nbr special report #34|november 2011

nontraditional security
challenges in india
Human Security and Disaster Management
TABLE OF CONTENTS

iii
1
9

Foreword
Mahin Karim
Human Security Challenges in India
Mallika Joseph
Challenges of Disaster Management in India:
Implications for the Economic, Political, and Security Environments
P.G. Dhar Chakrabarti

the national bureau

of

asian research

nbr special report #34 | november 2011

Human Security Challenges in India

Mallika Joseph

is Deputy Director at the Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies

(IPCS) in New Delhi, India. She is also on the UN Roster of Security Sector Reform
Experts. Her recent publications include Reintroducing Human Security in South
Asia (co-editor, 2007), From Human Security Deficit to Crisis: The Issue of Left
Extremism and Its Implications for Indias Internal Security (2007), Terrorism and
Its Repercussions on International Politics (co-editor, 2003), and Missing Boundaries:
Refugees, Migrants, Stateless and Internally Displaced Persons in South Asia (coeditor,
2003). She can be reached at <mallikajoseph@gmail.com>.
MALLIKA JOSEPH

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This essay briefly analyzes the significant human security challenges that India faces
today and identifies those that are likely to persist in 2025.

MAIN FINDINGS
While India is home to the worlds richest people, it is also home to the worlds poorest.
This huge economic disparity will determine the status of human and national security in
India in 2025. Advances in mass communication have contributed to a more integrated,
interdependent, and informed polity that is unlikely to continue passively accepting such
stark economic disparities.
Many policies in India continue to be driven by state-centric frameworks. While reforms
are under way to make the government more accountable, transparent, and responsive
to the needs of the people, the implementation of these reforms is undermined by high
levels of corruption, the criminalization of politics, and weak institutions.
There is a lack of clear understanding about the elements of human insecurity that are
manifest in India. When communities in India revolt as a result of their loss of dignity or
access to land, the government views this only as a law-and-order problem that requires
police action, rather than implementing responses that are as multidimensional as the
causes themselves.
Chronic misgovernance and total administrative apathy for the developmental needs of
marginalized communities have resulted in pockets of acute human security deficit. The
rise in regional radicalization and the growing influence of left extremism, such as the
Naxalite movement, are only symptoms of emerging disaffection with the government.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS
If India wishes to reap the future benefits of a vibrant economy, it must address the
growing economic disparity in its population. The state of human security in India
fifteen years from now will largely depend on its ability to close this gap.
Many of Indias human security concerns continue to be located within its institutions
and structures, which are not easily or equally accessible to all its citizens. Unless India
is able to develop social and political delivery systems that distribute the benefits of
economic growth beyond the privileged few, the countrys potential to be a regional or
global power will be limited.
Left extremism is likely to be one of the most serious challenges to Indian security in
the forthcoming decade if the government does not address basic issues of governance
and accountability.

ccording to a study of Indias economic prospects for this decade (201020), the countrys
GDP will grow at an average annual rate of 9.6%, even in the absence of reforms.1 This
is largely due to Indias savings rate and incremental capital output ratio (ICOR). As one
author remarks, There is virtually nothing that our leaders or any other sundry actors
can do to prevent this.2 Further, if attempts are made to change the status quo and initiate reforms,
the potential for growth increases exponentially. Besides offering the promise of economic growth
and favorable demography, this decade will be crucial in determining Indias power status in the
global matrix and whether New Delhi can finally be a game changer in international politics. The
critical question, however, is how many people in India will actually benefit from this growth? Will
it reduce the level of poverty? Will it ensure better human security for Indias citizens?
Despite the forecast of robust economic growth over the next ten years, 250 million people
in India will continue to live in poverty as large populations remain dependent on a lethargic
agricultural sector. While literacy levels will increase, in 2020 India will still only have 73 million
college graduates.3 The countrys potential to maximize its demographic advantage will become a
reality only if these trends are reversed. The state of human security in India in 2025 thus largely
depends on how well India assesses its strengths and weaknesses and strategizes to address
these challenges.
The paradigm of human security has evolved considerably since its inception as an alternative
to a traditional state-centric security framework. Despite the various arguments against the
increasing securitization of socioeconomic concerns, human security today provides the moral
fiber for many foreign policies, state actions, and international interventions. However, statecentric frameworks continue to drive Indian policymaking. Although reforms are under way
that seek to make the government more accountable, transparent, and responsive to the needs
of the people, implementing these reforms is challenging, given the high levels of corruption, the
criminalization of politics, and weak institutions of governance.
The problem is further accentuated by a lack of understanding of the elements of human
insecurity that are manifest in India. Advocates of human security highlight how both violence
and physical safety are major concerns for the poor, often dominating their lives to a greater
extent than income poverty.4 The poor define poverty in multidimensional ways that encompass
self-respect, autonomy, access to land, and so on, rather than income alone.5 When affected
communities in India revolt as a result of loss of dignity or access to land, the government is
only able to view such unrest as a law-and-order problem that requires police action, rather than
implementing responses that are as multidimensional as the causes themselves.
Many of Indias human security concerns continue to be focused on the countrys social and
political institutions and structures, which are not easily or equally accessible to all citizens. This
is best explained by Patrick Hayden:

1 Saubhik

Chakrabarti, Happy New Decade, India, Indian Express, January 1, 2010.

2 Jaithirth

Rao, Millennial Bharat, 2020 India, Indian Express, January 1, 2010.

3 Chakrabarti,

Happy New Decade, India.

McIlwaine and Caroline Moser, Poverty, Violence and Livelihood Security in Urban Colombia and Guatemala, Progress in
Development Studies 3, no. 2 (April 2003): 113.

4 Cathy

5 McIlwaine

and Moser, Poverty, Violence and Livelihood Security, 115.

HUMAN SECURITY CHALLENGES IN INDIA u JOSEPH

From the human security and peace approach, it is possible to expose some
of the structural practices that are the source of threats to human security
and violations of basic human rights. For example, a state might not formally
be at war, whether externally or internally, but its social, cultural, and legal
institutions may be structured according to discriminatory beliefs and policies
that deny basic rights and access to education, employment, or health care to
certain individuals. In cases where social practices deny education, housing,
the opportunity to work or to participate in governance because of race,
religion, sex, and so forth, great psychological, social, and economic harm is
being done to human beings, even if bullets and bombs are not being used. 6

The institutionalized structural cleavages that block unfettered access to all goods and services
constitute the principal challenge for India both today and in 2025: unless New Delhi is able to
spread the benefits of economic growth and open up its institutions beyond the privileged few,
the countrys potential to become a regional or global player will be in question. This essay will
analyze the significant human security challenges that India faces today and identify those that
are likely to persist in 2025.

Human Security Challenges in India in 2025

Notwithstanding favorable predictions of economic growth, India is still confronted by
internal challenges that will have an impact on the countrys human security if basic issues of
governance and accountability are not addressed. Left extremism, specifically in the form of
violence perpetrated by Naxalites,7 is likely to be one of the most serious challenges to Indian
security in the forthcoming decade. Chronic misgovernance and total administrative apathy for
the developmental needs of marginalized communities have resulted in an acute human security
deficit that in particular has been exploited by Naxalites purporting to support the cause of the
downtrodden. The states counter-Naxalite strategies primarily have adopted a state-centric
perspective and have failed to address the human security deficit that is the root cause of the
violence. The situation has deteriorated to a level where even the state faces a security deficit.
Additionally, there are signs that global trends in radicalization are now at play in India.
Cleavages are growing more pronounced along religious, regional, and ethnic lines due to this
radicalization process. With the promise of economic growth, India is also likely to witness an
increase in organized criminal activity. The current trend of growing links between organized crime
and terrorism, if it continues, is likely to pose a phenomenal challenge to the nation-state. While
admittedly these are worst-case scenarios, they could become real if the government does not step
in to arrest some of the most prominent negative drivers. Specifically, the human security situation
in 2025 is likely to be determined by New Delhis ability to address the following three issues:
uneven economic growth and distribution, corruption, and the lack of accountable institutions.

Hayden, Constraining War: Human Security and the Human Right to Peace, Human Rights Review 6, no. 1 (OctoberDecember
2004): 43.

6 Patrick
7 The

term Naxalite draws its origin from the armed peasant resistance against landlords that began in March 1967 in a small village called
Naxalbari in the Indian state of West Bengal. Three sharecroppers and 150 members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist),
or CPI (ML), lifted the entire stock of grain from a landlords granary without giving him his share. This act signaled the birth of a new
movement, and since then, all forms of armed struggle deriving from socioeconomic conditions have been called Naxalite. Other terms that
are used to describe the movement are left-wing extremism and radical Maoism.

NBR SPECIAL REPORT u NOVEMBER 2011

the national bureau

of

asian research

nbr special report #34 | november 2011

Challenges of Disaster Management

in India: Implications for the Economic,
Political, and Security Environments
P.G. Dhar Chakrabarti

P.G. DHAR CHAKRABARTI is the former Executive Director of the National Institute for
Disaster Management in India and the former Director of the Disaster Management
Centre of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) based
in New Delhi. He has also served as a member of the Advisory Group of the UN
Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) as well as of expert groups of the UN
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) and the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA). Dr. Chakrabarti is the author of
several publications on disaster management and founding editor of two journals
Disaster and Development and Journal of South Asia Disaster Studies. He can be
reached at <dharc@nic.in>.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This essay examines the disaster management challenges in India and assesses
the implications of those challenges for that countrys economic, political, and
security environments.

MAIN FINDINGS
In the past two decades, Indias public policy on disaster management has shifted from
a focus on relief and rehabilitation efforts to holistic management of disasters. This
new policy approach incorporates pre-disaster issues of prevention, mitigation, and
preparedness, as well as post-disaster issues of response, recovery, and reconstruction.
New initiatives, such as mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in development, building
capacity through education and greater awareness at all levels, and utilizing advanced
technologies, have enhanced Indias preparedness for each phase of disaster management.
Unsafe building practices in rapidly growing urban settlements constitute one of Indias
greatest challenges for disaster management. A major earthquake in any of Indias densely
and heavily populated cities in seismic zones would be catastrophic in terms of fatalities.
Climate change has far-reaching implications for managing disaster risk in India, as the
frequency and intensity of flash floods, landslides, droughts, cyclones, and storm surges
are expected to increase in upcoming decades.

POLICY IMPLICATIONS
While significant achievements have been made in post-disaster response and reconstruction,
there are still formidable challenges to reducing the risk of future disasters.
Disaster management policies must incorporate programs to protect the most vulnerable
segments of societythe poor, marginalized, women, children, disabled, and elderly.
Mechanisms must be designed and adopted for transferring lessons learned for pre- and
post-disaster management between communities.
Given that natural disasters do not always follow national boundaries, cross-boundary
issues of disaster management should be addressed through enhanced regional
cooperation. Furthermore, an effective regional response system should be developed to
pool capacity for mutual benefit.

he hazards of nature and the vulnerabilities of social, economic, and environmental

conditions combine to make India one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world.1
Nearly 59% of Indias land mass is prone to earthquakes of varying magnitudes. The
average frequency of earthquakes with a magnitude greater than seven is once every three
and a half years. A sharp rise in population and unsafe building practices compound the risks
of earthquakes, particularly in urban areas. About 8% of the geographical area of India, which
is equivalent to 40 million hectares, is subject to riverine and flash floods. Nearly 60% of the net
area sown in the country is prone to droughtshalf of it critically so, with annual precipitation of
less than 750 millimeters. Indias long coastline, nearly 8,000 kilometers, faces regular threats of
cyclones, storm surges, and inundation both before and after the monsoon season.
Nearly all of Indias one billionplus people are exposed to one or more forms of natural
disasters. About one-third of the population is critically affected due to residing in multi-hazard
prone areas.2 Poor economic and social conditions make these people highly vulnerable to such
hazards. The average number of annual deaths due to natural disasters in India is around 4,500
humans and 40,000 animals. Nearly 2.5 million houses are damaged and over 1.5 million hectares
of standing crops are destroyed every year. Furthermore, damaged critical infrastructure poses
serious threats to the manufacturing and marketing processes.3 According to the global database
of disasters, India ranks third in the number of disaster events, second in the number of disaster
victims, and fifth in economic damage due to natural disasters.4 A World Bank study pegs Indias
annual loss due to disasters at close to 2.25% of GDP,5 and it is difficult to make equivalent
resources available for public health or education.
The high rate of natural disasters is compounded by man-made disasters of various types. Some
are so regular and widely dispersed across territoriessuch as road accidents, infant and maternal
mortality, malnutrition, and water and air pollutionthat they do not create the sensation of
sudden disruption, despite the huge loss of lives that results. Others, such as industrial accidents,
fires, collapsed buildings, and serial bomb blasts, have all the ingredients of disasters and put
considerable stress on normal administrative and socioeconomic mechanisms. Added to these are
the threats of nuclear, biological, and chemical disasters, as well as the recent threat of pandemics
created by swine flu and avian influenza.

Paradigm Shift in Public Policies and Practices

Four mega-disasters that each claimed more than ten thousand livesthe Latur and Bhuj
earthquakes in 1993 and 2001, the super cyclone in Orissa in 1999, and the Indian Ocean tsunami
in 2004triggered a gradual but consistent shift in public policy on disaster management. No
longer primarily focused on relief and rehabilitation efforts, policy approaches now seek holistic
1 Parts

of this essay were previously published in Disaster Management & Climate Change: Indian Policy Frameworks and Key Challenges,
Centre for Social Markets, Discussion Paper Series, January 2011.
Materials and Technology Promotion Council, Vulnerability Atlas of India, First Revision: Earthquake, Windstorm and Flood
Hazard Maps and Damage Risk to Housing (New Delhi: Building Materials and Technology Promotion Council, 2006).

2 Building

3 Ministry

of Home Affairs, Government of India, Annual Report 200809 (New Delhi, 2009), http://www.mha.nic.in/pdfs/AR(E)0809.pdf.

Guha-Sapir, David Hargitt, and Philippe Hoyois, Thirty Years of Natural Disasters 19742003: The Numbers (Brussels: Presses
Universitaires de Louvain, 2004).

4 Debarati

5 Financing

Rapid Onset Natural Disaster Losses in India: A Risk Management Approach, World Bank, Report, no. 26844-IN, August 2003,
http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB/2003/11/10/000090341_20031110134554/Rendered/
PDF/268440IN.pdf.

CHALLENGES OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT IN INDIA u CHAKRABARTI

11

management of disasters that addresses pre-disaster issues of prevention, mitigation, and

preparedness as well as post-disaster issues of response, recovery, and reconstruction.
Heralding this paradigm shift in public policy, Indias Tenth Five-Year Plan (20027) stated:
The traditional perception relating to the management and mitigation of
natural disasters has been limited to the idea of calamity relief, which is seen
essentially as a non-plan item of expenditure. However, the impact of major
disasters cannot be mitigated by the provision of immediate relief alone, which
is the primary focus of calamity relief efforts. Disasters can have devastating
effects on the economy; they cause huge human and economic losses, and
can significantly set back development efforts of a region or a State. With the
kind of economic losses and developmental setbacks that the country has been
suffering year after year, the development process needs to be sensitive towards
disaster prevention and mitigation aspects. There is thus a need to look at
disasters from a development perspective as well. 6

The plan also laid down a blueprint for the future:

The future blue-print for disaster management in India rests on the premise
that in todays society while hazards, both natural or otherwise, are inevitable,
the disasters that follow need not be so and the society can be prepared to
cope with them effectively whenever they occur. The need of the hour is to
chalk out a multi-pronged strategy for total risk management, comprising
prevention, preparedness, response and recovery, on the one hand, and initiate
development efforts aimed towards risk reduction and mitigation, on the
other. Only then can we look forward to sustainable development.7

Based on this philosophy, a holistic framework for national disaster management has been
developed, which highlights the interdependence of economy, environment, and development.
This framework also links the issues of poverty alleviation, capacity-building, and community
empowerment, on the one hand, and structural and non-structural issues of prevention, response,
and recovery, on the other, for effective management of disaster risk.8
A comprehensive legal and institutional framework for disaster management has been set up
through the Disaster Management Act passed by the Indian parliament in 2005. The act establishes
a series of disaster management authorities at the national, state, and district levels, which are
headed by the prime minister, provincial chief minister, and district magistrate and president,
respectively. The act defines the functions and responsibilities of these bodies, prescribes the
process to be followed for the preparation of disaster management plans at all levels, and provides
for dedicated funds for disaster response and mitigation.

Recent Initiatives for Disaster Management in India

The Indian government has adopted a number of new initiatives to improve its disaster
preparedness. The utilization of advanced technology is a critical component of Indias new
Commission, Government of India, Tenth Five Year Plan (200207), Vol. 1: Dimensions and Strategies (New Delhi, December
2002), 189.

6 Planning

Commission, Government of India, Tenth Five Year Plan (2002-07), Vol. 2: Sectoral Policies and Programmes (New Delhi,
December 2002), 202.

7 Planning

12

8 Ministry

of Home Affairs, Government of India, Disaster Management in India: A Status Report (New Delhi, August 2004).

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