Siddhant Chandra and Souhard Sharam | December 2024
India’s disaster management framework evolved from the colonial-era Famine Codes and relief-centric approaches, where states held primary responsibility with minimal central intervention. The 1990s marked a pivotal shift during the UN’s International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR), prompting India to establish a High-Powered Committee (HPC) in 1999. The period between 1999-2004
witnessed devastating disasters – the Orissa Super Cyclone (1999), Gujarat Earthquake (2001), and Indian Ocean Tsunami (2004) – exposing critical gaps in state-level disaster response capabilities.
The constitutional positioning of disaster management remained ambiguous, being absent from all three lists of the Seventh Schedule. This led to varying interpretations of jurisdictional authority until the Central Government, invoking Entry 23 of the Concurrent List (Social Security and Social Insurance), enacted the Disaster Management Act, 2005. The Act marked a paradigm shift from relief-centric response to prevention and mitigation-focused approach, establishing the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs), and District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs). The institutional framework was further strengthened with specialized bodies like the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF).
Between 2005 and 2024, implementation challenges emerged across multiple dimensions. The fragmentation of authority between various agencies, inadequate coordination mechanisms, and limited community participation became apparent during successive disasters and necessitated a more comprehensive approach. The High-Powered Committee’s review, coupled with recommendations from various stakeholders and international frameworks like the Hyogo Framework for Action, led to the formulation of the Disaster Management Amendment Bill 2024, aimed at addressing these systemic challenges while strengthening the institutional framework established under the original Act.