Field Action project, also more agreeably known as Field work projects, is an essential part of Social Work Practicum. Social Work can also be called as an empirical science which draws more on the practical aspect than the theoretical. Moreover the emphasis lies on determining the level to which either theory or practice needs to be balanced.
This certainly would mean that though knowledge has to be gained from the theoretical sources, this must at all times be cross checked by application to the field. Field action helps one to understand the extent to which theory supports practice. In most cases the dependency of practice on theory is not too much as social sciences take into account only human beings as subjects therefore such issues are case sensitive.
Talking about field action project, we can say that, empirical evidence makes ones experience rich and sustainable. With help of field action the realities of a situation can be assessed first hand and knowledge can be obtained. Therefore the importance and validity of field action project cannot be denied especially for the field of social work. Co-ordinating the social work students in various village communities like Hosahalli, Janapanahalli and Tandya, Bellibettalahalli and Hakki Pikki colony, it can be said that every community is embedded in their own cultural, social, religious and political specificities which results in every society being very different from each other. Working in every community has been a different experience altogether. To elucidate this we can say:
• Hosahalli has been a community which though initially opposed to changes, later on with intervention of the Department of Social work, not only accepted these changes but also participated in the process. The community has shown a great deal of improvement and development.
• In the case of Janapanahalli Tandya, the community is inhabited by Lambani's who are extremely hostile to change. They also did not want to support the trainees. Some work was however done for them where in they were given unorganized labor registration cards to insure them against odds.The problem of excessive alcoholism and school dropouts. Their issues were also addressed to an extent where the people of the community were motivated to send their children to school.
• Hakki-Pikki colony is also inhabited by Nomadic tribes . They also have the problem of alcoholism, unemployment, lack of formal education. Various SHGs were started in the community for the women especially for the purpose of income generation with the help of Vimochana, a NGO working for Women rights.
The context of Janapanahalli and Tandya village communities can be further elaborated. Social work trainees successfully completed 3 weeks summer placement in the village communities. In the summer placement, the trainees engaged in building rapport in the village community. There was a noticeable lack of community feeling among people of the village community. The trainees as such, targeted the women folk of the community. With increased rapport building, trainees got the information that there had been 2 SHGs which were functioning in the village community. Due to internal conflicts and certain monetary issues, the groups had stopped functioning. The target for the summer placement was therefore to revamp the SHGs for the women.
The strategy was to call for meetings of all the women who were a part of the SHG and to clarify all the issues that had happened in the process of functioning of the SHG. This being carried out successfully, all the members were re-approached and only people who were actually interested in being a part of an SHG were made members and a newly functional group was started.
Other task oriented activities undertaken were conducting summer camp for the children and medical and health checkup camps for the people of the village community due to noticeable health problems in the communities. The summer camp basically targeted at few points:
• The schools are usually closed for summer holidays and at this time usually the children engage in child labor in the fields of their parents or at home or elsewhere. The summer camp was held basically to prevent the children from engaging in child labor.
• When school is not functioning, children lose interest in studies and other classroom activities. The camp was organized so that children remain engaged in academics.
• The summer camp is basically for fun activities where the children learn through fun activities like painting, acting, songs, dance and activities. As the methods used to teach is more agreeable, children participate better.
The medical camp organized for the village communities was basically to address the fact that the primary health centers which are supposed to take care of the health aspects of the village communities are irregular and the nurses and medical practiti oners hardly attend the villages. The medical camp was organized to make the people of the village aware of the various health problems that occur and the way these problems should be taken seriously and addressed. The camp consisted of general health and awareness and diabetes checkup camp.
In every endeavor, the focus was laid on the continuity of the work process. As the course has a specified time limit, the aim was to orient people new to the field in terms of work that had already been done and the work that needed to be done in future. Keeping this in view, the old and the new batch of students conducted camps together in various village communities so that the new batch of students could be introduced into the community and the work being done could be carried over as continuation of activities is very important for building sustainability.
Field action project also aids in networking among various Government and non-Government organizations as well as networking with students. Therefore to sum it up, it can be said that, field action project is helpful indeed in various aspects where the students get an opportunity to work closely with various organizations thus getting hands on training in various fields. The other side of it is that organizations can train the students while already in field work and based on evaluation, the students can be absorbed into the organizations. Also the networking between various NGOs and government sector can be improved using Field work Action. These can act for the overall well-being of people and the communities.
Mr. Shashidhar Channappa
M.S.W (PhD) Program Manager, Department of Social Work,
Acharya Institute of Management and Sciences, Bangalore – 560058.
Dr.Kodandarama
Senior Scale Lecturer, Department of Social Work ,
Bangalore University , Bangalore-560056
Ms. Amrita Mukherjee
Co-ordinator, VIMOCHANA , Bangalore
Ms. Soumi Dutta
Final Year Student, Department of Social Work,
Acharya Institute of Management and Sciences, Bangalore – 560058.
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