October 13: International Day for Disaster Reduction

October 12, 2020

Every year, the United Nations marks the International Day for Disaster Reduction on October 13. The day is celebrated to spread how people and communities all over the world are reducing their exposure to disasters. The day is also called World Calamity Control Day.

This year, in 2020, the day is marked under the theme

Theme: Disaster Risk Governance

Highlights

The celebration of the day was first started in 1989. The United Nations Adopted Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015.

Sendai Framework

The seven strategic targets and 38 indicators were set to measure the progress on reducing disaster losses. Every year had a target to be achieved starting from 2016.

2016: Target 1: To reduce global disaster mortality by 2030. The aim is to reduce the global mortality rate in 2020-30 as compared to 2005-15.
2017: Target 2: To reduce number of people affected globally
2018: Target 3: To reduce disaster economic losses in terms of GDP
2019: Target 4: To reduce disruption of basic services due to disaster
2020: Target 5: To increase the number of countries that have National Disaster Risk Reduction Strategies by 2020
2021: Target 6: To enhance international cooperation through sustainable and adequate support
2022: Target 7: To increase availability of multi-hazard warning systems and assessments.

Based on Sendai Framework, India framed National Disaster Management Plan.

National Disaster Management Plan

It aims to make India disaster resilient. It was framed based on the four priority goals of Sendai Framework. Also, India has constituted Disaster Management Act, 2005. The plan aims to prevent, mitigate, respond and recover from a disaster. Around 18 broad activities were identified. They were as follows