The social work profession in India which is fraught with many challenges is now witnessing unexpected hurdles due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The fieldwork training in social work education— which is a very important component of the department— has been severely crippled by the pandemic ever since it outbroke. The gap which existed between classroom teaching and fieldwork practicum has further widened. This is going to produce a batch of social work students who will be lacking in the skills required for the fieldwork.
Barely any initiatives are taken by the professional social work associations to revamp and redesign fieldwork practicum. Unless and until we develop new innovative and uniform ways of conducting fieldwork practicum, the present pattern of fieldwork training will be questioned by the students and practitioners in the long run. Now the situation warrants laying down a complete roadmap for redesigning fieldwork methods/modules in the light of the pandemic.
CHALLENGES WE ARE FACING
For years, we have been advocating for the inclusion of indigenous approaches and fieldwork practices in the social work curriculum which is otherwise dominated by Euro-centric approaches. The lack of integration of social work research and indigenous practices in social work education has emerged as a major challenge in social work education. Besides, the challenges posed by the pandemic have highlighted the exigencies to provide timely and adequate training to students to enhance their communication skills and adaptability to communication technologies.
NITI Aayog has recently initiated the process for constituting the National Social Work Council (NSWC) as an umbrella body for the social work profession to ensure standardization of social work curriculum, teaching, training, practice, and academics. However, the pandemic has posed new challenges before us which cannot be dealt with pre-pandemic ideas and strategies.
It’s sad to mention that most of the social work professionals were not visible on the ground during the pandemic, as they are ought to be. However, people from other professions and educational backgrounds came forward as social workers. They lead from the front and receive appreciation from all and sundry. In such a situation, demand for licensing for social workers will be another historical blunder for the social work profession.
NSWC is a welcome step but the demand of a section of social work academicians to give it powers on the lines of the Medical Council of India seems non-practical. It raises a fundamental question as to whether social workers require specialised skills like that of a surgeon or a medical professional. It was probably due to these non-practical demands and disputes, the NITI Aayog has reportedly stalled the process of NSWC.
Instead of putting efforts into improving the standards and quality of social work education in universities, massive campaigns are being undertaken for licensing of social workers which are completely based on western paradigms and the framework of social work practice, and this is against the ethos of social work practice in India. The sorry plight of the social work profession in India is an open secret. It’s time to confess that the social work profession is still suffering from an identity crisis that was further deteriorated by the pandemic.
CREATING A TASKFORCE
There is a great need for an integrated approach in social work practice to pool the resources and engage them in the management of the Covid-19 crisis and similar challenges in the future. We need to develop a pandemic resilience curriculum for social work and enable our future social workers for quick deployment in the management of epidemics, pandemics, and natural disasters in coming times.
Therefore, the creation of a National Social Work Task Force (NSWTF) in line with the National Disaster Taskforce, seems the need of the hour. All the social work students at various schools of social work should be registered in the National Social Work Task Force and should be attached to various hospitals and local Panchayatiraj Institutions. They should be deployed required to create awareness drive, distributing reliefs, working for rehabilitation, and distributing masks, etc. They can mobilize the people towards the effectiveness of vaccination. Besides, social work practitioners and youths working with National Service Scheme (NSS), National Cadet Corps (NCC), and Nehru Yuva Kendra (NYK) should integrate with NSWTF for better training and deployment. This will provide ample opportunities for social work students to practice fieldwork practicum during the pandemic and will also help in managing similar challenges in the future.
The Nationalist Social work organizations contribute immensely to mitigate the suffering of the people. So, the creation of the National Social Work Taskforce will create opportunities for students of social work, and this will be extremely helpful for national development and our collective social wellbeing.
Furthermore, social work academicians in India should engage in developing Indic theories of social work from the vast Indic literature and best practices in the field of social work. We need to conduct academic research on successful social work experiences by various Indian icons who had done and are doing wonderful work for community development and social well-being in the fabric of Indian circumstances. We also need to develop a criterion for the selection of social work modules which should have an adequate emphasis on the degree of achievements in line with the predetermined objectives of the project. Social work educators need to develop new modules and uniform fieldwork training practicum in the larger interest of student’s fieldwork learning and social work profession.
