Mainstream WeeklyThe Narendra Modi-led BJP government has forcefully passed the Disaster Management (Amendment) Act, 2025 & brought India’s disaster management policy, on the surface, appears to be modernising. The recent revision of norms for the State and National Disaster Response Funds (SDRF/NDRF) for 2022-23 to 2025-26, communicated by the Ministry of Home Affairs in July 2023, presents itself as a blueprint for a robust response.
However, a critical examination reveals that these developments are not steps forward but a coordinated regression. This article provides a critical analysis of India’s contemporary disaster management architecture, arguing that these recent policy and legislative changes represent a systematic retreat from the state’s constitutional duty to provide equitable and robust relief. By examining the revised SDRF/NDRF norms alongside the profound shifts introduced by the 2025 Amendment, this analysis reveals a framework that is structurally blind to ground realities, institutionally discriminatory, and deliberately designed to absolve the central government and corporate capital of responsibility. Together, they form an architecture of calculated abdication, systematically dismantling principles of equity and federalism.
This evolving framework prioritises fiscal minimalism and political expediency over the lives, livelihoods, and dignity of affected populations, perpetuating large-scale injustice and betraying the foundational principles of humanitarian assistance.
The Operational Failure