Traditionally, a large area of India lies in the disaster zone i.e. prone to quakes, floods and landslides. In the last two decades, incidents of disasters have increased five times. Globally too, awareness towards disaster management has increased and the country too has prepared a disaster management p o l i c y framework. Government, NGO’s, and many private institutions are giving priority to d i s a s t e r management. That’s why the demand f o r professionals trained in this area is g r o w i n g rapidly.

The main task of disaster management professionals is to save lives of disaster victims and to bring them back into the mainstream again. The Central Government and State governments provide the necessary funds for this. Being a nodal government agency, Home Ministry plays a big role. They handle the task of Disaster Management at the time of disasters. Agriculture and Cooperative Ministries come to the fore and bear responsibilities during droughts and famines. In addition, several other ministries are responsible for other disasters, such as - Ministry of Civil Aviation for air accidents,Ministry of Railways for the rail a c c i d e n t s, Ministry of Forests and Environment, H e a l t h Ministry and the Ministry of Atomic Energy, etc. also bear responsibilities during various types of disasters. P e o p l e trained in Disaster Management are invaluable during disasters. During training, students are trained in the management of emergency situations.

Courses, Period and Eligibility for admission:

Human Resources Ministry has included disaster management in the  curricula of schools and professional education in the tenth five-year plan. In 2003, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for the first time added this to the curriculum of social sciences subject of class eighth. After this, disaster management began to be taught as a subject in senior classes as well as government and non-governmental higher educational institutions also.

Minimum qualification for certificate course is Class XII pass, whereas minimum qualification for masters’ and PG diploma is graduation. People seeking admission in this course should have the spirit to work in kinds of adverse situations. Some institutions run certificate courses for professionals also. Many management institutions in the country run disaster management courses ranging from certificate courses to PG diploma courses.
There are many universities that also offer degree level courses. Disaster management courses can be done through regular classroom teaching as well as by distance mode too. Subjects like risk assessment and preventive strategies, legislative structures for control of disaster mitigation, application of GIS in disaster management, rescue, etc. come under the purview of disaster management courses. One can also do specialization in various fields, such as mining, chemical disaster and technical disaster etc.

Institutions offering the Course:
1. National Center for Disaster Management,New Delhi.
2. Center for Civil Defense College, Nagpur
3. Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
4. Disaster Mitigation Institute, Ahmedabad
5. Environment Protection Training and Research Institute, Hyderabad
6. Center for Disaster Management, Pune
7. Amity Institute of Disaster Management,Noida
8. Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi
9. North Bengal University, Darjeeling
10. International Center of Disaster Management, Madras University, Chennai
11. Sikkim Manipal University of Health, Medical and Technological Sciences, Gangtok
12. Indian Institute of Ecology and Environment, New Delhi
13. Nalanda Open University, Patna
14. Rajarshi Tandon Open University, Allahabad

Job prospects and relevant organizations to join:
Generally in the field of Disaster Management one can get jobs in government services, emergency services, law enforcement, local authorities, relief agencies, non-governmental entities and international agencies like United Nations.Jobs can also be found in the risk industries in private sector, such as chemical, mining, and petroleum etc.Generally, these industries have a separate disaster management cell.International institutions like Red Cross and UN also look for trained professionals. With experience, own company or an agency can also be started.