Careers in Disaster Management

DISASTER management is a strategy to avoid, reduce, manage and overcome any type of catastrophic event that threatens human lives. It is done by identifying potential disasters, man-made or natural, and by creating contingency plans and procedures to be initiated when and if disaster erupts.

Know your domain: A Master’s course in disaster management offers a mix of thematic and issue-based courses that deal with aspects such as relationships between environment, livelihood and disasters.

They also include the skills essential for intervention in disasters, as well as their prevention. The programme builds up a multi-disciplinary knowledge base. Students develop expertise in areas such as logistics and supply chain management, public health, information and communication and peace, which are useful in the long run.

Be eligible: The Master’s programme needs a Bachelor’s degree in any discipline, and correspondence certificate courses need Class 12. Working professionals are eligible for short and long-term courses. An MBA requires at least a year of work experience. 
 

Job prospects: There are employment opportunities in government and non-government organisations, as well as consultancy companies. You can also consider a career in research, training and teaching.
For instance, you could work in institutions such as Delhi Disaster Management Authority, State Institute of Disaster Management, Urban Disaster Risk Reduction Research Centre, JTCDM, SVARAJ in Doddaballapur, Kerala and international NGOs like the Red Cross. Large industrial establishments also maintain disaster management cells.

Where to study: “The National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) provides short-term courses ranging from one to five days. These programmes are  mainly meant for government officials at mid and senior levels,” says Colonel Prabod Pathak of NIDM. “We have  web-based e-learning courses of four and six weeks, in collaboration with The World Bank, Washington,” he adds.

The Jamsetji Tata Centre for Disaster Management offers a Master’s course. Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi offers an MBA in Disaster Management. Training is also imparted by The Disaster Management Institute, Madhya Pradesh, All India Disaster Management Institute and Gujarat Institute of Disaster Management, among others.

Entry level salaries: They range from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 1 lakh depending on  the sector and job profile. Delhi Disaster Management Authority, a public sector enterprise, for instance, offers a junior executive assistant a consolidated salary of Rs. 20,000.

PROFESSOR JANKI ANDHARIA
PhD, Jamsetji Tata Centre for Disaster Management, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

In the last 10 years, disasters have affected approximately 3 billion people, killing 750,000. Data collected by the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disaster (CRED), Belgium, indicated that the casualty rate and losses incurred due to disasters, has increased phenomenally. So also the rise in the number of disasters, thus demanding qualified professionals to tackle them.

Organisations and agencies involved in disaster management find it necessary to recruit professionals with specific skills and knowledge. Further, scholars and researchers across the world are increasingly involved in conceptual work, evaluation studies and in the prediction of disasters. Technologies are being evolved or reassessed for their implications for disasters and their effective management. But disaster management is yet to be recognised as a specialised field by Indian universities, although it seems to be emerging globally as a full-fledged academic discipline.

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), has a tradition of responding to a disasters in India, and TISS’ interventions date back to 1947, when the institute sent a student-faculty team to Kurukshetra (in Haryana) to work with Pakistani refugees.

Since then, the institute has responded to floods, riots, cyclones, earthquakes and industrial disasters, including the tsunamis of December 2004, Mumbai floods of July 2005, the Kashmir earthquake of 2006 and the Mumbai terror attack of 2008.

Core intervention areas include relief management, assessment of losses/ needs, psycho-social intervention, training and capacity-building, demonstration of participatory processes, advocacy, policy formulation, mobilisation of human resources, popularising appropriate technology, NGO coordination, publications and documentation, and peace initiatives in the context of communal tensions.

In our analysis, disaster response in India has been constrained by several factors ranging from weak government policies to fragmented disaster management strategies. Having contributed systematically to disaster response in India, our experience suggested the need to develop qualified, skilled and committed professionals in the field of disaster management – people who could think critically and also act creatively.

The course is multidisciplinary and is meant for mid-career professionals who are keen on acquiring advanced and systematic knowledge of dealing with disasters. People from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply as relief workers, engineers, people from armed forces, social scientists, medical and para-medical professionals, environmentalists and so on.

Besides possessing an ability to rough it out in difficult circumstances the course requires intellectual acumen, an ability to engage in reflective dialogue, a commitment to hard work, sensitivity to people, especially the poor and the vulnerable and good command over English language.

The interest in pursuing Disaster Management seems to be increasing. Even in TISS for the year 2009-2010, for a total of 32 seats  600 candidates appeared for the written tests conducted at the all India level.

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