(wl-1926)-Creating a Database: Disaster Management (Amendment) Act, 2025

The Disaster Management (Amendment) Bill 2024 was tabled in the parliament in August, this year. This paper focuses on a new provision which this bill introduces- creating disaster database at the national and the state level. It is argued that while such databases can be useful, there is a lack of clarity over the scope and the purpose which they intend to fulfill. Drawing from previous attempts, both nationally and internationally, it is proposed that an integrated disaster database architecture be developed, catering to different stakeholders at multiple levels and with a focus ranging from disaster risk identification, to risk assessment and monitoring, planning, emergency situation analysis, damage and loss assessment, to a more detailed recovery and need assessment. Its scope thus must not be limited to assessing disaster impact, or inventorying fund allocation and expenditure status etc. and instead it should address data requirement comprising different functions under disaster risk reduction.