A
Note on Social Work Education
in
Karnataka - Shankar Pathak
In the last three issues of
“Social Work Foot Steps”, articles have been published which give information
on the beginning of social work
education in Karnataka, at Roshani Nilaya Mangalore, at Bangalore and Karnataka
Universities during the period of 1962 to 1971. This note attempts to provide
additional information to complete the picture.
The first Post-Graduate Diploma
Course in Social Work was started at St.Agnes College, Mangalore by Frances
Maria Yasas, an American Citizen of Albanian origin, in 1958. After the first
course was completed in 1960, it was discontinued, perhaps, due to lack of
financial and institutional support, and also, may be, due to the departure of
Ms.Yasas to complete her doctoral work on Mahatma Gandhi which she completed
and submitted in 1963, to an University in U.S.A. I am not sure whether it was
Loyola University at Chicago or some other University. I had met a graduate of
this course at St.Agnes, Miss.Nair in 1961. She had come to meet me seeking my
help in finding a job in the field of social work. As this diploma was
unrecognized, I could only recommend Miss.Nair to a voluntary organisation, the
Association for Moral and Social Hygiene in India. She got the job and worked
for about 15 to 16 years in that organisation. Miss Nair was also active in the
professional social work conferences and meetings in Delhi.
Dr.Yasas loved India and was an
admirer of Gandhiji. She was a devout Christian. She was employed in UNESCAP-
Social Welfare Division at Bangkok. I knew her very well. Perhaps, while in
India for work on her doctoral dissertation, she chose to stay in a missionary
institution in Mangalore, and that location and contact might have led to the
starting of the course on social work at St.Agnes College.
Another initiative to start post
graduate one-year diploma course in
social work was by a private registered society in 1961-62. Captain
Prasad who had done a ‘brief service in the army’, after his retirement from
the military service, was running three or four nursery schools as a commercial
venture, and made a living out of the income of these nursery schools. Perhaps,
it struck him that there was a more lucrative avenue- post graduate social work course aimed at the
industrial sector. He managed to get General K.M.Cariyappa to be the Patron of
the Society, using his military service connection. And he also managed to find
a prominent political personality – Devaraj Urs who was Labour Minister in
S.Nijalingappa`s Cabinet during 1962-67. Captain Prasad was the Honorary
General Secretary and also the honorary director of the institution, which he
named as “National Institute of Social Sciences.
Not making much progress in this
new venture, because of non-recruitment of full time professionally qualified
social work teachers, he was on the lookout for a person who could be appointed
as the director. Luckily he found one- Dr. K.V. Sridharan who had Diploma in
Social Service administration from Tata Institute of Social Sciences and had
worked at the newly established Madras School of Social Work for about 4years
from 1953, and for a brief period was its Acting Director. Sridharan got a Full
Bright scholarship to do his PhD. in social work at the University of
Cleveland, Olio, U.S.A, around 1957-58 and returned in 1961 with his PhD. He
was looking for a senior position in the field of social work education in
India. Not succeeding in this, he took up employment as Co-ordinator of
Cleveland International Youth Programme at the United States Education
Foundation in India (USEFI) at New Delhi and worked for about five years in
that position. Captain Prasad, ever resourceful, managed to contact
Dr.K.V.Sridharan and offered him the position of the Director, National
Institute of Social Sciences. Dr.Sridharan, keen to return to the field of
social work education, accepted the offer and came to Bangalore in 1966-67. He
tried to improve NISS by recruiting qualified social workers- one lady graduate
from the Roshani Nilaya, and another young man a graduate of the Madras School
of Social Work. He probably added one more teacher to the staff of NISS. He
strove to raise the visibility and stature of NISS in the field of social work
education and in the employment field.
Unfortunately, certain events
arising out of the interference of the management in academic administrative
matters led to the termination of his position as Director. The students went on strike, demanding his
reinstatement as Director. No amicable settlement was found, with each side
unwilling to yield from their stated position. After a few months, with Devaraj
Urs as Chief Minister of Mysore (as it was then known) the government took over
NISS and asked Bangalore University to run the p.g. social work course.
Dr.H.Narasimhaiah was the Vice- Chancellor of Bangalore University. I do not
know all the legal, technical details of this change. The p.g. department of social
work was created by Bangalore University in 1971. Advertisements were issued in
the newspapers for recruitment of the teachers for the Department of Social
Work. All the former teachers of NISS were eligible to apply. Dr .K.V.
Sridharan chose not to apply. Rest is history.
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