Disaster resilience must be a non-negotiable national priority - Vinod Menon

"There must be zero tolerance to avoidable deaths caused by natural hazards, extreme events and climate change. Disaster Resilience has to be a non-negotiable national priority and the responsibility of all stakeholder groups." - N. Vinod Chandra Menon, Founder Member, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Government of India 

I. Achievement include: The  enactment of the Disaster Management Act 2005 with the unanimous support of all parties in both the houses of Parliament; the establishment of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) chaired by the Prime Minister of India through a Gazette notification even before the passing of the Bill; the formulation of National Disaster Management Guidelines for the Management of various disaster typologies including the Management of Tsunamis in 2010; the formulation of the National Policy on Disaster Management which was approved by the Cabinet in October 2009; the largest community mobilisation exercise in strengthening disaster preparedness through the UNDP-Government of India supported Disaster Risk Management (DRM) in 174 districts in 17 states and UTs; the establishment of 14 battalions of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) as a dedicated first responder force (the only one of its kind in the world); the strengthening of IMD's precise early warning capability demonstrated through the sterling example of minimising loss of lives in Cyclone Phailin in Odisha and in cyclone Hudhud in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh; the outstanding Tsunami Early Warning System established by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Systems (INCOIS) at Hyderabad with bottom pressure recorders, tidal gauges and buoys; the strengthening of multi-stakeholder partnerships like NGOs, private sector, PRIs, media, etc. in disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction; the mobilisation and centre-staging of community in disaster preparedness by NGOs; the mainstreaming of disaster risk reduction in development planning; the maturing of multi-faceted specialisations by State Disaster Management Authorities especially in States like Gujarat, Odisha, Assam and Bihar; the exemplary work done by NDRF, State Disaster Response Forces like ODRAF in emergency preparedness and response; improvements in Hazard, Risk and Vulnerability Assessments; initiatives in Urban Disaster Risk Reduction approaches; institutionalising Owner Driven Reconstruction; applications of remote sensing, satellite imagery, scenario analysis and modelling, etc; and the applications of emerging technologies like deployment of Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAVs) in emergency response, damage assessment, etc. 

II. Challenges iclude: The inadequate attention being given to address the critical gaps in emergency preparedness, disaster risk reduction and mitigation; the lack of effective coordination between government Ministries, Departments and agencies in the Government of India and the state governments; and the need to improve the early warning and forecasting capabilities for predicting the potential occurrence of extreme events continue to be challenges as demonstrated in the Uttarakhand floods and landslides and  the Kashmir floods.

III. The national leaders need to recognise and acknowledge that there must be zero tolerance to avoidable deaths caused by natural disasters, extreme events and climate change. The investments in disaster risk reduction and mitigation need endorsements by Finance Ministers and central planning bodies. Special efforts must be made to ensure the development of skills and capacity of youth and women to be change agents and catalysts for social transformation. Improving the effectiveness of Disaster Management at the national, provincial and local levels has to be the responsibility of all stakeholder groups. Disaster Resilience has to be a non-negotiable national priority and the capacity building of stakeholder groups like policy makers, elected representatives, corporate executives, community representatives, grassroots women's groups and youth must be ensured through allocations of funds from corporate social responsibility and other dedicated sources. Wherever felt expedient, the institutional mechanisms like NDMAs and provincial disaster management agencies must have the autonomy and the flexibility to create corpus funds for frugal innovations and path breaking initiatives.

I hope this will provoke some reflections among all those who work so passionately for strengthening disaster resilience in the country.