Disaster risk reduction in India: Recent lessons and strategies for future

By IMPRI Team
According to the Report of UNICEF, India is among the world’s most disaster-prone countries, with 27 of its 29 states and 7 union territories exposed to recurrent natural hazards such as cyclones, earthquakes, landslides, floods and droughts.
Climate change and environmental degradation have further compounded the frequency and intensity of disasters along with increasing the vulnerability of key assets, including people. In addition, almost 1/3 of the country is also affected by civil strife.
To Discuss further, on April 27th, 2022 special lecture on the topic, disaster risk reduction in India: recent lessons and strategies for the future was conducted by IMPRI Center for Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development (CECCSD) and IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute, New Delhi.
The deliberation was the part of The State of the Environment – #PlanetTalks with the guest speaker, Prof Anil K. Gupta who is Head of Division, International Cooperation, Advisory Services, e-learning & Media Portfolio; Director of Projects & CoE; Full Professor of Policy Planning & Strategies, National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), New Delhi
The talk was moderated by Dr Simi Mehta, CEO and Editorial Director, IMPRI, New Delhi.
The discussants in the talk were Himanshu Shekhar Mishra, senior editor, Political and Current affairs, New Delhi Television Limited (NDTV India) and V.R. Raman National Convener, Public Health Resource Network.
A topic of immense significance was explained by professor Anil Gupta and was dealt with further by Mr VR Raman and Mr Himanshu Shekhar who worked so closely on the topic.
Hence, the questions that were raised in the session were:

How to resolve these complexities?
What are the policies and implementation strategies that should be adopted by India, given its unique geographical location?
What is the status of India’s disaster risk reduction under the priorities of the Sendai Framework for disaster risk reduction 2015-30?
What are the best practices that need to be implemented in order to forge vigorously toward the attainment of sustainable development goals?
How can India emerge as a global leader in disaster risk reduction?

Decade of Disaster Management

Prof. Anil K Gupta in his talk put forward various insights on the status of disaster risk reduction in India and how we start thinking about future issues.
He quoted that as We are celebrating this year as Aazadi ka Amrit Mahotsav and across all the sectors we are looking at what has been our journey of the past, where are we in the present and how do we look at the future roadmap. It becomes equally important to start looking at the challenges because until we identify and evaluate the risk, the journey remains more uncertain.
He also discussed that a systematic approach to disaster management started in 1991-2000 when the united nations declared a decade of natural disaster reduction.
The initial thought in disaster reduction was the title of the magazine that was being published by the international strategy for disaster risk reduction that is now called UNDRR ( United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction) earlier it was called ISDR.

Journey to DRR

He also gave the idea of the mid term phase and the end phase of the Decade were not only the engineering-centric approaches but a lot of humanitarian and social dimensions come into play and it was also realized that most of the natural disasters are also associated with the environmental challenges. so it was also the period that on the lateral front the awakening about environmental conservation was also ongoing and people had started discussing global warming.
The journey of DRR was seen in session as:

Disaster to hazard and vulnerability through UN-IDNDR, HFA, HFA-2/ SFDRR
Climate Change and Environmental Changes
New policy Regime and International Relations
Past, present and future context.

The discussion was preceded with the priorities post covid 19 situation and the sendai framework that resulted in Technological transformation. Another aspect came into consideration was climate change with respect to the 2007 , fourth assessment report and the sixth assessment report . It stated that water related disasters like floods, drought, cyclones, heatwave, cold wave, extreme events, and cloud thunders are increasing in their frequency and intensity is rising which should be reduced via disaster risk management.
Multi-hazard geographical conditions of India and the vision of 2050 where India will become the global leader and advisor in Disaster control across the countries were discussed. Mention of the biggest industrial tragedy of Bhopal, the Orissa cyclone when more than 10,000 casualties occurred due to lack of proactive planning, a remembrance of the Bhuj earthquake due to lack of preparation for Tsunami in Uttarakhand due to developmental challenges and how the Indian government and Indian Technological advancement dealt with it was further mentioned by Prof. Anil Kumar showcasing the activeness and policy implementation of the government dealing with the issue of Disaster Management.
Emphasizing, particularly on this aspect, Mr V R Raman also Discussed risk reduction and resilience, what are the key institutional and structural issues that the country is facing and suggested various solutions for that as well. Stating the issue of the Bhopal, Visakhapatnam and Orissa disasters he constructed his talk with various insights and useful measures that our country is looking for either socially or financially on disaster management and support to affected ones. Also, he discussed various practices that need to be implemented in order to forge vigorously toward the attainment of sustainable development goals.
He also mentioned that awareness, education, preparedness, prediction and warning systems could reduce the disruptive impacts of a natural disaster on communities. Mitigation measures such as the adoption of zoning, land-use practices, and building codes are needed, however, to prevent or reduce actual damage from hazards.

Implementational Challenges discussed were:

Capacity gaps
Scarcity of Resources
Overlap or duplicacy
Accountability and measurement of Risk
City DRR, PRI-s and GPDP
Sectoral BCM, PPP, CSR
Innovation and Research and Database in DRR

Conclusion

To conclude the session, finally, the vote of thanks on behalf of Embry center for environment climate change and sustainable development was given by Karnika who is a researcher at IMPRI, Impact and Policy Research Institute for diverse perspectives and valuable insights into the deliberation on Disaster Management. Further, she and the other panellists expressed their hope for more such talks by IMPRI in the future.
---
Acknowledgement: Tanmay Jain, research intern at IMPRI

Comments

Crucial to revisit roots, embrace core Hindu principles: love, compassion, harmony

A note on religious leaders' Satya Dharam Samvad in Haridwar: *** In a groundbreaking gathering, more than 25 religious leaders including Swamis, Acharyas, Pujaris, Gurus, and Sadhvis from all over India convened to discuss the tenets of Hinduism on September 16th, 2023, in Haridwar, to discuss and discern the current trajectory of Hinduism. This brand new initiative, the Satya Dharam Samvad, was inspired to organize its first assembly in response to the December 2021 Dharma Sansad, where hate speech and calls for violence against the Muslim community contravened the essential principles of Hinduism. Religion is being used to incite riots among Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, etc. In the face of such hatred, Swami Raghavendra felt that something meaningful should be done in the present climate.

Maoist tendency of mechanically adhering to Chinese path ignores Indian conditions

By Harsh Thakor The C.P.I. (Maoist) formed in 2004 with merger of the C.P.I. (M.L) Peoples War and the Maoist Communist Centre has demonstrated courage in intensity compared to any great revolutionary struggle in the history of the world. It leads the largest armed movement of a Peoples Guerrilla Army in the world today and proved themselves as the true torch bearers of the Indian Communist movement.

Significant step towards empowering and particularly engaging with informal workers

ActionAid note on drive to empower informal sector workers Odisha with the support of District Labour Department: *** The Odisha Unorganised Workers Social Security Board (OUWSSB) facilitated an Unorganized Workers Awareness Camp at the Red Cross Bhawan in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The event took place in collaboration with the District Labour Department at Khordha, Centre for Child and Women Development and ActionAid Association. This informative event aimed at empowering informal sector workers by disseminating crucial information regarding their eligibility for various social security schemes provided by the Government of Odisha.

We need to resurrect Neruda, give birth to poets of his kind amidst neofascist rampage

By Harsh Thakor On 23rd September we commemorate the 50th death anniversary of Pablo Neruda, whose contribution to revolutionary poetry was path breaking. Pablo Neruda’s poetry manifested the spiritual essence of revolutionary poetry and how poetry was a weapon for a revolutionary struggle. The story of his life illustrated the spiritual transformation undergone a human being to transform him into a revolutionary and how environment shapes the lie of revolutionary.

Grassroots NGO enlightens people of Kupwara with intricacies of Right to Information

J&K RTI Foundation and Founder Civil Rights Movement Kupwara note on how RTI Pend is empowering Kupwara with insights on Right to Information Act: *** RTI Pend, the grassroots initiative aimed at democratizing access to information, hosted its 2nd event in Kupwara. On the request of the Civil Rights Movement Kupwara, this event was tailored to enlighten the people of Kupwara with the intricacies of the Right to Information Act, presented in their local language and dialects. The event successfully bridged both offline and online participation, addressing queries on the spot and offering applicants practical solutions.

Dev Anand ably acted as westernised, urban educated, modern hero, as also anti-hero

By Harsh Thakor On September 26th we celebrated the birth centenary of legendary actor Dev Anand. Dev Saab carved out a new epoch or made a path breaking contribution in portraying romanticism and action in Bollywood cinema, giving his style or mannerisms a new colour. Arguably no Bollywood star manifested glamour in such a dignified or serene manner or struck the core of an audience’s soul in romantic melodies. Possibly we missed this evergreen star being cast in a Hollywood film. Dev Anand is like an inextinguishable soul of Bollywood. Although not as artistic or intense as Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor or Ashok Kumar ,Dev Anand surpassed them all for liveliness or flamboyance, with his performances radiating g energy on the screen, in realms rarely transcended. In his own right, Dev Saab, was a craftsman, like his classical contemporaries, with a characteristic composure. Perhaps never was a Bollywood star so suave, bubbling or charming as Dev Anand, who often looked like an Indian versi

Abrogation of Art 370: Increasing alienation, relentless repression, simmering conflict

One year after the abrogation by the Central Government of Art. 370 in Kashmir, what is the situation in the Valley. Have the promises of peace, normalcy and development been realised? What is the current status in the Valley? Here is a detailed note by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties , “Jammu & Kashmir: One Year after Abrogation of Art. 370: Increasing Alienation, Relentless Repression, Simmering Conflict”:

Agro-biodiversity through seed identification, conservation, replication, crop selection

By Kuntal Mukherjee, Basant Yadav, Shivnath Yadav* This article is mainly based on a journey of the three of us since 2010 based on field experience, study of different articles, reflective journeys with local community based organisations, villagers and practitioners in Chhattisgarh. The slow growth of Agriculture in India with near stagnation in productivity since mid ‘80s in contrast to the remarkable growth during the green revolution period has come to the front as a great concern. In post WTO era Indian Agriculture has been witnessing structural changes, uncontrolled influx of agriculture goods and commodities from foreign countries due to open market nature. The gradual reduction in subsidies from internal production leads to increasing cost of production of agriculture produces at the farm gate. It causes gradual decrease in internal production as well as productivity and posing threats to small farm and stakeholders.

Indian youth can choose political career which offers tremendous opportunities

By Sudhansu R Das The Indian political sector is growing faster than any other sector in the world. This sector has been fully liberalised. Political career in India is open to any age group starting from 25 plus to 90 plus; people with any educational background, even an illiterate person can contest election in India. An old man or woman with multiple organ failure can become leader of a political party; they can control party workers from the hospital bed also. Social status, physical and mental ability seldom stand in the way of a political leader. Advanced age is not an issue which can be reversed with effortless ease.

Commodification of road accident deaths: The hidden health hazard of motonormativity

By Chandra Vikash* Jahnavi Kandula, an Indian student from Andhra Pradesh, studying in America was killed in a road accident by a police motor car in January 2023. Now, 8 months after the accident, a bodycam video of Daniel Orderer, who is the vice president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild, has gone viral on social media. He was laughing at her death and saying that “she was 26 years old, anyway… she had limited value… just give her $11,000 (ie Rs 9.13 lakh)”.

Search This Blog