Revision summary
The DM Act, NDMA, NDRF, and 2009 policy were India’s Hyogo-era shift from relief to planned disaster management. After Sendai, the 2016 national plan, the PM’s 10-point agenda, and Build Back Better aligned India to global targets. Hyogo stressed national systems and five priorities of action. Sendai adds seven measurable targets, four priorities, wider hazards, and recovery that reduces future risk. Local maps, mitigation money, and inclusion will decide if the paper frameworks save lives.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
India moved from relief after the flood toward Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) through the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the National Disaster Management Authority. The Hyogo Framework (2005) and then the Sendai Framework (2015–2030) are the global scripts. After Sendai, India tightened plans, targets, and a whole-of-society line, while Hyogo had been more about building institutions.
Body
India before Sendai (and in the Hyogo years)
- Super-cyclone Odisha (1999), Bhuj (2001), and the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004) showed that relief camps were not a policy.
- The DM Act, 2005 created NDMA, SDMAs, DDMAs, the National Disaster Response Force, and a legal duty to plan for disaster.
- National Policy on Disaster Management (2009) and early National Disaster Management Plan work shifted language from response to mitigation and preparedness.
- Building codes, cyclone shelters on the east coast, tsunami warning under INCOIS, flood forecasting, and finance through the older Calamity Relief / later NDRF–SDRF windows were the hardware of Hyogo-era India.
- Gaps remained: risk was still poorly mapped at ward level, recovery was slow, and ministries treated DRR as NDMA’s file rather than as their own.
India after signing Sendai (2015–2030)
- India endorsed Sendai and hosted the Asian Ministerial Conference on DRR (New Delhi, 2016); the Prime Minister set a 10-point agenda on DRR, including international cooperation and risk-sensitive investment.
- The National Disaster Management Plan (2016, later revised) was aligned to Sendai’s four priorities and to the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Emphasis grew on understanding risk (hazard, vulnerability, exposure maps), all-hazard thinking (heat wave, urban flood, industrial), and Sendai targets such as lower mortality, fewer affected people, and less economic loss by 2030.
- Incident Response System, mock drills, school safety, and hospital disaster plans were pushed as preparedness, not only as NDRF deployment.
- Build Back Better after cyclones (for example housing and power restoration on the east coast) became an official recovery phrase.
- Finance and insurance experiments, district plans, and urban DRR (smart-city flood work) expanded, though implementation still varies by State.
How Sendai differs from Hyogo (2005)
- Hyogo Framework for Action (2005–2015) asked States to make DRR a national priority, know risk, build a culture of safety, reduce underlying risk, and strengthen preparedness. It was strong on process and institutions.
- Sendai keeps those ideas but adds seven global targets (deaths, affected people, economic loss, infrastructure damage, DRR strategies, international cooperation, early warning) that can be counted.
- Sendai names four priorities: understanding risk; strengthening governance; investing in resilience; enhancing preparedness for effective response and Build Back Better in recovery.
- Sendai widens the frame to man-made, biological, and environmental risks and to stakeholders (women, children, persons with disability, private sector), not only civil defence.
- It stresses the State’s primary role but also shared responsibility, and it links DRR to climate and development finance more tightly than Hyogo did.
- Hyogo measured progress in words and checklists; Sendai tries to measure outcomes by 2030.
Way forward
- Put district and city risk maps in land-use permission, or Sendai stays a central document.
- Fund mitigation (embankments that do not fail, heat action, seismic housing) as seriously as NDRF aircraft.
- Count Sendai targets in State budgets and in Finance Commission disaster windows.
- Include women and informal workers in drills; the dead in a heat wave are not only a meteorology problem.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD H[Hyogo 2005] --> INS[Institutions NDMA DM Act] S[Sendai 2015] --> TGT[Seven countable targets] S --> PRI[Four priorities BBB] INS --> IND[Indian DRR] TGT[TGT] --> IND[IND] PRI[PRI] --> IND[IND]
Conclusion
Before Sendai, India had already built NDMA, NDRF, and a 2005 law under the Hyogo push from relief to preparedness. After 2015 it aligned the national plan, PM agenda, and recovery slogan with Sendai’s targets and four priorities. Sendai differs from Hyogo by counting lives, losses, and warning systems, and by tying DRR to development and Build Back Better, not only to new institutions.
Quick related
Students also ask
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With reference to National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) guidelines, discuss the measures to be adopted to mitigate the impact of recent incidents of cloudbursts in many places of Uttarakhand.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2016 · Q16). View answer →
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Did India start DRR only after Sendai?
No. The 2005 Act and NDMA came in the Hyogo decade. Sendai changed the scoreboard and the recovery idea more than it created the first institution.
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What is the one-line difference between Hyogo and Sendai?
Hyogo built the DRR system. Sendai asks that system to cut deaths, losses, and damaged infrastructure by 2030 and to rebuild stronger.
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