Saturday, November 1, 2014
Monday, October 27, 2014
Social Work Profession In India - An Uncertain Future
Book Review
Social Work
Profession in India:
An
Uncertain Future
K.R.Gangadharan*
Author :
T.K.Nair
Publisher :
Niruta Publications
Pages :
xvi+256
Price : INR
500
Social work
in India has three components: clinical social work (in particular, psychiatric
social work), developmental social work (or development work), and social
action (for social justice and social equity) according to Prof.T.K.Nair.
Thepresent book contains ten articles from social work practitioners and social
work scholars who critically analyse the different dimensions of social work
practice and education.
“Philosophy of Social Work in Changing India”,
by late Professor M.V. Moorthy traces the philosophy of social work in India
from ancient times to the modern era. He observes rightly that theory and
practice should go hand in hand;but behind theory and practice there should be
philosophy to give tone, tenor and temper to the profession. Prof. Moorthy adds: “ Whatever may be the
line of development followed by professional social work in the West, we in
India cannot ignore the ethical contents and spirit of social work profession”.
Professor
Henry D’ Souza’s article “Social Justice in India: Reflections” focuses on
redistributive justice because the lack of it reinforces injustice in gender,
religion, caste and tribe. He describes in detail poverty, slavery and bonded
labour, corruption and bribery in India. He says that social justice struggles
in our diverse, complex and largest democracy will need to continue fearlessly
and with relentless determination. He is not optimistic of the effectiveness of
social work profession in promoting social justice though some social workers
educated in the schools of social work may commit themselves to serve the
vulnerable and poor by engaging themselves in organizing local communities, and
initiating struggles for social and economic justice.
“Evolutionary
Excellence in Social Work” bySampath and KalpanaSampath underscores
theconviction of the authors that individuals and institutions strive towards
excellence. To align individual and organizational values, a continuous
clarification process is essential which should ideally involve the ability to
“connect, correlate and create”.For any individual or organization, excellence
is an ongoing process. When individuals and institutions pursue excellence,
they make a difference to themselves and to those around them.
Dr. Shanthi
Ranganathan has devoted her whole life for treatment and rehabilitation of
alcoholics and other substance addicts under the auspices of the TTK Hospital,
which she founded, for which she was awarded the Padma Shri and the UN Vienna
Civil Society Award. In the article, “Substance Use Disorders and Social Work
Interventions “, she explains in detail the measures for prevention of
substance use disorders, early identification and enhancing motivation,
treatment and followup. Besides individualized therapy, family therapy is
arranged to reinforce the rehabilitation process. Professional social work has
been given a key role in TTK hospital, a global leader in the treatment of
substance use disorders (SUDs) as the founder - director herself is a social
worker. But Dr.Shanthi says that schools of social work give low preference to
training of social workers with skills needed to work with persons with SUDs.
CAP
Foundation, a social enterprise, founded in 1997 by Dr. NaliniGangadharan,
believes that skill development is the key for empowerment of young men and
women. Her article “ Poverty Alleviation through Skill Building : A Social Work
Initiative “ presents the CAP model of “ Linking Learning and Livelihood “
needs of working children and youth to equitable market -oriented employability
opportunities. CAP’s vision is to be an end –to- end community – based
solutions provider in quality education to build safer, healthier and
productive communities of young people capable of supporting self- directed
growth and positive citizenship. Till 2013, CAP Foundation has trained 2,
54,395 young persons in 15 states and it has international presence in 8
locations.CAP Foundation is an illustration of the developmental social work
initiative.
Ms.AnnieNamala
has been actively involved in promoting social equity and protecting Dalit
human rights for more than three decades. Annie Namala’s article “Promoting
Social Justice, Human Rights and Empowerment” discusses in details the rights
violations. Dalit communities continue to face caste - based violence despite
the prohibition of untouchability and all forms of caste - based disabilities.
On education and social inclusion, the article refers to the poor
implementation of the various government provisions and schemes. Ms.Annie
points out that social work studies need to constantly engage in a praxis
process between theoretical instruction and field action. She wants the schools
to engage field practitioners to be part of their faculty for periods of time.
Professor
B.Devi Prasad, in his article “Voluntary Sector and Professional Social Work:
Trends and Challenges” makes a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats) analysis of both the sectors. The strengths of the voluntary sector
are the diversity of areas covered by the
sector; the innovative role by experimenting and promoting new areas of
development work; and the closeness to people. The weaknesses of the voluntary
sector include suspected allegiance of foreign - funded organizations; absence
of transparency and credibility of many organizations; and uncertainty of
regular funding support.The strengths of professional work according to Devi
Prasad are its professional base with a track record of performance globally;
sound knowledge base; and accountability to society. The weaknessesinclude the
deteriorating quality of professional social work education; andthe ideological
deficit. On social work education, Devi Prasad comments that it is “a sea of
mediocrity with islands of excellence and visibility “.
Professor
R.R.Singh’s article”Education for Professional Social Work in India : Overview”
critically looks at the education for professional social work in the context
of the changing perspectives of the
profession, proliferation of social work institutions, problems in the maintenance
of standards, less availability of senior faculty for professional
socialization of students, and
variations in courses and credits. Dr.Singh examines almost all aspects of
social work education in India in this articlewith authority.R.R.Singhobserves that the
proliferation of such institutions is indeed a threat to the quality of
professional social work education and practice. Most of these are self serving
institutions which are not preparing competent professionals to serve society.
In the article
“Should We Re-think the Nature of Social Work?”,Dr.M.Nadarajah is of the view
that social work, as a mode of engagement, is an expression of our
compassionate sentiment, born out of our sociability, and it is essentially
directed at those in need of help. Dr.
Nadarajah states that social work today is a profession in the economy and job
market. It has also been commodified, bringing it within the universe of profit
motive. While social work has the features, in relation to addressing human
misery, it has also assumed features that are towards profit maximization. In
as much as it is in this orientation, there must be a constant supply of human
misery. The general effort of
professional social work as an institution will not be directed at social prevention
but towards curative activities, much like how the medical industry works. Dr.
Nadarajah is of the view that society where people engage at all levels to
address human suffering and consider radical structural reforms and prevention
would not be in the interest of modern, professionalised social work.
Professor
T.K.Nair, in his article “ Humanitarianism Professionalized : Dilemmas of
Social Work in India”, traces the
history of social work profession and social work education. The proliferation
of social work courses under different auspices; the dominance of HR (human
resources) concentration in the social work curricula ; the unwillingness of
social work educational institutions to focus on social work without HR; the
deteriorating quality of social work education in most institutions; the lack
of practice-based research by the practioners as well as the faculty; the
absence of regulatory bodies of social work education and practice; and related
issues are discussed by Prof.Nair in his article. He comes to the conclusion
that social work is not a profession in India.
My joining
the Madras School of Social Work for the postgraduate programme was with the
confidence that the Postgraduate Diploma would enable me to get into the
Personnel Department of an industry, which I secured on completion of the
social work course. After working in industries for some years, I decided to
accept an offer from the newly established corporate hospital (Apollo Hospital)
at Chennai to head its Human Resource Department. Subsequently I was promoted
as General Manager (Operations), which gave me a tremendously valuable
experience in building and developing a hospital. I, then, shifted my base to
Hyderabad, where I worked as Vice-President of a major hospital. At that time,
I decided to start a hospital of my own. During one of my regular interactions
with Prof. T. K. Nair at Chennai, he suggested to enter into the field of
ageing. Prof. Nair was at that time active in promoting community based
services for the elderly. He presented a grand design for me including
Presidentship of the International Federation on Ageing. At that time, I was
quite skeptical of the feasibility of his advice but as destiny would have it,
I started the Heritage Hospital for the elderly. Incidentally, Prof .Nair was
the one who suggested the title Heritage for my initiatives. I was invited to
speak at the White House Conference on Ageing in 2005. I became President of
the International Federation on Ageing before I turned 60. I travelled to many
countries as IFA president. I was one of the members of a panel Open-ended
Working Group on Ageing. I was invited as a resource person by UN ESCAP and WHO
SEAR in many of their regional meetings of experts on ageing. The government of
India invited me to be a member of the committee to redraft the National Policy
on Senior Citizens. I was a Member of the National Council of Older Persons
during 2006-2011. I was a member of the Andhra Pradesh State Advisory Council
to implement the National Policy on Older Persons. Now I am active in health
care, social welfare policy, and social work administration. A transformation
from HR Management to Human Welfare and Social Work.
The present book edited
by Prof. Nair looks at social work profession in India from an incisively
critical perspective. Personally, I am happy that the book includes an article
from my wife Nalini on the work she has been doing in the area of skill
development. Professionally, I rate this volume as an excellent one for the
future direction of social work.
Dr.K.R.Gangadharan
PhD., Creator, Heritage Hospital for the Elderly
Former President, IFA.
..............................................................................................................................................................................
Former President, IFA.
..............................................................................................................................................................................
%2Bfront.png)
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)