Thursday, May 15, 2014

TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND SOCIAL WORK PROFESSION

Indian and other traditional societies have a reservoir of traditional knowledge which has not been explored by social work teachers and practitioners. In a country with the majority of the population being rural and tribal,oral traditions of the people have not been given due recognition by social work professionals neither in research nor in practice. Creative literature ,oral as well as written , preceded social sciences in understanding social relations and human behaviour. Indian society cannot be fully studied without taking into account of the orality of the Indian rural and tribal culture and literature. The kind of insights that folklore can yield into our social life can seldom be provided by the objective and so-called scientific study of our society.

Social and individual development is the concern of social work. Application of folklore in social work practice is of high utility in social group work and community organization. Changes in attitudes and practices can be brought about by folk songs and plays, which are created by the people of a particular community  themselves., and which facilitate interchangeability of roles between the performers( change agents ) and the audience (client groups ). Folk songs touch the mind ( emotions and thinking) which signals heartbeats (feeling and sensitivity), and the combination of both make men and women to put these thoughts and feelings  into action or practice ; they no longer remain merely in the realm of knowledge . So  social work profession in India should take serious cognisance of the intersection between folklore and social work. Only Athropology ,including Medical Anthroplogy , has the wisdom to have close association with the folklore and folk practices.

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