The Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which was introduced in the Lok Sabha in August 2024, amends the Disaster Management Act, 2005, which has been India’s primary piece of legislation in dealing with the prevention, preparedness, mitigation, and management of disasters. As we stand at the threshold of undertaking changes to the architecture that governs our management mechanisms, it is imperative to review any shortcomings.
India, with 2.4% of the world’s land area, is home to about 17.78% of the global population. This induces pressure on resources and sees competition over fragile ecosystems, which in turn increases the risk for disasters. The Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre has estimated that over 2.5 million people were displaced in India in 2022 due to natural disasters, especially floods and cyclones. Another fact is that 33.6% of India’s coastline is vulnerable to erosion, a point of concern for coastal States including Andhra Pradesh which has one of India’s longest coastlines. A study published in Scientific Reports points out the increased frequency as well as intensity of cyclones on India’s western coast. Likewise, the incidence of summer cyclones and the accompanying damage is equally worrisome.
The damage is both in terms of human as well as financial capital. In September 2024, the Union government’s Inter-Ministerial Central Team estimated the preliminary damage due to floods in Andhra Pradesh at more than ₹6,880 crore. This highlights the potential multiplier effects that bridging gaps in disaster management architecture can bring to the people.
Lack of inter-agency coordination
Most disasters in India have different nodal authorities, thus creating an issue of a communication gap among stakeholders. The agencies for managing and monitoring earthquakes are the National Center for Seismology (Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India) and the India Meteorological Department. On the other hand, the Department of Mines handles mining disasters. Given that there is an overlap between the nature of both hazards and no single fusion centre, it gives rise to a delay in coordination.
The amendment Bill empowers the National Disaster Management Authority and the State Disaster Management Authorities to prepare disaster management plans at their respective levels by taking away these powers from the National Executive Committee (NEC) and State Executive Committee (SEC). The NEC and SEC, however, remain the coordinating bodies for disaster management. This creates a scenario where the onus of coordination and monitoring still lies with the NEC and SEC, but they do not have a role to play in drafting the plans, thereby affecting efficiency.
Absence of effective decentralisation
The 15th Finance Commission observed that the management of the whole of the disaster response funds at the State-level needs to change. It hamstrings the district administration’s ability to flexibly deal with emerging threats in line with local needs. Likewise, another aspect to this is the lack of funds for local-self governments and their effective empowerment. In India, despite the constitutionalisation of functions of municipalities, the total municipal expenditure accounts for hardly 0.79% of the GDP.
India witnessed the death of over 5,000 people between 2014 and 2020 due to heatwaves, the intensity of which appears to be rising due to global warming. As such, apart from a management strategy and sustainable cooling solutions, the classification of heatwaves in the disaster category is imperative. While successive Finance Commissions have held out from recommending this due to variance across the country, cold waves are classified as disasters. The classification will help in increased funding and resources for managing heatwaves.
The Bill provides for the creation of urban disaster management authorities in State capitals and cities with municipal corporations. Apart from the Municipal Commissioner and District Magistrate, the State government is empowered to specify the members. This is an excellent opportunity to rope in experts with policy and practical experience to spearhead efforts. With effective devolution of funds and required autonomy, the authorities could be the silver bullet to sustainable urban spaces.
International examples to emulate
In countries such as Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland and Finland, the level of decentralisation that has been attained is worth emulating. As much as 36.5% of the national GDP in Denmark is spent at the local level for providing social services. This ensures that local bodies have the independence to tailor solutions to ground realities and experiment with innovative solutions. The Bill has the provision of empowering the NDMA to specify the number and category of employees along with hiring consultants and experts with the Union government’s approval. This is a positive development to allow for the devolution of powers but it needs to percolate further.
During the post World War years, Japan spent between 6% to 8% of its GDP on an average on disaster management efforts, resulting in the country becoming one of the global leaders. The resilience to natural hazards helped Japan weather crises and rise steadily as an economic powerhouse. One of the best examples of this is the G-Cans project in flood management being implemented in Tokyo which channels overflowing water through tunnels to avoid flooding.
Projects such as these can be considered for metropolitan areas across India, including New Delhi to ensure that variability in rainfall patterns does not bring life to a standstill. Another best practice can be to develop floodplains in smaller cities as recreational zones which buffers populous areas. Similar models have been tried out in the Netherlands and India would do well to leverage its strategic water partnership with the Dutch to implement the same in India.
Underground cabling, as much as feasible, will also go a long way in restoring power connections at the earliest during cyclones.
According to EM-DAT, the international disaster database, cyclonic storms and resultant flooding have affected more than 45 million people since 2019. India is projected to become the third-largest economy in the world and is already the most populous nation. It is a foregone conclusion that in order to achieve its innate potential, India should leverage its demographic dividend. Disasters not only adversely impact the lives and property of a community but also destroy the coping capacity, necessitating interventions in reconstruction and recovery for years together.
All is not grim though. The Fifteenth Finance Commission has allocated ₹1.28 lakh crore to the State Disaster Response Force in all States as against ₹61,220 crore under the 14th Finance Commission. So, we have made considerable progress, but there is still a lot that remains to be done.
The Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill can be a good first step in revamping the architecture and the processes involved. As the recent floods in Andhra Pradesh show, political will and hands-on leadership will help us achieve a disaster resilient India.
Krishna Prasad Tenneti is a Member of Parliament (Telugu Desam Party) representing the Bapatla constituency of Andhra Pradesh in the Lok Sabha. He also serves on the Panel of Chairpersons in the Lok Sabha and is a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer. Agrima Gupta leads the policy and parliamentary office of Krishna Prasad Tenneti and has been a Legislative Assistant to Members of Parliament (LAMP) Fellow of the 2022-23 cohort. Amrit Mahapatra leads the policy and parliamentary office of Krishna Prasad Tenneti and has been a Legislative Assistant to Members of Parliament (LAMP) Fellow of the 2022-23 cohort
Published – November 03, 2024 03:46 am IST
