DU
In first of its kind two days national conference on “Indian Social Work: Scope and Challenges” will be organised on March 14 and 15, 2018 in Dr B R Ambedkar College, University of Delhi (DU) in collaboration with Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha.
The conference aims to discover Indian perspective/s in social work with a vision to decolonise the academic discourse and lay down the foundation stone for Indianisation or Bharatiyakaran of Social Work education in India.
“Presently, almost entire academic research, teaching, training and discourse on social work is based on the paradigms developed by the British during colonial rule in India. The legacy has been continued by the Indian academicians even after over seven decades of independence. This conference will prove a foundation stone in decolonising social work and developing an Indian perspective,” said Bishnu Mohan Dash, Head, Department of Social Work, Dr B R Ambedkar College, DU.
The Social Work education as a stream was first started with the establishment of Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work (presently known as Tata Institute of Social Sciences) at Mumbai in 1936.
As the stream has its origin in colonial British India, it was obvious that the curriculum for the Social Work education was then borrowed by United Kingdom and United States of India.
In the past over eight decades, there is almost no change in the curriculum, research, teaching and training. Further, most of the universities in India have adopted the old western model of social work education/curriculum in India without examining their suitability in the local context.
“The hard earned money of the taxpayers is being used to propagate colonial education system in the field of social work. They may be some elements of universality in colonial model of social work education but not all. It’s high time for social work academicians in India to be tolerant enough in accommodating thoughts and personalities who have/ had made significant contributions in this field,” added Dash.
A number of eminent social work academicians and distinguished speakers across the country have given their consent to participate in the conference.
They include Girishwar Misra, Vice Chancellor, Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha, Mukul Kanitkar, All India Secretary to Bharatiya Shikshan Mandal, B T Lawani, Director, Yashwantrao Chavan Institute of Social Science Studies and Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth, E Kanakraj, Central University Mizoram, Neera Agnimitra, Head, Department of Social Work, DU, A K Joshi, Professor and Head, Department of Sociology, BHU.
Archana Kaushik, Department of Social Work (DU), D P Singh, Head, Department of Social Work, Punjabi University, Seeba Joseph, Head, Department of Social Work, Bhopal School of Social Work, Bhopal, John Menachery, Principal, Matru Seva Institute of Social Work P B Sen Gupta, Jabalpur University and G K Arora, Principal Bhim Rao Ambedkar College and others.
The conference will constitute – (a) Brain Storming Session and (b) Paper Presentation (multiple sessions). The research papers are invited under various themes including philosophy, theory, methodological orientations, decolonisation, thinkers, personalities, professional imperialism, social work research, Eurocentricsm, African perspective, and Chinese perspective etc.
“However, we have tried to cover all the themes and sub-themes but the scholars can send the papers keeping in mind the vision of the conference even if they don't find any matching theme or sub-theme,” said Siddheshwar Shukla, Conference Media Advisor. The finally selected research papers will be published in the form of an edited book by a leading publisher," he informed.
Rationale of the Conference: As a nation, India is very diverse in cultural characteristics.
There is interplay of many socio, cultural, economic, political and even geographical factors within and from one location to the other.
The nation has accommodated various ethnic, linguistic, cultural, caste, regional and religious communities. India has more than 2000 ethnic groups and sub groups.
There are 4693 communities, which include several thousands of endogamous groups, speaking 325 functioning languages and writing 25 different scripts.
With 1.19 billion population size, it is characterised by a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi lingual and multi religious environment that makes the society highly diverse.
This diversity is further complicated by the fact that some settlements urbanise, industrialise and modernise faster than others. This intricate mix of tradition and modernity makes it almost impossible to construct one overarching formula to fit all.
By and large the social work philosophy, principles, theories, methods and techniques which are taught to most of the students in India are western. There is great need to connect the next generation with their roots to instill the self-confidence, national pride and self-respect amongst them.
