Mumbai Campus,
Chairperson Centre for Disasters and Development, Jamsetji Tata School of Disaster Studies
M.A. (TISS), Ph.D. (University of East Anglia, U.K.)
andharia [at]tiss[dot]edu 
For appointments contact Ms. Aruna Chavan
Phone, Landline: +91-2225525883
Janki Andharia is a Senior Professor at the School of Disaster Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai and has over 40 years of experience in the field of community organization and social development. Her areas of work focus on gender issues, environmental concerns, democratic governance, and addressing diverse forms of marginalization and vulnerability. She is also Honorary Professor at the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute of Manchester University, UK. At the World Education Congress Global Awards for Excellence in Education, Leadership and Teaching on 23rd July 2015 held in Mumbai, Prof. Andharia received an award for her outstanding contribution to education.
She has been involved in national and state-level policy-making work and has had a long association with grassroots organisations. She was awarded the Association of Commonwealth Universities Scholarship to pursue her Ph.D from School of Environment Sciences, University of East Anglia U.K. in the area of Gender, Development and Environment.
She was responsible for laying the foundation of the School of Disaster Studies at TISS and was its Dean until 2022. Prior to that until 2006, she was Head, of the Department of Urban and Rural Community Development at TISS. She has provided leadership in the area of Disaster Management within TISS and in India, introducing a full-fledged Masters' in the subject. The programme is located within the broad framework of social and environmental justice. Professor Andharia serves on several of the Working Groups and Committees of the National Disaster Management Authority of India and on Boards of several organizations. In 2014 she was invited to the Rockefeller Foundation's Residency programme at the Bellagio Centre, Italy. In the same year, Professor Andharia was the recipient of the “Best Professor in Disaster Management award”, instituted by the National Education Leadership Awards, Lokmat, Mumbai. This was in recognition of the critical leadership she provided to the establishment of a multidisciplinary Centre for Disaster Management
Over the years Professor Andharia has conducted research, trainings and consultancy assignments for governments, industry and NGOs and international agencies. She has travelled abroad to several countries to deliver special lectures, establish institutional linkages with Universities and also on research collaborations. She has published extensively and is the series editor for Springer's new book series on Disaster Studies and Management. She also serves on several editorial boards of International journals.
- Community Organization
- Disaster Studies and development practice
- Praxis in disaster managemnet
- Environmental Concerns
- Addressing diverse forms of marginalization and vulnerability
- Gender Issues
- Policy Planning and democratic governance
- Disaster Logistics and Supply Chain Management
- Andharia J and Lavanya Shanbhougue Arvind (Forthcoming)"Vulnerability, Gender and Environmental Stress: Value Contestations in Sustainable Development Discourse" in Shweta Prasad (ed) Gender, Environment and Sustainable Development Challenges and Responses from India
Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Gender-Environment-and-Sustainable-Development-Challenges-and-Responses/Prasad/p/book/9781032628417 - Andharia J., Anu Puri., Arya Namboothiripad (2023) Transforming Post Disaster Recovery: Participatory Mechanisms for Community Feedback and Responding to Real-time Data Needs with a focus on persons with Disability, International Journal of Community and Social Development, Sage. pp.1-24
- Andharia J. (2022) Vulnerability: its discursive and material nature in McGee, Tara K. and Edmund C. Penning-Rowsell (eds). Routledge Handbook of Environmental Hazards and Society, Routledge. https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-of-Environmental-Hazards-and-Society/McGee-Penning-Rowsell/p/book/9780367427146
- An edited book titled “Disaster Studies: Exploring Intersectionalities in Disaster Discourse” (2020), a book published by Springer Nature, Singapore. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-981-32-9339-7?noAccess=true
- Andharia, J.(2020). Thinking about Disasters: A call for intersectionality and transdisciplinary in disaster studies in Andharia J (ed) Disaster Studies: Exploring Intersectionalities in Disaster Discourse, Springer Nature, Singapore.
- Andharia, J.(2020). Blurred Boundaries, shared practices: Disaster Studies and disaster management as an emerging discipline and a Field of Practice in Andharia (ed) Disaster Studies: Exploring Intersectionalities in Disaster Discourse, Springer Nature, Singapore.
- Andharia, J. (2020). One size fits all? Polemics of Disaster Management from the Perspective of post-Tsunami experiences of the Nicobar Islanders in Andharia (ed) Disaster Studies: Exploring Intersectionalities in Disaster Discourse, Springer Nature, Singapore. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-32-9339-7_13
- Lakhani, V., and Andharia, J., (2020) Towards Measuring Resilience of Low-Income Settlements in Cities: The Case of Mumbai in Andharia J. (ed) Disaster Studies: Exploring Intersectionalities in Disaster Discourse, Springer Nature, Singapore (Pages 285-310). https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-32-9339-7_14
- Andharia, J. (2020). A Web of Vulnerabilities: Eco-fragility, poor livelihoods, and cyclones in Sundarban Region, India in Andharia (ed) Disaster Studies: Exploring Intersectionalities in Disaster Discourse, Springer Nature, Singapore. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-32-9339-7_17
- Fernandez L., Das, M., and Andharia,. J (2020) Cascading Vulnerabilities: Food Insecurity among women in disaster-prone areas in India in Andharia J. (ed) Disaster Studies: Exploring Intersectionalities in Disaster Discourse, Springer Nature, Singapore pp.313-335. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-981-32-9339-7_15
- Andharia J (2020) Disaster Management: Institutionalising Risk Informed Planning, in a special issue titled The Weather Report: The Crisis of Climate Change, IIC Quarterly, Volume 46, 3 & 4 Winter 2019 and Spring 2020.
- Guest Editor, "Understanding Recovery in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, South Asia Disasters Net, Special Issue No. 175, October 2018. Published by All India Disaster Mitigation Institute.
- Article Titled "Redefining Disaster Recovery - The Multi-dimensionality of the Idea of Recovery", in "Understanding Recovery in Andaman and Nicobar Islands", South Asia Disasters Net, Special Issue No. 175, October 2018, Pg. 4 to 6. Published by All India Disaster Mitigation Institute
- Democratic Rural Organisations: Thresholds for Evolution in Africa and Asia, London, Routledge, 2018 (co-author). Book https://www.routledge.com/Democratic-Rural-Organizations-Thresholds-for-Evolution-in-Africa-and-Asia/Friis-Hansen-Andharia-Godfrey/p/book/9780367889821
- Common Property Resources and Environmental Justice in a World at Risk: What Kerala Has to Offer to Participatory Recovery and What It Can Learn, Social Science in Perspectives, Special Issue on Common Property and Citizens Rights: Issues of Reconstruction of Kerala, Vol.10, No.4: October-December 2018 and Vol.11, No.1:January – March 2019. pg. 408-433.(co-author) [ISSN: 0975-5497]. Published by C. Achutha Menon Study Centre & Library, Thiruvananthapuram.
- Andharia J (2017) The Potential of Regional Integration in Disaster Risk Management and Risk Reduction (Special Report on ASEAN-India Strategic Relations), Diplomatist, 17 (Special edition) 48-51, 2017.
- Andharia J (2017). Disaster Management in IORA: Traversing Rhetoric and Reality" (March 2017), invited paper in the Diplomatist magazine of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) for its 20th Anniversary celebration to be released at the first IORA Leaders' Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 7 March 2017. The theme of the Summit, inaugurated by H.E. Joko Widow, the President of Indonesia, was "Strengthening Maritime Cooperation for a Peaceful, Stable, and Prosperous Indian Ocean"
Research Projects
Selected few
- Social Vulnerability in Hazard Vulnerability Analysis, Navi Mumbai supported by Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation and UNDP, India
- Democratic Rural Organsiations: A Four country study on India, Uganda, Bangladesh and Cambodia supported by Caritas (Denmark) and Danmission. October 2014 to January 2015.
- Review of Navi Mumbai Disaster Management Plan. A stduy commissioned by Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC). Completed March 2015.
- Building Community Resilience to Disasters in India: Progress, Challenges and Way Ahead, A study for the UNDP, India and Home Department, GoI. Completed 2014.
- Hospital Preparedness for Disaster Response in Mumbai, A research study in collaboration with CEHAT, (2013). Examines Hospital Preparedness after 26/11 Terror Attack in Mumbai.
- Post Aila Livelihoods in Sundarbans: Towards an Intervention. A Research Project on post cyclone impact in the eco-fragile region of Sundarbans. (Completed 2011)
- Humanitarian Logistics in India, 2010: A research study exploring and reviewing logistics in the armed forces to draw lessons for civil administration. (Completed 2011.
- Hospital Preparedness for Disaster Response in Mumbai in collaboration with CEHAT, (Completed 2009).
- Climate Change and Urban Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Index (CCUDRR), a research project supported by Kyoto University (Completed 2008.
- Carrying Capacity of Mumbai, Conservation Action Trust (Completed, 2008).
- A Research Report on “Curriculum development for M.Sc. Island Ecology / Economy”, 2007-09. (Completed 2009).
- A Situation Report on Nicobar Islands: A post tsunami Assessment. (Completed 2008)
- A Study of Green Houses in China, for comparison in Ladakh (Completed 2006).
Courses Taught currently:
MDM2: Disasters, Vulnerability and Risk (2 Credits,30 hours)
Position: I Semester
MDM7: Disasters and Development (2 Credits)
Position: II Semester
MDM35: Field Internship II ( 6 credits)
Position: III Semester
MDM 24: Advanced course on Disasters and Development
Position III Semester
MDM 25: Culture and Disasters
Position: IV Semester
MDM 37 Research Dissertation (Credits: 6 Credits)
Position: II, III and IVth semesters
Each year Professor Andharia guides 5 to 6 students with their Masters' dissertation. She supervises 8 Ph.D. scholars currently and is on the Doctoral Advisory Committee of several scholars
She also teaches courses in the MPhil and Ph.D. Programmes
She is in charge of the IFRC-TISS Online Certificate Programme on Disaster Management offered in partnership with IFRC, Geneva since 2013. She teaches modules/units and also supervises students for their term papers.
