MANILA, Philippines - India Prime Minister Narendra Modi has unveiled the first-ever national plan for disaster management, which encompasses a blueprint for making the country disaster-resilient.
According to the Asia Insurance Review, the National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP) provides a framework and direction to the government agencies for all phases of disaster management cycle – prevention, mitigation, response and recovery.
The NDMP is a dynamic document in the sense that it will be periodically improved, keeping up with the emerging global best practices and knowledge bases in disaster management.
The plan’s vision is to “make India disaster resilient, achieve substantial disaster risk reduction, and significantly decrease loss of life, livelihoods, and assets – economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental – by maximizing the ability to cope with disasters at all levels of administration as well as among communities.”
This is the first national plan since the enactment of the Disaster Management Act in 2005. It outlines the role of each ministry or department of the government of India, state governments and state authorities in responding to a threatening disaster situation or disaster.
The plan also covers strengthening disaster risk governance and lays down six thematic areas: mainstream and integrated disaster risk reduction, capacity development, promoting participatory approach, working with elected representatives; grievance redress mechanism and promoting quality standards, certification and awards for disaster risk management.
As regards disaster response, the plan identifies 18 broad activities and arranges them into a matrix.