Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Professionalization of Social Work in India




Gandhiji’s constructive work has his trusteeship philosophy as its base, which means those who have surplus wealth, knowledge, skill or other assets beyond their needs may share with those in a disadvantageous position in the society. Going into the philosophical details of trusteeship theory is not needed for the present article. Of great significance for this article is the Sarvodaya concept of Gandhiji. Udaya means progress or rise, sarva means all or total. Sarvodaya is total progress of an individual, and also all round progress or prosperity of all,that is of individual and society. Sarvodaya is an ideology as well as a method of social construction,which is an extension of the trusteeship theory. The constituent units are all the village communities. According to the sarvodaya plan outlined by Mahatma Gandhi, and later emphasized by Vinoba Bhave and Jayaprakash Narain, every village community should be self-reliant in regard to primary necessities. Sarvodaya is total revolution of the Indian society through total revolution of India’s small communities.

Mahatma Gandhi organized training for constructive workers who were drawn from all walks of life. For village development, Gandhiji preferred a Samagra Grama Sevak, a resident holistic village development worker. Gandhi, Bhave and Jayaprakash Narain called for harnessing people’s power or Janshakthi or Lokshakthi, that is energy synergized for the telic and syntelic realization of sarvodaya (Moorthy, 2014). Mahatma Gandhi made the song written by the famous fifteenth century Marathi poet Narasinh Mehta “Vaishnava jan to tene kahiye———” (I call him a Vaishnava who knows the sufferings of others) his clarion call for social service and constructive work.

Social work that evolved in the United States was influenced by the Judeo-Christian philosophy, emphasis on the philosophy of individualism, socio-economic doctrine that advocated laissez faire approach by the state, and improvement in standard of living of citizens through mass consumption of goods and services. Social work accepted the existing nature of American society as basically sound and individuals were expected to adjust to the status quo. Heavily backed by the theory of Freudian individual psychology and psychoanalysis, social case work was the dominant element of social work practice. The professional model of social work was similar to that of a clinical psychologist, that is, objective, neutral and non-judgemental so as to ensure the individual the freedom of choice. It was this “individual-oriented” social work that the American missionary Clifford Manshardt implanted in India in 1936 as the Dorabji Graduate School of Social Work at Bombay in the Nagpada Neighbourhood where he worked with the mill and industrial workers in the Chawls. This model of social work was not what the Indian society needed in the context of its traditions, the existing situation and above all the Gandhian sarvodaya and freedom movements taking place. Indian society is not an individual-centric one; instead family, kinship network and community are intrinsic elements in the life of an Indian.

Social work model in India was borrowed from the USA which aimed at helping people adjust to the capitalist, industrial and metropolis-dominated social mileu. The American model of social work addressed to help the deviants of the system, to adjust to it and to promote remedial services to the victims of the new social system (Nair, 2014 ).The Nagapada Neighbourhood House of the American Marathi Mission, where the Graduate School of Social Work was first housed with its first batch of twenty students, was the seat of similar remedial programmes for the residents of the Chawls. Desai (1981),  who was the chairperson of the second UGC Review Committee (1980), says that our curricula were derived from the remedial, rehabilitative, residual model of social work practice in the West. No wonder that psychiatric social work and other types of clinical social work have found acceptance in India.

A study of the alumni of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences during the fifty years since its inception by Ramachandran (1986 ) examined three vistas of social work practice: (i) perpetuating the system, (ii) transitional posture, and (iii) reforming the system. Those who accept the perpetuation of the present system argue that the pathological situation that affects individuals, groups and communities is likely to be accelerated in an industrial society. On the other side of the Great Divide are the reformists who believe that their role is to promote social change and to protect the human rights of all. The transitional posture favours change in the methods of social work, rather than institutional change, to meet the emerging needs of an industrial society. Social work practice in the future will depend to a great extent on the global economic and political changes. In case the emphasis is on the market economy, the security and welfare of the vulnerable segments of the population will only be partially attended to. A middle way needs to be worked out by the social work profession to balance the market economy with the social sector so that the social life of the people will improve.

Regulating social work education and recognition by the government have been the serious concern of social welfare leaders in the country.The Indian Conference of Social Work (now, Indian Conference of Social Welfare) was the first organization to propose the creation of a statutory body to regulate social work education in India in the 1950s. Since then the two UGC review committees on social work education, Association of Schools of Social Work in India, and others were demanding the establishment of a regulatory council. Finally, a draft bill was framed by some social work educators and practitioners in the early 1990s, which was forwarded to the Ministry of Education, which, in turn, referred to the UGC for its opinion. The UGC felt that it was competent to regulate social work education under the UGC Act and a separate council was not needed. Subsequently, the UGC itself reversed its opinion and finally the draft bill was sent to the Department of Higher Education (MHRD), where it has been gathering dust for the past two decades.

The draft “National Council of Professional Social Work in India Bill” concedes that in India there is social work which is different from professional social work. The bill defines professional social work as a form of practice which follows established and acknowledged methods of social work carried out by professional social workers. While the “established and acknowledged methods” are wide open to differing interpretation, the definition implies that professional social work is what professional social workers with BSW or MSW do. A confusing explanation! The recent modifications to the draft bill have some strange additions to accommodate the IGNOU school of social work established in 2007 and a Delhi-based association of social workers called National Association of Professional Social Workers in India (NAPSWI) formed in 2007, with 1,200 members in 2013. While professional social workers in Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Kerala and other states have their own associations, and the Indian Society of Professional Social Work has been in existence from 1970, the newly formed NAPSWI has been given ex-officio status in the draft bill only because it was a part of the national consultation on the bill. It is not a healthy professional conduct.

Community recognition and more importantly recognition by the state is the main expectation of any professional group. A “social worker” is accepted and respected by the community as one who does social good, that is a “do-gooder”, whether he or she is trained to do social work in a professional manner. Even in the USA, UK and other developed countries dispensing material goods and services is a function of social workers. Professional social workers, sarvodaya workers, untrained paid social workers, and voluntary social workers who do charitable work are viewed alike in India. Hence recognition of social workers by the government like that enjoyed by doctors, lawyers, chartered accountants, nurses and other professionals continues to be elusive. Consequently, there has been an exponential expansion of social work education programmes at the undergraduate and graduate levels under diverse auspices with a bewildering variety of degrees without any statutory mechanism to regulate the quantity and quality of social work education. In recent years, there has been a spurt in the social work degrees through the distance mode. Indira Gandhi National Open University’s school of social work has the largest number of students for social work through a network of participating social work educational institutions in the country. It offers MSW, MSW (Philanthropy), and MSW (Counselling). Mary Richmond would never have dreamt that more than one hundred years after her use of “applied philanthropy” for want of an appropriate term for social work, an Indian university would prefer a Master’s degree MSW (Philanthropy): a perfect oxymoron. Christ University in Bengaluru offers MSW (HRD and Management) and MSW (Clinical and Community Practice). A national survey of social work degrees in the various educational institutions will help publish a “best seller”. Almost all social work degrees have one set of courses in common: human resource development or management .

Social work curricula in social work educational institutions in India range from ‘excellent’ to ‘very poor’. So also is the quality of the social work faculty. Well-funded central universities and  the TISS have qualified teachers, but many self-financing institutions, which run the majority of the social work courses, have teachers who do not even have passed the UGC-mandated NET for teachers. While a small minority of social work faculty has the privilege of fewer working hours, attractive compensation (salary and other perks), international travel, leave, vacation, and social security benefits, a large majority of the teachers are hired on a contract basis. These teachers, without job security, are made to work long hours with low salary and are deprived of leave, vacation, and social security cover. There are teachers who work for a pittance of INR 2,500 per month. Barring the social work courses of IGNOU, distance education programmes run by the universities are in a dismal state. The report of the national consultation for quality enhancement of social work education held during 2011-2012 sponsored by the Planning Commission and supported by the UGC concludes that social work education in India is “a sea of mediocrity with islands of excellence and visibility” (Nadkarni and Desai, 2012).

Profound social work commentator Devi Prasad (2014) identifies five deficits of professional social work in India. These are knowledge deficit, competency deficit, professional deficit, governance deficit, and ideological deficit. Lack of academic work ethic and scholarship, and lack of ability to use social work lens to examine social issues are two important aspects under knowledge deficit. By competency deficit, he means knowledge and skill set deficit. Deteriorating quality of professional social work education and consequently, the decline in the quality of social work profession; commercialization of social work education; and the extensive variation in the  curricula in the different schools are the main components of professional deficit. Social work education under varied affiliations and the inadequate capacity of a majority of social work educational institutions in the country are examples of governance deficit. Devi Prasad laments the ideological deficit, that is, the absence of any discussion on the kind of “desirable society” that social workers envision.

Social work education in India is observing its 80th anniversary. Yet, the much expected recognition from the government of India in the form of an Act of Parliament has not  materialised. As regards employment, professional social workers are generally recruited in mental health and de-addiction centres, hospitals, family planning extension work, family counselling centres, jails and correctional settings, particularly for probation service, and urban community development agencies, besides industries. The statutory requirement of appointing welfare officers in factories employing 500 or more workers in the Factories Act of 1948 was an opportunity for schools of social work to train students in labour welfare. Labour welfare has over time metamorphosed into Human Resource Management, more popularly known as HR. HR has now become a strategic partner of business and it has outgrown its social work roots.HR itself is having a “professional identity” quite distinct from social work. But social work educational institutions continue to hold on to HR specialization for existential reasons. More and more young persons seek admission to social work educational institutions for HR specialization with the sole ambition to get into corporate organizations in lucrative positions than for any love of social work. Though these HR professionals may have social work degrees, it is an absurdity to consider them as professional social workers. Nair (1983), in his study of social welfare manpower in Tamilnadu, noted three significant findings. One, the jobs of professional social workers like the ones described earlier are low paid with low status in the hierarchy; and the career growth opportunities are fewer. Two, the qualifications prescribed for these jobs are not exclusively social work degree; persons possessing psychology, sociology and other social sciences are also considered. Three, the heads of three-fourths of the voluntary organizations do not consider training in social work necessary for social work assignments in their agencies. These three-decade old findings are valid even today. In September, 2014, the Government Medical College and Hospital at Chandigarh gave the following advertisement (freshersworld.com ):

Medical Laboratory Technologist, qualification: BSc in MLT, salary INR 9,240 per month.

Medical Social Worker, qualification : MSW or MA (Psychology), salary INR 8,000 per month.

There are numerous such examples of the poor remuneration and low status of professional social work positions across the country.

The general quality of social work education is on the decline and field work is the main casualty. Field work is the central pillar of social work education which sows the seed of identification with the social work education in the mind of the young learner. Field work dates back to the period of origin of social work in the COS programmes where the neophytes acquired skills from the experienced employees by sharing the same table and observing them at work. Now, field instruction is the weakest component in social work education in most educational institutions in India. Barring, perhaps IGNOU, all distance education programmes treat field work as picnics to welfare organizations; indeed there is no field work, but only four or five field visits. Vijaya Lakshmi (2014) in a well-crafted article on field work says that one of the hallmarks of a profession is the transfer of knowledge and skills under supervisory guidance to its entrants. The field work supervisors in the faculty are the initiators of the students into the profession aided by the supervisors in the field work settings or agencies. But many organizations do not employ professional social workers, and even when professional social workers are available, they are too overworked to spare time for supervision. In many organizations, the students are entrusted with some work as a relief to the personnel of the agencies. Vijaya Lakshmi brings to light a disturbing fact in the states, where the state support of reimbursement of fees is misused by the college managements. In social work courses of most of the private colleges, the students are attracted with the promise that they need not attend to fieldwork, and their class attendance could be manipulated. Thus students from such institutions are awarded degrees in social work without adequate instruction. She asserts that half-baked products bring down the standard of social work. A serious warning from a distinguished professor as well as a social work practitioner.

There has been a serious concern as regards the weak professional consciousness among professional social workers. The two national organizations - Association of Schools of Social work in India and Indian Association of Trained Social Workers- which were formed in 1961 have disappeared. Nair (2014), a former General Secretary of ASSWI, discusses the rise and fall of these two organizations in an article. In place of the national body of social workers, there are city-based associations of professional social workers. One of them has designated itself as National Association of Professional Social Workers in India with 1,200 life members as in June 2013 though it was formed in 2005 with the backing of IGNOU and Delhi University faculty. The only authentic national association is that of the psychiatric social workers. Formed in 1970 as the Indian Society of Psychiatric Social Work, it changed its name as the Indian Society of Professional Social Work in 1988. The disappointing fact is that even after 45 years of its formation, it has only about 700 members in its rolls as in April, 2015. This reflects the poor level of professional consciousness among social workers. One reason is that the vast majority of the social work graduates are in the HR field. They seldom identify themselves with social work. Rather they consider it below their management identity status. They are generally involved in the HRD Network, the National Institute of Personnel Management, and the Indian Society of Training and Development.

While social work in India has been struggling to get recognition from the Indian state for eight decades, the Cuban communist government chose social work when it felt the need for social work knowledge and skills to address the social problems in Cuba. The post-revolutionary government of Cuba did not initially recognize the need for a cadre of highly trained professional social workers to deal with social ills. Instead, social workers were trained by technical training institutions (TMs) under the Ministry of Public Health. The TMs taught fundamental, focused social work and case management skills to work in social and health care service settings. A dozen such TMs exist today. The collapse of the Soviet Union and its subsequent withdrawal of economic assistance to Cuba and the tightening of the US embargo led to growing social and economic crises throughout the 1990s.This situation convinced Cuban leaders that the country needed trained and qualified social workers to address the worsening problems. Cuba developed a two-pronged social work initiative in response to the social ills related to economic hardships: a university level programme (UP) for educating more advanced social workers and the formation of schools of social work (SSW) for offering rapid social work training programmes for Cuban youth to return to their communities as social workers. In 1997, the Cuban Ministry of Education asked the sociology department at the University of Havana to design an advanced degree for social workers. The University commenced a six-year degree course in 1998 followed by another university two years later. Both offer the licenciature degree (equivalent to a master’s degree in the US) in sociology with concentration in social work. The licenciature students must be high school graduates and most of them are part-time students with full-time jobs as health care social workers. In the Havana University, 100 students are enrolled. The first school of social work was opened by Cuban government in September 2000 for young people aged 16 to 22 followed by three more schools. Two thousand students attend each of these schools and are known as emergentes because they are trained to respond to serious emergent social problems. On completion of training, emergentes are guaranteed social work jobs in communities where they must live. Their salary is considered to be good for Cuban workers. Emergentes can study for their licenciature on a part-time basis in any of the university degree programmes. Cuba’s innovative core curricula integrating social work wih political sociology and political economy are found to be a strong model for social work training in other developing countries (Strug & Teague, 2002). Even US social work educators find many aspects of the Cuban model relevant to their schools,



Conclusion

Social work does not operate in a vacuum (Brown, 1996) and it is a part of the complex organization of society. Manshardt implanted the “exotic plant” (in the words of Dr. P.T.Thomas) of social work in India bypassing India’s national heritage of social reform and social work. The American model of social work, which was   individual-centred and curative in function, was transplanted in the country ignoring the social change oriented, macro approach of the Gandhian social reconstruction movement. It is, therefore, understandable that even after eighty years since its inception, social work has not been able to convince the stakeholders, particularly the government, of its credential to be a profession.

American social work professionals strongly believe that social work is a universal profession. In simple words they are of the conviction that what is valid in American society is also valid for other societies. The mainstream American social work theories and practice models have doubtful applicability in Asian countries and in working with indigenous communities. The knowledge base of social work profession in India is questionable. Added to this is the sub-standard quality of social work education, and the poor field work component in most of the social work educational institutions in the country.

Many areas of social welfare, where social work professionals could be employed, are not professionalized or only partly professionalized because of the conception that social work can be undertaken by any person with willingness to help fellow human beings; and persons with education and competence in social sciences, development disciplines or management subjects are capable of substituting social work professionals. In other words, the uniqueness of the knowledge and skills set of professional social work is not felt by those who utilize  the services of professional social workers.

Discussion on social work profession in India should exclude HR from its orbit to avoid distortion in the focus of the discussion. Social work in India falls much short of the criteria stipulated by Flexner as well as Greenwood. In India, social work, at best, can be considered a semi-profession as described by Etzioni. Social work as well as social worker are statutorily protected in countries like USA and UK. But it is never possible in India. Social work and professional social work will co-exist with the latter having a lower status.
 
[Courtesy:Social Work Foot Prints, Volume 5, Issue 3, July 2015]

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