Why in News?
Recently, the Union Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj has released the Disaster Management Plan of the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (DMP-MoPR).
What is the DMP-MoPR?
- This plan has been prepared with a larger view of community based planning starting from Village to District Panchayat-level.
- According to the Plan, every Indian village would have a “Village Disaster Management Plan” and every Panchayat would have their Disaster Management Plan.
- The objective is to build disaster resilience at the grassroots level among the Panchayats and establish a framework to coordinate the disaster management measures in rural areas to that of the National Disaster Management Authority.
- It include various innovations in addition to being in compliance with Disaster Management Act 2005, National Disaster Management Policy 2009, and guidelines issued by National Disaster Management Authority.
Disaster Management Plan- It covers areas such as,
- Disaster Specific Preventive and Mitigation Measures-Responsibility Framework.
- Institutional arrangement for Disaster Management.
- Hazard Risk, Vulnerability and Capacity Analysis.
- Coherence of Disaster Risk Management across Resilient Development and Climate Change Action.
- Mainstreaming of Community Based Disaster Management Plan of Villages and Panchayats and so on.
Importance of such a Plan-
- India has been vulnerable to many natural and non-natural disasters of varying degrees due to its unique geo-climatic and socio-economic conditions.
- Natural disasters comprise examples such as, earthquakes, landslides, floods, cyclones, tsunamis, urban floods and droughts.
- Some Man-made disasters can be biological, nuclear, and chemical.
- Different areas of the country are highly vulnerable to cyclones, floods, landslides, droughts, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.
Significance-
- Helpful in Disaster Management Comprehensively- Convergent and collective actions to envision, plan, and implement community based disaster management approach would be revolutionary in disaster management.
- All stakeholders together with the Panchayati Raj Institutions, elected representatives and Panchayat functionaries, would participate in the planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the plan.
- The involvement of the community is the main factor in any disaster preparedness strategy and active participation of the community is crucial to carry out and sustain the activities relating to disaster management in rural areas.
- Ensure Participatory Planning Process-This plan would be extremely useful for ensuring a participatory planning process for DMPs which is integrated with Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) for addressing disasters across the country and commence a new era of community-based disaster management, convergence and collective action with programs and schemes of different Ministries and Departments.
India’s Efforts in Managing Disaster-
- Setting up National Disaster Reaction Force (NDRF)-
- India consciously developed DM as a holistic approach, not just reacting after a disaster but also incorporating disaster preparedness, mitigation, and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) into plans and policies.
- India has increasingly mitigated and responded to all types of disasters, including with the establishment of its National Disaster Reaction Force (NDRF), the world’s largest rapid reaction force committed to disaster response.
- Indian Role as a Foreign Disaster Relief-
- India is also an emerging donor that has contributed a substantial amount of foreign disaster relief, along with foreign development assistance to other countries.
- India’s foreign humanitarian assistance has progressively included its military assets, primarily deploying naval ships or aircraft to deliver relief.
- In line with its diplomatic policy of “Neighbourhood First”, various recipient countries have been in the region of South and Southeast Asia.
- In the last two decades India has provided foreign humanitarian assistance bilaterally to Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and others.
- Contribution to Regional Disaster Preparedness-
- India contributes to regional disaster preparedness and capacity-building efforts, as part of its neighbourhood development efforts.
- Under the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), India has hosted DM Exercises that permits NDRF to exhibit for counterparts from partner states the techniques developed to respond to various disasters.
- India has adopted the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Sustainable Development Goals (2015-2030), and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, all of which make clear the connections among DRR, Climate Change Adaptation and sustainable development.
- India participates in various multi-lateral organisations that address these and other issues that benefit from multinational coordination.