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Book Review
Social work — issues and concerns
SOCIAL WORK TODAY — Present Realities & Future Prospects (The Madras School of Social Work Golden Jubilee Commemorative Volume: Compiled by K.N. George, edited by P.K. Visvesvaran; Pub. by The Madras School of Social Work (Under the auspices of the Society for Social Education and Research), 32, Casa Major Road, Chennai-600008.
Rs. 300.
THE VOLUME is a compilation of 22 articles, commemorating the golden jubilee of the Madras School of Social Work (MSSW) in 2002. The range and scope of the book takes the reader to present social realities in terms of the exploitation, abuses, addiction and child prostitution that we see in our midst. It exposes the problems of the elderly, the struggles of the refugees, and the needs of the slum dwellers. It calls on social workers to reflect on the role of the profession towards such issues.
The book tries to provide guidelines for the future in terms of humanitarian services. The authors are renowned social work academics and practitioners. The topics are of great relevance; issues and concerns requiring social work intervention have been very well dealt with, application of social work theories have been adequately explained.
The book opens with an introduction by K.N. George, which traces the training programmes that the MSSW has offered through the years. It is interesting to note that besides preparing students for academic programmes, the school has offered in-training service for probationary officers, youth service corps volunteers, judicial officers, women police constables, sub-inspectors and NSS officers. However a history of the institution tracing the fluctuation in its fortunes has not been attempted.
The book is divided into four sections. Section one, captioned as "the Socio Economic backdrop — rights and wrongs: the changing scenario", presents articles on the latest trends in social work, i.e. social development, globalisation, human rights and civil society.
James Midgley's "Themes in social development: implication on the industrial countries" is an outstanding piece of theoretical analysis. The reader is offered a detailed examination on the promotion of social policy, social intervention, social investment, social welfare and promoting social development in the industrial countries. He substantiates his thesis that social development is a well-established approach for promoting human wellbeing.
Elder statesman Madhu Dandavate calculates "The price India pays for globalisation." He assesses the effects of LPG (liberalisation, privatisation, globalisation) policies adopted by the Government of India citing incidents to illustrate LPG's impact on employment and the effect of signing the Marrkesh Agreement on the WTO. T.K. Oommen's article Social Work and Human Rights" is a well-researched and absorbing text. He has traced the two fields of knowledge in a historical perspective through the colonial period, cold war era and the global age and has rightly pointed out that social work and human rights belong to different periods.
He has established a link between the two disciplines and has dwelt upon challenges facing social workers. The vision of what is a civil society with the help of social contract theories has been well portrayed by Pranab Chatterjee in "Agenda for tomorrow: social work and the pursuit of civil society." He looks forward to an abuse-free society while V. Gopalan emphasises that a development mandate should be the vision and mission of social work.
Section two, entitled "Individual and groups: some major problems and concerns" is likely to be of maximum interest to the general reader. Brilliant in content, research and referencing is Nazreen S. Mayadas and Doreen Elliot's essay examining refugee issues with a global perspective. Paul D. Wiebe takes us through Chennai slums. He appeals for community support and an understanding of the contribution of the urban poor to metropolitan life. Deploring the rich-poor divide, Wiebe justly remarks "Much has been done for, with and by the poor in Chennai, very much more must be done."
"Social Policy and elderly in India" by S.D. Gokhale cogently and comprehensively presents facts and figures on the elderly in India, care homes, governmental programmes, assistance, policy initiatives, international bodies and critically interrogates the concept of "burden" and emphasises the need for strengthening family ties. In a different vein is Balagopal's study on "Indo-American elderly," which adopts an ethnographic approach to the problems faced by senior citizens with failing health and declining wealth, along with coping and adaptation struggles. The article adds a valuable dimension to an understanding of the problems faced by the elderly living abroad.
George's study of child prostitution in Tamil Nadu explores a sensitive and relevant topic but is flawed by errata and absence of statistics. Here is a field where few venture to work but to which all need exposure. James Arputharaj, in "Social policy: caring for the vulnerable children in South Asia" presents three models of social policy which if applied, might provide solutions for problems faced by social work practitioners in this field. However his introductory paragraphs on different approaches need to be recast for greater clarity.
Section three bears the very general title "Solutions through social work towards better training and honed skills." Deserving mention are the articles by G.A.K. Yesudian and Armaity S. Desai. Yesudian provides an excellent survey of medical social work — its history, early beginnings, health issues, current trends, successful interventions, failures to meet health challenges and scope beyond hospitals. He establishes that medical social work is a specialisation by itself, and ought not to be merged with psychiatric social practice.
Armaity S. Desai in "Social Work profession: some reflections" has identified vital areas requiring further nurture and growth — an attitude and aptitude tests for entrants to the schools of social work; a ladder approach to social work education spread over five years; a shift in the curriculum to developmental work; a focus on research; staff developmental programmes and accreditation and licensing for social work education and practice. The final segment examining the work of paraprofessionals and volunteers is very informative.
The book however has both the strengths and weaknesses of a compilation. The topics are wide in range and difficult to classify under set headings. Several of the contributors are eminent achievers in the field. An introduction to each writer with an assessment of his/her work would have been welcome. This publication deserves applause. The text is informative, up-to-date, and is extremely readable.
POPPY KANNAN
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