Civil Defence is a statutory entity under Civil Defence Act 1968. The Director General, Fire & Rescue Service is the Director General, Civil Defence of Kerala since 2009.

Understanding the requirements for creating a robust Civil Defence system, the State Disaster Management Authority, in the State Disaster Management Plan, 2016 identified 'Community based disaster risk reduction – formation, training and capacity building of civil defence force in districts' as a 5-year plan to be implemented in the period from 2017-22.

In line with the decision of SEC to activate Civil Defence, the Director General Fire and Rescue Services and the Member Secretary, KSDMA visited National Civil Defence College (NCDC), Nagpur on 8th and 9th November 2017. Following this visit a detailed implementation plan was prepared by KSDMA and Fire & Rescue Services and incorporated in the 'Report of the sub-group for Disaster Management constituted vide Order No. 300/2016/AGRI (W10)/SPB dated 21-10-2016 and Updated based on Member Level Discussion held on 6-06-2017 at State Planning Board as part of the 13th Five Year Plan of the State'.

Activation of Civil Defence was placed for the decision of the State Executive Committee held on 20-10-2016 and the Committee decided as follows "Home Secretary is entrusted to create a comprehensive plan for activating the Civil Defence Force and place the matter before the next State Executive Committee. The concept of First Responder shall in detail be examined and adapted to Kerala’s specific needs as part of Civil Defence Force". An amount of Rs. 17 lakhs was provided to District Collector, Thrissur for the management of Civil Defence Institute vide Order No. DM/10/2009/SDMA dated 22/4/2017 of SDMA.

The State has vide GO (Ms) No. 132/2019/Home dated 30-8-2019 created Civil Defence under the Fire & Rescue Services. KSDMA provided Rs. 30 lakhs from its own plan funds vide Order No. DM/255/2015 in 2020.

Details of Civil Defence in Kerala may be found in https://www.cds.fire.kerala.gov.in/