COVID-19 as a Notified Disaster

Why in News?

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will treat COVID-19 as a notified disaster for providing assistance under the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).

What is a disaster?

• The Disaster Management Act, 2005 (DM Act, 2005) has given a definition for disaster.
• Disaster is a catastrophe, calamity or grave occurrence in any area, arising from natural or man-made causes.
• It may result in substantial loss of life or human suffering or damage to, and destruction of, property or environment.
• Disaster would be of nature or magnitude as to be beyond the coping capacity of the community of the affected area.

How are disasters classified?

• The High Power Committee on Disaster Management of 1999 had identified 31 disaster categories.
• This committee organised these categories into 5 major sub-groups,
  1. Water and climate related disasters
  2. Geological related disasters
  3. Chemical, industrial and nuclear related disasters
  4. Accident Related Disasters
  5. Biological related disasters, which includes epidemics.

What is SDRF?

• The SDRF was constituted under the DM Act, 2005.
• It is the primary fund available with the State governments for responses to notified disasters.
• This fund will help the State governments meet expenditure for providing immediate relief to the victims.
• The disasters covered under the SDRF include cyclones, droughts, tsunamis, hailstorms, landslides and pest attacks among others.

How much does the Centre contribute?

• The Centre contributes 75% of the SDRF allocation for general category States and Union Territories.
• It contributes 90% of the SDRF allocation for special category States (northeast, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir).
• For SDRF, the Centre releases funds in two equal instalments as per the recommendation of the Finance Commission.
• The National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), also constituted under the DM Act, 2005, will supplement the SDRF of a state.
• The NDRF will support the SDRF in case of a disaster of severe nature, if adequate funds are not available in the SDRF.

Have there been such instances in the past?

• In 2001, the National Committee on Disaster Management under then Prime Minister was mandated to look into the parameters that should define a national calamity.
• However, the committee did not suggest any fixed criterion.
• As of now, there is no executive or legal provision to declare a national calamity.
• In 2018, in view of the devastation caused by the Kerala floods, Kerala politicians demanded that the floods be declared a “national calamity”.
• There have been demands from states to declare certain events as natural disasters, such as the Uttarakhand flood (2013).

Source: The Hindu, The Indian Express