Space & Significance for 

Professional Social Work in India

 

In an era when the concept of social development is on the spotlight as an indicator for assessing the true wealth and status of a nation, we have many undercurrents that keep pushing it to the top of the discussion table of practically every segment in the society. Whether there is merit or not in those discussions is not a big deal; but what is to be noted here is that everyone wants to be identified with the concept of social development in some way or the other.

 

It is in this scenario, it may not be out of place to mention that there is a cult of professionals who are keen to be counted by having the appropriate space and significance accorded to them for contributing their might towards the cause of social development with a professional touch. Without any doubt we are talking about the cult of individuals who belong to the discipline of ‘Professional Social Work’ who are confined within a certain boundaries for far too long.

 Social work as a profession in our country has been in existence right from the early days of our nation’s independence during 1947. The deep rooted intervention of social work can be vividly recounted in many areas of welfare, rehabilitation, education and community development initiatives as there are numerable testimonies in the pages of history for all to see.

We cannot deny the fact that social work as a concept emerged from the west and then came into India as a consolidation of charity based intervention.  Social work profession in India is firmly grounded in the Fundamental Rights and Directive Principles of State Policy as enshrined in the Indian Constitution, and in the United Nations (UN) Declaration of Human Rights. What is of concern is that, despite its deep rooted existence in the Indian social landscape, yet it craves for proper recognition at the national level as a profession with appropriate mechanism and statutory bodies for recognition and regulation, so that the profession is taken very seriously.

Insights into the world of professional social: Social work is often viewed as any intervention on a voluntary basis in the society and largely associated with the non-governmental sector, which is not entirely true, since it operates much beyond the non - governmental set up.

The National Council for Social Work Education in India defines Professional Social Work as “an internationally recognized academic discipline and practice based profession, based on knowledge, methods, and skills of working with people and systems. It is built in the foundations of values and ethics of human dignity, sensitivity to structural realities, and respect for diversities. It promotes social justice and social development, guided by the Indian Constitution and by India’s commitment to International Human Rights Law”.

In the meantime, it is common to find many categories of people calling themselves as so called social workers, since they are engaged in some sort of public activity on a social service basis. There is no harm any way in their self proclamation, but what needs to be sorted out or clarified is that whether all of them could be classified as professional social workers? Those who belong to this category often take it as a decorative or fashionable venture to use it as a tag for their social recognition. Their activities largely centre around distributing some takeaways on specified days like their birthdays, anniversaries of festival occasions.

Professional social work is much more than charitable service. It based on a systems approach with many interventions firmly grounded on sound theoretical principles to make the life and environment better for those who gets past through it at any point of their life. The common story which is shared in a lighter vein among the social work students by their professors is that, when you meet a hungry man, don’t just go and give him a fish to eat and stop with that. Instead, teach him the art of fishing so that he can sustain his life with dignity based on self reliance.

Core Competency of Social Work Professionals: Professional Social Work as a comprehensive process starts with working to empower individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities to enhance their well being and increase their problem solving capacities. It stands as crusader to address and challenge barriers, inequalities, and injustices that exist in society by facilitating the inclusion of marginalized, socially excluded, dispossessed, vulnerable and at- risk groups of people.

It assists people on the awareness creation and sensitization level about the various welfare and developmental schemes, projects, programs and initiatives that are provided by the government and allied agencies. It also stands out as a valuable source for the developmental administrators to plan, organize, administer and manage programs both at the Voluntary Sector and at the Institutional Sector to advance the concept of Social and Human Development.

The success of the professional social work as a concept and practice methodology is very much based on the expertise of the professionals involved. They have sufficient practice skills in knowledge of assessment and relationship building to help the process to achieve the targeted outcome. Professional social workers operate with ethical principles in encountering / confronting inequality in socio-political spheres, address challenges in economic injustices and gender aspects recognizing the inter-connectedness that exists within and across all systems at Micro, Mezzo and Macro levels.

Professional Social Work can be an inclusive part of developmental administration: All the social, welfare and developmental policies that are promoted through the government mechanism are a result of a process that is centred around the perspectives of the officials based on the principles and polices of the political dispensation that is in power. There is nothing wrong about since this has been the practice of the past and also the present, which in all likelihood will be the pattern in the future as well. 

We also need to accept and acknowledge that there have been considerable efforts on the part of the government at the national level to tackle many social and developmental issues which have grown over a period of time as threatening problems. Various social legislations and statutory provisions are also enacted to help in providing assistance and protection to people in need and distress. This is in addition to the state governments’ efforts at their level to address the social and developmental issues with the resources at their disposal. These energy and efforts are never to be undermined, at the same time there is no harm in looking at an objective angle of assessment of them from the point of view of efficacy of them in alleviating the issues in tune with the present times.

What we need here is an inclusive mechanism to provide space for the Professional Social Work personnel to be part of the system at the policy level, program development level, implementation level and also at the evaluation level, so that they could blend the authority of governance and power of doing good with that of humanistic concern based on the aspect of human development for which they are adequately qualified and trained.

The possible way forward:  It is always wise and prudent to be part of the solution than to be part of the problem and keep blaming the system, for which we have no answers. We need a paradigm shift in the very basic approach of handling developmental administration; we need to move away in qualitative and quantitative terms from a ‘top-down approach’ to that of a ‘bottom-top approach’. The best window that can be opened up for involving professional social workers is at the local body level, in which the real transformation of the various policies is supposed to take place.

The ladder of inclusivity and synchronization of support in a professional approach can move up to the Taluk level and to the District level in which the panchayat, municipal and civic corporation structures come into the reckoning. It is here that when many agencies coordinate and collaborate to implement the various schemes, there would be a great scope for professional social workers to offer their expertise in program implementation. 

The next stage is at the state level in which there will be an opportunity for the professional social workers to be part of the policy making team or structure. It is yet another vital space that the social workers can bring in their vast experience, expertise and professional knowledge into focus by providing a component of value addition to the administrators.

Social schemes and programs are not just material units that can be distributed and moved away from the scene; rather it must provide an opportunity and a canvas to work on the mindset of the beneficiary. This can be done effectively if the policies are people centric including within it a structure for accommodating the specific needs of people at the grass root level for better coverage, acceptance, consumption and successful transformation of their lives in accordance to the schemes or policies. It is here that the role of professional social workers comes into play in garnering the support of civil society, and micro level organizations to social development initiatives, programs and projects.

Challenges faced and the need for course correction:  It is a matter of reality that we are witnessing an aggravation of social problems in addition to poverty eradication, rural development, public health, employment etc. We are currently witnessing many new issues related to human trafficking, destitution of older persons and violence against vulnerable groups, rehabilitation and inclusion of persons with disabilities into the social mainstream, environmental degradation and loss of livelihood due to climate change, growing culture of drug and substance abuse, domestic violence and human right violation etc.

This calls for augmentation of skilled manpower to get engaged in various capacities to address these aspects with continuing education, training and development as part of their professional career enrichment in the field of professional social work. This apart, the engagement of professional social workers in terms of employment and career opportunities in various sectors is largely unregulated with varied working conditions. The salary and other working conditions are not justifiably satisfactory on a wider scale while taking into consideration of the lahks of them languishing without any feature of job security in the private sector.

Need for recognition: Concerted efforts are being taken at the national level to bring to light the much anticipated legal and structural framework for Social Work Education and Practice in our country. Yet there is no much progress in this regard which is a sorry state of affairs in the modern era of governance.

There have been many attempts in the past to get the National Council started like the “National Council of Professional Social Work in India Bill, 1993” and the “National Council of Professional Social Work Practitioners Bill, 2018”, which were carried out by select group of eminent social work educators and practitioners in the country giving much impetus to carry forward the need to establish a professional council for social work in our country.

At present thanks to the efforts of Niti Ayog, recently an initiative in the form of a meeting of select social work educators across India was called to discuss the need for a national council for social work. The deliberations of the formal meeting led to the formation of a select group of eminent social work educators who prepared a Draft Bill on a National Council for Social Work (Education and Practice), Bill 2020. There are attempts to get a wider consultation for the draft from among social work educators / institutions and practitioners both at the government and non- government level.

Given the fact that the society needs professionally educated and trained manpower in the domain of professional social work to address various issues related to human conditions; community development; human resource management; health and welfare of people, especially children and women; welfare of the marginalized and elders; disabled welfare and rehabilitation programs; rural reconstruction; urban planning & development; corporate social responsibility initiatives and disaster management etc. It is only imperative that the formation of such a council will bring more advantages to the education and professional aspects of social work within the country.

In conclusion: Our country will eventually stand to gain if we acknowledge the need to accord the deserving space for professional social work to be absorbed into the governmental and institutional setup at various levels of developmental administration. This is imperative and unquestionably a very pragmatic need of the hour, if we are to make rapid strides with a broad based community foundation in terms of achieving a higher status of human and development index, which would also be instrumental in making the lives of our people comfortable, happy, contended and dignified.

-          Nicholas Francis

 

Note About the Author:

Ø Nicholas Francis, the author of the “Handbook of Professional Practice & Career Development in Social Work” holds a Masters Degree in Social Work from Bishop Heber College in Tricuchirappalli along with a ‘University Rank from the Bharathidasan University’ for the same during the year 1991.

Ø He can be reached at nicholasmdu@gmail.com 

 

 

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