Disaster Scorecards

In this era of ranking, when everything from educational institutions, clean cities, railway stations, and even happiness is being ranked, states’ “disaster resilience” is the latest addition. The Ministry of Home Affairs has recently released, for public opinion, a draft “Disaster Management Scorecard for the States and Union Territories of India.” The proposed scorecard quantifies disaster risk and resilience in a composite framework. It seeks to convey how disaster-resilient each state or union territory is, on the basis of their risk index, as well as various measures taken to mitigate and prepare for any eventualities.

As much as the draft report claims not to be a mechanism to reward or penalise states on the basis of their scores, it carries the potential of becoming a reference point for plans and programmes, most crucially, in central fund allocation. It is therefore imperative to scrutinise this initiative of government, both for its implication, as well as for its utility as a planning tool. Without bringing into dispute the ranking itself, the focus here is mainly on its scope and method.