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]
