ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on disaster management policies which were once considered merely a post-disaster management activity such as taking care of post-disaster problems and conducting operations which were better known as relief operations. Taking cognizance of rapidly rising human toll and economic losses due to natural disasters, the High Powered Committee in India shifted hereafter from rescue and relief to preparedness and mitigation. By 2005, in World Conference on Disaster Reduction (held in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan), a detailed framework of strategic goals, priority areas for action and tasks for stakeholders at operational levels was evolved. A few years after, United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction announced two years, 2010 and 2011, to be devoted to safer cities. The author argues that there are a number of areas which are yet to be attended to despite a plethora of laws around them. The author suggests that an apathetic city management itself prohibits a just approach towards disasters.
