Drishtikon: Status of Disability Inclusion in Disaster Risk Management: Indian Perspective
This article is based upon the presentation by Abhishek Kumar, NCPEDP-Javed Abidi Fellow on Disability at the COSP15 Side Event on “Disability and Disaster Resilience: Ensuring Equality and Inclusion” organized by the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) in partnership with Disability Rights Fund (DRF) and World Institute on Disability (WID) on 17th June 2022.
Abstract
The article deals with the “Status of Disability Inclusion in Disaster Risk Management: Indian Perspective” wherein it discusses India’s International commitments, India’s Disaster Profile, Legal and Institutional framework, existing gaps in the Disability-inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Way Forward.
India’s International Commitments
International normative frameworks relevant for the achievement of SDG targets 1.5 and 11.5 and SDG 13 for persons with disabilities [Building the resilience of persons with disabilities and reducing their exposure to and impact from climate-related hazards and other shocks and disasters] that bind India are as follows:
1. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2008), articles 11 and 32, requires that persons with disabilities benefit from and participate in disaster relief, emergency response, and disaster risk reduction strategies
2. The outcome document of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly (A/RES/68/3) (2013)
3. The SAMOA Pathway (2014)
4. Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015)
5. Dhaka Declaration on Disability and Disaster Risk Management (2015)
6. The Paris Agreement of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (2016)
7. The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (2016)
8. Charter on Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action (2016)
9. Incheon Strategy to “Make the Right Real” for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific — Goal 7 Ensure disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction and management
Disaster Profile
To begin with, let’s look at India’s overall disaster and hazard profile, as per the World Risk Report, 2020, India is moderately vulnerable and exposed to disasters based on indicators like Mortality, People affected, Economic loss, Disaster risk reduction strategies, early warning, and risk information system, damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of essential services. Every 30th person is affected by disasters while the mortality rate of people with disabilities is 2X that of the general population. Global Assessment Report predicted 560 — or 1.5 disasters a day — by 2030 based on the current trajectory.
As we can see from the infographic below, India is particularly prone to a large number of disasters from droughts to earthquakes and cyclones to floods across the length and breadth of its territories and throughout the year resulting in capability and income deprivation, poverty, disability, forced displacement, and acts as a Threat Multiplier for the people with disabilities. And these disasters are frequent and are further increasing due to climate change, resulting in great loss to human life, natural ecosystem, and the economy — especially to the vulnerable ecosystems and vulnerable communities.
Legal Framework
Now coming to the Legal Framework, the legal troika that deals with and provides for DiDRR management in India. The first one is the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016 read with the Disaster Management Act of 2005. The RPwD Act mandates special attention for disability-sensitive disaster risk reduction. The legislation requires the District Disaster Management Authority to maintain the record of persons with disabilities for the purpose of planning, coordination, and implementation during disasters. Secondly, the National Disaster Management Plan of 2019 mainstreams the disability in disaster management plans and highlights the status quo, major loopholes, best practices, and the way forward. Ultimately, the DiDRR Guidelines of 2019 was a watershed moment in inclusive disaster management as it was the first comprehensive set of guidelines issued by any country globally on disability-inclusive disaster risk reduction. The Guidelines are also important as they marked the responsibilities of governmental agencies from the national to local level for carrying out work related to each dimension of the guidelines like Data and resource mapping, Policies, planning and strategies, Adoption of universal design principles, facilitation of accessibility, and access to assistive technology.
Responsibility Framework
Though responsibility for managing disasters is with both the national and state governments and national laws ensure the safety and security of the people with disabilities, it is state and local governments who implement the laws and policies. The Indian approach to disaster reduction is that development cannot be sustainable unless disaster mitigation is built into the development process based on the principle of “Leave No One Behind”. Based on that, the institutional mechanisms at the National, State, and District level lays down a detailed separation of power and responsibility, overlapping at times, for inclusive disaster management.
Gaps in Inclusive DRR Response
Now, talking about the existing gaps, when we read the laws, policies, government reports, etc., it’s evident that what are the major existing gaps and plausible solutions to cope with the exclusion of people with disabilities from disaster management are primarily known but it’s the government’s apathy towards the people with disability that those measures are not being implemented on the ground. The most significant gap that needs to be worked on is maintaining a true and real-time record of persons with disabilities. India officially has only about two percent of its population as people with disabilities against the global statistics that estimate it around fifteen percent. Understanding that the most important thing that needs to be done is maintaining a true and real-time record of a person with disabilities as once that is done then the rest will eventually follow anyway. India has done the legislation part largely right and now it’s time for the implementation part where India lags behind.
The other recommendation to bridge the existing gap and to ensure an inclusive DRR response are as follows:
- Inadequate Real-Time Data and Resource Mapping
2. Poor implementation of Policies, Planning, and Strategies
3. Poor Adaption of Universal Design Principles, Facilitation of Accessibility, and Access to Assistive Technology
4. Attitudinal Barrier: Social, Economic, and Political Exclusion
5. Poor Early Warning System and Search, Rescue, and Evacuation (SRE)
6. Poor implementation of Disability specific Standard Operating Procedure in Relief Protocols
7. Non-Inclusive Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Initiatives
8. Lack of Knowledge and Capacity Building initiatives
Concluding Remark
Going ahead, we need to execute an inclusive pre-disaster mechanism for people with disabilities based on the Capability Approach. Further, we need to incorporate vernacular architecture techniques like Kath Kuni that are better in dealing with Himalayan seismic activities.
The other major recommendations regarding the Disability-inclusive Disaster Risk reduction mechanism are as follows:
- Vulnerability Assessment Studies and Reports
2. Inclusive Multi-Hazard Robust Early Warning Systems
3. Build Forward Better based on the “Leave No One Behind” principle
4. Universally Accessible Response Mechanism
5. Vernacular and Traditional Architecture like Kath-Kuni
6. Focus on Capabilities than just Rights
7. PwDs and DPOs in the decision-making process
8. Block/Panchayat level Disaster and Environment Action Plans
9. Data and Evidence-based Research and Advocacy
10. Inclusion of DiDRR in Institutional and Academic Curriculum
To conclude, among other things, India needs to Build Forward Better and not Build Back Better as the past was not inclusive enough.
References
1. Disability and Development Report, Realizing the Sustainable Development Goals by, for and with persons with disabilities, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2018, Available at < https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/publication-disability-sdgs.html>
2. Disability-Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction: Transformative Journey Towards A Disability-Inclusive Society, Reforms That Transformed National Disaster Management Authority, Available at <https://ndma.gov.in/sites/default/files/IEC/Booklets/Disability%20inclusive%20DRR.pdf>
3. Disaster Management Act, 2005
4. Member Country profile — India, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), Available at <https://www.cdri.world/member-country-profile-india>
5. National Disaster Management Guidelines on Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction, 2019, Available on: https://ndma.gov.in/sites/default/files/PDF/Guidelines/DIDRR.pdf
6. National Disaster Management Plan, 2019
7. Our World at Risk: Transforming Governance for a Resilient Future — Summary for Policymakers, Global Assessment Report on Disability Risk Reduction 2022, Available at <https://www.undrr.org/gar2022-our-world-risk>
8. Proceedings, National Conference on Disability-inclusive Disaster Reduction: Pathways for Inclusion and Action for Resilience, February 2020, organized by National Institute of Disaster Management and Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disability. Available at: <https://nidm.gov.in/PDF/trgreports/2020/February/DiDRR_Proceedings.pdf>
9. Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016
10. Summary of the Resilience Dividend: Towards Sustainable and Inclusive Societies, Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, Geneva, 2019, Available here.
11. Summary of the Seventh Session of The Global Platform For Disaster Risk Reduction (GP2022), From Risk to Resilience: Towards Sustainable Development for All in a COVID-19 Transformed World, May 2022, Bali, Indonesia. Available at <https://enb.iisd.org/sites/default/files/2022-05/gp2022_summary.pdf>
About the Author
Abhishek Kumar, NCPEDP-Javed Abidi Fellow on Disability.
The author can be reached at abhishek.ncpedp@gmail.com
