Disaster Management

This course is being introduced at the UG level to enable students and citizens to recognize the increasing vulnerability of the planet in general and India in particular to disasters.

This, it is expected would create a basis to work towards preparedness and also help us develop a culture of safety and prevention. The adoption of a disaster risk reduction perspective in the teaching of the course would be useful.

While disasters are generally seen as an outcome of catastrophic natural events, the idea of pre-existing vulnerabilities is equally important. These need to be understood and addressed if disaster impacts are to be minimized.

There has been a considerable policy level intervention in India in recent years and if teachers and young people in each city, district block or village can understand and explore avenues of reducing disaster risks and work towards preparedness the efforts would contribute towards minimizing losses and saving lives.

Disaster Management is a highly multidisciplinary subject wherein rich contributions have been made by the fields of environmental sciences, medicine, geography, geology, sociology, political science, economics, social work profession, psychology, public administration, law, gender studies, engineering sciences, demography, media studies and so on.

Therefore, this course at the undergraduate level could be easily taught by faculty members from any discipline. They must be interested in the subject matter and willing to look at disaster management issues form both a theoretical perspective as well as from a practical standpoint.

This would enrich the teaching learning process. While this course has been developed keeping diverse disciplines in mind the teachers in consultation with the college curriculum committee are welcome to improvise and modify the content. Encouraging creativity or teachers is important.

Course Details

The course will be of 50 lectures of about 45 minutes each following the UGC pattern. It will be taught in a single semester. It may be located in any of the 3 years of graduation based on availability of teachers and structure of the broader courses on offer in each University/ College.

The course may be taught by a teacher of any discipline as Disaster Management (DM) is multi disciplinary and draws its knowledge base from a range of disciplines.

Objectives

• To provide students an exposure to disasters, their significance and types

• To ensure that students begin to understand the relationship between vulnerability, disasters, disaster prevention and risk reduction.

• To gain a preliminary understanding of approaches of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)

• To enhance awareness of institutional processes in the country

• To develop rudimentary ability to respond to their surroundings with potential disaster response in areas where they live, with due sensitivity.