Lok Sabha Question No. 2580 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-12-19
Subject: Agenda on Disaster Risk Reduction
Ministry: HOME AFFAIRS
Asked by: Parvesh Sahib Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2580

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 19 TH  DECEMBER, 2023/ AGRAHAYANA 28, 1945 (SAKA)

AGENDA ON DISASTER RISK REDUCTION

†2580. SHRI PARVESH SAHIB SINGH VERMA:

Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a)  whether  any  ten-point  agenda  on  Disaster  Risk  Reduction  has  been proposed by the Government;

(b) if so, the main points mentioned therein;

(c) whether the Government has taken steps to implement the said agenda points; and

(d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI NITYANAND RAI)

(a) & (b): The Prime Minister has enunciated ten-point agenda on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) during the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk  Reduction  (AMCDRR)  held  in  New  Delhi  in  November  2016.  The  allinclusive  agenda  presents  a  holistic  approach  to  disaster  risk  reduction and addresses a whole range of issues, from community preparedness to use of technology and international cooperation.

The Prime Minister's ten-point agenda on DRR is as under:

1.      All  development  sectors  must imbibe  the  principles of disaster risk management.
2.      Risk  coverage  must  include  all,  starting  from  poor  households  to SMEs to multi-national corporations to nation states.
3.      Women's  leadership  and  greater  involvement  should  be  central  to disaster risk management.
4.      Invest  in  risk  mapping  globally  to  improve  global  understanding  of nature and disaster risks.
5.      Leverage  technology  to  enhance  the  efficiency  of  disaster  risk management efforts.
6.      Develop a network of universities to work on disaster-related issues.
7.      Utilise the opportunities provided by social  media  and  mobile technologies for disaster risk reduction.
8.      Build  on  local  capacity  and  initiative  to  enhance  disaster  risk reduction.
9.      Make use of every opportunity to learn from disasters and, to achieve that, there must be studies on the lessons after every disaster.
10.  Bring about greater cohesion in international response to disasters.

(c) & (d) The Prime Minister's ten-point agenda provides practical guidance and added impetus to implement Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk  Reduction  (SFDRR)  2015  adopted  by  187  countries,  including  India. Each of the ten points on the Prime Minister's ten-point agenda is aligned with one or more priorities of action of SFDRR.  It requires action by not only disaster management agencies but all parts of the Government at all levels.    Since  the  enunciation  of  Prime  Minister's  ten-point  agenda,  the Government  has  taken  many  steps  towards  its  implementation.    Steps taken  by  the  Government  for  implementation  and  follow-up  on  Prime Minister's ten-point agenda are annexed.

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## Annexure to (c) & (d) of LSUQ 2580 for answer on 19.12.2023

Major  steps  taken  towards  the  implementation  of  Prime  Minister's  tenpoint agenda on DRR:

- 1) All  development  sectors  must  imbibe  the  principles  of  disaster risk management.
- i. National  Disaster  Management  Authority  (NDMA)  has  developed the first National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP) in 2016.  The plan was revised in 2019 and is aligned with the ten-point agenda. The revised NDMP brings together all the sectors, ministries and departments  at  Central  and  State  level  as  well  as  district  level functionaries and defines their respective roles and responsibilities in disaster risk reduction.
- ii. NDMA  has  been  reviewing,  providing  inputs  and  approving  the Disaster Management Plans of different ministries and departments. So far, NDMA has approved 36 disaster management plans of different Ministries / Departments.
- iii. In order to ensure that development sectors imbibe the principles of  disaster  risk  management,  NDMA  has  been  supporting  the development  of  sector  specific  standards,  codes  and  guidelines. NDMA  has  developed  the  standardization  and  upgradation  of codes and bye-laws of Seismic design of pipelines, performance-

## Annexure to (c) & (d) of LSUQ 2580 for answer on 19.12.2023

based design and seismic design and detailing of new structures for steel buildings.

- iv. After  the  Prime  Minister's  announcement  that  India  will  work towards establishing the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure  (CDRI),  a  series  of  global,  regional  and  national consultations were held to forge a consensus around the contours of  the  coalition.  On  23 rd   September,  2019,  the  coalition  was launched by Prime Minister at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, in New  York. So far, 37 countries and 7 other organizations  have  endorsed  its  charter  and  joined  as  Members. CDRI is presently supporting 13 Small Island Developing Countries in  making  their  infrastructure  systems  disaster  resilient.    In addition,  CDRI  is  working  on  integrating  disaster  resilience  in specific development sectors such as Power and Telecommunications.
- 2)      Risk  coverage  must  include  all,  starting  from  poor  households  to SMEs to multi-national corporations to nation states.

NDMA, as per the recommendations of fifteenth Finance Commission, has  been  working  with  several  national  institutions  like  Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), General

## Annexure to (c) & (d) of LSUQ 2580 for answer on 19.12.2023

Insurance  Corporation  of  India  (GIC  Re)  and  Insurance  Institute  of India (III) as also with multilateral institutions like Asian Development Bank, United Nations  Development  Programme  and  World  Food Programme in designing insurance products.

- 3) Women's  leadership  and  greater  involvement  should  be  central  to disaster risk management.
- i. While revising the NDMP, issues relating to women empowerment and  their  leadership  role  in  disaster  risk  management  has  been given prominence.
- ii. Participation of women in disaster risk management is increased through  imparting  training  to  women  as  Aapda  Mitra  volunteers, maintenance and management of Cyclone Shelter Management & Maintenance  Committees  (CSMMC)  in  the  country  through  50% women participation. Out of 94,197 trained Aapda Mitra volunteer, 16,822 are female.
- iii. Key  roles  to  women  are  ensured  in  various  Task  Force  Groups related  to  disaster  preparedness  and  rescue  operations,  training and mock drills etc.

## Annexure to (c) & (d) of LSUQ 2580 for answer on 19.12.2023

- iv. Mahila Contingent from Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) are also  trained  and  deployed  for  National  Disaster  Response  Force (NDRF) for disaster management.
- 4) Invest  in  risk  mapping  globally  to  improve  global  understanding  of nature and disaster risks.
- i. NDMA has developed a web-based Dynamic Composite Risk Atlas and Decision Support System (Web-DCRA & DSS tool) for cyclone risk mitigation and response  planning. The tool  has  been successfully  used  in  recent  cyclones  such  as  Biparjoy  (June, 2023) and Cyclone Michaung (December, 2023)
- ii. Government has taken steps to update hazard risk information and make it easily accessible to all infrastructure sectors so that all projects are disaster resilience.
- iii. Flood  Hazard  Atlas  have  been  developed  by  National  Remote Sensing  Centre  (NRSC)  for  flood  prone  states  of  West  Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Assam and Uttar Pradesh and for comparatively  less  flood  affected  states  such  as  Jammu  & Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra.

## Annexure to (c) & (d) of LSUQ 2580 for answer on 19.12.2023

- iv. Building  Material  &  Technology  Promotion  Council  (BMTPC)  has developed a digital atlas that captures the vulnerability of various parts of the country to different hazards.  All States and UTs have been sensitised to use this information in project preparation.
- v. NRSC  has  prepared  a  comprehensive  data  set  of  28,000  glacial lakes in the Indian Himalayan Region.
- vi. National  Centre  for  Seismology  has  prepared  a  seismic  microzonation  of  Delhi  and  has  supported  seismic  micro-zonation  of several other cities.
- 5) Leverage  technology  to  enhance  the  efficiency  of disaster risk management efforts.
- i. India  Metrological  Department  (IMD)  issues  regular  and  precise weather forecasts & warning bulletins including for cyclones to all the affected/ likely affected States/ UTs.
- ii. IMD  uses  a  suite  of  quality  observations  from  Satellites,  Radars and Conventional & Automatic Weather Stations for monitoring of cyclones  developing  over  the  Bay  of  Bengal  and  Arabian  Sea.  It includes INSAT 3D, 3DR and SCATSAT satellites, Doppler Weather Radars (DWRs) along the coast and coastal Automated Weather

## Annexure to (c) & (d) of LSUQ 2580 for answer on 19.12.2023

Stations (AWS), High wind speed  recorders, Automatic  Rain Gauges (ARGs), Meteorological buoys and ships.

- iii. Under the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP) Early Warning Systems have been installed in the Coastal States, which have  proved  to  be  of  great  help  in  alert  dissemination  to  the coastal community during recent cyclones.
- iv. 'Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) based Integrated Alert System' has been  initiated with an outlay of Rs. 354.83 Crore, for dissemination  of  geo  targeted  early  warnings/alerts  related  to disasters  to  the  citizens  of  India  for  all  36  States/UTs  using various disseminating medium like SMS, TV, Radio, Indian Railways,  Costal  Sirens,  Cell  broadcast,  Internet  (RSS  feed  & Browser  Notification),  Satellite  Receiver  of  GAGAN  &NavIC  etc., through integration of all alerting agencies, [India Meteorological Department (IMD), Central Water Commission (CWC), Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Defence Geo-informatics Research Establishment (DGRE), Geological Survey  of  India  (GSI)  and  Forest  Survey  of  India  (FSI)].    In  CAP system,  the  alerts  related  to  various  disasters  are  generated  by Alert Generating Agencies like IMD, CWC, INCOIS, DGRE & FSI and moderated by SDMAs of concern States/UTs.  The alerts are sent

## Annexure to (c) & (d) of LSUQ 2580 for answer on 19.12.2023

to geo targeted areas in regional languages. There is a web-based dashboard  to  disaster  managers  for  approving/editing  alerts  and choosing  media  for  dissemination.  The  system  has  been  used successfully in recent disasters.

- v. Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) is a Pan-India single number  (112)  based  emergency  response  system  for  citizens  in emergencies.  Citizens can request help through Voice Call, SOS, SMS, Email, Web Request and Panic buttons on a mobile app to request for immediate assistance pertaining to events related to Police assistance,  Fire,  Ambulance,  Women  protection,  Child safety etc. For seeking assistance related to disaster in country, various disaster helpline numbers in States/Districts are operational.  In order to implement the vision of Prime Minister for 'Single  Distress  Number  for  all  emergencies  across  the  country' the Project 'Extension of ERSS' with existing single number '112', has been initiated, which will also cater for emergency call related to disasters. This project has been designed to leverage technology  for  a  swift  response  to  distress  calls  related  to disaster thus mitigating loss of life and property.
- vi. The  National  Disaster  Management  Information  System  (NDMIS) has been launched for development of a comprehensive online

## Annexure to (c) & (d) of LSUQ 2580 for answer on 19.12.2023

module  for  capturing  sector-wise  data  on  disaster  losses  upto district  level  and  to  monitor  progress  on  various  targets  of  the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR).

- 6) Develop a network of universities to work on disaster-related issues.

Indian  Universities  and  Institutions  Network  (IUINDRR-NIDM)  has been  established,  under  the  aegis  of  National  Institute  of  Disaster Management (NIDM), to highlight the role of education, research and training in disaster resilience and to develop model curricula for DRR with  its  integration  at  various  levels.  The  IUINDRR  provides  a platform for interface between academia and policy. It also provides a  platform for collaborative  development of knowledge products on disaster risk reduction.  So far, 260 Universities and Institutes have joined the network.

- 7) Utilise the opportunities provided by social media and mobile technologies for disaster risk reduction.
- i. A  number  of  new  mobile  Applications  such  as  Damini,  Mausam, Sachet etc. have been developed for timely dissemination of early warnings and alerts to the common people.

## Annexure to (c) & (d) of LSUQ 2580 for answer on 19.12.2023

- ii. Various social media platforms are extensively used for awareness generation activities, Do's & Don'ts in the form of text, short  films,  FAQs  are  shared  from  time  to  time  on  social  media Platforms  by  NDMA  and  State  Disaster  Management  Authorities (SDMAs).
- iii. NDMA also  uses  social  media  channels  to  update  the  public  on ongoing disaster events and the governments' response to them. The  Social  Media  is  also  used  to  amplify  the  reach  of  content delivered on print media (such as OpEd written by NDMA officers) and broadcast media (such as 'Aapada Ka Samna' programmes).
- 8) Build on local capacity and  initiative to enhance  disaster risk reduction.
- i. In  order  to  deepen  disaster  preparedness and response capacity at the local level in the country, Aapda Mitra Scheme, having an outlay  of  Rs.  369.40  Crore,  has  been  launched  to  train  1,00,000 community  volunteers  in  disaster  rescue  in  350  multi-hazards disaster  prone  districts,  covering  all  States/UTs.  So  far,  94,197 Aapda Mitra volunteers have been trained. Each volunteer - Aapda Mitra  or  Aapda  Sakhi  -  is  given  two-week  intense  training  in disaster response (relevant to their area of operations), equipped

## Annexure to (c) & (d) of LSUQ 2580 for answer on 19.12.2023

with an Emergency Responder Kit (ERK), and provided an insurance  cover  for five years. In addition, each  district is provided an Emergency Essential Resource Reserve (EERR) for the use of Aapda Mitra during disasters.

- ii. In order to empower citizens to take charge of their own resilience to disasters, NDMA has been producing knowledge products that address their needs. For example,
- a. Home  Owner's  guide  for  Earthquake  &  Cyclone  safety  (2019), provides details to those who are constructing a house and who are  buying  a  flat  in  multi-storey  buildings,  which  are  made  of either masonry or reinforced concrete (RCC)
- b. Simplified Guidelines for Earthquake Safety (2021), provides minimum  requirements  that  have  to  be  complied  with  while constructing earthquake resistant house.
- iii. Under  NCRMP,  24,007  Government  officials  from  various  priority sectors viz., Health, Education, Panchayat Raj Institutions, Urban Local  Bodies,  and  Rural  Development  have  been  trained  through 925 Capacity Building Trainings. 68,988 community representatives  have  been  trained  on  various  disaster  response skills  viz.,  First  Aid,  Search  &  Rescue,  and  Shelter  Management
5. through 3,421 Shelter Level Trainings.

## Annexure to (c) & (d) of LSUQ 2580 for answer on 19.12.2023

- iv. NDRF regularly conducts Mock Exercises in all 36 States / UTs on community  disaster  awareness  in  Floods,  Cyclones,  Earthquake, Landslide & Chemical,Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) in vulnerable areas with various stakeholders of Disaster Management  /  Response.    NDRF  also  conducts  School  Safety Programme  (SSP)  to  impart  training  on  disaster  response  to children in vulnerable schools in all 36 States/UTs of India.
- v. Mock  exercises and community  awareness programmes  are regularly  conducted  by  NDMA  and  NDRF  to  create  awareness among people.
- 9) Make use of every opportunity to learn from disasters and, to achieve that, there must be studies on the lessons after every disaster.
- i. In  the  aftermath  of  major  disasters,  NIDM  as  well  as  NDMA undertake field visits to document the lessons learned.  Example of  such  studies  include:  Biparjoy  cyclone  (June  2023);  Good Practices  in  COVID  response  (2022);  Gaja  cyclone  (September 2019); Tamil Nadu Floods (September 2017)
- ii. NDMA has issued thirty-three  (33)  guidelines  for  management  of hazard  specific  disaster  on  various  thematic  and  cross-cutting
6. issues.

## Annexure to (c) & (d) of LSUQ 2580 for answer on 19.12.2023

- 10) Bring about greater cohesion in international response to disasters.
- i. Government  has  advanced  regional  cooperation  on  disaster  risk management through active engagement under multiple regional organizations, such as Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical & Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). Through  these  organizations,  Government  has  conducted  joint exercises  as  well  as  facilitated  sharing  of  good  practices  in disaster management.
- ii. Effective  national  and  international  response  to  disasters  was discussed  during  the  deliberations  of  Disaster  Risk  Reduction Working Group established under India's G20 presidency.
- iii. The Government has been providing Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Support to disaster hit countries. Under the spirit of  'Vasudhaiva  Kutumbakam', Government of India had extended immediate help to Turkiye and Syria, hit by massive earthquake in February,  2023,  by  dispatching  NDRF  and  medical  teams  along with relief materials.

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