Book Review
Social
Work Profession in India: An Uncertain Future
T.K.Nair
Niruta
Publications
Pages:
xvi+256
Price: INR
500
K.R. Gangadharan*
Social
work in India has three components: clinical social work (in particular,
psychiatric social work), developmental social work (or development work), and
social action (for social justice and social equity) according to Prof. T.K. Nair.
The present book contains ten articles from social work practitioners and
social work scholars who critically analyse the different dimensions of social
work practice and education.
“Philosophy of Social Work in Changing India”,
by late Professor M.V. Moorthy traces the philosophy of social work in India
from ancient times to the modern era. He observes rightly that theory and practice
should go hand in hand; but behind theory and practice there should be
philosophy to give tone, tenor and temper to the profession. Prof. Moorthy adds: “Whatever may be the line
of development followed by professional social work in the West, we in India
cannot ignore the ethical contents and spirit of social work profession”.
Professor
Henry D’ Souza’s article “Social Justice in India: Reflections” focuses on
redistributive justice because the lack of it reinforces injustice in gender,
religion, caste and tribe. He describes in detail poverty, slavery and bonded
labour, corruption and bribery in India. He says that social justice struggles
in our diverse, complex and largest democracy will need to continue fearlessly
and with relentless determination. He is not optimistic of the effectiveness of
social work profession in promoting social justice though some social workers
educated in the schools of social work may commit themselves to serve the
vulnerable and poor by engaging themselves in organizing local communities, and
initiating struggles for social and economic justice.
“Evolutionary
Excellence in Social Work” by Sampath and Kalpana Sampath underscores the conviction
of the authors that individuals and institutions strive towards excellence. To
align individual and organizational values, a continuous clarification process
is essential which should ideally involve the ability to “connect, correlate
and create”. For any individual or organization,
excellence is an ongoing process. When individuals and institutions pursue
excellence, they make a difference to themselves and to those around them.
Dr.
Shanthi Ranganathan has devoted her whole life for treatment and rehabilitation
of alcoholics and other substance addicts under the auspices of the TTK
Hospital, which she founded, for which she was awarded the Padma Shri and the
UN Vienna Civil Society Award. In the article, “Substance Use Disorders and
Social Work Interventions”, she explains in detail the measures for prevention
of substance use disorders, early identification and enhancing motivation,
treatment and followup. Besides individualized therapy, family therapy is
arranged to reinforce the rehabilitation process. Professional social work has
been given a key role in TTK hospital, a global leader in the treatment of
substance use disorders (SUDs) as the founder - director herself is a social
worker. But Dr. Shanthi says that schools of social work give low preference to
training of social workers with skills needed to work with persons with SUDs.
CAP
Foundation, a social enterprise, founded in 1997 by Dr. Nalini Gangadharan,
believes that skill development is the key for empowerment of young men and
women. Her article “Poverty Alleviation through Skill Building : A Social Work
Initiative” presents the CAP model of “Linking Learning and Livelihood” needs of working children and youth to
equitable market-oriented employability opportunities. CAP’s vision is to be an
end - to - end community – based solutions provider in quality education to
build safer, healthier and productive communities of young people capable of
supporting self- directed growth and positive citizenship. Till 2013, CAP
Foundation has trained 2, 54,395 young persons in 15 states and it has
international presence in 8 locations.CAP Foundation is an illustration of the
developmental social work initiative.
Ms.Annie
Namala has been actively involved in promoting social equity and protecting
Dalit human rights for more than three decades. Annie Namala’s article
“Promoting Social Justice, Human Rights and Empowerment” discusses in details
the rights violations. Dalit communities continue to face caste - based
violence despite the prohibition of untouchability and all forms of caste -
based disabilities. On education and social inclusion, the article refers to
the poor implementation of the various government provisions and schemes. Ms. Annie
points out that social work studies need to constantly engage in a praxis
process between theoretical instruction and field action. She wants the schools
to engage field practitioners to be part of their faculty for periods of time.
Professor
B. Devi Prasad, in his article “Voluntary Sector and Professional Social Work:
Trends and Challenges” makes a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats) analysis of both the sectors. The strengths of the voluntary sector
are the diversity of areas covered by the sector; the innovative role by
experimenting and promoting new areas of development work; and the closeness to
people. The weaknesses of the voluntary sector include suspected allegiance of
foreign - funded organizations; absence of transparency and credibility of many
organizations; and uncertainty of regular funding support. The strengths of
professional work according to Devi Prasad are its professional base with a
track record of performance globally; sound knowledge base; and accountability
to society. The weaknesses include the deteriorating quality of professional
social work education; and the ideological deficit. On social work education,
Devi Prasad comments that it is “a sea of mediocrity with islands of excellence
and visibility”.
Professor
R.R. Singh’s article “Education for Professional Social Work in India:
Overview” critically looks at the education for professional social work in the
context of the changing perspectives of
the profession, proliferation of social work institutions, problems in the
maintenance of standards, less availability of senior faculty for professional
socialization of students, and
variations in courses and credits. Dr. Singh examines almost all aspects of
social work education in India in this article with authority. R.R. Singh observes
that the proliferation of such institutions is indeed a threat to the quality
of professional social work education and practice. Most of these are self
serving institutions which are not preparing competent professionals to serve
society.
In
the article “Should We Re-think the Nature of Social Work?”,Dr. M.Nadarajah is
of the view that social work, as a mode of engagement, is an expression of our
compassionate sentiment, born out of our sociability, and it is essentially
directed at those in need of help. Dr.
Nadarajah states that social work today is a profession in the economy and job
market. It has also been commodified, bringing it within the universe of profit
motive. While social work has the features, in relation to addressing human
misery, it has also assumed features that are towards profit maximization. In
as much as it is in this orientation, there must be a constant supply of human
misery. The general effort of
professional social work as an institution will not be directed at social
prevention but towards curative activities, much like how the medical industry
works. Dr. Nadarajah is of the view that society where people engage at all levels
to address human suffering and consider radical structural reforms and
prevention would not be in the interest of modern, professionalized social
work.
Professor
T.K. Nair, in his article “Humanitarianism Professionalized: Dilemmas of Social
Work in India”, traces the history of social work profession and social work education.
The proliferation of social work courses under different auspices; the
dominance of HR (human resources) concentration in the social work curricula;
the unwillingness of social work educational institutions to focus on social
work without HR; the deteriorating quality of social work education in most
institutions; the lack of practice-based research by the practitioners as well
as the faculty; the absence of regulatory bodies of social work education and
practice; and related issues are discussed by Prof. Nair in his article. He
comes to the conclusion that social work is not a profession in India.
My joining the Madras School of Social Work for the postgraduate
programme was with the confidence that the Postgraduate Diploma would enable me
to get into the Personnel Department of an industry, which I secured on
completion of the social work course. After working in industries for some
years, I decided to accept an offer from the newly established corporate
hospital (Apollo Hospital) at Chennai to head its Human Resource Department.
Subsequently I was promoted as General Manager (Operations), which gave me a
tremendously valuable experience in building and developing a hospital. I,
then, shifted my base to Hyderabad, where I worked as Vice-President of a major
hospital. At that time, I decided to start a hospital of my own. During one of
my regular interactions with Prof. T. K. Nair at Chennai, he suggested to enter
into the field of ageing. Prof. Nair was at that time active in promoting
community based services for the elderly. He presented a grand design for me
including President ship of the International Federation on Ageing. At that
time, I was quite skeptical of the feasibility of his advice but as destiny
would have it, I started the Heritage Hospital for the elderly. Incidentally,
Prof .Nair was the one who suggested the title Heritage for my initiatives. I
was invited to speak at the White House Conference on Ageing in 2005. I became
President of the International Federation on Ageing before I turned 60. I
travelled to many countries as IFA president. I was one of the members of a
panel Open-ended Working Group on Ageing. I am invited as a resource person by
UN ESCAP and WHO SEAR in many of their regional meeting of experts on ageing.
The government of India invited me to be a member of the committee to redraft
the National Policy on Senior Citizens. I was a Member of the National Council
of Older Persons during 2006-2011. I was a member of the Andhra Pradesh State
Advisory Council to implement the National Policy on Older Persons. Now I am
active in health care, social welfare policy, and social work administration. A
transformation from HR Management to Human Welfare and Social Work.
The present book
edited by Prof. Nair looks at social work profession in India from an
incisively critical perspective. Personally, I am happy that the book includes
an article from my wife Nalini on the work she has been doing in the area of
skill development. Professionally, I rate this volume as an excellent one for
the future direction of social work.
*Dr. K.R.Gangadharan,
PhD.
Creator,
Heritage Hospital for the Elderly
Former
President, IFA
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