In June 2016, India launched its first National Disaster Management Plan (NDMP) with the aim of improving the country's resilience to disasters and reducing the loss of lives and assets. Hailed as one of the first national level plans which is aligned to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR), India's NDMP not only adheres to the spirit of SFDRR, it also entails provisions to help India reach the goals set in SFDRR.
This issue of Southasiadisasters.net is titled, 'First SFDRR Aligned National Disaster Management Plan'. It highlights the importance of the NDMP and its significance to resilience building in India. The articles in this issue address one of the five thematic areas of the SFDRR, viz. Understanding Risk; Inter-Agency Coordination; Investing in DRR – Structural Measures; Investing in DRR – Non-Structural Measures; Capacity Development.
This issue's contents includes: (i) India's National Disaster Management Plan: Clear on Risk Transfer and Insurance; (ii) Voluntary Action after Disaster; (iii) Locating Health in Smart Cities; (iv) Resilience in Flood Management through Technology; (v) Caring after Crisis: Meeting the Needs of the Caregivers; (vi) Photo Essay of Visit to Tamil Nadu after Tsunami; (vii) IMI and Disaster Risk Reduction: A Meeting Report; and (viii) Child Centered DRR–An Approach Addressing Lives, Rights and Needs of Children.
Some of the best thinkers, researchers, experts, and activists, including Mihir R. Bhatt with AIDMI Team; Divita Shandilya, Documentation and Research Officer, Voluntary Action Network India (VANI); Dr. Nitish Dogra, Sector Adviser (Health & Nutrition), TARU Leading Edge Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi; Amarjeet Singh; Anil Patil, Founder and Executive Director, Carers Worldwide, Hertfordshire, UK; Barbara Weber, Retired Licensed Clinical Social Worker from near Philadelphia, PA, USA; Mridula Paul, Programme Director, Integrated Mountain Initiative and Apoorva Patel, Assistant Professor of Social Work, Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar.