Teaching disaster management: Addressing complexities of social work practice

A course on 'Disaster Management' is offered to social work students at the Masters level in the Department of Urban and Rural Community Development a t the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The experience of leaching the cou rse has been extremely interesting. Since much of the literature on disaste r management is restricted to the post-disaster situation, the course has h ad to bring in the development perspective in a bid to seek sustainable sol utions - be they physical or psychosocial. Hence, the challenge is to prepa re the mindset of students to address disaster issues not just on humanitar ian and management principles, but with a perspective that includes foresig ht, relating to the intricacies of development processes, understanding vul nerabilities, and working within the dynamics of the nation state.