidemics
also occurred in India also the COVID 19 pandemic caused deaths of people at infected people a
very large scale in India. There have been many terrorist attacks in India.”

“There have been many technological disasters in India. In 1979 the Koyna dam at Morvi in
Gujarat collapsed killing 1,335 people. Many gas leakages from the chemical plants have killed
workers as well.”

“The Bhopal chemical catastrophe is the world’s biggest industrial disaster to date. On the night
of December 3, 1984 in the Union Carbide plant at Bhopal, 40 tones of methyl isocyanate (MIC)
gas leaked without any warning. The poisonous gas leakage killed 3,828 people immediately,
injuring hundreds of thousands, incapacitating most of them for life. In addition, thousands of
cattle, nearly poisoning water, polluting surrounding air for miles affected the breathing capacity
of the people, and other long lasting disastrous effects (Gupta Forthcoming). According to
Amnesty International (2004, 1) 22,000 people have died of their injuries.”

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“The Indian Railways is the world's largest railway system under a single management; with
about 63,000-km route network that operates over 11,000 trains every day. There have been
many railway accidents which could be considered as disasters.”

“As can be seen, India has had more than its share of disasters. In the decade from1990-2000, an
average of about 4,344 people lost their lives and about 30 million people were affected by
disasters every year. The major natural disaster in 2008 in India was floods. There were 1,808
deaths in 2008 in India due to natural disasters, the third largest number of death in any country
(after China and Myanmar). The number of people affected due to natural disasters in 2008 were
14 million, second highest after China. “The loss in terms of private, community and public
assets has been astronomical”.”

Disaster Policy
Indian disaster policy is geared to make a paradigm change from response and calamity relief to
disaster prevention, preparation and mitigation. Another significant change is to move from
disaster management largely from government to public private partnership, and community
disaster management. In this regard, significant changes have been made, but the authoritarian
attitude of the government officials is the main stumbling block.

The Great Famine of 1876-1878 lead to constitution of the Famine Commission of 1880 and
eventual adoption of Famine Relief Code. India probably has the world’s oldest disaster relief
code which started in1880. This relief code provides details of the relief to be given by the
government to the affected people.

The India Disaster Report provides the nature of disaster response by the government of India. It
identifies key issues with respect to the availability of and access to disaster-related information
and its quality, the absence of coherent disaster preparedness and response policy, and urgent
actions and interventions needed. It shows that significant advances in health and social and
economic development have been repeatedly interrupted and reversed by disasters.

India has been following five year national plans, although they are not on a rolling basis. The
earlier five year plans did not mention disaster management. The Tenth Five-Year Plan 2002-

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2007 for the first time had a detailed chapter entitled Disaster Management: The Development
Perspective. The plan emphasized the fact that development cannot be sustainable without
mitigation being built into the development process. Disaster mitigation and prevention were
adopted as essential component of the development strategy.

The Eleventh Five Year Plan 2007-2012 (Planning Commission 20008) states,

“The development process needs to be sensitive towards disaster

prevention, preparedness and mitigation. Disaster management
has therefore emerged as a high priority for the country. Going
beyond the historical focus on relief and rehabilitation after the
event, there is a need to look ahead and plan for disaster
preparedness and mitigation in order to ensure that periodic
shocks to our development efforts are minimized.”

Disaster management has emerged as a high priority for the country. The Eleventh Five Year
Plan aims at consolidating the process by giving impetus to projects and programs that develop
and nurture the culture of safety and the integration of disaster prevention and mitigation into the
development process. The guidance and direction to achieve this paradigm shift will need to flow
from National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), and in the true spirit of the Disaster
Management Act, 2005 to all stakeholders including State Governments and Union Territories,
right up to the Panchyat Raj (local administration by five locally elected citizens) Institutions.
Communities at large will need to be mobilized to achieve this common objective as they are the
first responders (and not the usually thought fire, ambulance, and police). Even the best of
isolated efforts will not bear fruit unless they are part of an overall, well-considered approach,
and responsibilities of all stakeholders are clearly spelt out and accountability and sustainability
factored in.

The 2001 Gujarat Earthquake was huge and had very serious impacts on the government and
policy makers, in addition to victims, their families, and general citizenry. The Government of
Gujarat for the first time in India enacted the Gujarat Disaster Management Act, 2003. Before
that, neither at the federal level nor at the state level there was any act to deal with the
management of disasters of various kinds in a comprehensive manner. The state and federal
governments were largely following the relief code and the rules and regulations, and the
government orders issued over the years, which were not consolidated.

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Section 31 of the Gujarat Disaster Management Act, 2003 states that,

“It shall be the duty of every citizen to assist the Commissioner, the Collector or
such other person entrusted with or engaged in disaster management whenever
his aid is demanded generally for the purpose of disaster management and
particularly for the following purposes, namely :-

(a) prevention,

(b) response,

(c) warning,

(d) emergency operation,

(e) evacuation, and

(f) recovery.”

The Commissioner in the act refers to the State Commissioner of Relief. The Commissioner of
Relief is the government official who is over all in charge of providing relief to the victims of the
disasters. The Collector is the administrative head of a district. It is interesting to note that there
is legal duty cast on every citizen to help in disaster management.

The recurrent occurrences of different types of disasters compelled Government of India to

establish many different committee and commissions to suggest dealing with the problem. The
most recent and the important was the establishment of High Power Committee on Disaster
Management (HPC) in 1999 for making recommendations on the preparation of Disaster
Management plans and suggestions for effective mitigation mechanisms. The High Power
Committee gave its recommendations in October 2001 including a draft of the disaster
management act, a National Response Plan, move from disaster response to disaster
preparedness, and establishment of National Disaster Management Authority. Following one of
the HPC recommendations, the disaster management function was transferred from Ministry of
Agriculture to Ministry of Home Affairs.

The Government of India has long been thinking of a National Disaster Management Authority.
The Gujarat earthquake gave extra impetus for having a national disaster management authority.
However, the bureaucracy does take its claims on the time from a decision is taken to the actual
action. The Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004 really gave a jolt for this decision process. Finally

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on December 23, 2005 the Disaster Management Act, 2005 was enacted by the Government of
India. The Disaster Management Act, 2005 mandated creation of National Disaster Management
Authority, with Prime Minister as the Chairman, and State Disaster Management Authorities
headed by the respective Chief Ministers, to spearhead and implement a holistic and integrated
approach to disaster management in India. The act also provided for creation of National
Institution of Disaster Management.

NDMA has prepared a disaster management policy framework. The themes underpinning this
policy are:

 Community-based disaster management, including integration of the policy, plans and

execution at the grass root level.

 Capacity development in all related areas.

 Consolidation of past initiatives and best practices.

 Cooperation with agencies at national, regional and international levels.

 Compliance and coordination to generate a multi-sectoral synergy.

The objectives guiding the policy formulation have evolved to include:

 Promoting a culture of prevention and preparedness – by centre-staging disaster

management (DM) as an overriding priority at all levels and at all times.

 Encouraging mitigation measures based on state-of-the-art technology and environmental

sustainability.

 Mainstreaming DM concerns into the development planning process.

 Putting in place a streamlined institutional techno-legal framework in order to create and

preserve the integrity of an enabling regulatory environment and a compliance regime.

 Developing contemporary forecasting and early warning systems backed by responsive

and fail-safe communications and Information Technology (IT) support.

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  Promoting a productive partnership with the Media, NGOs and the Corporate Sector in
the areas of awareness generation and capacity development.

 Ensuring efficient response and relief with a caring humane approach towards the
vulnerable sections of the society.

 Making reconstruction an opportunity to build back better and construct disaster-resilient

structures and habitats (NDMA 2009).

In recent times the Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI) has brought out
significant improvements in dealing with emergency medical services. EMRI is a nonprofit
professional organization operating in the Public Private Partnership mode. EMRI handles
medical, police and disaster emergencies, although the emphasis is on medical help, through the
"1-0-8 Emergency service". This is a free service delivered through state-of-art emergency call
response centres and has over 1,800 ambulances across Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand,
Goa, Chennai, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Assam and Meghalaya. With the expansion of fleet and
services set to spread across more states, EMRI plan to have more than 10,000 ambulances
covered.

Organization of Disaster Management

“India has a federal system with Government of India at the federal level. For the administrative
purpose, India has been divided into 35 jurisdictions known as states and union territories. The
union territories consist of six jurisdictions that are centrally or federally administered. These are
Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Chandigarh, Pondicherry, Dadra and Nagar
Haveli, and Daman and Diu. The remaining twenty nine states have their own duly elected state
governments.”

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“Disaster management is the responsibility of local administration, under the supervision of the
State Government, facilitated by the Government of India. The 35 states and union territories are
divided into about 600 districts. Each district is administrated by a Collector and District
Magistrate (same person performs both the duties). Although there is a separate judicial system
in India, certain judicial powers are given to the administrators, like Collectors. The British
government ruling India was mainly concerned with collection of revenue and taxes. Therefore,
the British administrator was designated as Collector. After 62 years of independence the name
tag, unfortunately still remains.”

“A Collector of the district is the administrative head for all matters within the district. The
Collector is an Indian Administrative Service cadre official. Under the Disaster Management
Act, 2005 each district is supposed to have a disaster management plan, district disaster
management committee, district EOC, training and drills, and do disaster prevention,
preparedness, and mitigation activities.”

“Each state has a Disaster Management Cell, located generally in the State Administrative
Training Institutes. Major funding for the faculties of the Disaster Management Cell comes from
the Central Government. Each cell is supposed to carry training in disaster management and
prepare plans and documents.”

“The Building Materials Promotion and Technology Council have prepared a Vulnerability Atlas
of India giving details of different types of vulnerabilities of each state and district. On the basis
of the Vulnerability Atlas, Ministry of Home Affairs of the Government of India, and UNDP,
identified 199 multi-hazard prone districts in the country in different states. UNDP and
Government of India launched a comprehensive disaster management program focusing on all
multi-hazard prone districts in select States, which are extremely vulnerable to natural hazards
such as Gujarat, Orissa, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh,
Uttaranchal, Assam, Meghalaya and Sikkim for disaster risk management. In this program, a
multi-pronged strategy is adopted for ensuring administrative, institutional, financial, and legal
mechanisms for disaster risk management. The first phase of the program was during 2002 to
2007. Lot of good work has been done under this program and now it is in its second phase.”

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“Droughts and famine were recurrent and the administration developed considerable expertise in
calamity relief operations. In fact, even today in many states the chief disaster management
government official is still called the Relief Commissioner, although the Government of India
has suggested the state governments to re-designate them as Secretary, Disaster Management.”

“As already stated India has probably the world’s oldest famine relief code from 1880. That time
famine were a recurring occurrence and British government prepared Relief Code giving
guidelines how much calamity relief to be provided to each family after a famine. Over the
passage of time Indian calamity relief system had lot of experience and it is well developed, and
documented in the government records. After India got independence from the British in 1947,
India continued with the Relief Commissioner system. At the Government of India level or the
federal level there was and still is a Central Relief Commissioner. The Central Relief
Commissioner is a second official in hierarchy in the Ministry, below the Secretary, either an
Additional secretary or a Joint Secretary. The main job of the Relief Commissioner was to
arrange for relief after drought or famine and help the state governments.”

“At the state level, there is a Relief Commissioner, who is generally a Secretary or Principal
Secretary of the relevant department. On the basis of reports received from lower level local land
administration, the official would recommend the state government for declaration of drought
and for the relief to be granted.”

“Even before the enactment of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 the National Disaster
Management Authority was set up in July 2005 by an executive order with the Prime Minister of
India as the Chairperson of NDMA. Gen N. C. Vij, former Chief of Army staff is the Vice
Chairperson and ex-officio CEO of the NDMA, with the status of a Cabinet Minister. There are
seven other Members of the NDMA with the rank of the State Minister (in India, there are three
levels of ministers in descending rank as Minister, State Minister, and Deputy Minister).”

“The NDMA is responsible and has the authority for laying down the policies, plans, and
guidelines to be followed by Ministries and Departments of the Central Government for disaster
management. The NDMA is to coordinate the enforcement and implementation of the policies
and plans for disaster management and arrange for, and oversee the provision of funds for
mitigation measures, preparedness and response.”

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“The NDMA is to frame guidelines for the minimum standards of relief to be provided to
persons affected by disaster, and give directions regarding relief in loan repayment or grant fresh
loans on such confessional terms as may be deemed appropriate. The NDMA can take such
measures for prevention of disaster, of mitigation of its effects, or for preparedness and capacity
building for dealing with a threatening disaster situation or disaster.”

“A multi-disciplinary, multi-skilled, high-tech National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) of

eight battalions has been set up for dealing with all types of disasters capable of insertion by air,
sea and land. This is a military related response force. All the battalions are to be equipped and
trained for all natural disasters including four battalions in combating nuclear, biological and
chemical disasters. Each battalion will provide 18 self-contained specialist search and rescue
teams of 45 personnel each including engineers, technicians, electricians, dog squads and
medical/paramedics. The total strength of each battalion will be approximately 1,158. These
NDRF battalions are located at nine different locations in the country based on the vulnerability
profile to cut down the response time for their deployment. During the preparedness period/in a
threatening disaster situation, proactive deployment of these forces will be carried out by the
NDMA in consultation with state authorities.”

“The National Disaster Mitigation Resource Center (NDMRC) will be co-located with the NDRF
battalions. These will also serve as repositories for NDMRC bricks of relief stores for 25,000
affected people, in each of the nine locations. These will cater to the emergent requirements
especially for the first 72 to 96 hours. At Kolkata and Chandigarh, additional bricks of stores for
50,000 people each will be kept for high altitude areas. These stores will supplement the reserves
maintained by the respective states/UTs. In addition, these centers will assist in running mock
drills and capacity development programs. During disasters, they will act as facilitators to the
states/UTs in deployment of central resources and provide much needed additional link to the
centre.”

The Ministry of Agriculture, Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, in the Government of

India, was historically the nodal ministry for disaster relief in the country. One of the senior
officials of the Ministry was designated as the Central Relief Commissioner. The Ministry of
Agriculture in March 1995 set up a National Centre for Disaster Management (NCDM), which

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was located at Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. The NCDM had been
functioning as a nodal Centre for the human resource development in the area of disaster
management.

The Government of India decided to make the Ministry of Home Affairs as the nodal ministry.
The government issued an order on October 16, 2003 upgrading the NCDM and establishing the
National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM). NIDM is a premier national organization
working for human resource development at national level in the area of disaster mitigation and
management. The NIDM is gearing up the national, state and district level administration to
tackle disasters and also in coordinating research projects, training programs and building a
database on disasters with case studies. NIDM’s vision is to be the leading center of excellence
in the field of disaster risk mitigation and management in India and the region.

After the Orissa Super Cyclone of 1999 under the influence of reconstruction donor
organizations, led by the World Bank, the Government of Orissa established Orissa State
Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA). This was an institutional innovation for speedy
reconstruction, disaster management planning, preparedness, training, and related matters,
avoiding the bureaucratic red tape.

Immediately after the Gujarat Earthquake of 2001 there was a total failure of command system.
However, subsequently the Government of Gujarat acted swiftly and also established Gujarat
State Disaster Management Authority (GSDMA) on the models of OSDMA. The GSDMA, used
public-private partnership model, and community based disaster management systems. The
GSDMA trained affected people in basic masonry, carpentry, and other skills for reconstruction
of their own homes.

Challenges and Opportunities

“The Bengal famine of 1943 in the undivided India (which includes present day Bangladesh)
under the British rule is the world’s worst recorded food disaster in which four million people
died of starvation. The disaster that time was explained as due to the food shortage. Nobel
Economics prize winning Amitya Sen in his best known essay Poverty and Famines: An Essay

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on Entitlement and Deprivation (Sen 1983) established that famine occurs not from a lack of
food, but from inequalities built into mechanisms for distributing food.”

“Famine was a product both of uneven rainfall and British economic and administrative
policies. While food shortage was a contributor to the problem, a more potent factor was the
result of hysteria related to World War II which made food supplies a low priority for the
British rulers. The hysteria was further exploited by Indian traders who hoarded food in order to
sell at higher prices.”

“After the independence, the challenge of famines was met by the Government of India by
taking many measures. The government made many policy changes for increase in agriculture
production. Some of these measures were construction of dams, irrigation projects, subsidized
fertilizer production and distribution, subsidiary in electricity for agriculture use, and purchase
and storage of huge quantities of food grains by the government owned Food Corporation of
India. The government policies, scientific research, and the efforts of the kisan (agriculture
workers) lead to green revolution and India not only became self sufficient, but even started
exporting agriculture products.”

“One of the greatest challenges India is facing in becoming disaster resistant and resilient is
corruption. After a through grass root research in ten of the poorest of the poor districts in five
states, Sainath (1996) has written Everybody Loves a Good Drought: Stories from India's
Poorest Districts. Sainath shows how poorest of the poor manage, what sustains them, and the
efforts by the politicians and the bureaucracy, often ludicrous, to do something for them. In the
process he exposes the corruption.”

“With an increase in the perception towards spreading a culture of prevention in the disaster
management scenario, considerable emphasis is being placed on research and development
activities. In India, a number of research institutes are conducting active research in the field of
disaster management. The examples are the National Institute of Disaster Management, Tata
Institute of Social Sciences, Indian Remote Sensing Organization, Indian Space Research
Organization, and Indian Metrological Organization to name a few. Valuable inputs in technical,
social, economic as well as management areas of the field are being investigated. Research

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activities are being coordinated by different ministries depending on the type and level of
research. An important role is played by the universities.”

“For the first time since India's independence from the British, ordinary people now have the
right to scrutinize performance of public officials and hold them answerable for their actions that
they professedly take on behalf of people. Under the Right to Information Act, 2005 ordinary
citizens can access records, documents, e-mails, circulars, and any other information held by
public authority - including central and state governments, local bodies, and publically funded
nongovernmental organizations. This information is to be provided free of cost for those living
below the poverty line, and with a nominal fee (mostly Rs 10 or $ 0.25, excluding coping
charges) for others.”

“Dalit (low cast) Communities in the coastal villages exist in clusters either within the village, or
in hamlets that are situated just outside the village. The Dalit community is typically engaged in
activities subsidiary to the main fishing operations, and is involved in lifting, transporting and
sorting fish. Some also earn a livelihood as agricultural labor in fields close to the fishing
villages. The Dalits were left without a livelihood after the tsunami as both fishing and
agricultural operations came to a standstill. Despite the fact that they have no means of survival
except relief material, many Dalit communities were not getting access to the same. They were
either not given tokens, or were not allowed to stand in queues, or were simply not given relief
material by the Panchayat (aid was typically distributed through the caste panchayats). Even
debris near the Dalit settlements was not cleared. The situation was exacerbated by the early
closure of relief camps where Dalits got at least some amount of aid. Further, the Dalit hamlets
had no access to clean drinking water, nor was there any proper enumeration of loss of
belongings or livestock (Citizens Platform for Tsunami Affected 2005).”

“Any rehabilitation policy must take into account that the Dalit community is an integral part of
the coastal economy, and that the tsunami has equally affected their livelihoods, even though
they are property-less. Therefore, the need for rehabilitation measures that encompass their needs
is vital.”

Conclusion
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“From the grim realities of the shame of having different type of world’s worst disasters, India
has become a glowing example for other countries to follow in not only responding within the
country during regional catastrophic disasters, but also to respond simultaneously in the
neighboring countries.”

“India has also shown the path to the world for starting disaster management education from
middle and high school. This generation of middle and high school students will make probably
near revolution in community based disaster management, which is the only proven method of
disaster management; and it is hoped that India would be world leader in disaster management.
Probably casting legal duty on citizens for providing help during disasters would also make India
leading the way.”

“There is paradigm shift in India from reactive approach of responding and calamity relief after
the disaster to proactive approach of disaster prevention, preparedness, and mitigation. The
enactment of Disaster Management Act, 2005, establishment of National Disaster Management
Authority with the Prime Minister as its Chairperson, and disaster management training by the
National Institute of Disaster Management along with the Disaster Management Cells of the state
Administrative Training Institutes will help in India becoming disaster resilient.”

References
 Amnesty International. 2004. Clouds of Injustice: Bhopal Disaster 20 Years On. London:
Amnesty International. p 1.

 Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department. 2009. Bhopal: Bhopal Gas
Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department, Government of Madhya Pradesh.

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 Citizens Platform for Tsunami Affected. 2005. Email to Officer on Special Duty, Relief
and Rehabilitation, In-charge of NGO and Donor Coordination, from Citizens Platform
for Tsunami Affected – Tamil Nadu, January 10.

 Dutt, Braham. 2007. Road Accidents – India Tops World List. New Delhi: The
Hindustan Times.

 Parasuraman, S and P. V. Unnikrishnan (Eds.). 2000. India Disaster Report: Towards A

Policy Initiative. New Delhi: Oxford University Press

 Perera, U. C. P. 2006. “Efficacy of Mass Burial in the management of Mass Disasters –

Sri Lanka Post Tsunami Experience in Retrospect” in International Disaster Reduction
Conference, Davos 2006 Vol. II edited by Ammann, Walter J. et al.. Davos, Dorf,
Switzerland: Swiss Federal Research Institute, pp 428-432.

 Planning Commission, Government of India. 2008. Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12):
Inclusive Growth. Volume 1, Chapter 9.3 Disaster Management, pp 207-221. New Delhi:
Oxford University Press.

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