21. Paradigm Shift in Drought Management Policies of India

Among various water related disasters, droughts are quite common in India with immense socio-economic impacts. The recent drought of 2002 affected 56% India's geographical area, 300 million people in 18 states and 45.2 million cattle in Rajasthan alone. India witnessed 17 major and 5 severe droughts during 1873 to 2003 with significant policy paradigm shifts and management process is still evolving dynamically. The Famine Commission (1880) and British administration developed codes, manuals and response procedures to minimize starvation deaths as an empirical management strategy. The policy was substantially restructured during 1965–66 drought which ushered in “green revolution” and extensive public distribution system. The management of 1972 drought prioritized economic access to food and policy of 1979 drought underpinned robustness and resilience of farming systems. The prevention and mitigation strategy of watershed management was hallmark of 1987 drought response. The 2002 drought was unique due to complete failure of rains in July with an overall 51% deficit and many codal formalities of providing relief were waved off. This unique experience triggered further refinement in the monitoring, assessment of losses, policies and institutional mechanisms. Traditional annawari system and estimating losses by crop cutting needs replacement with real time remote sensing, GIS, GPS and modelling techniques for ensuring transparency and quick response. Scope of losses may be extended to ground water depletion, damage to perennial tree/plantations, orchards and depletion in fertility of livestock. The insurance policy becomes inapplicable when farmers are not able to sow crops due to severe drought when it is needed the most. Food for work program constituted 68% of total relief of 20,000 crores during 2002 drought and may be dovetailed to mitigation stategies. Food, fooder, agricultural inputs and water banks may be established in vulnerable areas instead of their storage in surplus regions to avoid transport bottlenecks during the drought. Robust and rainfall independent off-farm livelihood opportunities may be targeted in the mitigation strategy. Conjunctive use of surface/ground water, aquifer recharge and watershed management with community participation is another important policy paradigm shift to be internalized fully. Strengthening of R&D and capacity building in terms of emerging information technologies and issues of damages is called upon to bring in resilience in the droght coping strategies.