Shaping the Community's Disaster Resilience through Education and Research

Indian education system has reached greater heights today and has created a niche for itself in the modern world. There has been a continuous demand for talented and skilled workforce world over. The country is also doing quite well despite many economic hurdles due to the demographic advantage and aspirations of its young population. They have excelled in many fields with their innovative application and technological knowhow keeping pace with internal and external demands. However, some of the disciplines have not received their due recognition. Disaster Management is one such field which has not generated enough interest among the academia. Despite tremendous potential due to its practical application in the society, educational establishments have not created an opportunity for such studies. Through education, research and innovation it is possible to deal with many local and global issues looming at large on our economies. Although hazard related education started to appear after International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR)in 1990s, not many institutions and universities have been forthcoming in imparting education in disaster management. Wherever they have been able to create opportunities, not much has helped the community in distress due to its extremely slow pace and percolation. Any system of education if it doesn’t help the society often loses its relevance.This paper is an attempt to highlight the importance of disaster studies and responsibilities of the educational institutes to work for their community to help them in achieving disaster resilience. It also provides a step wise guide and a working model for making the education system disaster sensitive and inclusive