G 111 DC1.

Foundations for Social Work

Syllabus
Unit–I An Introduction to Social Work

• Chapter 1: Nature and Scope of Social Work: Social Work: Concept, Meaning, Definitions, Objectives,
Goals and Functions, Introduction to the methods of Social Work

• Chapter 2: Social work: Nature and Philosophy: Democratic, Humanitarian, Herbert Bisno’s Philosophy

• Chapter 3:. Historical development of Social Work in the UK, USA, India and Karnataka
• Chapter 4: Emergence of Social Work Education in India and Karnataka
Unit–II Principles, Values and Ethics of Social Work

• Chapter No. 5 : Principles of Social Work

• Chapter No. 6 : Guiding Principles of Social Work and their applications in diverse socio-cultural
settings
• Chapter No. 7:Assumptions,Values and Code of Ethics (NASW) of Social Work
• Chapter No. 8: Professional v/s Voluntary Approaches to Social Work
Unit–III Social Work Profession in India

• Chapter No.9: Profession: Meaning, Definitions and Attributes

• Chapter No.10: Professionalization of Social Work in Indian Scenario
• Chapter No.11: Social Work Profession: Issues and Challenges
• Chapter No.12: Perspectives of Social Work Profession in Indian context
Unit–IV Approaches, Ideologies and Fields of Social Work

• Chapter No.13: Social Work and its Relation to Human Rights and Social Justice
• Chapter No.14: Ideology of Action Groups and Social Movements
• Chapter No.15: Contemporary ideologies of Social Work and Social Change
• Chapter No. 16: Fields of Social Work – Community Development, Correctional Settings, Medical and
Psychiatric Social Work, Family, Women and Child centered Social Work, Industrial Social Work, Social
Work with Marginalized Sections of the Society
Unit 1
• Chapter 1: Nature and Scope of Social Work: Social Work: Concept, Meaning,
Definitions, Objectives, Goals and Functions, Introduction to the methods of Social
Work
• Chapter 2: Social work: Nature and Philosophy: Democratic, Humanitarian, Herbert
Bisno’s Philosophy
• Chapter 3:. Historical development of Social Work in the UK, USA, India and
Karnataka
• Chapter 4: Emergence of Social Work Education in India and Karnataka
 Chapter 1
Nature and Scope of Social Work: Social Work: Concept, Meaning,
Definitions, Objectives, Goals and Functions, Introduction to the
methods of Social Work
1.1 Social Work
• Some individuals, groups, communities have problems. Some times
they cannot solve these by themselves.
• So they need outside help. Such help comes from trained people.
• The individuals seeking help is known as client/s and the trained
person helping him is known as a social worker.
Example for social work:
• During disasters and natural calamities hundred of people donate
cash and kind to help the victims. They will not have any direct
contact with the victims. This is generally known as social service as it
involves providing some help to the helpless.

• But in social work, face to face interaction of the worker and client is
important. In certain instances, in addition to temporary relief, the
social worker also helps in improving interpersonal relations and
adjustment problems related to disaster and natural calamities. The
kind of involvement needed to deal with deeper issues and other
relationship problems is called social work
Scientific Base of Social Work
• Social work practice has a strong scientific base. Social work has a basis of
scientific body of knowledge, though borrowed from different disciplines of
social and biological sciences.
• Social work like any other discipline has three types of knowledge:
1. Assumptive knowledge which is practical wisdom requires transformation to
hypothetical knowledge and from there to tested knowledge.
2. Hypothetical knowledge that requires transformation to tested knowledge.
3. Tested knowledge.
• The knowledge is borrowed from sociology, psychology, anthropology,
political science, economics, biology, psychiatry, law, medicine etc. All
disciplines have contributed much to the understanding of human
nature. Social workers make use of this knowledge to solve problems of
their clients.
Scientific Humanism
• Social work philosophy is based on Scientific Humanism.
• A scientific Humanist is fully committed to the use of scientific method. He beliefs that,
every kind of moral and social problems can be solved by proper understanding and
application of effective scientific method.
• The scientific Humanist does not want to loose truth (moral values) In order to cop up
with the race for gaining earthly prosperity. He strongly beliefs that it is important for a
man to have true values.
• Humanists with a scientific rationality reject the dualism which asserts about the final
authority of religion in the realm of value and authority of science in the realm of fact.
They refuse to divide the experienced world into two realms and they uninumasly regard
man’s unending search for a livable life as the final authority of the very world.
• Social work is based on faith in the essential worth and dignity of the individual. Man is
an object of respect not because he is rich or powerful but became he is a human being.
Human nature endows the individual with worth and dignity which, every other human
being has to respect.
 Social Darwinism
• Social work rejects social darwinism - the idea that
certain people become powerful in society because
they are innately better.
• This means that social work does not believe that
only the strong will survive in society and the weak
will perish. Those who are weak, disabled and or
need care are equally important for social workers.
The individual is understood as a whole with the
same worth and dignity in spite of differing
psychological, social and economic aspects.
• To a social worker an individual is important but
society is equally important. The individual is
greatly molded by social circumstances.
Social work: A response to Human needs
• Each individual has a wide array of needs requiring satisfaction (Stroup, 1965).
• Every individual strives and struggles to meet these needs. Some times individuals fail to meet some of these
needs due to certain reasons. When these needs are unmet, individuals find difficulty adjusting to their
social environment.
• The ingenuity and compassion in man enabled him to satisfy those unmet needs, that are causing misery to
people, in more innovative ways with a human touch and a scientific temperament. This, in turn, resulted in
the evolving of various professions such as medicine, nursing, engineering, law etc. And social work too
emerged as a response to this.
• Social work profession exclusively evolved to give relief to human society by finding permanent solutions, to
these unmet human needs.
• Therefore, social work emerged out of the need to provide relief to the poor in a systematic manner and
later became a profession having expert knowledge and technical skills for effective provision of help to the
needy.
• In course of time, it was realized that social work has three distinct and noteworthy levels: of individual,
group and community. There was need for dealing with them separately by developing three different
methods of social work viz. social casework dealing with individuals, social group work dealing with groups
and community organization dealing with communities. In course of time, they were accepted as the three
primary methods of social work.
 Definitions of Social Work
• Dr. Abraham Flexner (1915): Social work is "any form of persistent and deliberate
effort to improve living or working conditions in the community, or to relieve,
diminish or prevent distress, whether due to weakness of character or due to
pressure of external circumstances.‘’

• According to Arther E. Fink (1942) " Social work is the provision of services to aid
individuals, singly or in groups, in coping with present or future social and
psychological obstacles that prevent or are likely to prevent full or effective
participation in society.“

• In the opinion of W.A. Friedlander (1963): "Social work is a professional service

based upon scientific knowledge and skill in human relations which assists
individuals, alone or in groups, to obtain social and personal satisfaction and
independence.“
• Boehm (1959) in the Curriculum Study sponsored by the Council on Social
Work Education expresses the view: "Social work seeks to enhance the
social functioning of individuals, singly and in groups, by activities focused
upon their social relationship which constitute the interaction between
man and his environment. These activities can be grouped into three
functions, restoration of impaired capacity, provision of individual and
social resources and prevention of social dysfunction."

• Based on these definitions we can define social work as a specialized kind

of work (profession) done by making use of scientific knowledge, skills and
methods with humane and democratic outlook, to render help to
individuals, groups and communities in need so as to empower them.
Important characteristics of social work
• Social work is a specialized kind of work.
• This work is performed by persons who are specifically trained to do
this work.
• Social Work education and field work training for equips social
workers with some specialized kind of scientific knowledge and
technical skills and develops among them a democratic and
humanitarian outlook and orientation.
• Social Work adopts the required strategy according to the nature of
problem it deals with and its root causes which may lie in the
personality structure of the person who is facing problem or in the
unjust social system of which he/she is a part.
Important characteristics of social work
(contd…)
• Strategy used in social work may introduce changes in the personality
structure of person faced with problem and /or bring about transformation
in social structure as well as system.
• Social work promotes human and social development, ensures fulfillment
of human rights and guarantees performance of social duties - obligations
towards family members, people in the community and members of
society at large.
• Social worker accepts compensation for the work done by him/her either
from those who engage him/her or take work from him/her or from those
who benefit from his/her work. At times, moved by altruistic
considerations a trained social worker may be seen providing services
absolutely in an honorary manner.
Functions of Social Work
1. Restoration – has two components - curative and rehabilitative. For example, a hearing aid is
suggested as a curative measure for partially deaf child, whose social relations are impaired due
to the problem. That is the curative aspect. Getting oneself adjusted to the hearing aid is the
rehabilitative aspect.

2. Provision of resources – has two components - developmental and the educational. Example:
For example Mr & Mrs X are living happily in spite of some differences of opinion. They are not
going in for a divorce and there is no problem in their marriage. But with the help of a family
counselling agency, they can sort out their differences and improve their relationship. This is
what is known as the developmental aspect. The educational aspect is providing information on
changing situations and conditions. For example – giving talk on the various welfare schemes of
the government.

3. Prevention of social dysfunctioning - It includes early discovery, control or elimination of

conditions and situations that potentially could, hamper effective social functioning. For
example starting a youth club in some areas for boys may help prevent juvenile delinquency.
Pre-marital counselling for youth may prevent marriage problems in future.
Goals and Objectives of SW
1. To reduce suffering by solving people's problems. People have psycho-
social problems with regard to their physical and mental health.
2. To enhance the social functioning of individuals, groups and families.
3. To link the client with the needed resources.
4. To help the individual in bringing about a change in the environment in
favour of his growth and development.
5. To provide democratic ideas and encourage the development of good
interpersonal relations, resulting in proper adjustments with the family
and neighbourhood.
6. To work for social justice through legal aid. To also promote social justice
through the development of social policy.
7. To improve the operation of social service delivery network as well.
Methods of SW
• Primary Methods – Social Case Work, Social Group Work, &
Community Organisation

• Secondary Methods – Social Welfare Administration, Social Action &

Social Work Research
 Chapter - 2
Social work: Nature and Philosophy: Democratic, Humanitarian,
Herbert Bisno’s Philosophy
Social work philosophy
• In social work, philosophy involves itself in analyzing the basic
principles and concepts of social life and presents the highest ideals
of social relationship.
• Social work philosophy is also concerned with revealing some
fundamental truth concerning the relations of man with other men
and men with the universe as whole.
• Thus, philosophy is the critical discussion and evaluation of
fundamental assumptions that people make in everyday life, in own
life, in family, in politics, in religion, in science, in arts and in other
broader areas of human activities including social work practice.
Social work philosophy is humanitarian and
democratic
• According to E.C Lindman, Social work is based on humanitarian
philosophy, for its main concern is the welfare and happiness of human
beings.
• The philosophy of democracy also has a sound base for social work. It
strengthened the need to recognize every human being as an individual,
worthy of respect and recognition.
• The basic philosophical components of democracy like importance of the
consent of the ruled, rule of the majority, respect for creative minority,
freedom of assembly, speech, and religion are fundamental for human
development.
• These components lay the foundation for social justice, liberty, equality
and fraternity which form a significant part of social work philosophy.
Herbert Bisno’s Philosophy of Social Work
Herbert Bisno has described the philosophy of social work in details in
his book ‘The philosophy of Social Work’.

He has narrated the philosophic tenets of social work in 4 areas, such

as:
1. The nature of individual
2. The relation between groups, groups and individuals and between
individuals
3. The function and methods of social work, and
4. Social maladjustment social change.
Values of social work
• Herbert Bisno's Philosophy of Social Work was an attempt to devise a
philosophy of social work in a systematic way.

Some of the values Bisno found in social work were the following:
1. Each individual, by the very fact of his existence is of worth.
2. Human suffering is undesirable and should be prevented, or at least
alleviated, whenever possible.
3. There are important differences between individuals and they must be
recognized and allowed for.
4. Rejection of the doctrines of "laissez faire" and survival of the fittest.
5. "Socialized individualism" is preferable to "rugged individualism."
6. Everyone has equal rights to social services.
7. Freedom and security are not mutually exclusive.
8. Social work has a dualistic approach (casework and social action).
9. Social work relies on development of insight and help with the
environment rather than ordering, forbidding, and exhortation.
10. Social work considers social planning an important part of its
responsibility.
 Chapter 3
Historical development of Social Work in the UK, USA, India and
Karnataka
Historical Evolution of Social Work in the UK
• Social Welfare began with the dawn of the human race

• Formal practice of philanthropy in the Europe can be traced to the Christian Church – which
had a organized system of collecting cash and in-kind from the rich and giving it to the poor.

• Faherty (2006: 117) concludes that “the early Christian welfare system contained the basic
elements of a functional system of benevolence, including a physical organization as the site
of its ….operations (i.e. house churches); reliable sources of communal funding; defined
roles and responsibilities ….; and, finally, a significant array of…goods and in-kind services
distributed to identified vulnerable groups, whether Christian or not.”

• Early Christian tradition set a standard for provision of modern European social welfare
services.
• Prior to the 1530’s, churches and monasteries provided hospitals, infirmaries, and
almshouses for the old and the sick in the United Kingdom (Cree, 2002)
• By the mid-1530’s, monasteries were largely closed, and feudal landowners, who had
previously provided their tenants with access to farmland, ceased this process, leading to
widespread migration away from rural regions.
• The resulting fears of social disorder led to the passing of the Elizabethan Poor Law Act
in 1601. The Act authorized the raising of taxes to pay for services to those who were
poor, needy, and had no family support, assigning them to assistance as follows:

A. the ‘impotent poor’ (the aged, chronic sick, blind, and mentally ill who needed residential care)
were to be accommodated in voluntary almshouses;
B. the ‘able-bodied’ poor were to be set to work in a workhouse (they were felt to be able to work
but were lazy);
C. the ‘able-bodied poor’ who ran away or ‘persistent idlers’ who refused to work were to be
punished in a ‘house of correction’ (Fraser, 1984, in Cree, 2002: 277).
• In the nineteenth century, many new services were introduced in the United
Kingdom, among them programs for public sanitation, education, policing,
prisons, juvenile correction, public workhouses and mental asylums, along with
laws addressing the working conditions and the treatment of children (Cree,
2002).
• The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 divided the poor in England and Wales
into two groups:
1. the ‘deserving poor’ (e.g. elderly, sick or disabled people, orphans and
widows), who were to receive financial and practical support (often home-
based) from charitable or voluntary organizations;
2. the ‘undeserving poor’ (e.g. able-bodied unemployed men, single mothers,
prostitutes) who were forced to turn to the state, and thus to the work-house,
since there was to be no poor relief outside the institution (Mooney, 1998, in
Cree, 2002: 278-279)
• In addition to efforts mounted by the state, hundreds of new voluntary agencies emerged in the U.K. in the
1800’s.
• These included: missionaries, rescue societies for ‘fallen women’, housing associations, settlement houses,
children’s charities, hospital workers, caseworkers from the Charity Organization Society (COS) and church
visitors (2002: 279).
• The period during and after World War II was characterized by massive social legislation programmes
designed to tackle the five giant problems of want, disease, ignorance, squalor, and idleness as
recommended by the Beveridge Report.
• Over a time, many became disillusioned with the welfare state at the same time the state was hardening its
position against broad-scale service provision – the idea that state cannot and should not provide all the
services.
• Schools of social work and social welfare agencies were encouraged to emphasize efficiency and standards in
an environment of cost cutting.
• The influential Barclay Report, in 1982, illustrated the emerging tensions about what social workers should
do, and how they should be trained.
• In a Post Modern society, globalization has further complicated the nature of social problems in the British
society
Historical Evolution of Social Work in the US
Barker’s (1999) Milestones highlight some of the key steps in the evolution of social welfare and
social work in what would become the United States of America.
1624: Virginia Colony institutes laws providing for the needs of disabled soldiers and sailors.
1642: Plymouth Colony, based on the Elizabethan Poor Law, enacts the first such legislation in the
“New World”.
1650: The “Protestant Work Ethic”, emphasizing self-discipline, frugality, and hard work becomes
prominent, justifying those who adopted its view to look down upon people who are unemployed
or dependent on others.
1692: Massachusetts introduces indentured servitude, providing that homeless children could be
placed with other families who could require them to work for a period of time to pay for their care.
1776: The U.S. Declaration of Independence is signed, promoting freedom for everyone but the
slaves.
1787: The U.S. Constitution is adopted to “promote the general welfare”, moving social welfare into
American political discourse.
• 1813: Child labor laws are passed in Connecticut, requiring that factory owners
teach reading, writing, and arithmetic to children working for them.
• 1830: The National Negro Conventions meet to begin discussions about civil
rights, health, and welfare for people of color and women.
• 1843: The New York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor is
established, and thereafter imitated in its emphases on abstaining from alcohol,
becoming self-disciplined, and developing a work ethic as ways to end poverty.
• 1848: Feminists meet to begin establishment of women’s rights to vote and
receive equal opportunities for education and employment.
• 1870: Social Darwinism gains influence, supporting the view that poverty was a
natural part of the human condition, and that helping the poor made them lazy.
• 1874: The first Charity Organization Society is established, at first giving only
advice, and not direct financial aid to the needy.
• 1886: The first US settlement house, modeled on earlier efforts in the
UK, is established with a goal of eliminating the distance between
socioeconomic classes by locating housing for the poor in
workingclass neighborhoods
• 1895: Chicago’s School of Social Economics, often recognized as the
founding center for modern social work, begins offering lectures to
persons working with the poor.
• 1900: The term “social workers” is coined by Simon Patten, who
disputes with Mary Richmond whether their major role should be
social advocacy or the delivery of individual services.
• 1915: Abraham Flexner issues his report declaring that social work is not yet a profession
because it lacks a written body of knowledge and educationally communicable
techniques.
• 1917: Mary Richmond publishes Social Diagnosis, influenced by the work of Sigmund
Freud, and emphasising an approach to client problems based on understanding their
inner lives and familial environments.
• 1933: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaims a “New Deal” for Americans,
establishing major social welfare programs responding to poverty and unemployment.
• 1950: The Social Security Act of 1935 is amended to include children and relatives with
whom needy children are living, and to aid permanently and totally disabled people.
• 1955: Rosa Parks, a black woman, refuses to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery,
Alabama, sparking the modern civil rights movement.
• 1960: The NASW adopts its first code of ethics.
• 1964: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the “Great Society” programs,
and the Civil Rights Act makes racial discrimination in public places illegal.
• 1965: More “Great Society” programs, providing for medical care, the needs of
older Americans, and children’s education, are established.
• 1990: The Americans with Disabilities Act makes it illegal to discriminate against
disabled people in any business employing more than 15 persons.
• 1990: The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act provides
funding for prevention, intervention, treatment, and community planning in
relation the HIV/AIDS.
• 1996: President Clinton signs into law the Personal Responsibility and Work
Opportunity Reconciliation Act, restricting or eliminating many entitlement
programs for poor people, and replacing them with more temporary aid designed
to promote independence.
• 2009: Obama introduced a stimulus package to recover the American economy.
 Chapter 4
Emergence of Social Work Education in India and Karnataka
Emergence of Social Work Education in India
• In India, the professional training in social work was
started with the efforts of Dr. Clifford Manshardt, an
American Protestant missionary, who had graduated in
theology from the University of Chicago.

• He came to India in 1925 through the American

Marathi mission, a Protestant Christian organization.

• This organization decided to undertake work in slums

and with that objective founded the Nagapada
Neighborhood House in 1926 headed by Dr. Clifford
Manshardt as its first Director.
• The agency was similar to Settlement House in its objective and
activities.
• It was located in an area, which had many social problems including
poverty, gambling and prostitution. Such problems were the result of
the fast changing social structure, which weakened the family bond
and community togetherness.
• Dr. Manshardt mooted the idea of developing a school of social work
to meet the need for trained manpower to work in Indian conditions.
• With financing from the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, the first school founded in 1936
was known as Sir Dorabji Graduate School of Social Work later renamed as Tata
Institute of Social Sciences in 1944.

• Because it was founded on the basis of American experience, it had three major
characteristics of the same – it required bachelor’s degree for admission, was of
two years duration, and it was called as ‘school’ much as in the American pattern.

• In the education of social work much emphasis is laid on practical training of the
students apart from giving them theoretical inputs. As Social work is the human
service profession, so the curriculum of social work has drawn heavily from a
number of social sciences and humanities courses like psychology, sociology,
political science, economics and management.
• Prof Desai has mentioned that the first curriculum introduced in 1936
by TISS included methods of Social Casework, Administration and
Research. Subjects related to sociology, economics, psychology and
human development were also offered.
• Subject matter on target groups included the child, the family,
juvenile delinquents and medical and psychiatric information. All
these courses were compulsory and no provision for specialization
was available.
• For ten years, the curriculum did not change and the subjects
continued to be pretty much the same. Around the time of
independence pressure grew on TISS to prepare personnel for specific
agency related jobs, which paved the way for the introduction of
specialization in medical and psychiatric social work for hospital based
service providers, criminology and correctional administration for
those involved in juvenile courts, probation field and other
correctional settings and labour welfare and personal management
for addressing the industrial concern, particularly to meet the
growing need of personal managers and labour welfare officers.
• Delhi School of Social Work, now known as the Department of Social
Work, is the second school of social work to be established in India. It
was first to be recognized by a University for offering a program of
instruction leading to Master’s degree in social work.

• From 1950 onwards it started a two-year programme of training at

the post graduation level. It was taken over by the University of Delhi
in April 1961 as a post graduation Department in the Faculty of Social
Sciences. The School now offers M.A., M.Phil and Ph.D degrees in
social work.
• Subsequently several other schools came in including one in Baroda
in 1950, Chennai and Lucknow in 1954 and Nirmala Niketan in 1955.

• The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda was the first institute to

have gained the faculty status (in 1951, the institute was elevated to
the faculty status). The M.S. Univestiy of Baroda offers post
graduation degree and Ph.D in Social Work.
• The Madras School of Social Work was founded in 1952 by Mary
Clubwala Jadav, under the auspices of Madras State Branch of the
Indian Conference of Social Work (renamed as Indian Council of Social
welfare) and the Guild of Services. The school offers MSW, M.Phil and
Ph.D degrees. At the post graduation level the school offers
specialization in Urban & Rural Community Development, Family and
Child Welfare, Medical and Psychiatric Social Work, and Labour
Welfare.
• In Lucknow University teaching and research in social work was
started in the first phase of the development of professional social
work education in India. J.K, Institute of Sociology, Ecology and
Human Relations was established in 1948 under the inspiring
leadership of the doyen of social sciences in India, Late Prof. Radha
Kamal Mukerjee.
• Till 1950s during the first 14 years of social work education in India only
very few institutes were established.

• The Second Review Committee of the University Grants Commission on

Social Work Education reported that there were 34 Schools / Departments
of Social Work in India in 1975.

• By the end of 2004, it is estimated that there are around 200 Schools of
Social Work – most of them in the states of Maharashtra and the four
south Indian states namely, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and
Karnataka.
Social Work Education in Karnataka
• Social Work Education at postgraduate level (MSW) is being offered in 15
state universities in Karnataka.

• In Karnataka alone, the number of schools offering two-year MSW

programme has exceeded 100. This excludes MSW programme offered by
autonomous colleges, deemed-to-be universities, and the Central
University of Karnataka. The number of students who obtain master’s
degree in Social Work, is over 3000 every year. Such a phenomenal growth
in the number of schools of Social Work.

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