JAWAHARLAL NEHRU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY HYDERABAD B.Tech IV Year DISASTER MANAGEMENT Previous Question Paper (September - 2022 - R16)

National policy responses to economic vulnerability focus on reducing the impact of disasters on livelihoods and ensuring rapid recovery. Key strategies include:

• Financial Inclusion and Insurance: Promoting crop insurance schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana to protect farmers from climate-induced losses and expanding micro-finance access for the poor.
• Social Safety Nets: Implementing public works programs such as MGNREGA, which provide guaranteed employment during non-disaster periods and serve as a critical income source for vulnerable populations during recovery phases.
• Disaster Resilient Infrastructure: Investing in public infrastructure that minimizes economic disruption, such as flood-resistant irrigation and cyclone-proof storage facilities.
• Contingency Funds: Maintaining the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Funds (SDRF) to provide immediate liquidity for relief and restoration of economic activities.

Disaster management involves a shift from reactive relief-based models to proactive risk-reduction frameworks. The primary approaches include:

• The Relief-Centric Approach: Traditionally the most common, this focuses on post-disaster response, search and rescue, and the distribution of emergency aid. While essential, it is reactive and does not address the root causes of vulnerability.
• The Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Approach: This proactive strategy aims to minimize vulnerabilities before a disaster occurs. It emphasizes hazard mapping, land-use planning, and the construction of resilient infrastructure to prevent hazards from becoming disasters.
• The Sustainable Development Approach: This integrates disaster management into long-term development planning. It recognizes that disasters are often a result of unsustainable development practices; therefore, development projects must undergo disaster-impact assessments to ensure they do not increase community risk.
• The Community-Based Disaster Management (CBDM) Approach: This approach empowers local communities to identify their own risks and resources. By training local volunteers and creating community-led early warning systems, it ensures that the first line of response is immediate, culturally appropriate, and highly effective.
• The Holistic/Integrated Approach: This combines all the above, linking pre-disaster mitigation and preparedness with post-disaster recovery and reconstruction, ensuring that the recovery process 'builds back better' to reduce future risk.