Social Work Practice to Labour Welfare: A Proposed Model of Field Work Practicum and Role of Social Worker in India

Authors: Naeem Ahmed

Abstract:

Social work is a professional activity based on the approach of “helping people to help themselves” (Stroup). Social work education and practice both are based on humanitarian philosophy in which social workers try to increase the happiness of the society and to reduce the problems of society. Labour welfare is a specialised field of social work which especially focuses on welfare of organised and unorganised labour. In India labour is facing numerous problems in both organised and unorganised sectors because of ignorance, illiteracy, high rate of unemployment etc. In most of the Indian social work institutions we have this specialization with different names like Human Resource Management or Industrial Relation and Personnel Management or Industrial Relations and Labour Welfare or Industrial Social Work etc. Field work practice is integrated part of social work education curriculum in all specialised field. In India we have different field work practice models being followed in different institutions. The main objective of this paper is to prepare a universal field work practicum model in the field of labour welfare. This paper is exploratory in nature, researcher used personal experience and secondary data (model of field work practice in different institutions like Aligarh Muslim University, Pondicherry University, Central University of Karnataka, University of Lucknow, MJP Rohilkhand University Bareilly etc.) Researcher found that there is an immediate need to upgrade the curriculum or field work practice in this particular field, as more than 40 percent of total population engaged in either unorganised or organised sector (NSSO 2011-12) and they are not aware about their rights. In this way a social worker can play an important role in existing labour welfare facilities by making them aware.

Keywords: Fieldwork, labour welfare, organised labour, social work practice, unorganised labour.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1315778

References:

[1] Witmer Helen (1942). “Social Work: An Analysis of a Social Institution”. Farrar & Rinehart, New York
[2] Definition social work given by IASSW and IFSW, 2014(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_work)
[3] Subhedar I.S. (2001). “Fieldwork Training in Social Work”. Rawat Publication, Jaipur
[4] https://hs.biosestate.edu/socialwork/fielfwork/ accessed on 18/03/2017
[5] I.L.O (1950), Report on Asian Regional Labour Conference, Geneva.
[6] Kapoor N.D. (2007). Industrial Labour Laws. New Delhi, EXCAL Book Publication.
[7] Khinduka S.K. (1965). “Social work in India”. Kitab Mahal, Allahabad
[8] Sharma A.M. (1999) “Aspects of Labour Welfare and Social security”, Bombay, Himalaya, 1997.
[9] Satyanarayana M. R, Reddy R. J. (2007). Labour Welfare Measures in Cement Industries in India (a case of KCP Limited, Cement Division, Macherla, Andhra Pradesh), International Journal of Physical and Social Sciences. 2-7.
[10] Deepti B. (1985). “State and Labour welfare in India”, New Delhi, Deep and Deep Publications,
[11] Misra, K.K. “Labour Welfare in Indian Industries” Meenakshi Prakashan, Meetut, 1974.
[12] Sarma, A.M. (1996). “Aspects of Labour Welfare and Social Security”. Himalaya Publishing House, Bombay.
[13] John P.T, Yuen F.K. (2006). “Social Work for the Twenty-first Century Challenges and Opportunities”. Praeger Publishers, USA