India's disaster management framework: law, institutions and funds

The first principle

Disaster management in India began as charity after the event and has slowly become a duty to reduce risk before it. A relief code can feed people once a famine has struck, but only a law that assigns clear responsibility, a standing force and a steady flow of money for prevention can stop the next flood from becoming a disaster. Every institution in this note is an answer to one question: who must act, with what money, before, during and after a disaster.

The core

From relief to risk reduction

• Relief codes. After the Famine Commission of 1880, provinces adopted famine codes that told officials how to recognise scarcity and run relief works. Independent India kept this relief approach, coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture and run by State relief commissioners.
• The turning point. The Odisha super cyclone of 1999, the Gujarat earthquake of January 2001 and the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004 showed that relief alone could not cope. The High Powered Committee under J C Pant, set up in 1999, recommended an all hazard approach and a culture of prevention; in 2002 the subject moved from the Ministry of Agriculture to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which remains the nodal ministry, though drought and some farm hazards stay with Agriculture.
• The Second Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC). Its third report, Crisis Management: From Despair to Hope (2006), argued that disaster management must shift from relief to risk reduction, be built into development planning and give local bodies a larger role as first responders.

The Disaster Management Act 2005

• A three tier structure. The Act, passed in December 2005, created the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) under Section 3, chaired by the Prime Minister with up to nine members; State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMAs) under Section 14, chaired by Chief Ministers; and District Disaster Management Authorities (DDMAs) under Section 25, chaired by the Collector or District Magistrate, with the elected head of the local body as co chair. NDMA lays down policies, plans and guidelines, and the National Executive Committee (NEC), chaired by the Union Home Secretary under Section 8, carries them out; State Executive Committees, under Chief Secretaries, do the same in each State.
• Training and a force. The National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) under Section 42 trains officials and does research, and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) under Section 44 is the specialist force, raised in 2006 from battalions of the Central Armed Police Forces and now 16 battalions strong.
• Funds. Section 46 creates the National Disaster Response Fund, Section 47 the National Disaster Mitigation Fund, and Section 48 the State response and mitigation funds. The mitigation funds lay unused until the Supreme Court and the Fifteenth Finance Commission forced them into use.
• Wide powers. The Act lets governments issue binding directions in a disaster; the nationwide Covid lockdown of 2020 was ordered under it.

The Disaster Management (Amendment) Act 2025

The amendment, introduced in August 2024, passed by the Lok Sabha in December 2024 and the Rajya Sabha in March 2025, received the President's assent on 29 March 2025. Its main changes are these.

• Plans and databases. NDMA and SDMAs now prepare the national and State plans themselves, in place of the executive committees, and maintain national and State disaster databases covering risks, fund allocation and spending, and preparedness and mitigation plans. NDMA can also assess State preparedness, audit preparedness and response after a disaster, and make regulations.
• Urban authorities. Under a new Section 41A, States may set up Urban Disaster Management Authorities for State capitals and cities with municipal corporations, except Delhi and Chandigarh, chaired by the Municipal Commissioner with the Collector as vice chairperson.
• State forces. Under Section 44A, States may constitute a State Disaster Response Force on the NDRF model, with functions and service terms set by the State.
• Statutory committees. The National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), chaired by the Cabinet Secretary, and the High Level Committee, chaired by the Union Minister in charge of disaster management, which approves central assistance from the national funds, now have a basis in law.

Dimensions

• Federal. Disaster management is not named in any list of the Seventh Schedule, so Parliament enacted the 2005 Act under Entry 23 of the Concurrent List (social security and social insurance), while States, which carry out relief, depend on central money and guidelines. Damage assessment by central teams and sanctions by the High Level Committee are therefore frequent sources of friction.
• Financial. Relief is paid only for notified disasters and only at central norms, so a hazard outside the list or a loss above the norm falls on the State budget.
• Legal and social. Courts have read the Act's duties as binding, and the 2019 plan added social inclusion so that relief reaches women, persons with disabilities and migrants.
• Administrative. The Collector leads at the district level, but urban flooding and heat now demand city level command, which is why the 2025 amendment created urban authorities.

In practice

Money: the Finance Commission windows

• Before 2021. The Calamity Relief Fund (from 1990) and the National Calamity Contingency Fund (from 2000) gave way in 2010 to the State and National Disaster Response Funds, with the Centre paying 75 per cent of each State fund, and 90 per cent for the Northeast and Himalayan States.
• The Fifteenth Finance Commission (2021-26) replaced relief funds with risk management funds: Rs 1,60,153 crore for the States and Rs 68,463 crore for the Centre. Each was split 80 per cent to response and 20 per cent to mitigation, and the response share was divided into windows of 40 per cent for response and relief, 30 per cent for recovery and reconstruction and 10 per cent for preparedness and capacity building. It also earmarked national money for urban flooding in the seven most populous cities and for fire services.
• The Sixteenth Finance Commission (2026-31), whose report was tabled in February 2026, raised the corpus to Rs 2,04,401 crore for the States and Rs 79,406 crore for the Centre, kept the 80 to 20 split for the States, moved preparedness into the mitigation funds and allocated money by a disaster risk index built by multiplying hazard, exposure and vulnerability scores. It also made complete data on the National Disaster Management Information System a condition for claims from the second year.
• The notified list. The funds pay for twelve notified disasters: cyclone, drought, earthquake, fire, flood, tsunami, hailstorm, landslide, avalanche, cloudburst, pest attack, and frost and cold wave. States may spend up to 10 per cent of their fund on local disasters outside the list, and in August 2026 the Ministry of Home Affairs told Parliament that heat wave and lightning had been added on the Sixteenth Finance Commission's recommendation.

Policy, plans and courts

• The National Policy on Disaster Management (2009) set the vision of a safe and disaster resilient India through a holistic, proactive, multi hazard and technology driven strategy built on a culture of prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response.
• The National Disaster Management Plan (2016), India's first national plan, was aligned with the Sendai Framework and gave every ministry a responsibility matrix across the disaster management cycle; its 2019 revision added social inclusion, mainstreaming of risk reduction and more hazards.
• Swaraj Abhiyan v Union of India (May 2016). In a case on drought, the Supreme Court found the Act largely unimplemented and directed the Centre to set up the National Disaster Mitigation Fund, formulate a national plan, give the NDRF a regular cadre and revise the Drought Management Manual.
• Gaurav Kumar Bansal v Union of India (June 2021). The Court held that NDMA had a binding duty under Section 12 to recommend minimum standards of relief, including ex gratia for deaths, and directed it to frame guidelines for families of those who died of Covid; NDMA then fixed Rs 50,000 per death.

Issues and way forward

• Response still dominates. Most money and attention still go to relief, and mitigation projects need technical capacity that many States lack; the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Finance Commissions' ring fenced mitigation funds should be matched by State level project preparation units.
• Weak authorities. Many SDMAs and DDMAs have few permanent staff and meet rarely, as audits by the Comptroller and Auditor General have found; the 2025 amendment lets NDMA build its own staff, and States need to do the same for their authorities with permanent technical cadres.
• A list that lags the hazards. Heat and lightning, among the largest killers, waited two decades for notification, and urban flooding is still treated only as flood; periodic review of the list on mortality data would keep it current.
• Urban gaps. Urban authorities are optional and Municipal Commissioners often lack command over other departments, so their success depends on States giving them staff and powers.
• Centralisation. The amendment adds bodies at the top while panchayats and municipalities, the real first responders, still lack funds and roles, which the Second ARC asked to be fixed.

Common confusions

• NDRF the force and NDRF the fund. The National Disaster Response Force (Section 44) is the trained personnel; the National Disaster Response Fund (Section 46) is the money. The same pair exists at State level as the State Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Fund.
• NDMA and NEC. NDMA, under the Prime Minister, lays down policy and approves plans; the NEC, under the Union Home Secretary, is the executive arm that coordinates ministries.
• Response fund and mitigation fund. The response fund pays after a notified disaster strikes; the mitigation fund pays for works that reduce risk before one.

For the exam

• Keyword bank: Disaster Management Act 2005, Disaster Management (Amendment) Act 2025, three tier authorities, Urban Disaster Management Authority, NDRF and State Disaster Response Force, National Disaster Response Fund, mitigation fund, funding windows, notified disasters, cost sharing 75 to 25, disaster risk index, National Disaster Management Plan, disaster database, minimum standards of relief.
• Previous year questions: Practise the previous year questions on this topic →
• Use in an answer:
  • Introduction with data: The Sixteenth Finance Commission has set aside about Rs 2.84 lakh crore for disaster risk management in 2026-31, with a fifth of the State share reserved for mitigation, which marks India's shift from relief to risk reduction.
  • Introduction with a judgement: In Gaurav Kumar Bansal v Union of India (2021), the Supreme Court held that NDMA's duty to lay down minimum standards of relief is mandatory, not optional.
  • Conclusion: The 2005 Act built the structure and the 2025 amendment filled its gaps in cities, States and data; the task now is to staff the authorities and spend the mitigation funds well.
  • Conclusion: A framework is judged in the last mile, so the district, the city and the panchayat must have the money, people and powers that the law now promises.