SOCIAL WORK COURSE FIFTY YERS AGO (MSWJ:4)

Rural Camp of a week-long duration after the observation visits to welfare institutions and hospitals  was the best part of  our social work course. Group living, knowing each other very closely, team work in camp activities ,and spending time meaningfully with the village community were of invaluable learning.

Looking back, I feel that the course on History and Philosophy of Social Work could have been handled in an imaginative way. The teacher who was entrusted with this subject was a soft-spoken person who preferred to read out from his notes. His class was very noisy by all the students talking in small groups. But our teacher was always unperturbed : a philosophical point driven home to all. The selection of the teacher for this subject perhaps was because the faculty as a whole gave least importance to social work's history and philosophy. My Professor was a wonderful human being  and he is no more with us now. Years later, a young teacher Henry J D'Souza made the subject extremely popular and interesting. Dr. D'Souza is now Professor of social work at the University of Omaha, United States.

Social work  education's major strength is the theory- field work integration. Three and a half days allotted for theory, and two alternate days for field  work. But there was only field work and no field instruction. Barring the PMIR field work where the field suprevisor explained the relevant topics, there  absolutely was no social work instruction in the welfare institutions as  most of the institutions did not employ professionally trained personnel . Back at MSSW, there were Individual Conferences every week with the faculty supervisors. But most of the social work teachers had no experience in social work practice. So conferences were generally conversations between the teachers and the students,the importance of which cannot be undermined in the development of the young learners.

The  Project Report  was an academic hurdle to cross. Selection of topic during the last part of the first year, preparation of the questionnaire before the year end, data  collection during the summer vacation, data analysis and drafting the report during the second year were routine tasks. Generally it was an enterprise in plagiarism. Library was fully utilised for this work.

Social work course influenced me considerably. What Did MSSW teach its students ?  It did not teach. That was the great learning. The freedom in the campus, the exposure to social realities , accessibility to teachers, free interaction between boys and girls , functions where students could express themselves, an independent students' union which was consulted on all important matters, a feeling of assurance that MSSW would help in securing employment, and many other small small matters helped all of us shape our personality. For this ,only one person was responsible : K.N.George , whom my classmate late Dr. N.Subramanian, described as King George in an article in the Students' Union Magazine during the period in which Subramanian was General Secretary and I was President.

SOCIAL WORK COURSE FIFTY YEARS AGO (MSWJ :3 )

Clifford Manshardt ,an American Protestant Missionary working in the Nagpada Neighbourhood of  poor families, started social work education in India under the auspices of the Tatas .The Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work came into being in 1936 with Manshardt as the first Director and it offered a two-year Postgraduate Diploma in Social Service Administration (Dip SSA ). Incidentally I was born the same year in August ; I gained a lot from Social Work and also gave back something significant to society and social work education in India.

MSSW  founded in 1952 borrowed the name School as well as the curriculum cotent from the first school, which in 1944 became the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). MSSW ,thus, became an American Dream. The late Dr. P.T. Thomas , the first professional social worker-Director of MSSW , described  social work as an "Exotic Plant" implanted on the Indian soil by an American.

The two-year social work course at MSSW was a Generic Programme, that is, all areas  or FIELDS where social work skills could be applied were taught without any area of specialization and the successful students were awarded the Dip SSA. The  five fields of social work were Medical and Psychiatric Social Work , Community Development , Criminology and Correctional Administration , Family and Child Welfare, and Labour Welfare and Industrial Relations (which later on became PMIR :Personnell Management ). After some years MSSW opted for the specialization model .
Most of the students who joined  MSSW had done so to become officers in industries. This has been the pattern all across the country. When Specialization was introduced PMIR was the most favoured specialization. It is so even now. Late Dr. K.V. Sridharan,the second Director of MSSW, once recalled in a conversation with me that at the TISS the PMIR students considered themselves  the BRAHMINS in TISS.

Social Work has the unique pattern of theory classes and concurrent Field Work of two days duration during the two years. In addition Block field work for about a month and a project report based on data collected by the student reasearcher.

Social Work taught at  MSSW was devoid of any Social / Structural Analysis and the assessment of  the systemic causation of problems and maladies. Instead emphasis was on  Individual Pathology , deviance , family breakdown, and related issues. The method Social Case Work to a great extent and Social  Group Work to some extent were given emphasis. The thrust was on urban-centred issues. Sadly MSSW gave least  preference to rural students. Community Organization was taught more as a welfare intervention of delivery of services to people living in slums. Shockingly students going to slums for field work were advised to take BATH on return from the poor settlements. The poor living in slums were polluted: a biased understanding of urban poverty at that time by social work teachers.

MY SOCIAL WORK JOURNEY (2)

The first week at MSSW was eventful. Welcome of the freshers by second year students , teachers and Director. Prof K.N.George (KNG) emphasised the importance of punctuality,and Other standards of behaviour. He stressed on America more than once. The term School of Social Work was borrowed from the US .

A great new experience at the campus was the free interaction between the men and women students.
In the class room, students sat as a group ; there was no separate seating arrangement for men and women as in the other colleges where I studied. But the number of female students was far less than the number of boys. So there was serious competition among the boys to attract the attention of the limited number of girls. There was a feeling of inferiority among those who failed to catch the eyes of the girls. But then not all boys and girls were interested in these extr-curricular activities.  KNG  liked free mixing of boys  and girls , and also " dating " as he himself  loved one of his MSSW students and finally married her. My classmate C.K.Sampath was his favourite as he used to give LIFT to all obliging girls. Neighbours in the conservative Egmore neighbourhood Sait Colony were not used to the free movement of boys and girls, and hence gave some unpleasant "titles" to MSSW which was a recent neighbour in the residential locality. Then social attitudes fifty years ago could be imagined ,that too in Madras (as it was known then ).

Observation visits to social welfare institutions, writing reports, and Group  Conferences were new academic experiences. Our Fieldwork Co-ordinator Rachael Thangavelu was a wonderful facilitator and a motivator. She  had a pleasant face and always spoke encouragingly.

Theory classes were generally boring except the sessions by M .T. Paul and his wife Radha Paul. The former taught Psychology with a high sense of humour and the examples were those .which the young students would love to hear. Radha Paul was charming and taught Social Case Work with ease. They fell in love at MSSW and got married despite opposition from Radha Iyer's family. The Pauls were the best teachers. KNG taught Social Research .  He seldom taught Research Methodology in a way that the students could understand.But his classes were most lively and all his examples were American. He was and is still a great admirer of Uncle Sam. When I became his professional colleague after some years, I used to hear his critics and admirers referring to him as CIA (Central Intelligence Agency ) Agent.

MY SOCIAL WORK JOURNEY FROM JARRET'S GARDENS (1)

I am fortunate to have a small, reassuring family consisting of my wife, children ,children-in-law ,and grandchildren , and a big extended family comprising my former students of social work , many of whom keep in touch with me regularly or occasionally. Some of my former students  have been asking me to write my experiences as a social work professional. I am touched by their warmth and I am planning to look back in time .

My father's ambition was to see me as an Engineer as I was good at Mathematics. But I completed my Master's degree in Statistics. Soon I realised  that I will not be happy with Statistics as my career option. I discussed with my Statistics Professor Dr. M.Mani my indecision. He suggested Social Anthroplogy. The "Social"part appealed to me, but not Anthroplogy. Meanwhile , I was in contact with a famous Marxist thinker and a Member of Parliament as from my College days, I was a part of the activities of the Student Federation of India. I had attended many study sessions on Marxism. I was advised by the MP to consider joining the Communist Party as an ordinary member and he assured that he, being an economist , would be able to sharpen my theoretical skills on  Marxist theory and praxis. But my family circumstances did not permit me to consider his advice.

Meanwhile, I happened to see an advertisement of the Madras School of Social Work (MSSW) inviting applications for the postgraduate course in social work. I thought Social Work would be suitable for me as a career. The address given was JARRET'S  GARDENS. Lal Bagh at Bangalore with its beautiful gardens was in my mental  image . I appeared for selection test at Jarret's Gardens at Casa Major Road at Egmore. As I entered the gate my mental picture changed dramatically. The campus had some trees, two thatched sheds, a dilapidated out house, and an old two-storied structure, which gave the impression of  a heritage building. It was in June 1961.

There was a written test, group discussion, a face-to-face interview with a member of the faculty, and the final panel interview. For the first time  I met two significant personalities: Mrs. Mary Clubwala Jadhav, Founder-Secretary , and Prof.K.N.George, Director of MSSW. Our Head of the Department of Mathematics  during my degree course , Prof. John K John was always in suit and we have never seen him smiling. Our Statistics Professor  Aleyamma George  was a terror. In contrast, I saw to my surprise a Director who was cheerful. Prof. K. N.George was different. I saw him walking up and down most of the time, screaming for minor things, and talking casually as if nothing happened. I found my name in  the selected list of candidates for the postgraduate course in social work. My social work career ,thus, started from Jarret's Gardens.

BONDED AND SWEAT LABOUR OF OUR CHILDREN

Sustained global and national campaigns ultimately led to the banning of Child Labour in India 25 years ago. But nothing has changed on the ground as unscrupulous exploiters of cheap labour continued to use child labour as law implementing officials sleep over the violations. Textile Mills are   among the biggest violators. A shocking  revelation is from a Spinning Mill at Dindigal which PULLED OUT 22 school going children from schools to work in the Mill and the poor parents who are peasants in low paying work definitely prefer some money to education.

SUMANGALI is a beautiful blessing showered on women at marriage for a happy married life. But this age-old blessing has been converted to a clever ploy to exploit children. In Kongu belt consisting of Erode, Tirupur and Coimbatore Textile Mills influence poverty-stricken families with girl children with the Sumangali Scheme to keep girls as mill workers on contract for a number of years so that the children could save money for their future dowry???. Many horrifying instances of this exploitation have come in the public domain with no effect.

The government of India enacted the Right to Education Act (RTE) making education of children a fundamental right. Children are required to be in schools and parents are  to be educated on the need for keeping their kids in schools. But  hunger and deprivation make parents  opt for some earning from their children to supplement their wages. So they do not pay attention to their children dropping out of Schools when prospective employers Pull them out of schools.. Pulling children out of schools is a heinous crime. So also making children work. But who will enforce law? Those who are required to protect children and punish the violators of law themselves are in BONDAGE to the violators. Cruelty to children is a media item for a short period : the officials are fully aware of this reality.