Social work in Madras in the 1960s was personality-centred. A professional social worker was considered an oxymoron as social work was viewed as an honorary voluntary social service. Mary Clubwala Jadhav, the legendary social worker and founder of the Madras School of Social Work,decided to recruit social work professionals in the Guild of Service ( GOS ) institutions under her stewardship. MSS Nambudiri, fresh from MSSW, opted a social work career in the GOS despite low salary. It was in 1964 and the position was in Seva Samajam Boys' Home ( SSBH ), an institution for destitute children.
Residential care in dormitories, a carpentry training unit , and a school were the facilities available at SSBH with low amount of grant from the government. Born into an aristocratic and orthodox Kerala Nambudiri Brahmin family, young Nambudiri preferred to live in the SSBH premises and eat the food served to the children along with them.
Ideologically committed to deinstitutionalisation of child care, Nambudiri facilitated the return of children having at least one parent to their families by arranging income-earning support to their parents and encouraging the children to avail of all the SSBH facilities. For the totally destitute children, self-contained family cottages were set up in a nearby campus.Each family cottage consisted of a maximum of ten children under the care of a housemother who was entrusted with money for monthly expenses in advance. There was neither any uniform for children nor a fixed menu or timing for meals.Approximation to family care was Nambudiri's aim. This transition was fiercely resisted by the traditionalists in the GOS , but SSBH chairman NES Raghavachari ICS (Retired ) solidly supported these changes. In this process Nambudiri became the Director of SSBH. During the lifetime of Mary Clubwala Jadhav, she had a love-hate relationship with Nambudiri, whom she had treated with dignity.
Nambudiri was passionate about quality education and skill development.General Cariappa School was upgraded into a government-aided higher secondary school and its portals were thrown open to all children from the neighbourhood. As the school's performance record was poor, Nambudiri adopted a three-pronged approach: motivating teachers with competence- building, remedial inputs for weak students , and fixing accountability on headmaster and teachers for the performance of students. When schools preferred children with good marks for admission, Nambudiri adopted the reverse priority,the motto being " lower the scores, better the chance for admission ". Children from poor families, who were deprived of education either because of dropping out or due to lack of birth certificates, were admitted in a separate TRANSIT SCHOOL with bridge education till they are prepared for admission in mainstream schools. Nambudiri had the support of the Directorate of Education in his efforts. As all well-intentioned actions will lead to good outcomes,General Cariappa school finally registered 100 percent success in the Board examinations.: A fact like a fiction.
A remarkable step towards self-sufficiency of SSBH was made by Nambudiri in converting the carpentry unit into a training-cum-production centre which made quality furniture for the competitiveemploymentemployment market. The unit also supplied packing cases to Ashok Leyland. The profits earned were utilised for providing better services to children, giving benefits to personnel, and creating a corpus fund to sustain SSBH programmes. Besides introducing vocational education in Cariappa School, many training units in different trades were started making the campus into a COMMUNITY COLLEGE.The lives of many children were transformed through placement in industries, self-employment, and assignments in the middle-east. Many today are leading fairy tale lives.
In association with the child sponsorship agency Plan International, Nambudiri launched an ambitious family and social development project in many low-income communities. He also raised massive international resources for many GOS institutions. Ironically his popularity was a threat to many GOS functionaries, and he finally resigned from SSBH after forty years of service, which also marked the decline of SSBH.
Started as a social worker, Nambudiri became an outstanding SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR also. An outspoken advocate of child rights, his four decades of service was synonymous with child welfare and skill development of the youth. His contribution, if documented, will be a treatise on the twin themes for posterity.
MSS Nambudiri's illustrious life came to an abrupt end on March 15. Nambudiri and I were intimate friends for 51 years. I will miss him all through the rest of my life. So also the society around us.
Residential care in dormitories, a carpentry training unit , and a school were the facilities available at SSBH with low amount of grant from the government. Born into an aristocratic and orthodox Kerala Nambudiri Brahmin family, young Nambudiri preferred to live in the SSBH premises and eat the food served to the children along with them.
Ideologically committed to deinstitutionalisation of child care, Nambudiri facilitated the return of children having at least one parent to their families by arranging income-earning support to their parents and encouraging the children to avail of all the SSBH facilities. For the totally destitute children, self-contained family cottages were set up in a nearby campus.Each family cottage consisted of a maximum of ten children under the care of a housemother who was entrusted with money for monthly expenses in advance. There was neither any uniform for children nor a fixed menu or timing for meals.Approximation to family care was Nambudiri's aim. This transition was fiercely resisted by the traditionalists in the GOS , but SSBH chairman NES Raghavachari ICS (Retired ) solidly supported these changes. In this process Nambudiri became the Director of SSBH. During the lifetime of Mary Clubwala Jadhav, she had a love-hate relationship with Nambudiri, whom she had treated with dignity.
Nambudiri was passionate about quality education and skill development.General Cariappa School was upgraded into a government-aided higher secondary school and its portals were thrown open to all children from the neighbourhood. As the school's performance record was poor, Nambudiri adopted a three-pronged approach: motivating teachers with competence- building, remedial inputs for weak students , and fixing accountability on headmaster and teachers for the performance of students. When schools preferred children with good marks for admission, Nambudiri adopted the reverse priority,the motto being " lower the scores, better the chance for admission ". Children from poor families, who were deprived of education either because of dropping out or due to lack of birth certificates, were admitted in a separate TRANSIT SCHOOL with bridge education till they are prepared for admission in mainstream schools. Nambudiri had the support of the Directorate of Education in his efforts. As all well-intentioned actions will lead to good outcomes,General Cariappa school finally registered 100 percent success in the Board examinations.: A fact like a fiction.
A remarkable step towards self-sufficiency of SSBH was made by Nambudiri in converting the carpentry unit into a training-cum-production centre which made quality furniture for the competitiveemploymentemployment market. The unit also supplied packing cases to Ashok Leyland. The profits earned were utilised for providing better services to children, giving benefits to personnel, and creating a corpus fund to sustain SSBH programmes. Besides introducing vocational education in Cariappa School, many training units in different trades were started making the campus into a COMMUNITY COLLEGE.The lives of many children were transformed through placement in industries, self-employment, and assignments in the middle-east. Many today are leading fairy tale lives.
In association with the child sponsorship agency Plan International, Nambudiri launched an ambitious family and social development project in many low-income communities. He also raised massive international resources for many GOS institutions. Ironically his popularity was a threat to many GOS functionaries, and he finally resigned from SSBH after forty years of service, which also marked the decline of SSBH.
Started as a social worker, Nambudiri became an outstanding SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR also. An outspoken advocate of child rights, his four decades of service was synonymous with child welfare and skill development of the youth. His contribution, if documented, will be a treatise on the twin themes for posterity.
MSS Nambudiri's illustrious life came to an abrupt end on March 15. Nambudiri and I were intimate friends for 51 years. I will miss him all through the rest of my life. So also the society around us.
Thanks for the great piece acknowledging the contributions Prof
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