Review Paper:
Disaster Management
in India: Need for an Integrated Approach
Divi Sriram, Dorasamy N. and Nakum Vipul
Disaster Advances; Vol. 15(8); 60-68;
doi: https://doi.org/10.25303/1508da060068; (2022)
Abstract
It is now widely known that the hazards can be natural, but most disasters are ‘human-made’.
The failure to properly implement developmental policies and practices with due
consideration to disaster risk management is the leading cause of turning a hazard
into a disaster.25 This, in return, negatively affects sustainable development which
ultimately affects the weakest and the poorest sections of society. Disaster impacts
have been felt on a wide range of sectors and sections of the population. They are
curbing progress made toward achieving the Sendai Framework targets, and SDGs. Climate
and human-induced disaster events have exposed several underlying facets of risks'
systemic and cascading nature. There is an urgent need to identify, analyse and
better understand the multi-hazard, systemic and cascading nature of the disaster
and climate risks, their inter-linkages, and interplay.
A holistic understanding of risk is crucial for furthering the priorities of action
laid under the Sendai Framework and the envisioned SDGs and ensuring a better, greener,
resilient and sustainable society. We have tried to study the disaster management
frameworks, plans and policies of 10 countries including India to understand the
institutional mechanisms and integration of critical aspects of dual/multi disaster
scenarios. When the traditional disasters hit the community following the COVID-19
pandemic, the need arises to have an integrated model that can assisting in the
preparation and response to the dual situation simultaneously. Efforts are made
to put the experiences into a framework for an integrated approach preparing for
dual/multi-disaster scenarios.
