Samaja Karyada Hejjegalu 1 - SKH · Samaja Karyada Hejjegalu 1 Journal of Social Work Vol. III, No-8, August 2013 Editorial This special issue on “Building Resilient Communities:

1Samaja Karyada HejjegaluJournal of Social WorkVol. III, No-8, August 2013,

CONTENTS

1. Editorial

Ramesha MH - 1-2

2. Impressions of an International Social WorkPlacement in an Indian School in Dubai

Amanda Kay, Venkat Pulla - 3-18

3. Indian and Australian Experience of CommunityRecovery in Natural Disasters

Abraham P. Francis - 19-45

4. Culturally Competent Community Developmentin a Globalized World

Narayan Gopalkrishnan - 46-65

5. Community Based Psychosocial SupportProgramme for Resiliency Building in TsunamiRehabilitation of Kanyakumari District

Subhasis Bhadra - 66-86

6. Tamil Nadu Child and Family Health Study :A Preliminary Study

Wright. R, Krygsman. A, Ilango. P, Levitz. N - 87-104

7. Micro Social Work Practice in the Context ofBangladesh

Tulshi Kumar Das, Md. Fakhrul Alam - 105-122

8. Building Resilience in the Families Living with

Individual with an Alcohol Addiction

Jitendra S. Gandhi and Venkat Pulla - 123-138

9. CSR: Role in Community Development

K.Hemalatha, Manu Mathew, Lovis Praveen - 139-153

10. Mobilizing Local Resources as a Catalyst inCommunity Development – A Case Study ofKudumbasree Units in Kerala

Vidya Vijayan - 154-170

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11. Social Policy, Social Welfare and SocialDevelopment-Pathak’s Ideas: A Critical Essay

Venkat Pulla - 171-182

BOOK REVIEW

1. Perspectives on Coping and Resilience

Jennifer Woods - 183-187

1Samaja Karyada HejjegaluJournal of Social WorkVol. III, No-8, August 2013

Editorial

This special issue on “Building ResilientCommunities: Communitarian Social Work” is Edited by Dr. Venkat Pulla. After reading all the articles included here in this special issue,we feel they make a great contribution to the social work literature.We can also feel expertise shown in editing this special issue.Dr Venkat has carefully edited all the articles with great interest andpassion. We have received a total of sixty nine expressions of interestand twenty seven finally accepted abstracts. All abstracts and articleshave gone through a peer review process.

This is the first quarterly special issue brought out in the place ofbilingual monthly during 2010-13. Our readers know that we havebrought out 31 issues. Based on the feedback we have decided toconvert monthly into quarterly with the intention of publishing themebased issues. The journal further has changed its format, size fromthe previous one. We have reconstituted the advisory and editorialboards. On this occasion I sincerely thank all the former advisoryand active committee members for their service. We are happy tostate that the Advisory and Editorial Committee have decided todedicate this Special Issue to Dr H.M. Marulasiddaiah, Rtd professorof social work, Bangalore University, who has made a significantcontribution to social work in Karnataka, by designing novelprogrammes and literature particularly in Kannada. We are delightedto inform you that “Karnataka Association of Professional SocialWorkers” has recently (on 18-8-2013) presented an award to himnamely “Samajakarya Ratna”. We are proud to have him as the chiefadvisor on the board of this journal.

We are glad and also proud that our “Niruta publications” book‘Social work and Social Welfare’ (author Shankar Pathak) is selectedunder subsidy scheme of the National Book Trust, I think it may bethe first book from the social work discipline to be selected by NBTunder the subsidy scheme.

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Dr BT Lawani is working on the next forthcoming special issueon “Leadership Crisis in India : Social Work Perspective”. This issuewill probably be brought out in the month of January 2014, you cancontact us if you are interested in contributing articles on this subjectfor the special issue.

I sincerely thank Dr Venkat Pulla for editing this special issueand I also thank Dr. R. Shivapppa for being in the editorial team. Ithank all the contributors for this special issue.

Ramesha M HEditor


Impressions of an International Social WorkPlacement in an Indian School in Dubai

‘A journey begins before the traveller departs’ (Charmaz, 2006)

Amanda Kay1*, Venkat Pulla2

Abstract:

This paper accounts the development of our propositions and agrounded theory in the wake of an international field placement ofan Australian university master’s qualifying student of social work,in an Indian private school in Dubai. We define the components ofthis journey that allowed a constructive involvement in the crosscultural milieu. We undertook relevant comparative methodadvancing and testing the efficacy of relevant theoreticaldevelopments; conducting literature reviews and finally the processof conducting action research that allowed for testing beliefs andimpressions in a systematic way (Glaser, 1978; Strauss, 1987). Aschool social work placement has all the action which brings thenotions of human agency and the emergent processes. It providesopportunities to attempt problem solving approaches and allowsresearchers to keep an open ended approach to the study of action.The association of reflective practice throughout the placementallowed the authors to add ‘new pieces to the research puzzle orconjure entire new puzzles’ during the data collection, thus gaininga clear focus on what is happening in the data without sacrificingthe detail of the what is being enacted (Charmaz, 2006). Thisarticle additionally provides a reflection on the sensitivities ofinternational social work practice in the context of striving for culturalcompetence whilst providing robust critical analysis.

Keywords: School social work, Grounded theory, Action research,Qualitative research, Cultural competence

An indirect practicum involving an Australian Masters of SocialWork (professional qualifying) student (the first author) in an Indianschool in Dubai (the school), with an Australian Indian mentor (theprincipal supervisor), provides an environment for a very unique

1. School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, New SouthWales, Australia

2. Dr Venkat Pulla, BSc, BJ, (Osmania), MA- URCD, (TISS), Mumbai, PhD, (Karnatak), MAASW,(Accredited), teaches Social Work at, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Charles SturtUniversity, Wagga Wagga, NSW, 2678, Australia. Email [email protected];[email protected]

* Corresponding Author: [email protected]

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experience where one may not initially expect opportunities for thecreation and sharing of knowledge that can be of benefit to any otherthan those school social workers practicing in a similar context. Tothe contrary, the knowledge sharing opportunities are possibly broaderprimarily due to its very nature of being a placement at the confluenceof varied factors;

• for researchers, a social work practicum that creates anideal environment in which to explore the meeting of twoseemingly conflicting imperatives of cultural competenceand rigorous research and critical reflection;

• for sociological research in general, the situation of applyingconstructionist grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006) in a timelimited practicum, within the context of power differentialsand the resultant hesitancy inherent in the student/practicumagency relationship;

• for the social work association guiding practicumrequirements, the implications of these requirements in aninternational social work placement, where social workpractices and values are not universal; and

• for school social work, where stigma and the incumbentstudent resistance impedes the ability of social workers topractice for optimal outcomes.

Each of these possibilities for contributing to the expansion ofthe relevant bodies of knowledge has encouraged the authors todevelop an account of the practicum and research process.

Grounded Theory

Upon commencement of the practicum and continued throughout,the approach of the researcher, under the guidance of her mentor,was to gain familiarity with the philosophies, values, practices andpriorities guiding school social work in the school. Through this processand in consultation with the field educators and mentor, the broadparameters of a research project were mapped out. Planning, aliterature review and further refinement of the research questionswas followed by the preparation for focus groups to be conducted

Amanda Kay, Venkat Pulla


with students and parents separately. The research questionsestablished were to seek participant understanding of a Strengths-based practice (SBP) approach in one-to-one counselling, explorethe current view of the school social work role and the expectationsof that role.

In the early stages of planning the researcher raised the query toher mentor, “do we need to prepare for the possibility that nothingmeaningful will arise from the research?” As the process unfoldedshe learned that this is one of the main tenets of grounded theory(Glaser & Strauss, 1967). It is about letting the data provide thedirection (Glaser, 1992), in some ways like the less directive natureof strengths based practice that the research was intended to explorewithin the research environment. The subjects of the researchcollectively reveal what is to be found and it emerges from theirperspective (Glaser, 1992). Ultimately, the data to some degree ledthe researcher away from the response to the understanding of astrengths approach in a school setting, and instead became morefocused on the school social work role. The short presentation androle play demonstrating the efficacy of SBP, limited due to the timeconstraints of the practicum, meant that participants could only givetheir views based on that brief exposure. As a result, focus groupdiscussions continuously returned to matters of priority to theparticipants in relation to the role of the school social worker.

Regardless of the gradual deviation from the focus on theresearch focus regarding SBP, the execution of focus groups remainedfirmly grounded in the principles of SBP. A thorough understandingby the researcher of the key principles of the approach was required.As previously mentioned, the focus groups included an explanationand group discussion regarding SBP principles (Pulla, 2012; Saleebey,1992) and a demonstration of those principles via a role play. Theresearcher also attempted to demonstrate SBP principles in herengagement with the groups, and during the collation, coding, analysisand reporting of the outcomes. The researcher found applying SBPprinciples such as breaking down any power imbalances, and beingcollaborative, to be the most helpful and effective strategies in thefocus group environment. The parents and most of the studentsappeared to feel free to discuss their opinions openly and honestly

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and the researcher’s genuine interest in, and exploration of, participantviews, led to rich, at times challenging, and always enlighteningdiscussions.

Also important in the researcher’s approach as the focus groupmoderator was to demonstrate non-judgement by listening to eachcontribution openly without defending a particular point of view. Ifthe researcher saw an interpretation of SBP to be not what she intendedto convey, she acknowledged and validated the participant’s view.After all views were collected on the particular issue being discussed,the researcher clarified points that had not been explained sufficientlyso that further views could be sought based on that new deeperunderstanding. This combination of non-directive validation followedby clarification and information delivery, allowed the researcher tomaintain her focus on action research whilst ensuring that focus groupsmaintained direction and purpose in accordance with the ultimateintention of grounded theory research; to deliver data that as accuratelyas possible, reflects the perspective of the research participants.

Prior to and throughout the initial stages of data collection in thefocus groups, the researcher engaged in many informal discussionswith school counsellors employed in the school, some of whom werequalified social workers, and also conducted a small amount of directpractice herself in one-to-one counselling and larger scale preventivefunctions of the school social work role. In this process it becameclear that the research would benefit from a more formal exposureto the views of the counsellors and so preparations were made toconduct a small number of counsellor interviews to add to the researchdata.

The practicum environment provides an ideal location in whichto reassess and adjust the approach along the way. Interviews withcounsellors may seem an obvious omission to the experienced, orinexperienced, researcher, however in the rich context of learningthat a practicum provides, the student has the freedom to stumblealong the way towards efficacy. Grounded theory in a moresophisticated and systematic way does this deliberately throughtheoretical sampling to reassess and redefine research parameters(Glaser, 1992). Furthermore this strategy employed by grounded



theorists provides an avenue for the deliberate returning to expandedor alternative data collection activities to deepen and broadenunderstanding of that which is being studied (Charmaz 2006).

The commitment of the researcher and the mentor to an actionresearch approach, and allowing for the impact of research subjectsto influence an evolving research process, was a dominant idea forfurther exploration. As discussed, the researcher was led by theparticipants to focus more on the school social worker role than theirresponse to the SBP approach demonstrated. Furthermore thedominance of some participants over others had an impact on thecontent and extent of sharing and free expression within the focusgroups. Regardless of the competence of the moderators to ensurefull participation, unspoken influences, obligations and roles seemedto influence the level of participation and the depth of contributions.Although this type of inhibitory influence may be undesirable in theinterests of collecting thorough and accurate data, it did provide someinformation about the nature of power relationships and implicit roleswithin social engagements amongst the participants. The impact ofthese factors also precipitated the generation of strategies to mitigatesuch influences in future where research scope may allow for a morecomprehensive approach.

Likewise, reflecting on the simultaneous construction that a crosscultural researcher (or any researcher) imposes simply by theirpresence within the research environment (Charmaz, 2006), allowsfor an in-depth consideration of the challenges attendant to crosscultural qualitative research. In many qualitative research approaches,the intent is for the researcher to be the objective observer, gatheringfactual data. Conversely, Charmaz (2006, p. 10) qualifies her researchwith the acknowledgement that “any theoretical rendering offers aninterpretive portrayal of the studied world, not an exact picture”. Onestep further, Fogel & Osborne (2011) in their critique of the limitationsof constructivist and positivist grounded theory, suggest that beyonda constructive approach, more reflexive research strategies must beemployed to fully acknowledge and respond to, the influence andnon-objectivity of researchers. Influence can be found in all aspectsof the research approach, including interaction with participants in

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the focus groups, the interpretation involved in the coding of data, theloss of meaning inevitable in the transcription of audio files and theimpact of a co-moderator being present (Fogel & Osborne, 2011).This paper accounts for an attempt at a more reflexive approach togrounded theory by making the role of the researcher and other“mediators” (p. 11) more transparent.

The self-reflection involved in the process of striving for culturalcompetence and in the learning focus of a practicum arrangement,creates an ideal foundation for reflexive practice in the process ofdoing research. The researcher explicitly acknowledged to participantsthat she would be unable to divorce her own world view from theoutcomes of the research regardless of her attempts to do so andwelcomed discussion around this idea. She also engaged in candidconversations with her co-moderators to seek their views on hereffectiveness, influence and objectivity in the focus groups, and theirinterpretations of the data collected and codes allocated. Althoughthese attempts to make transparent the constructive nature of theresearch being conducted were quite superficial, it did provide anopportunity for the researcher to reflect on more comprehensive waysof operating more reflexively in future research.

In spite of Fogel and Osborne’s (2011) critique, the applicationof grounded theory, being an “inductive, iterative, interactive andcomparative” process (Thornberg & Charmaz, 2011, p. 41), requiresconstant reflection and reassessment. The time limited nature of asocial work practicum, in this case, an indirect practicum focussedon research, requires that the whole practicum process be completedwithin 490 hours. The researcher and her mentor found that thesecompeting pressures created a unique motivator for an intense focuson constant self-reflection, timely collaborations, regularteleconferences, and highly concentrated planning and preparation.On reflection of substantially more thorough grounded theoryapplications (Khaw, 2012) and collaborative partnerships (Pieters &Dornig, 2013), it seemed that this brief foray into the arena ofemergence and construction was insignificant. However, at least forthe researcher, it was an invaluable glimpse at the simultaneouslycumbersome and thrilling journey that qualitative research andgrounded theory offers.



Although the commitment and diligence required by theresearcher and the mentor was clear, from the practicum agency, agenuine openness to, and support for the research, and a willingnessto facilitate the process of data collection, ultimately determined thefeasibility of the research being possible at all. Without the supportof these factors, a research focussed practicum based aroundgrounded theory principles may not be possible. In itself, coding andanalysis of the counsellor interviews and the writing of the researchreport for this practicum went beyond the allocated hours. In a similarsituation, without the same level of participation and facilitation fromthe mentor and the practicum agency, it is possible that data collection,transcription, multi-level coding and analysis within grounded theorymethodology would not be completed.

The coding process is very labour intensive, especially whendoing it manually, even when the sample size is relatively small. Inher initial review of the data, the researcher employed initial codingand incorporated some InVivo coding to preserve participantterminology (Saldana, 2009). This approach allowed the researcherto keep intact the original language used within the focus groups tofacilitate meaningful and thorough post group consultations with herco-moderators to verify interpretations and assumptions being madeduring the coding process. The coding method employed allowedthe data to dictate the direction of the coding. After a general senseof the data was developed, patterns and the beginnings of theorybegan to emerge via a constant comparative method of moving backand forward between the initial coding and focused coding (Charmaz,2000). The focused coding is a secondary but parallel process that isdriven by the primary interpretation and analysis of what is emergingfrom the data (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). From a theoretical perspectivethis comparative method ensured the full content of the data maintainedits position at the centre of the analysis. From a practice point ofview it inspired forward movement during what can be a cumbersomeprocess, as a higher level perspective was becoming visible to theresearcher whilst being immersed in the detail of the data.

Also occurring in parallel was some theoretical coding, whererelationships were interpreted to exist between codes and categories

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of codes (Thornberg & Charmaz, 2011). A specific example of thiswas a connection interpreted by the researcher between stigma feltby students in relation to being associated with the school counsellor,their resistance to approach or express themselves openly to thecounsellor, and the perception of questionable confidentiality ordiscretion by the counsellors. This sensitising concept (Blumer, 1969),where an idea is suggested without claiming to be truth, began fromindividual focus group participants indicating a causality betweenstigma and student resistance, and grew as more participants in thatand other focus groups discussed similar concepts and brought in thenotion of confidentiality. The linkages between the three elementsbecame clearer and theoretical codes were the result.

From the beginning of the literature review and throughout thedata collection, transcription and the multi-level coding process, memoswere written by the researcher to capture thoughts, questions or ideaswhich would be later pooled, considered, compared and consolidatedto initiate and facilitate the report writing phase (Thornberg &Charmaz, 2011). The memos allowed the researcher to beginconceptualising within the flow of the research process, furtherenhancing the power of the data to be drawn out and representedaccurately in the final research report.

For this paper the research and mentor adopted the followingfrom Pulla (2012) to describe the efficacy of the school social workerin a school setting.

• Every individual student is capable of displaying his strengths.• Every student is capable of identifying resources, display

knowledge, talents, capacities, skills, and resources tomobilize in order to pursue aspirations.

• Students who face adversity typically develop ideas,capacities, and strategies that also serve them.

• School counseling and social work must recognise thisadversity as an opportunity to make resiliency work.

• Despite the knowledge that the students may not be matureenough to know what is best for them, School social workand counseling requires practice of a non-judgementalattitude.



• School social work requires a personal, friendly, empathic,and accepting relationship that should provide the studentwith the opportunity to share his story.

• The overall goal of school social work is to seetransformation, regeneration, and resilience.

• School social work gains respect and productive relationshipthrough mingling, connection and affection, rather thanthrough overt or covert controls.

On reflection of these, the primary outcomes of the researchproject provided an interpretation of the existing strengths andresources available to the school counsellors, some challenges andlimitations they face in applying them, and the participants’understanding and views of SBP. The process of appreciative inquiry(Pulla, 2011) which via the research approach employed, was begun,allows for the identification and exploration of what the schoolcounsellors are doing well as the basis for developing improvements.This switch in focus from the more traditional approach of respondingdirectly to problems and challenges, allows an organisation to helpincrease stakeholder investment and utilization (Pulla, 2011, p. 3). Inother words, when people are asked to reflect on and explore whatthey are doing well, it helps to encourage and further mobilise thosestrengths, attributes or resources to leverage existing momentum tomove the organisation further towards its goals.

Striving for Cultural Competence

As a research based placement, the researcher was required toqualitatively gather and collate the views of students, parents andcounsellors. During this process the researcher’s perspective ofrespectful observer necessarily shifted. Her role became blurred asshe tentatively stepped into areas of critical reflection and analysis,and to some degree, advocacy for students and parents as she gaineda better understanding of their expectations of the school social workrole. Even the researcher’s rationalisation of considering the socialwork role in the context of the school’s stated intentions throughvarious motherhood statements guiding operations, became

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inadequate. The researcher’s critical review and analysis came tobe guided by the cultural understanding she was gaining through beingto some degree immersed within the Indian culture, and what shewas able to acquire from the academic literature in relation to Indiansocial work (Anand, 2010; Verma, Sharma & Larson, 2002; Nagpaul,1993; & Arulmani, 2007).

The documentation of the research outcomes via a number ofpapers and a presentation, depending on the audience, sought to eitherprovide a high level overview of the implications for school socialwork in general, or more specific agency focussed possibilities forresponding to those implications. The researcher attempted to developthose implications or possibilities, which in many ways read asrecommendations, in a way that demonstrated a position of respectand humility. That tentative approach that many striving for culturalcompetence employ to ensure sensitivity (Dean, 2001), was met witha request from the field educator for more explicit and direct feedbackto ensure that meaningful considerations could be made at theorganisational level to develop improvements. This encouraged theresearcher to reflect that a more even balance between the hesitancyof cultural sensitivity and the acknowledged naivety of overt andsometimes clumsy pursuit of learning would be of benefit. Sometimesone needs to step outside that which is comfortable to risk measurableconsequences in pursuit of a deeper and richer experience and amore comprehensive learning opportunity.

The researcher found herself to be inspired by the dedicationand authenticity of the school counsellors, and intrigued by the elementsof resilience and expectancy that were being incorporated into moretraditional approaches such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy andRational Emotive Behaviour Therapy. An interesting revelation thatarose from the interviews with counsellors was that many, if not allof the counsellors, are applying some aspects of strengths basedpractice. The researcher’s initial impression due to pressure onacademic performance, common within the Indian culture (Verma,Sharma & Larson, 2002), was that school counselling in at least thisIndian school context, is more of a therapist-led activity, whereimproved study habits and optimal learning techniques are focussed



on and the counsellors are providing solutions and advice. The directnature of conversations, in contrast with the researcher’s ownexperience of the western tendency towards political correctnessand tactful mistruths or omissions to protect egos, suggested thatstrengths based principles were not prominent. The careful use oflanguage to support the development of deeply rooted hope andresilience (Pulla & Mariscal, 2013), seems to be at odds with thevery direct, honest, and vibrant qualities possessed by many peopleof Indian origin. However, after further exploration it was found thatmany principles of strengths based practice are being implementedby the Indian School counsellors in their engagement with students.

The researcher witnessed and heard accounts of counsellorsseeking to identify and build on strengths so that the student’s energycould be focussed towards activities that develop confidence andmastery in specific activities. This focus was engaged with theintention that this would germinate more positive behaviours in otherareas. The researcher also explored with one counsellor her practiceof ignoring established diagnostic labels given children to facilitate anengagement that wasn’t predetermined by established limits andhindrances. Those are specific examples, however in manyconversations with counsellors, the researcher found that in manyways counsellors are collaborating with students, working with themto explore and engage with identified strengths and encouraging themto introspect and seek understanding and solutions from within.

This prevalence of strengths based principles in the schoolcounselling role, is however embedded within a cultural environmentthat does not necessarily comply with the broader application ofestablished SBP practices. Power and hierarchy are tools which areused extensively by teachers and counsellors to manage behaviourwithin the school environment and whilst counsellors often use positivelanguage very deliberately to encourage positive behaviour, very directand often labelling language seems to be the more powerful influencein the school as a whole.

The making of these observations formed the foundation of theinternal struggles the researcher felt as she strived to maintain aperspective of openness and non-judgement. Throughout the

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practicum, the researcher attempted to make transparent within herown self-reflection, assumptions and power relationships that maybe present (Evans, Seem & Kincade, 2001). The implications of herrepresenting a western culture that is a derivative of a culture thathas a history of colonial rule over Indian society, made her vigilant ofher own thought processes and assessments in relation to criticallyreviewing that which she was observing.

The role of a student on an international placement in a culturediverse from their own is not entirely clear. Guidance is provided inrelation to the challenges of establishing the placement andexpectations of the prospective student (Cleak & Wilson, 2007) andconditions for compliance with Australian Association of SocialWorkers (AASW) guidelines (AASW, 2012). However, advice inrelation to the challenges students face in the process of respondingto accreditation requirements such as satisfaction of the learning goalsis not provided. One example of these learning goals is therequirement to review, critique and suggest improvements to thepracticum agency’s systems, processes or policies (AASW, 2003).A practicum within one’s own culture in itself can be challengingespecially for people who have strived to establish a non-judgementalapproach. It is one thing to identify areas for improvement in one’sown workplace as a paid employee, however to present oneself as astudent who suggests she knows a better way of approaching aprofession that the recipients of her ideas have been doing for manymore years than her, requires a different sensitivity. Taking the nextstep to not only be in a workplace that is not one’s own, but an entirelydifferent culture, creates a new challenge that is intimidating andexciting for every moment of the practicum. As a result theintersection of cultural sensitivity and robust research design andcritical organisational analysis, create the basis for a practicumapproach that yields meaningful learning outcomes for the student,practicum agency and university liaison alike.

Universal Application of Social Work Principles and Values

As discussed above, a component of completing the requirementsof the practicum, the researcher was required to satisfy learning goalsdrawn from the AASW practice standards (AASW, 2003) and the



AASW Code of Ethics (AASW, 2010). The AASW in recent yearsmade it possible for Australian based Social Work students to completeone of their two field practice placements overseas (AASW, 2012).This provision suggests that the learning goals, and therefore thedocuments they are drawn from are universal in their application tosocial work practice. Whilst this deduction cannot be assumednecessarily, it does raise an interesting challenge for social workstudents to navigate.

An example that demonstrates this concept of universality ofethics or values was in the researcher’s exploration of an ethicaldilemma involving the notion of confidentiality. A specific situationthat arose that would ordinarily be an optimal opportunity forconsidering the ethical implications of disclosure to a third party raiseda second layer of ethical questions for consideration. The higherlevel ethical issue that had to be solved before addressing the presentingethical dilemma was the consideration of whether the student couldapply the AASW Code of Ethics to a non-Australian culturalenvironment. Australia, with its western values of individualism andself-sufficiency, represents an entirely different cultural context tothe Indian culture that places a greater importance on collectiveresponsibilities, and interpretations of power, status and ownershipdistinct from the researcher’s. So to expect that a conversation insupervision could begin with the discussion in relation to disclosuremisses an enormous collection of issues in relation to universalapplication of values, imposition of power, assumptions of superiorityof social work practice, among others.

As an international social work placement, this opportunity hasprovided the researcher with the ideal environment to explore theapplication of grounded theory and strive for cultural competence. Awillingness to be open and genuinely curious about the role of a schoolsocial worker in that environment was the researcher’s primary focus.Her postmodern preferences and previous narrative therapy practiceexperience provided an ideal foundation for that perspective. Theresearcher strived throughout her placement to maintain an awarenessof her perceptions, judgements and assessments with a view toreflecting on them and considering the impact of her own culture and

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values on their nature. The researcher tried to balance the requirementto meet the AASW practice standards, with her self-imposedobligation to recognise that many of those practice standards are notnecessarily relevant or valuable within the context of the placement.Throughout the placement the researcher attempted to align herlearnings with the AASW practice standards and gain new insight asa social work practitioner through that process. At the same timeshe was focused on gaining an understanding of the priorities of socialwork in the Indian context, and how to represent her sensitively withinthat context.

Conclusion

Taking the time to explore and reflect on the experience of beinga student placed in an international social work practicum solidifiesthe experience and makes clear the rich learning opportunity that itwas. This is true not only for the educational and professional benefitsgained but also the personal development that resulted. All of theconditions within which this practicum occurred may not be, or needto be, recreated to generate a similarly rich experience. Howeverhopefully, what has been shared herein will provide some usefulconsiderations to explore for all parties directly or indirectly involvedin such an arrangement.

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25. Thornberg, R., & Charmaz, K. (2011). Grounded Theory. In S. D. Lapan,M. T. Quartaroli, & F. J. Riemer (Eds.), Qualitative Research: An Introduction.

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19Samaja Karyada HejjegaluJournal of Social WorkVol. III, No-8, August 2013 pp. 17-43

“We live in times of crisis and uncertainty, but times of crisisare also times of opportunity, and in uncertain times theimpossible can become merely difficult, and the difficult canbecome feasible.” (Ife, 2003,p.7)

AbstractThis paper is based on field experience. Disasters, natural or

man-made, affect the lives of individuals, families and communities.Drawing on field experiences both from India and Australia, theauthor illustrates various phases and social processes that thecommunities go through to re-establish a sense of communityfollowing disaster. Drawing from personal experiences andassociations with various disasters like, Bhopal Gas tragedy(India,1984),Gujarat earthquake(India,2001), fire, frost, floods, anddrought (South Australia, 2006), and recent Cyclone Yasi(Queensland Australia, 2011), the author examines the relevance ofthe conceptof community development. Response to naturaldisasters occurs from various corners of the society. In this article,highlighting the community recovery work initiated by someschoolsof social work in India, the author discusses the relevance ofcommunity development education in social work and implicationsfor practice in a global context. This paper was originallypresented at the international conference on Eco-social Justice:Issues, challenges, and ways forward:Kerala,India,inNovember 2011.

Key words: Natural Disasters, Community, Recovery,Resilient Community, Social Work Education.

Note : The purpose of this paper is to introduce some of the contemporaryapproaches and practice frameworks in community development to the socialwork practitioners in India and to initiate further dialogue and researches in thearea of community participation, engagement and development with an emphasison documenting such experiences.

Indian and Australian Experience of CommunityRecovery in Natural Disasters

Abraham P Francis1

1. Dr Abraham P Francis teaches Social Work at James Cook University, [email protected]: This paper was presented at the international conference on Eco-social Justice: issues,challenges and ways forward: Kerala, India, in November 2011 and this is a brief version of the fulltext which is due for publication in November 2013.

20 Dr. Abraham P. Francis

Introduction

In this paper I intend to discuss the nature of community,approaches to community development work, reflections on personalexperiences of how a community responds to tragic realities, theprocess of rebuilding communities, and how lessons learned from thefield could be incorporated into social work education to prepare socialworkers to effectively contribute to recovery work using adevelopmental approach. For this purpose, I have drawn on experienceand lessons from Australia and India. Hence, the focus here is onsocial work practice and education in the light of my practiceexperience in these two countries.

Disaster has struck many countries and each country’s experiencehas been quite unique and different. While I base this discussionsolely on my practice experience, I will also draw upon the experiencesof other practitioners, educational institutions, and agencies to providea broader view of the issues that could be addressed by the socialwork profession.

Approaches to community development

The term community was coined by the merging of two Latinwords—com and munis.The English meaning of these two wordsare together and to serve. Therefore community means to servetogether. Most of the definitions of community refer to a group ofpeople living in the same place, having a particular characteristic incommon, or a group of people living together and practising commonownership. The main point here is place, neighbourhood or commoninterests that bring people together. The term community is used fordifferent purposes in sociology—particularly in the description andanalysis of society. However, in social work literature, it is used todenote a particular spatial or geographical unit (Siddiqui, 1997). It isalso popularly employed in such descriptive phrases as “a sense ofcommunity,” meaning an attitude of co-operation (Harper & Dunham,1959).Heller (1989, p.3, as cited in Taylor, Wilkinson & Cheers, 2011)suggests that community is based on a location such as aneighbourhood, town or city. Furthermore Heller (2011) describes


people’s connection to each other and the community. We also noticea sense of connectedness and belonging in the communities. Wilkinson(1991), based on social interaction theory, argues that a communitycomes to existence due to a ‘natural process of social interaction in alocation and that these interactions happen between people in a givenlocality. Hence “bothlocation and interactions are fundamental to theinteractional perspective of community” (Taylor, Wilkinson, &Cheers,2010, p.23). Social interaction has been found to be a key element ofthe definition of community.

In this article I emphasise the importance and need of communitydevelopment principles in recovery initiatives. What then, iscommunity development? Kenny (2011) argues that communitydevelopment can be understood as a ‘method of organising for socialand political change. It is understood variously as an occupation,acommunity practice and a political activity,all of which are based onparticular philosophical understanding of the world‘(P.2). WhileWilkinson (1991) defines community development as local peopleworking together across sectors and interest lines in the interest ofcommunity betterment.

People from various disciplines and professional backgroundswork with communities in the context of specific philosophicalframeworks and principles. In social work literature, we see a greatemphasis placed on working with people rather than working forpeople. Kenny (2011) defines community development as a methodfor empowering communities to take collective control andresponsibility for their own development. Shields (1991) takes adifferent approach, according to this author community work is about“…building a sense of mutual commitment to each other, a willingnessto assist each other’s empowerment, to foster honest, caringrelationships that are not just task oriented, but rather ones that areinterested in the wholeness of each (community) member” (p.29).

Taylor et al. (2008), locate community development as one offour conceptual approaches to working with communities,alongsidecontributions, instrumental, and empowerment approaches. There arefour conceptual approaches to working with communities that areapparent in community development (Taylor et al., 2008). Each differsconsiderably with regard to leadership; decision-making processes;


the respective roles for communities, governments, and practitioners;and each may be effective given the policy context, the task to beachieved, and the community (Taylor et al., 2008). These conceptsare discussed in brief here to provide an overview of the conceptualframe work that can be applied in community work. This conceptualclarity in turn will be useful for social workers or human serviceprofessionals to conceive, develop, and initiate community developmentor recovery work. It is also important to review the appropriatenessof each approach before attempting to implement them in theworkplace. Each approach can be adopted by incorporating localwisdom and the needs of the area, depending on the desired outcomeand particular context.

The contributions approach

The contributions approach considers participation by thecommunity primarily as voluntary contributions to a project, ratherthan decision-making about a project. Professionals—often externalto the community—usually lead participation. This approach is basedon voluntary donations of time and expertise, reciprocal relationshipsare valued and community is seen as contributor rather than activeparticipant. Often this approach is not sustainable for the long termas ‘community participation may not be sustainable’. (Taylor et al.,2008, p.93).

The instrumental approach

The instrumental approach is the dominant approach in communityhealth and social care in Australia today. This consists of servicesand a set of practices that encourage competition among potentialcontractors: a high value is placed on cost efficiency, and there isdevelopment of criteria to measure efficiency and effectiveness aroundprogramme design, budgets and costs (Taylor et al., 2008). There isa general feeling that consultation with the community is not completeand often power does not transfer from the professionals to thecommunities (Rifkin, 1996). In this approach Community participation


is according to a pre-determined strategy which is led by professionalwho would have led the design objectives, strategies, etc. The mainpurpose is to achieve pre-determined outcome. ‘A distinguishingfeature of this approach is that is undertaken using methods consistentwith a professional power-base and process are activated and directedby professionals’. (Taylor et al., 2008,p.95)

The community empowerment approach

“The community empowerment approach seeks to empower andsupport communities, groups and individuals to take greater controlover issues that affect their health and wellbeing. It includes the notionsof consciousness-raising, personal development and social action andgiving power or authority to an individual or group”(Williams &Labonte, 2003, as cited in Taylor et al., 2008.p.88).Rifkin (1996,)describes it as “community participation as the result of communityof people, essentially the poor, gaining information, access to resources,and eventual control over their own lives rather than being dominatedby the authorities by whom they have been exploited”(p. 82).Localpeople become involved in solving problems, increase their knowledgeand skills, and achieve a sense of control over their environment.

The developmental approach

The developmental approach conceptualizes health and socialcare development as an interactive, evolutionary process, embeddedin a community of place or interest. Local people, in partnership withprofessionals, have a role in decision-making and in achieving theoutcomes they consider important. The developmental approach isunderpinned by principles of social justice. In this approach – localpeople are actively involved in a project over which they can exertsome influence. Cheers and Luftoff (2001, p. 135) describe thedevelopmental approach as “enhancing the quality of life of the wholecommunity—socially, economically, culturally, spirituality, andecologically—by increasing community agency, primarily throughbroadly based local participation.”


Models and perspectives of community work

There are many different models and perspectives of workingwith communities. There is no definitive or right way to engage incommunity work, as we all see the world in our own ways and sosome things may resonate more than others. The theoreticalunderstanding provided in this paper will not only enrich our responseto realities, but will also provide support in developing strategies toaddress recovery work. It is not intended here to look at each of themodels and analyse them but rather to orient readers to this importantaspect that will help shape the way we design and implement recoveryefforts. The reason why we emphasise working from a particularmodel goes back to what we discussed earlier—the clarity of purpose,the context in which a desired result is expected. If we are not clearabout the principlesand the context of our practice; our work may befragmented, ineffective, and we may not be able achieve the desiredoutcome as planned. Therefore, it is vital for practitioners to examinethe theoretical perspectives and approaches to practice beforelaunching any developmental initiatives. Following are someperspectives that practitioners can draw on.

An ecological perspective concentrates on environmental andsocial sustainability. The goal is to build sustainable communities usingsustainable methods. This approach is very holistic, as it examinesthe entirety of the issue and determines the most sustainable way toapproach practice. This looks at which resources are available to thecommunity and makes sure that community benefits are long term.This also takes into effect the inter-generational effects of communitydevelopment—how will future generations be assisted or impacted.This should also place the community into its wider environment—apart of the global ecological perspective (Ife & Teserio, 2006).

A social justice and human rights perspective highlightsequality and empowerment, ensuring that human rights are upheldand all people are respected and encouraged, regardless of race,gender, disability or age. Here we would be looking at challengingthe dominant structures and attitudes that oppress and marginalise


people. Respect and inclusion are primary within a social justice andhuman rights perspective (Ife & Teserio, 2006).

Feminist perspectives look at our society and challenge thestructural issues of oppression, which are primarily dominated bymen and quite rigid. The feminist slogan “the personal is political” iscertainly applicable to community development. What feminist theorydemonstrates is that the personal aspects of our lives have context inwider society. Collectivism and the encouragement of social actionand participation drive this perspective (Ife & Teserio, 2006).

Strength-based approaches identify and build on the positivestrengths that are present within individuals and the community ratherthan highlighting problems, while emphasizing social justice, respect,inclusion, and self-determination (Pulla, 2012; Francis, 2012).Identifying strengths and community capacity is an important elementin community practice. These approaches to practice/ strategiesequalize power relations and bring about change by promotingstrengths. Social work has been defined by the InternationalFederation of Social Workers as a “profession [that] promotes socialchange, problem solving in human relationships and the empowermentand liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilizing theories ofhuman behavior and social systems, social work intervenes at thepoints where people interact with their environments. Principles ofhuman rights and social justice are fundamental to social work” (IFSW,2012). For Cowger and Snively (2002, p. 106), “the empowermentperspective is central to social work practice and…client strengths[provide] the fuel and energy for that empowerment.” Miley et al.(2004, p. 91) write that a “strengths-oriented social work practiceincorporates empowerment as both a concept and a process.” In thecontext of disasters and recovery this “approach empowers thecommunity as it enables local participation, active choices, and controlof their own destinies”(Tan,2009,p.4).

Further, I will focus more on the initiatives by communities andgroups in responding to natural disasters in their own respective placesand in their own ways. It would be advisable for a practitioner to beclear about the ideological principles and practice frameworks beforecommitting to being part of a community recovery process.


Natural disasters and community recovery

Natural disasters have become a very common part of life andeach community responds to these realities differently based on theirspecific needs, location, and the intensity of the disaster itself. Aftera disaster, individuals and communities often go through identifiablephases of recovery, including distress, relief, disillusionment,resentment, reconstruction, and reframing, although not always inthe same order (Herman, 1992). The first stage of disaster recoveryis one of distress and disorganisation—this happens when the crisisevent or disaster strikes and panic and confusion occur. Distress isfollowed by a sense of relief when rescue and safety occurs, and anengendered ‘heroism,’ sometimes described as a euphoric‘honeymoon,’ takes place. When the reality of the new life sets in,after this period of relief, the people and community may go througha difficult time marked by disillusionment and anger. Resentmentof others and of society’s lack of care and provision may createstrife and conflict. In the reconstruction stage, individuals and groupsretrace the past, reframe it as a meaningful event, and re-evaluatefuture goals, both privately and publicly (Tan, 2009). In each of thesephases, community development workers can assist communities inaccepting reality and be patient listeners to the affected people.

During disasters, the usual patterns of social bonds andinteractions are suspended in favour of new interactions andrelationships. This development is known as ‘de-bonding’ and is acentral concept in community recovery planning. The social processof community organisation in the aftermath of a disaster is known as“fusion” (EMA, 2002, p. 115 as cited in Taylor et al., 2008).

Natural disasters destroy the peaceful co-existence of nature,people, communities and societies. They disintegrate communitiesinstantly, but an unknown gravitational pull brings them back togetherto face the uncertainties again. This is what we are exploring in thispaper—the question of what brings people together again. This willbe illustrated with case examples from the field. I will provide here abrief outline of the disasters that I am personally aware of, and havebeen associated with in the last 2 decades. This bird’s eye view


description will capture the nature of the disasters, response fromthe field, and will address the issues that need further action from thefield.

1. Bhopal Disaster (1984)The Bhopal disaster (commonly referred to as the Bhopal

gas tragedy) was a gas leak incident in India and considered one ofthe world’s worst industrial catastrophes. It occurred on the night ofDecember 2, 1984 at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticideplant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. A government affidavit in2006 stated the leak caused 558,125 injuries, including 38,478temporary partial injuries and approximately 3,900 severely andpermanently disabling injuries. As many as 25,000 deaths have beenattributed to the disaster in recent estimate (Bhopal gas tragedy, n.d.).This tragedy caused a number of problems in the community—manypeople died due to the incident, many more became subject to severemedical conditions, and this led to significant mental health issues inthe communities. Because of the impact of the disaster, many peoplemoved away from Bhopal. Greif and loss permeated the environmentand families. The problems caused by this incident have not beenresolved and thousands of people are still struggling to grapple withthe outcomes of this tragedy.

How did the community respond to this tragedy? This type ofquestion has always compelled me to critically examine the practicesand literature on community development. Reflection on this disasterreveals that a great sense of belonging and connectedness was seenduring this period and has contributed to the ongoing social action inthe community. The aspect of “locality and social interaction” wasquite evident in this context. This again helps us to understand theprocesses involved in community development and some importantlessons can be drawn from this incident, particularly in understandingthe bonding, de-bonding and re-bonding experiences of communities.Although there have been a number of efforts by government andnon-government agencies, initially their main concern was to providerelief to the affected communities.

The discussion here is limited to cover the concept of recoveryand peoples’ engagement. During this period of disaster, I was a


social work student, and I was also involved in some aspects of therecovery work. As a student, I can now reflect on the tremendousimpact this tragedy had on me both personally and professionally.What I observed during this period was that the entire communitycame together irrespective of caste, creed, religion or ethnicity. Humankindness and compassion were visible everywhere. People from allwalks of life came together to support each other and what unitedthem was a state of emergency, a need for protection and a sense ofcaring for the affected. This was very evident in the way peoplequickly organised after the disaster. I also observed the emergenceof local leadership and community involvement in the recovery efforts.One thing I still remember is the way in which the community providedemotional support to grieving families. This organised community spiritwas later transformed and manifested in the way of local social actionprojects.

2. Bhuj earthquake, Gujarat, India (2001)The Bhuj earthquake that shook the Indian Province of Gujarat

on the morning of January 26, 2001 was one of the most deadlyearthquakes to strike India in its recorded history. One month afterthe earthquake, official Indian government figures placed the deathtoll at 19,727 and the number of injured at 166,000. Indications arethat 600,000 people were left homeless, with 348,000 houses destroyedand an additional 844,000 damaged. It was a major tragedy for thewhole nation(India). The questions in my mind at the time were—how can we respond to this social reality affecting millions of peoplein the country? Do we share a sense of loss? What can be done?

During this time, I was a social work lecturer at Delhi Universityand the immediate response of the faculty was to organise the studentsto engage in community campaigns and initiate fundraising activities.Students from the college organised local communities to respond tothe needs of the community in Gujarat. I could see the emergence oflocal leadership, especially among university students in action in theresponse to the natural disaster that occurred in the country. Thestudents later visited the site along with professionals and activists tocarry out the recovery work. Again, what I observed was the spirit


of wanting to help people in crisis. On reflection, I see that this wasindeed a relevant response from the social work department, whichnot only took proactive steps to mobilise the students but also allowedthe students to use this experience for critical reflection and learningin social work practice. It is in this context that I introduce the workof the Delhi school of social work as they responded to the crisis inGujarat. A project titled UDAI (University for Development Actionand Integrated Learning) was conceived and implemented under theleadership of Prof.Sanjai Bhatt,Department of Social Work, Universityof Delhi and became a movement in addressing similar situations inthe country.

The UDAI ResponseThe Department of Social Work at Delhi University in India very

quickly and effectively responded to the emergency situation afterthe Gujarat earthquake in 2001. The University for DevelopmentAction and Integrated Learning (UDAI) was born to address theneeds of the people in Gujarat. Students from various departmentswere trained and sent to the earthquake-affected areas to undertakerelief work along with faculty members. While some of the studentswere in the field, the students in the city mobilised funds, resources,and other materials to be sent to Gujarat. This generated a lot ofcommunity response in and around Delhi in support of the cause andthe UDAI continued to support some of the long-term rehabilitationplans. Based on the experience of working in the earthquake recoveryefforts in 2001, the UDAI initiated its second phase for the floodaffected people in Bihar (2008).It was one of the most disastrousfloods in the history of Bihar, a state in India, which occurred on 18August 2008. The river changed course and inundated areas whichhadn’t experienced floods in many decades. The flood affected over2.3 million people in the northern part of Bihar. UDAI Phase 2 hadtwofold objectives:Tocontribute to relief and rehabilitation of floodaffected victims on a long-term basis, and to bring back experiencesof learning into the knowledge system of the university.The UDAIteam worked at three levels—immediate relief, long-term post-rescuerelief, and long-term rehabilitation. The team was led by the socialwork faculty along with students (UDAI, 2008). This experience


provided students with on-site exposure and an opportunity to developtheir skills in working in such demanding situations.

Another initiative is from Tata Institute of social science, Mumbai,in responding to natural disasters in India. In most instances, theInstitute has worked closely with state governments and the districtadministration in responding to crisis situations. In recent years, NGOshave recognised the role of the Institute and its volunteer teams andhave sought to collaborate. Following the 2004 tsunami in India andSri Lanka, the TISS completed an assessment of the loss of lives,property, livelihoods, environment, and infrastructure. It also addressedthe rehabilitation and psychological counselling needs of affectedwomen and children in Tamil Nadu in collaboration with 29 collegesof social work in Tamil Nadu, involving 1500 post-graduate studentvolunteers and over 100 teachers (Tata Institute of social sciences(TISS, 2012).The TISS also sent a deputation of five faculty membersto Sri Lanka to train volunteers in psycho social support and traumacounselling.In addition a number of other social work colleges,departments and institutions volunteered to assist in the recovery workwhen confronted with calamities in India. For the purpose of continuingthis discussion, I have only mentioned two institutions (there are manyother organisations and Social Work institutions that have respondedto disasters in their specific geographic locations) to showcase thetrend of social work response in India in responding todisasters.Although there have been responses from social workinstitutions, the feedback from such endeavours have been aroundthe intensity of planning the interventions and supporting volunteersin responding to situations. This againemphasises the need forpreparingsocial work students/human service professionals/volunteersin engaging with communities and very specially in addressing theuncertainties in practice.

3. Drought in South Australia (2006)A drought is a prolonged, abnormally dry period when there is

not enough water for the users’ typical needs. Drought is not simplylow rainfall; if it were, much of inland Australia would be in almostperpetual drought. Because people use water in so many differentways, there is no universal definition of drought. Meteorologistsmonitor the extent and severity of drought in terms of rainfall


deficiencies. Agriculturalists rate the impact on primary industries,hydrologists compare ground water levels, and sociologists define iton social expectations and perceptions (Australian Government,Bureau of Meteorology, 2012).For the past ten years Australiahas been in the grip of a severe and unprecedented drought, with lowrainfall in many districts and record low inflows to the Murray-Darlingbasin. This is having an effect on all members of the community,from rural farmers to residents of many cities and towns, and thesituation will not be reversed until significant rains replenish dams,streams, rivers, and aquifers.

This situation has caused many issues for communities,especiallyrural communities,as they tend to experience a heavier burden ofmental illness, and have been significantly more affected by the tragedyof suicide—particularly male suicide—than their city counterparts.Anecdotal evidence suggests there has been an increased presentationof mental health problems and disorders associated with the drought—such as chronic stress, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and alcoholabuse. However, there is not yet significant evidence to suggest adrought associated increase in the rate of suicide in South Australianrural communities. The general prevalence of mental disordersaffecting men is comparable to that of women, though each genderhas “stand-out” issues (Ashfield, 2007).

During this period, I was a social work practitioner and involvedin a programme called Men in Communities, which was funded bythe Government of South Australia to address the issues of men,rural farmers, and particularly to promote wellbeing in ruralcommunities. This programme had a community focus and has had agreat impact in the communities. Again, a commonality with otherdisasters was that people came together at times of difficulty. Peoplefrom far and wide supported one another. As a practitioner, I wasalso involved in developing some community-oriented programmesi.e. community events, support groups for people with mental illness,and community awareness programmes to support people in the ruralcommunities. The lesson I learnt during this period was that engagingwith local community is crucial in all aspects of community work:specifically in addressing the needs of the local community. Localsolutions need to emerge from the community partnership that thepractitioners establish with the wider community.


4. Tropical Cyclone Yasi (2011)Tropical Cyclone Yasi was one of the most powerful cyclones to

affect Queensland, Australia, since weather records began. Thecyclone was another blow to North Queensland’s coal industry, bananaand sugar cane farming, as well as tourism;just as the state was openfor business again after massive floods in December and January,which left 35 people dead. Tropical Cyclone Yasi caused widespreaddamage when it crossed the Queensland coast. Many communitieswere left devastated and are still in recovery. As Queenslandersbraced for the biggest cyclone in the nation’s history, Prime MinisterJulia Gillard told them, ‘’In the hours of destruction that are coming,all of Australia is going to be thinking of [you]’’(“Far North Qld”,February 2, 2011). I could see a sense of hope and support that wassent through these powerful messages to the people of Queensland.As a researcher, I thought this extended notion of community—Australia as a Communityreally supported the people emotionally tostay strong and face the disaster together while supporting one another.A spirit of volunteerism was manifested in all these efforts. As asurvivor of this disaster myself, I found this common recovery themein Australia too—People from all walks of life came together to supportone another whether someone was a newcomer to the town, migrant,or local. But the uniting point here was the context, the urgency andthe need for help. The community spirit was visible on the streets.

Why is a community development approach to recoveryimportant?

Recovery from disasters such as those experienced in Queenslandover the summer of 2010-11 requires more than the restoration ofinfrastructure and rebuilding of homes. A recovery effort must alsoinvolve building stronger, more resilient communities where peopleare empowered to manage their own recovery. National andinternational approaches to disaster recovery show that the inclusionof community development within community recovery can havepositive long-term implications for mental health, community capacity,productivity, and hope. The social work approach is a bottom-upapproach and focuses on the active involvement of communitymembers. It is an opportunity for communities to express community


agency such as purposive acts expressing the capacity of residentsto work together for the wellbeing of the entire community.Like theempowering approaches, collaboration and meaningful participationare key factors in community development. A report titled”A silverlining: Community development,crisis and belonging”by Trotmanand Caniglia (2011) explored the role of community development inQueensland’s recovery from floods in 2011. Some of theirrecommendations are indeed useful while responding to the issues incommunities. They are as follows:

• Initiate grassroots activities that bring people together andstrengthen the supportive relationships

• Promote activities that strengthen community developmentcapacity, resources and infrastructure

• Building leadership and governance capacity in thecommunities

• Participatory planning• Address the disadvantaged and vulnerable (p.5)Community development is fundamentally concerned with

including everyone and uses particular methods to overcome obstaclesto the participation of groups with fewer resources and other structuralbarriers preventing access. At the time of crises or disasters significanthelp and assistance was offered by residents without any formalvolunteering process. The strength of nearby social networks is animportant factor in people’s capacity to prepare and recover. Francis(2013) mentions developing “safety nets in communities” to respondto the challenges of recovery. As shown in Australia as well asdisasters overseas, sometimes “the disaster situation is so difficultthe social networks and relationships within and around communitiesare the only source of help until disaster recovery assistance canphysically reach affected communities” (Trotman & Caniglia, 2011,p. 6).Hence the theory we discussed at the beginning of the chapter,“the interactional perspective of community “(Taylor etal., 2008,p.23)becomes quite relevant here because community is boundedgeographically and includes social interactions among people wholive in that area.This again emphasises the importance of recognisingthe pattern of interactions in a community context.According to the


Community Development Alliance of Scotland (2004), communitydevelopment activities should be based on a commitment to thefollowing principles:

• Empowerment – increasing the ability of individuals andgroups to influence issues that affect them and theircommunities

• Participation – supporting people to take part in decisionmaking

• Inclusion, equality of opportunity and anti-discrimination – recognising that some people may needadditional support to overcome barriers they face

• Self-determination – supporting the right of people to maketheir own choices

• Partnership – recognising that many agencies can contributeto community development

In order to understand the role of community development indisaster recovery, it is important to define development in this context.The following definition is offered by the Community DevelopmentAlliance of Scotland (2008) and it highlights both methods andoutcomes of community development. Community developments area process, a way of doing things. They can:

• Bring people together• Help people to identify the problems and needs which they

share and respond to these• Help people to discover the resources that they already have• Promote knowledge, skills, confidence, and the capacity to

act together• Strengthen organisation and leadership within communities• Strengthen contacts between communitiesPrincipled community development work involves developing

opportunities, including those located within the community, such astapping into local networks; drawing on existing community resourcesand strengths; encouraging involvement from a wide range ofcommunity members; developing and working with community leaders;building networks of trust; nurturing social capital; developing teamsto undertake specific tasks; conducting audits of community resources;managing conflicts; and generally building the community’s capacity


to withstand or adapt to change processes. In all these activitieshuman service professionals play a crucial role in working with thecommunities. Principled community development work also includesother opportunities, involving those located outside of the communitysuch as developing communication channels with governmentdepartments, non-government organisations and businesses; workingwith local networks to access external resources; lobbying for thecommunity; addressing social policy issues as they affect thecommunity; and advocating on behalf of the community to ensurethat members have access to the resources they need to achievetheir goals and aspirations (Kenny, 2006). Therefore communitydevelopment practice is about maximising the participation of allindividuals within a community and it therefore relies on initiativesarising at the local level rather than on those imposed from above(Alston, 2009).

Understanding community strength

It has been seen from my own experience and literature that atthe time of disasters the atmosphere is filled with confusion, lacks asense of direction, and everyone looks for a safe place. It is in thiscontext human service professionals and volunteers walk in to supportthe people and community. An understanding of the strength of thecommunity is of paramount importance to post-disaster work. Keyconcepts of membership and inclusion contribute to a community’sstrengths. McKnight and his colleagues have been key proponentsfor examining, developing, and utilising the assets of the community(McKnight, Turner, & Kretzmann, 1999). These assets includephysical, individual, community (organisational), and societal assets.The physical assets include land, buildings, communication,transportation structures, and business complexes. Individual assetsare the local residents, their skills, experiences, capabilities, and theirwillingness to contribute (Kretzmann & McKnight, 2005). Communityassets are the different organisations such as voluntary associations,social cultural groups, and faith-based organisations. The societalinstitutions are public institutions, schools, courts, hospitals, as well aspolitical structures of the country (Kretzmann & McKnight, 2005).


In a disaster situation, it is very difficult to assess the communitystrength in terms of physical, natural or social contexts; rather, effortsshould be diverted to rebuild the strength of the community. Byinvolving the community members, and by adopting participatorypractice models the human service professionals work towardsrestoring the hope in people. Though it is a time consuming process,our efforts should lead to re-establishing the missing link in thecommunities which will help us to focus more on social capital.Putnam’s (2000) concept of social capital encompasses both bondingand bridging capital. The ability of people to bond and support oneanother, individually and as groups, builds the bonding capital. Therelationship of the community with other communities and resourcesprovides bridging capital (Dynes, 2002; Putnam & Feldstein, 2003).This model requires a deep respect for the people and community’scapacity to adopt sensitive and culturally appropriate interventions.Community members’ views and actions are valued and solicitedthrough public meetings, surveys, consultations, task forces, andcommittees. Community action provides the impetus for social changeand community development (Tan, 2009).Through the communitydevelopment initiatives and through the participatory process we willbe able to focus more on the community capacities, and work towardsrebuilding the community strength which would instil hope incommunities and the recovery process itself.

Community involvement in disaster recovery

One of the key factors in disaster recovery process is engagingwith local communities in planning, decision making, and evaluation.We cannot achieve anything alone as it requires community supportand participation. Networking and participation are the essence ofboth community development and disaster management as theyprovide the bonding and bridging capital necessary for action. Socialcapital is the means for developing and mobilising the resources ofthe community (McKnight, Turner, & Kretzmann, 1999; Putnam &Feldstein, 2003). Bonding capital focuses on the latent assets orstrengths of the community, and harnessing them for action, whilebridging capital aggregates resources and assets in other communitiesthat can be used if required (Putnam, 2000).


At a time when disaster strikes a community, assessing the socialcapital may be a problem but post- disaster work will be quite easy ifthe community is helped to reclaim this in their specific context ofexperience. It may include taking into consideration both the resourcesavailable and those needed for rescue and recovery. This assessmentis to be done in partnership with local people, appreciating andacknowledging the expertise of the knowledgeable from the localcommunity. This can be achieved through observations and dialogueswith residents, interest groups, and service providers. The strengthsapproach (Saleebey, 2006) provides a positive perspective to disasterintervention, and it considers the individual, family, and communityunderstanding of social situations and conditions. It also emphasisesthe capacities and potential of the clients, family, and community, andassumes that they are experts of their own situations and can bestdecide what they want and need. A vital starting place is theassessment of strengths at all levels that will assist the community incoping with distress, and enhance wellbeing.Strength and resilienceare highly correlated concepts (Priestley & Hemingway, 2006;Herman, 1992). Resilience is the resourcefulness of people, families,and communities, along with their ability to bounce back. Differentpeople and communities are affected by disasters in various ways.Resilience is dependent on the protective factors they have, such asattitudes, skills, and assets. History and culture may also play aprotective role in dealing with crisis and disasters (Tan, 2009).Thequestion is - are the communities resilient enough to bounce backand what is the hope that they have been able to identify through theprocess of analysing the social capital.

Crisis can be an opportunity for growth and development. Butagain the question is whether the community is able to see this at atime of disaster. In this context strengths based approach allows peopleto recognise their strengths and their ability to move forward, becausethe premise of the strengths perspective is that it is not problem-focused butemphasises personal and community strengths (Saleebey,2006; Francis, 2012). It seeks to discover uniqueness and personalways of coping and intervenes in a culturally appropriate way. Thestrengths perspective identifies positive assets in terms of individual


and community coping abilities, and thus the involvement of familyand community members is central in intervention.

The collaborative approach of the strengths perspectiveincludes working within the reality of the situation, whilesearching for possibilities and potentials, as well as doing whatis meaningful for the citizens through engagement and dialoguethroughout all the phases of disaster management. Thisapproach includes a holistic integration of both spiritual andcontextual resources, as cultural and spiritual traditions oftenprovide meaning and strength to deal with disastersituations(Tan,2009,p.4).

Practitioner’s reflections

This experience of being involved with natural disasters at variouslevels has given me some points to ponder on. While I wish to writedown all of them, I am limited by word count and the rationale behindthis paper. I have incorporated some of my reflections in thediscussions of the paper.However, I will mention a few general pointsthat have been generated from thesituations,and from which emergefurther points for reflection.

• Safety is a major concern for all of us and we do not knowwhen a disaster will strike. The unexpected nature of thisphenomena calls for planning, awareness generation, andpreparedness. Hence the implications for social workpractice and education.

• Wherever I have witnessed disasters I have witnessed thehuman compassion and sense of community response tosupport one another. Hence the need to further explorethe nature of community and community development.

• Communities do bounce back. Crises are seen as opportunitiesfor growth and development. Hence the idea that whatmakes communities bounce back remains to be exploredfurther through research and interventions.

• Emergence of social action as a way to address the injusticesthat occurred due to disasters (Bhopalgas tragedy for


example). Hence the need to learn more about, and furtherexplore, the social justice and human rights issues.

• Community response and its management is another pointfor reflection. How can the post disaster work be donewith peoples’ participation?

While there are many other issues that emerge from this paper.I limit my discussion to further explore two issues that confront socialworkers in general. They are related to social work education andthe concept of uncertainty in practice.

Implications for social work education and practice

Usually when disaster strikes, social workers and other humanservice professionals are not only the first responders, they are alsocalled upon to help victims with the effects of trauma anddisplacement, providing social and emotional support in the recoveryand rebuilding of families and communities. The question is – Doesour current social work education provide opportunities for studentsto engage in such recovery related work? Do we prepare our studentsenough to embrace the concept of uncertainty in their practice? Arethe social work curricula designed in a way that addresses the currentsocial realities around us such as disasters? Afternatural disastersthe following are some of the major questions that social workerscan ask, and work on with communities to address them.

• What are the strategies that were identified during the crisis?How can these strategies be used to further strengthencommunity spirit that was very evident during the crisis?

• What are the strategies to help restore and strengthen thesocial fabric and create even stronger communities?

• What are the ideas within the community about communitybuilding to help people with trauma, grief, and loss?

• What are the strategies to strengthen communities’ ongoingcapacity to show leadership?

• What kind of partnerships and collaborations could be madeto sustain the community spirit? (Caniglia &Trotman2011,p.5).


As practitioners, we need to find answers to these questions andwe also need to help our communities to find solutions. On reflectionI find that these were similar questions that I asked during the variousnatural disasters that I was associated with. Personal experienceand professional practice has taught me that “we should never losehope and nothing is achieved alone.” This is an important dimensionof social work practice especially in educating and training socialwork students to embrace this concept of communitydevelopment:work with the communities to achieve what they wouldlike to achieve rather than approaching this from a top-downperspective. Educators also need to provide space for criticalreflection and opportunities for students to become involved in socialaction or community recovery efforts.

Communities in Australia and internationally are experiencingmassive changes. One of the changes concernsclimate variabilitywhich is an aspect of change that social workers are now grapplingwith. Communities are not sure what will happen to them in a fewyears in relation to the climate that may affect their way of life.Although social workers are responding to social realities, uncertaintyin practice is an issue. This uncertainty calls for attention from socialworkers;”The uncertain future is an opportunity for social workers…these events are an opportunity to demonstrate the profession’scommitment to human rights and social justice in work with individuals,communities, and the wider policy environment” (Mason, 2011, p.376). The question is how comfortable are we with the concept ofuncertainty. How do we work with people who have issues of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), trauma, loss, anxiety, etc.? TheCanadian study by Spafford et al. (2007) found that “social workstudents viewed the acknowledgement and examination of uncertaintyas a touchstone of competent social work (p. 165). This was quitedifferent from medical and optometry students who saw uncertaintyas something to be avoided. Experienced social work practitionerswork effectively when they incorporate uncertainty into the base ofthe social work approach. As Fook et al. (2000) commented: “Anexpert social worker is constantly taking account of the interaction/relationship between the persons and the context- at all levels relevant


to the situation, leading to plans which address the overallsituation”(p.145). “The experienced practitioner creates their owntheory or way of knowing, being and acting in situations which arenew and uncertain” (p.148). The literature suggests that “moreopportunities are needed for social workers to understand howenvironmental issues are related to social work practice” (Mason,2011, p.386). This is a challenge for both social work educators andpractitioners. Similarly, practitioners also need to be aware of thefollowing empirically supported intervention principles that should beused to guide and inform intervention and prevention efforts at theearly to mid-term stages of recovery work. These promote: A senseof safety, calming, a sense of self and community efficacy,connectedness, and hope (Hobfoll, 2007).

This will certainly be a challenge for practitioners when workingin the context of disaster management and recovery initiatives.However, having a sound knowledge of the scientifically-adaptedmodels of practice will enrich practitioners in their pursuit to offerquality services in communities. This knowledge certainly will comefrom education and training.

Conclusion

In summary, principles of social recovery and disastermanagement must necessarily involve the community in all the stagesof work. The work should focus on both the organisational andcommunity potentials and needs. External initiatives should engageand empower local groups that are working to enable and build thecommunity’s assets, as well as its bonding and bridging capital. Allthese efforts should create a sense of hope in the lives of people andcommunity in general.

The question is not whether disaster will strike, but rather, whenit happens will the community be ready to deal with it? Disaster canenhance community closeness and social cohesion while bringingabout positive changes at the individual, community, and societal levels.Social work intervention that uses inherent strengths and resiliencecan be a catalyst for social change. The key to overcoming disasters


and crises lies in the resilience of people and communities. Crisis canthus be an opportunity for community development and growth (Tan,2004). Natural disasters occur silently, without much notice orpermission from anyone, which affects the social capital ofcommunities. Undoubtedly, catastrophes wipe away the salientresources of communities, destroy the inherent capacity of individualsto resist and rebuild, and put pressure on governments and civil societyto bear the financial cost of rebuilding these communities to someextent. Social workers can play a major role in these endeavours bycontributing to policy planning, designing intervention strategies, andrebuilding communities. However, as social workers we need to bevery clear about our role in this process. As noted from a messagefrom Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, “If grassrootsmembers of our communities do not have involvement in, or ownershipof, the solutions to their local problems, then any proposed remediesare almost certain to fail” (Quartermaine 2003 as cited in Tayloretal., 2010,p.44). Therefore it is important to work with the peoplerather than for the people. As Mason (2011) stated “For social workersengaged in post disaster recovery or indeed in planning for an uncertainfuture, working with communities in a way that enhances participationand inclusion and builds resilience seems to be the most effectivestrategy(p.385).This is indeed a challenge for the social workprofession, not only in terms of imparting academic knowledge, butin providing ample opportunities for our students to experience andexplore social realities and thus develop necessary skills to addressthe unexpected realities that may come in their professional practice.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank Prof.Sanjay Bhatt,Delhi University forinspiring me about this work on community practice and disastermanagement.I also thank him for sharing some of his ideas aboutdisaster work and social work education,especially in India. I alsothank Ms Margaret Henni for proof-reading this work, and specialthanks to Dr Venkat Pulla, Charles Sturt University, Australia forpeer reviewing this paper.


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Culturally Competent Community Developmentin a Globalized World

Narayan Gopalkrishnan

Abstract

We live in a world that is increasingly interconnected through theprocesses of globalization. The processes are bringing togetherpeople from many different cultures and the interactions that takeplace can often lead to conflict if not managed properly. Further,globalization can also lead to increasing marginalization of the weakersections of society and conflicts around basic resources such aswater and food. In this paper, the role that community developmentcan play as an effective response to some of the negative impacts ofglobalization is examined. It is argued that traditional forms ofcommunity development have to be critically examined in the lightof new and emerging forms of community and that more inclusiveforms of community development have to be developed. The modelof culturally competent community development is suggested as aneffective approach in this context.

Keywords: Community Development, Globalization, Culture,Cultural Competency.

Introduction

Over the last millennium and the beginning of the present one,human interconnectedness and interdependence are increasing at anextraordinary rate and have become a part of daily life and all thathappens in this planet is no longer a limited local event leading to areorganization of lives, actions, organizations and institutions along alocal-global axis (Beck, 2000). This paper begins with a discussion ofthe phenomenon of globalization and focuses on some of the keyaspects of it that impact negatively on the lives of poor andmarginalized communities across the world, including aspects thatare based on neoliberal ideology and those based on global risk. Thelast aspect of globalization examined in this section is that involving

1. Dr Narayan Gopalkrishnan teaches Social Work at James Cook University, [email protected]


the movements of people as migrants both internally and externallyto the nation-state. The concepts of cultural identity and cross-culturalconflict are introduced as issues that need to be addressed so as toenable communities to manage the negative impacts of globalization.

Community Development is then looked at as one of thecommonly used approaches that can facilitate communities to developpower and establish some level of control over their own lives. Someof the strengths of community development are discussed and alsosome of the issues in present-day practice. Significant focus areasfor future practice are also identified. A model of cultural competencethat has recently been developed by the author is then presented andits application to community development discussed. The paper closeswith the argument that community development needs to incorporateideas of social inclusion and cultural competence if it is to continue tobe relevant in the changing global context.

Globalization

A number of different concepts have been used to explain thenature of these interconnections. Some of these include Wallerstein’snotion of a World System, Roland Robertson’s ‘Glocalisation’ andArjun Appadurai’s ideas of a range of ‘scapes’ involving themovements of people, finances, media, technology and ideas(Gopalkrishnan, 2003). At the simplest level, globalization can beunderstood as the ‘widening, intensifying, speeding up and growingimpact of world-wide interconnectedness’ (Held, 2010).

While globalization is a very complex process involving a numberof actors interacting at a number of levels, there are many scholarswho would argue that one of the primary drivers of present-dayglobalization is neoliberal ideology, which has become the predominantideology of our times in most parts of the world (Heron, 2008; Mendes,2003). This ideology focuses on the centrality of the free market andstrongly suggests that most, if not all, social problems can be managedby the ‘invisible hand’ of the market. Further, it also recommendsthat economic forces need to be insulated from the State as stablemarkets can only be assured when economic decisions are removedfrom politics (Gill cited in Harmes, 2006). The term ‘Neoliberalglobalization’ is an appropriate one that will be used in this article tofocus on those aspects of globalization that are clearly driven by theneoliberal agenda. Also the terms Minority World (referring to the

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per-capita income-rich highly industrialized countries where theminority of the world live) and Majority World (referring to the per-capita income-poorer, less industrialized countries where the majorityof the world live) will be used rather than the traditional and ratherinaccurate ‘developed/underdeveloped’ or ‘West/East’ terms. Theseterms were developed in the early nineties by Shahidul Alam, a writerand activist photographer from Bangladesh, and challenges some ofthe assumptions that are inherent in the other terms (Bowen, 2009).

Clearly, the rapid advances in information and communicationtechnology and infrastructure have been central to the rapid growthof globalization in general and neoliberal globalization in particular.However in the case of the latter, the structures that emerged out ofthe Bretton Woods conference in 1944, such as the InternationalMonetary Fund and the International Bank for Reconstruction andDevelopment (part of the World Bank Group) and others that followedsuch as the Asian Development Bank, continue to act as the cuttingedge of neoliberal globalization and push its agenda across the world(Beck, 2000). There are a number of processes involved in terms offurthering the neoliberal agenda including Structural AdjustmentPrograms that are imposed on debt-ridden, and often poorer, nations;the flows of Foreign Direct Investment that take their signals frominternational credit ratings; as well as international trade agreementslike GATT and TRIPS that allow for governments to be sued forinfringing on corporate rights (Harmes, 2006). The ability of the nation-state to take decisions on behalf of their citizens is increasingly beingcircumscribed by a number of these processes, and many governmentsare implementing neoliberal policies that involve deregulation ofmarkets, privatization of public enterprise, reduction in direct taxesand cuts in public spending (Dominelli, 2010).

Neoliberal globalization has considerable impacts on thecommunities across the world. George Soros, who has profitedenormously from global flows of currency, especially in crises likeBlack Wednesday in the UK and the Asian Financial Crisis, has thisto say about neoliberal globalization:

First, many people, particularly in less-developedcountries, have been hurt by globalization without beingsupported by a social safety net; many others have beenmarginalized by global markets. Second, globalization has



caused a misallocation of resources between private goodsand public goods. Markets are good at creating wealth butare not designed to take care of other social needs. Theheedless pursuit of profit can hurt the environment andconflict with other social values. Third, global financial marketsare crisis prone. People living in the developed countries maynot be fully aware of the devastation wrought by financialcrises because……..they tend to hit the developing economiesmuch harder. All three factors combine to create a very unevenplaying field.(Soros, 2002, pp. 4-5)

In hindsight, as Soros wrote this prior to the Global FinancialCrisis, the impacts on the poor and marginalized in the richer countriesare also very significant and point to ‘new forms of inequality which,increasingly, will have to be tackled transnationally (Beck, 2007b, p.1). The vision of the 20:80 society raised by the 1995 InternationalForum organized by the Gorbachev Foundation in San Francisco isone where 20 percent of the world, irrespective of the country, willparticipate in life, earnings and consumption, while 80 per cent of thepopulation will have no work and will not participate in society as weknow it today (Martin & Schumann, 1997). The reality of this becomesmore stark when we consider that Dominelli’s (2010) criticism of thefact that the top 20 percent of the world’s population has alreadyaccumulated 86 per cent of the wealth while the bottom 20 per centhave to make do with 1.3 per cent of the total wealth.

Another aspect of globalization that presents significantchallenges to communities in both the Majority and Minority Worldsis the globalization of risk, where risks are no longer local and theimpacts of crisis are not localized (Beck, 2007a). The world is facinga number of overwhelming problems, such as climate change, energyand food insecurity, loss of biodiversity, poverty and population growth,all of which have global impacts and shape the way that we lead ourlives (Beddington, 2009; Coates, 2003). Further, these issues arefurther problematic in that they impact disproportionately on the poorand marginalized in society as well as disproportionately on nation-states in the Majority World. Doherty and Clayton (2011) point to thisin the impacts of climate change where they argue that the impactsfall more on the poorer sections of society. Similar issues are raised

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in disaster intervention research where poorer people, ethnic andracial minorities, people with disabilities as well as those living in theMajority World as against the Minority World are more likely toexperience more severe impacts of disasters (Haskett, Scott, Nears,& Grimmett, 2008). Another area of note in the notion of global riskis the concept of the ‘export of risk’ from privileged societies to lessprivileged ones, both within and across national borders. Ulrich Beck(2007a, p. 693) provides some examples of these including the exportof toxic and other wastes, export of dangerous and/or pollutingindustries, as with the export of controversial products and researchas well as the export of torture and suggests that ‘the poorest of thepoor live in the blind spots which are the most dangerous death zonesof world risk’.

The globalization of the movements of people is another aspectof globalization that is intrinsic to this discussion. Arguably, migrationof people is the most visible of the forms of global movements and isthe one that is most controversial in terms of communities as well asthe nation-state (Turner & Khondker, 2010). The International Officeof Migration (2011) states that there were over 214 millioninternational migrants in 2009 as against 191 million in 2005, and thatinternal migrants account for over 740 million migrants. These figuresare probably on the lower side, given the difficulty of identifyinginternal migrants and the rapid increases in movements of peoplefrom rural areas to urban areas across both the Minority and MajorityWorlds. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees alsoidentifies over 35.4 million people of concern across the world includingrefugees and internally displaced people (UNHCR, 2011).

Besides the movements of people forced to migrate due to criseslike war and natural disasters, as globalization makes the relativedifferences in income levels more visible to greater numbers of peopleand national economies are less able to provide for their citizens dueto the adoption of neoliberal approaches, there are increasingpressures of people wishing to move between nations in search ofbetter paying work (Solimano, 2010). However, Cohen (2006) suggeststhat their movements continue to be constrained by institutionalmigration arrangements that only allow certain kinds and numbers ofmigration flows to take place. Increasingly the movements of skilled



migrants in categories that are valued, such as business andinformation technology, are privileged while the movements of unskilledworkers continue to be restricted (Castles, 2013). Internationalmigration flows have also become increasingly complex withmovements from the Minority World to the Majority World, extensionsof the sex trade across international borders, movements of contractlabor on short-term contracts to countries such as those in the MiddleEast, as well as illegal and hidden forms of migration (Turner &Khondker, 2010). Esipova, Pugliese, and Ray (2013) report thatinternal migration does not draw as much attention due to its impactwithin nation-states rather than across them and the difficulty ofidentification, but internal migration has significant impacts on boththose that move and the host populations. In India, for example, wherethe population according to the 2011 Census is 2.1 Billion, internalmigrants represent 28.5 percent of the population or 326 million people(UNICEF, 2012). These are large numbers and represent significantimpacts on the receiving populations and communities.

Castles has argued that migrant populations are often differentfrom the receiving populations on many counts, such as differencesacross the rural/urban divide, different cultures, different languages,dress codes and sometimes even in legal status, as with guest workersin countries like Turkey (2000, p. 278). These differences can impacton the nature of ethnic relations within society and can even lead toconflict based on cultural difference. The term ‘culture’ is used hereis in its broadest sense as ‘an abstract concept that refers to learned,shared patterns of perceiving and adapting the world which is reflectedin the learned, shared beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviourscharacteristic of a society or population’ (Fitzgerald, Mullavey-O’bryne, & Clemson, 1997, p. 3). It includes the total cultural domainof a society including language, race (as a cultural construct and notas the antiquated biological one), religion, nationality and socio-economic status as some of the factors of differentiation that areincorporated into the term, and app of which then provide a sharedworldview (Bean, 2006).

Cultural identity is also dynamic and flexible and can involve thenotion of multiple identities that people slip in and out of depending onthe context. In another publication (Gopalkrishnan, 2013), the author

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has explored this idea of dynamic cultural identity in the context ofIndian ethnic identity where identities grounded in caste, in religion,in language, in tribes, and in Aryan/Dravidian differences weredescribed with the argument that communities and individuals withinthem may change identities for a number of reasons. But, as thatmay be, governments of counties across the Majority and MinorityWorld continue to have to deal with populations and communitiesthat are increasingly culturally diverse (Castles, 2000)

Cultural differences assume major significance when globalizationcauses cultures to interact more closely. Some of these are in theform of increasing interactions as through the media and throughcommunications and the Internet, which can be turbulent and in somecases, lead to cross-cultural conflict (Cottle, 2006). But otherinteractions, such as those between migrants and receiving populationsand between different groups of migrants, can lead to conflicts forscarce resources and cultural conflicts (Demeny, 2002). RobertPutnam describes this in the context of the Minority World as:

Ethnic diversity is increasing in most advancedcountries, driven mostly by sharp increases in immigration.In the long run immigration and diversity are likely to haveimportant cultural, economic, fiscal, and developmentalbenefits. In the short run, however, immigration and ethnicdiversity tend to reduce social solidarity and social capital.(Putnam, 2007, p. 137)

The movements of migrants, accompanied by their own culturesand stories can lead to new forms of social exclusion based on culturalinterpretations of who is in and who is out, a widespread example ofwhich can be seen in the form of attitudes towards migrants of Islamicbackground particularly in countries of the Minority World (Hage,2002). Babacan (2005) argues that racism and discrimination alsoplay their roles in terms of escalating the differences betweenindividuals and groups in society. The development of racistmovements across the world can often to be linked to the fear of the‘Other’ which comes into play in the context of migration, and thedevelopment of the ‘One Nation’ Party in Australia is one suchexample of migration politics (Quinn, 2003). Similar examples of theconstruction of the ‘other’ as the hated, often perceived as inferior,



people in society may be drawn from countries in the Majority World,such as the identity politics centred on religion that has resulted inthousands of deaths in India over the last few decades (Gopalkrishnan,2013). The attacks on Bengali Muslims in Assam and the xenophobicpolitical attacks on Bihari migrant labour in Mumbai are some recentexamples of the effects of fear-mongering against the other in thecontext of internal migration that are drawn from India (OADBS,2012). These issues gain greater significance as the rate ofinteractions that are part of the globalization paradigm increasesexponentially.

The preceding discussion on the complex nature of the impactsof globalization involving issues of equity, management of risk andcultural diversity raises the need for effective responses that canhelp to manage or at least alleviate many of the negative impacts onindividuals, families and communities. These approaches need to besocially inclusive so that those marginalized in society on variousgrounds can be involved as part of the process. One such approachis discussed in the next section.

Culturally Competent Community Development

Many of the problems described earlier are related to power orthe lack of power in society. Ife and Tesoriero (2006) point to theissues of lack of power in many communities that is inherent in thepresent global society and discuss eight aspects of power including:Power over personal choices and life chances; Power over theassertion of human rights; power over the definition of need; Powerover ideas; Power over institutions; Power over resources; Powerover economic activity; and power over reproduction. They arguethat class, gender and race/ethnicity are three key elements that mustbe viewed in terms of structural disadvantage and lack of power insociety. Community development approaches that espouse values ofempowerment and ant-oppressive practice are a major force in termsdealing with these issues of lack of power and can enable communitiesto react effectively to the problems inherent in a globalized world.Susan Kenny (2011b, p. i7) describes community development as‘born out of a commitment to practicing ways of empowering people

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to take collective control of their own lives’. The focus ontransformational practice that is inherent in community developmentapproaches, practice that is based on a clear set of values, involvescollaboration between stake holders and is democratic in nature, makesthese approaches very effective to resist the negative aspects ofglobalization (Forde & Lynch, 2013).

Community Development can be seen to be the ‘process ofestablishing , or re-establishing, structures of human community withinwhich new ways of relating, organizing social life, promoting humanrights and meeting human needs becomes possible’ (Ife & Tesoriero,2006, p. 2). Bhattacharya further attempts to bring together aconceptualization of what community development is and what itstrives towards by describing community development as solidarityand agency, where solidarity refers to a shared identity (derived fromplace, ideology, or interest) and a code of conduct or norms, whileagency is the ‘capacity of people to order their world, to create,reproduce, change and live according to their own meaningsystems…’ (2004, p. 12).

While the sentiments presented in these definitions are veryattractive, the reality is that community development practice doesnot often live up to the vision. The reasons for this are many andsome of these are embedded in the ways in which neoliberal ideologyhas co-opted non-governmental organizations (NGOs) throughinflexible funding arrangements (Ledwith, 2001). At another level,the very term as been co-opted by the mainstream to refer togovernmental programs (often based on top-down decision making)such as the large Community Development Programs of the IndianGovernment that seek to achieve developmental goals whilemaintaining the status quo in the context of power relationships insociety (Andharia, 2007). Interestingly enough, it is in the countriesof the Majority World that small-scale community-based andcommunity-driven development approaches have been demonstratedto have been very successful such as the Self-Employed Women’sAssociation (SEWA) in India, the Orangi slum improvement projectin Pakistan and the Iringa Nutrition project in Tanzania (Mansuri &Rao, 2004). While projects like that of SEWA have grown considerablyover the years and do not necessarily reflect the traditional concepts



of community, they continue to represent new opportunities forcommunities to engage with the globalized world.

In earlier work (Gopalkrishnan, 2003), the author has arguedthat community development has an extensive role to play in termsof managing the negative impacts of globalization especially the trendstowards marginalization of the weakest sections of world society. AsJoseph Stiglitz, former Chief Economist at the World Bank, has stated,globalization has had a devastating effect especially on the poor inthe Majority World, and yet there is enormous potential for good inwhat he calls ‘globalization with a human face’ (Stiglitz, 2002).Community Development as an approach can work towards this iffocus is maintained on the following:

• The mandate of the people it represents: For any actionto be effective it must have the mandate of the people itrepresents. This would mean using clearly defined principlesof people’s participation to gather information and directionsfor work (Cornwall, 2008). Structures of participation haveto be created that empower the individual and the communityand enable their concerns to impact on macro-economicpolicy (Bhattacharya, 2004).

• The effective use of technology: Some of the strengths oftechnology are its ability to inform as well as to bring similar-minded people together. Television, radio, the telephone andthe Internet provide numerous opportunities that need to beexploited more in the pursuit of a more equitable world. Onthe negative side, it must be noted that some channels ofcommunication, such as newspapers and television, aretightly controlled in private hands, and also that millions ofpoorer people around the world have no access to mostforms of technology (Castells, 2003). While this presentsdifficulties of access, there have been numerous cases ofmass movements across the globe that have used technologyto their advantage such as the Indigenous communities andthe S-11 anti-globalization movements (Held & McGrew,2002).

• Global Civil Society: Communities must not only work atthe local level but work towards a global civil society bound

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by codes of global governance and working towards a moreequitable society(Bhattacharyya, 2004). Internationalgovernance has to function under the same principles thatdemocratic national governments do (Held & McGrew,2002). Global governance has to protect the interests ofthe less powerful and not just those of the rich and powerfulnations. Global movements need to be distinguished frommarket economics and used to strengthen those initiativesthat are already working globally to improve the quality oflife of every person. These include the United Nations,environment movements, human rights movements and otherinternational social movements.

In addition to these focus areas, the concepts of social inclusionand cultural competence need to be included in communitydevelopment approaches to make them more effective. In the firstsection of this paper, issues of cultural conflict, social exclusion, racismand discrimination were raised as intrinsic to the globalization paradigm.Based on my many years of community development experienceacross countries in both the Majority World and the Minority World,I would argue that traditional community development approaches,workers and organizations are ill-equipped to deal with these issues.Communities can be very insular and can develop capacity withinthemselves at the cost of the outsider or the marginalized ‘other’.Much of the literature in the field tends to focus on the primacy ofIndigenous knowledge and ideas of multiculturalism (Ife & Tesoriero,2006), both of which are highly desirable aspects of communitydevelopment. However, they do not work well towards ensuring socialinclusion in the context of cultural diversity. The term ‘social inclusion’used here refers to people being able to participate as ‘valued,appreciated equals in the social, economic, political and cultural lifeof the community (i.e. in valued societal settings) and to be involvedin mutually trusting, appreciative and respectful interpersonalrelationships at the family, peer and community levels’ (Crawford,2003, p. 7).

When cultural identity creates divides within and acrosscommunities, social inclusion becomes very difficult to achieve, evenin rural Indigenous communities that have solidarity among most of



their members but have a few that are not part of the mainstream.As an example, when the author was working with remotecommunities the State of Orissa in India, caste would often provide areason for otherwise cohesive village communities to try and excludesome of the families from community-based housing projects. In othercases, differences in tribal identity would cause similar situations. Itis in this context that I would argue that the inclusion of ideas ofcultural competency in community development can make for betteroutcomes in terms of social inclusion. One of the earlier explorationsof cultural competence, which has considerable relevance today,describes cultural competence as ‘a set of congruent behaviors,attitudes and policies that come together in a system, agency, oramongst professionals and enables that system, agency or thoseprofessionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations… Aculturally competent system… acknowledges and incorporates- atall levels- the importance of culture, the assessment of cross-culturalrelations, vigilance towards the dynamics that result from culturaldifferences, the expansion of cultural knowledge, and the adaptationof services to meet culturally-unique needs’ (Cross, Bazron, Dennis,& Isaacs, 1989, p. iv). Several other scholars have defined cross-cultural competence more recently but this early examination continuesto be the most comprehensive and most cited in the literature.

Cross-cultural situations that arise with increasing frequency ina globalized world essentially bring two or more worldviews into closecontact, and cultural competence can provide the bridge betweenthese worlds in terms of the requisite structures, attitudes, knowledgeand skills. It exists in within a process of interactive learning acrosscultures and is an ongoing process or as Lum (1999, p. 175) says,cultural competence “is a process and arrival point.”

Most of the models of cultural competence focus on four areasof cultural competence:

• Self-awareness of the worker’s own values, biases andpower differences with clients. This includes recognitionof the worker’s own worldview, that they are also culturallyconstructed, and how that impacts on the interaction withthe client, levels of ethnocentrism, an understanding of powerand how it shapes thinking as well as an understanding of

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how this self-awareness will lead to more meaningfulinteractions.

• Knowledge of the practice environment, the helping methodsand the client’s culture. This would include knowledge aboutthe culture that the client comes from as well as moregeneralized knowledge about how cultures vary and interactwith each other. A common problem here is of culturalstereotyping which has the implicit assumption that all peoplefrom one culture share the same characteristics, anassumption that is often incorrect and leads to cross culturalconflict.

• Skills in verbal and non-verbal communication and• Inductive learning based on the worker- client interaction(Bean, 2006; Gopalkrishnan, 2006; Lum, 1999).While these levels of cultural competence are a good starting

point in the discussion, there are other aspects that need to be furtherunpacked to develop this concept further and to make it more effectivein different contexts. For example, it could be argued the basic attitudeof the worker of worker or of the organization, non-governmental orotherwise, could be problematic and this would not be dispelled bythe traditional means of knowing about the client’s culture anddeveloping the skills to work with it. Further, the knowledge has toextend to the historical context so as to understand the powerdifferentials that exist in society and how they impact on differentsections of the community (Ife & Tesoriero, 2006). The skills thatare discussed in the literature are also inadequate in that communicationskills are only one kind of skill required by the culturally competentworker. Also as suggested by Graf (2004) cultural competence musthave the affective dimension (as related to the emotions), the cognitivedimension(as related to knowledge and reason) and the behavioraldimension ( as related to skills and practice). The literature alsomaintains the focus of development of cross-cultural competencieson the worker and the agency, while I would argue that in the contextof community development it is important for people in the communityto develop these competencies too.

To address the inadequacies of the present models the authorhas developed the AKS model of cultural competence that clarifiessome of these issues.



The AKS model of Cultural Competence

(Bean, 2006; Gopalkrishnan, 2006; Graf, 2004)The nature of this paper does not allow for a lengthy analysis of

this model but a brief summary is presented for clarity. This modelbegins with the affective dimension as there is considerable scholarshipto show that the right attitude is central to the development of culturalcompetence (Bean, 2006; Gow, 1999; Landis, 2008). While theliterature suggests that appropriate attitudes have to be developedthrough training, I would recommend that attitude be a starting point,a part of the process as well as an end point. An interactive learningattitude is one part of this where all parties are constantly learning,whether in a training environment or in a real-life interaction (Gow,1999). Also attitudes of openness to difference and celebration ofdifference are central to this, as against many officially stated andvery patronizing attitudes of tolerance of difference (Babacan H.,Gopalkrishnan N., & Trad-Padhee J., 2007).

The second aspect of cultural competency relates to the cognitivedimension or knowledge, beginning with that already mentioned earlierregarding the individual’s own culture, values, biases, and position ofpower as well as knowledge of the other culture/cultures that theywill be interacting with (Bean, 2006). Knowledge of ethnocentrismand stereotyping is also part of this. Knowledge of history of thecultures and their experience of colonization and racism anddiscrimination is also important to get a true understanding of thepresent (Hollinsworth, 2006). And finally, the knowledge of how the

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cultures have been interacting and the dynamics of the presentinteractions needs to be explored.

In the behavioral dimension there are a range of skills needed.Some of these are the micro-skills of communication that can beadapted to work across cultures (Ivey, Ivey, & Zalaquett, 2010).Others are more broad based skills required to enhance communitydevelopment through increased participation, building communitycapacity and social inclusion (Kenny, 2011a). Work involving thechallenging of racism and discrimination has its own need for a rangeof skills (Gopalkrishnan, 2008). And for the workers withinorganizational structures such as NGOs and government departments,the skills of organizational practice to enable them to work effectivelywithin the organizations and ensure that the organizations are alsoculturally competent (Nybell & Gray, 2004).

In the field of community development, these areas of attitude,knowledge and skills need to be developed at several levels includingthe individual, the professional, the organizational and the systemic(NHRMC, 2006). This could be through several processes includingtraining, inclusion in participatory processes like PRA, or as part oforganizational change processes. At the individual level, culturalcompetence can be nurtured among all stake holders including peoplein the community, especially the leaders and the gatekeepers,community development workers, support staff as well as senior staffof the various organizations involved such as NGOs and fundingagencies. At the professional level, professionals working withcommunities such as social workers, public health workers, doctors,community development and rural development workers, amongothers, need to have cultural competence standards as part ofprofessional standards and also have cultural competence built intothe curriculum of their professional degrees. At the organizationallevel the organizational culture should value cultural diversity and themanagement of the organization is encouraged to develop diversitywithin the organization as well support work across cultures outsidethe organization. Ideas around community participation in organizationswould be very useful in this context. And finally, at the systemiclevel, there is a concerted effort to develop appropriate resources,policies and procedures and also provide sufficient resources tosupport culturally competent practice.



Community development practice that incorporates thesedimensions of cultural competence is likely to prove to be able towork effectively with many of the impacts of globalization and ensurethat the poor and marginalized in society do not get left behind in therace towards a better future. As discussed earlier, the economiceffects of neoliberal globalization can and does have disastrous impactsat the local level, impacting most grievously on the poorer sections ofsocieties or those marginalized due to lack of power (Soros, 2002).The lack of distributive justice is exacerbated by the extension of riskat a global level, where the poor and marginalized are affected themost by global problems like climate change and also by the exportof risk from wealthier nations to poorer ones and from wealthierneighborhoods to more marginalized neighborhoods (Beck, 2007a).Increasing cross cultural interactions caused by the processes ofglobalization, such as migration, can lead to further issues of conflictand struggle within and across communities that are rapidly changingin the face of global forces. Culturally competent communitydevelopment practice provides the opportunity to facilitate the growthof socially inclusive communities that are capable of drawing on theirown resources to gain power over resources and decision-makingthat impact on their lives. It can strengthen the basis for movementsthat work towards ‘globalization form below’ or the notion of‘globalization with a human face’. It can challenge many of thedisturbing trends that we see of political power built on racism,discrimination and hate of the ‘other’. And finally, it can work towardsthe vision of a better, fairer and more just society.

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66

Community Based Psychosocial SupportProgramme for Resiliency Building in Tsunami

Rehabilitation of Kanyakumari District

Subhasis Bhadra1

Abstract:

Social work as a profession is having an essential empoweringagenda in different field of interventions. While focusing onempowerment it becomes obvious to look for sustainability bybuilding resiliency. Considering the ‘capabilities-based’ approachof Sen (1999) and Nussbaum (2001) that focused on interventionsfor the people living in unprecedented difficulties, it is evident towork for resiliency building during disaster interventions for thesurvivors. Disaster intervention is a continuum that includes capacitybuilding, community mobilization and ensuring sustainability bystrengthening individual initiatives, rebuilding social supportmechanism, and ultimately facilitating resiliency building throughseries of psychosocial support activities.

Tsunami, one of the most devastating disasters in the 21st centurywas a grave threat to the human existence through the coastal line ofthe Indian Ocean. In such a situation working with the communitywas a major problem solving effort to re-establish social supportand human relationships to empower people to achieve a sense ofwell-being, a ‘sense of place’ and building resiliency throughpsychosocial support. Considering the needs and following thenational- international guidelines multiple activities were conductedin 40 specifically selected communities in Kanyakumari districtwhere the survivors were engaged as the key stakeholder. The articlefocused this process of building resiliency through psychosocialsupport and draws the crucial learning for social work practice thatare based on core methods of social work with a strong mechanism

1. Dr Subhasis Bhadra, MSW, M.Phil, Ph. D., Assistant Professor and Head in Department ofSocial Work, Gautam Buddha University, Greater NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh, India, began hiscareer working with those affected by the Gujarat earthquake (2001) and subsequently workedin areas affected by riots (Gujarat, 2002), Tsunamis (Southern India and South East Asia, 2004),earthquakes (Kashmir, 2005), terrorist attacks (Mumbai serial Train Blast, 2006), JapaneseTsunami (2011) creating and implementing psychosocial programs with organizations, likeCare India, American Red Cross, Oxfam India, Action Aid, International Medical Corps.E-mail: [email protected]


of community based monitoring and appreciation of local knowledge,cultural wisdom, strength and resource base for building resilientcommunities.

Key words: Tsunami, disaster relief, social work strengths

approach

Social Work is an important empowering profession of 21st

century that has special focus on the people living in distress indifferent difficult circumstances. Disaster is of the most threateningsituations in human existence that makes the survivors vulnerable toa great extent. The incidents of disasters are not new but the impactof the disasters on the human lives is increasing progressively andcharacterizing every disaster with very new dimension to understandand work for the rehabilitation and resiliency building. There arenumber of social workers in the field of disaster intervention anddisaster management as a course has been included in social workteaching curriculum in number of universities in India (Bhadra, 2010).Kanyakumari District of Tamilnadu is one of the worse affecteddistricts in South India, is the place where the author was engaged toprovide community based psychosocial support to the survivors ofTsunami is the context of this article to derive the learning for socialwork practice.

Working for the survivors of disaster is essentially an enablingprocess considering various humanitarian concerns like, ensuringhuman dignity, encouraging participation, strengthening availableresources and capacity for holistic recovery. Barker (2003) definedempowerment as “the process of helping individuals, families, groups,and communities to increase their personal, interpersonal, socio-economic, and political strength and to develop influence towardsimproving their circumstances” (p.142). In social work professionempowerment focused practice seek to develop the capacity of clientsto understand their environment, make choices, take responsibilitiesfor their choices and influence their life situations through organizationand advocacy (Zastrow, 2010). The empowerment focused practicein social work is broadly being termed as strength based perspective

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and Saleebey (Saleebey, 1997) described five important principlesthat are also crucial for working with the survivors of disaster andensuring a community based rehabilitation planning. The first principledescribe that every individual, family and community has strength.This implies that the internal strength, cultural heritage, traditionalknowledge and each and every human being can be considered asresource and those resources to be identifies and capitalized for thegrowth and development at any circumstance, may it be even after adisaster. The second principle of strength perspective explained,trauma, abuse, illness and struggle can be injurious, but they also canbe source of challenge and opportunity. The disaster experience isone of the severe traumatic experiences for the survivors and thereis continuous struggle involved in rebuilding life and get back tonormalcy. Similarly, the post-disaster rebuilding is always focused toa better situation and ensures adequate disaster preparedness as partof resiliency building. Disaster specifically brings focus to the areaand in long term the effort may also ensure development. The thirdprinciple is crucial for the social work practitioners in the field ofdisaster intervention as it focused on the innate capacity of thesurvivors to visualize the change and bring better developmentalopportunities for themselves. This principle noted, “assume that youdo not know the upper limits of the capacity to grow and change, andtake individual, group, and community aspirations seriously (Zastrow,2010, p. 72). The fourth principle of the strength perspective mentionedabout the collaboration with the client to ensure an equal footage asa stakeholder in the process of intervention. In the disaster rehabilitationthe community as a client becomes major collaborative partner in theprocess of disaster recovery and resiliency building. The last principleis “every environment is full of resources” (Zastrow, 2010, p. 73).The strength perspective always try to identify the resources makeuse of the same in the best possible fashion. Even after the greatlosses in the disaster people have their inner capacity to rebuild theirlife. People try to connect the thread of life by collecting things andby taking up activities to survive.

The definition of the social work profession given in the finaldocument adopted at the general assemblies of IASSW and IFSW inAdelaide, Australia in 2004 states the imperative of social workers to

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aid the survivors of disaster: The social work profession promotessocial change, problem solving in human relationships and theempowerment and liberation of people to enhance wellbeing. Utilizingtheories of human behavior and social systems, social work intervenesat the points where people interact with their environments. Principlesof human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work(Sewpaul & Jones, 2005, p. 218). This definition of social workconnects to the needs of the survivors as the disaster suddenly altersthe social equilibrium and human life gets affected severely in manydimensions. The material needs of food, clothing, housing, livelihoodand medical care are common, but there are a number of non-materialneeds, which must also be recognized to ensure the wellbeing of thesurvivors. Disaster imposes problems not only for the survivors butalso for government organizations, professionals, and others.Therefore, disaster intervention work is a major problem solving effortto re-establish social support and human relationships to empowerpeople to achieve a sense of wellbeing (Des Marais, Bhadra, & Dyer,2012, pp. 352-353).

Psychosocial support programme for the disaster intervention isbased on the empowerment concept and strength perspective thatfacilitate resiliency building among the survivors. Psychosocial refersto the dynamic relationship between the psychological and socialdimension of a person, where the one influences the other. Thepsychological dimension includes the internal, emotional and thoughtprocesses of a person – his or her feelings and reactions. The socialdimension includes relationships, family and community networks,social values and cultural practices (Hansen, 2008, p. 184). ThePsychosocial Framework of 2005 – 2007 of the InternationalFederation defines psychosocial support as “a process of facilitatingresilience within individuals, families and communities” thus, enablingfamilies to bounce back from the impact of crises and helping themto build capacity to deal with such events in the future. By respectingthe independence, dignity and coping mechanisms of individuals andcommunities, psychosocial support promotes the restoration of socialcohesion and infrastructure” (International Federation of Red Cross,2005). The most accepted definition for the social work practicescan be “psychosocial care as a broad range of community-basedinterventions that promote the restoration of social cohesion and

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infrastructure, as well as the independence and dignity of individualsand groups. Psychosocial care fosters resilience in survivors and thecommunity, and serves to prevent pathological developments andfurther social dislocation” (Aarts, 2000).

Based on the defined and accepted concepts of psychosocialsupport the Indian model of psychosocial support is developed withnine basic principles. Some of the important principles are, ‘no onewho experiences the event or witnesses the event is untouched byit’; ‘survivors respond to active interest and concern’, and ‘supportsystems are crucial for recovery’. These principles broadly explainedthat every survivors need to be provided psychosocial support byengaging them in various activities and ensuring normalization ofreactions through building social support net-works and engagingpeople in the rehabilitation to develop their own recovery mechanism.In this process ensuring capacity building of the community andengaging all the survivors become a vital requirement. Ultimately,the psychosocial support leads to psychosocial well-being.

The Psychosocial Working Group (2003) suggests that thepsychosocial well-being of individuals and communities is best definedwith respect to three core domains, i.e. human capacity, social ecology,culture and values. Human capacity refers to physical and mentalhealth and specifically considers individuals’ knowledge, capacity andskills. Identifying an individual’s own human capacity is the same asrealizing his or her own strengths and values. Social ecology refersto social connections and support, including relationships, socialnetworks, and support systems of the individual and the community.Mental health and psychosocial well-being are dependent on cohesiverelationships that encourage social equilibrium. Culture and valuesrefers to cultural norms and behaviour that are linked to the valuesystems in each society, together with individual and socialexpectations. Both culture and value systems influence the individualand social aspects of functioning, and thereby play an important rolein determining psychosocial wellbeing (Hansen, 2008, p. 28).Psychosocial well-being only could be achieved through capacitybuilding, enabling and empowering the survivors and thus a sustainableresilient community could be developed. These contribute towardsdevelopment of the capabilities of the survivors. Capabilities areconstitutive elements of well-being and capture the valuable doings

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and beings that individuals can achieve or become (e.g., beingadequately nourished, and being sheltered, able to take decision,participate in enjoyable activity, engaged in meaningful livelihood etc.).The capability approach propagated by Sen (1997) and Nussbaum(Nussbaum, 2011) in the field of development economic policy, broughta human oriented approach in the development that is different fromtraditional measures of development based on income levels (Anand,Hunter, & Smith, 2005). The capability approach measured thedevelopment of the society is a function of the level of well-being orstandard of living of individuals within that society. The capability isdifferent functionings as described by Sen (1999). Functioning is thethings a person actually does and experiences. Functionings may varyfrom the elementary, such as being adequately nourished and beingfree from avoidable disease, to complex activities or personal states,such as taking part in the life of the community and having self-respect. “Capability” refers to the feasible alternative combinationsof these functionings. The best possible combinations of the functioninghelp to achieve the capability and enhance well-being. There areevidences that a wide range of capabilities exhibit statisticallysignificant relations to well-being (Anand, Hunter, & Smith, 2005).Further Nussbaum (2011) outlined the capabilities classified by typesof activities that people are enable to do in a given situation. Her listincluded ten distinctive aspects of activities. Some of the importantaspects are, living normal span if life (life) being able to have goodhealth (bodily health), being able to use the senses; being able toimagine, to think, and to reason (sense, imagination, thought), planningof one’s own life (practical reason), and control over one’senvironment. These concepts are connected to each other wherethe disaster survivors need to be supported for resuming normalcythrough psychosocial wellbeing by strengthening capability. Theseaspects are the most essential indicators and outcome of thepsychosocial support programme that focus on communityorganization methods through participatory models of interventionsin the rehabilitation of the disasters survivors.

This article focused on the Tsunami devastated Knayakumaridistrict of Tamilnadu, South India where I was involved from thevery initial days in 2005 onwards through the phase of rehabilitationfor five years while I worked with NIMHANS - Care India Tsunami

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response project and then through American Red Cross supportedTRP (Tsunami Rehabilitation Project) implemented throughKanyakumari District Branch of Indian Red Cross Society. As atechnical expert I was responsible with team members for developingthe projects, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and reporting.

The huge death, destruction loss in the communities across thecoastal villages of Kanyakumari districts was an immediate attentionfor the humanitarian workers and organization. The initial strategy ofworking with the survivors was to train a large number of communityvolunteers/ community worker in government and non-governmentsector for facilitating emotional care “based on the accepted principlesfor providing emotional support to survivors of any disaster” (Sekar,et al., 2005, p. 40). This is also termed as psycho social care thatincluded seven basic principles (ventilation; active listening; empathy;social support; externalization of interest; relaxation and recreation;spirituality) of providing care to reduce the stress reaction due totraumatic experiences and enhance wellbeing (Sekar, et al., 2005,pp. 43-48). At this relief phase a large number of community memberswho were working with the heath, education, child and family welfaredepartments were trained and also different NGO/CBO (Non-Government Organization/ Community Based Organization) workerswho were present in the community were included (e.g. teachers,child care personnel, health workers, community leaders,representatives of local self-government, student volunteers,volunteers from different forum, self help group members, membersof religious institutions). There was huge response and immediatemobilization that showed the community’s capacity to determine forits own future. This strength of the community was the key to designthe work with the higher community engagement that builds thecapability of the community people to take ownership of their ownrecovery. The training was based on sharing of experiences andparticipatory methodology that helped the participants to relate withtheir own situation and build confidence to deal with the problems byinvolving others in the community (NIMHANS and WHO, 2006).

At this immediate phase in the aftermath of Tsunami thedistinctive characteristics of communities’ response were crucial fornext direction in the psychosocial support programming. The spirit ofvoluntarism was higher among the people in the community as the

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impact of the Tsunami was overwhelming and people got together tohelp each other. This feature can be called as the honeymoon phaseafter a disaster (Weaver, 1995), that any community experienceroughly from two weeks to two months. Therefore, the crucial aspectwas to sustain the energy of the community and making them activepartner of the recovery process following the community organizationprinciples and process. The trained community level workers wereprovided with subsequent handholding support that included structured,follow-up, monitoring, and refresher course, regular sharing at differentlevel supervised by the TOTs (Trainer of the Trainees) and trainedsocial workers (NIMHANS, 2007). Eventually, different levels oftraining were designed and implemented that ensured continuousengagements of the survivors in the community at the individual, familyor group levels. The community members with the contacts of thetrained volunteers/ community level workers who were mostlyneighbors, had gained confidence and also a positive role model tofollow. This approach lead to an actual practice of strengths basedpractices that “concentrates on the inherent strengths of individuals,families groups and organisations deploying peoples‘ personal strengthsto aid their recovery and empowerment” (Pulla, 2012, p. 52). Anumber of documentation of work done in this phase showed that thesurvivors developed positive attitude to deal with the challenges inthe post disaster life, as they regularly attended the communitymeetings, group meetings and started taking more active role in decisionmaking being participative with the number of external agencies(Sekar, 2006; Sekar, Bhadra, & Dyer, 2007; Becker, 2009). Thesurvivor’s community in the initial months after the disaster usuallygets divided in number of groups based on kinship, caste, religiousidentity and at times cause friction and tension to develop acomprehensive model of rehabilitation. It is also seen that the politically,socially or economically powerful groups of survivors try to controlthe recovery mechanism, and the survivors from lower caste becomemarginalised (Sekar, 2008). At this juncture community organizationprinciples become most crucial to ensure integrated, inclusiveapproach to deal with issues of marginalization for the weaker sectionsamong the survivors. Establishing community control over theresources either external or internal depend on how the communityas a whole is being empowered to work together. Through the trained

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volunteers as the community become aware and able to deal withthe traumatic experience, on the other hand also learn to join togetherto bring a better rehabilitation process.

The integrated community recovery project of Red Cross wasdesigned subsequently to implement in with an aim to strengthenrecovery through community and school based interventions and buildresiliency among the tsunami survivors (IFRC, 2008). The outcomewas envisioned as developing safe, healthy, and competent individuals,families and communities through community engagement processes,strengthening internal resources of the community and developingbetter functional community organizations and institutions like, schools,community training centres etc. The objectives were designed toempower the Tsunami affected communities’ and schools’ with betterfunctioning capacity and strengthen local resources and supportsystems (Hansen, 2008, p. 47).

Through a cascading model of capacity building the project staffswere trained and the staffs intern trained the community volunteers.“The cascade model involves the delivery of training through layersof trainers until it reaches the final target group” (Elder, 1996, p. 13).There were two categories of volunteers to implement the programmein the community. The 1st category of volunteers was given intensiveTOT (Training of Trainers) training to work with the 2nd category ofcommunity level workers who were directly engaged with the families.This cascading effect of the training (Sekar, Bhadra, & Dyer, 2007;Des Marais, Bhadra, & Dyer, 2012) is one of the proved mode oftransferring the required knowledge and skills was adapted toimplement and engage the community in the long-term. As a naturalprocess of this community engagement the local volunteers who wereidentified in the communities were provided various knowledge andskill inputs considering the objectives of the project to achieve thegoal (IFRC, 2008, p. 8). The volunteers were common men andwomen from the community. Through the regular session with thevolunteers and the project staff the specific factors of joining asvolunteers were identifies which can be seen as the milestone in thecommunity participatory process. This mass level participation ofthe survivors of Tsunami at the community level was an essentialcomponent of the capability building of the community that ensuredtheir control over their environment, participation in the social life

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and ability to contribute for the rehabilitation of their own community.The essential feature of strength of the volunteers that encouragedthem to participation were identified as the successive force in theproject that sustained the effort at the level of individual commitment,group initiates and community recognition. The commitment of thevolunteers was grossly connected with the importance that theyreceived in the community as they were able to facilitate support totheir own people. Feeling of self-worth was associated with the spiritof voluntarism in the post disaster situation also helped to work ascommunity volunteer. The women volunteers felt that their positionin the family has changed and many a time they are seen with morerespect as they were engaged for the welfare of the communitypeople at large. The volunteers also felt that they have been able tocontribute something very different and a new experience that madethem to be more close to their own people and got to know manynew concept and ideas. At times they were given various higherresponsibilities even by the formal leaders of their community.Therefore, voluntarism as a pro-social behaviour in the post disastersituation becomes an important determinant of the communityparticipation. Volunteers as the community representative becomepart of the larger civil society organization and become the voice ofthe affected people, as it was recognized in the situation of Tsunamiresponse programme in Kanyakumari district (Bhadra & Pratheepa,2009). Though, the selection and participation of the volunteers is agradual process, yet the community members, the students, thewomen, men, youths of the community who continued to be part ofthe recovery programme were able to engage the whole communityas they were viewed with higher regards by the community people.

In this Tsunami rehabilitation project the psychosocial supportintervention was used as a platform (Diaz, Bhadra, & Krishnan, 2007,pp. 4-7) to build the capability that the community could take-up allother initiatives for the recovery. The community recovery projectwas referred as the actions that address both the psychological, socialand health needs of individuals, families and communities. Therefore,this project targeted at all the three levels to strengthen resiliencyand wellbeing of the Tsunami survivors. Through the trained staffsthe community mapping was initiated. The process was evolved asmost interactive, inclusive to review of the situation and assess needs

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identified by the community members. The map includes communityfacilities, special human capital, and specific liabilities of thecommunity, marginalised and diverse groups (The Hindu, 2009). Allthe targeted communities prepared their maps, which were updatedregularly. These maps were effectively used for the programmeplanning in the communities. Subsequently the Community Committee(CC) was formed in every community. The committee comprises ofa group of Red Cross volunteers from the village, village leaders, andlocal mass leaders of the community. The CC was involved in variousstages of the recovery programme like planning, implementing andmonitoring and to ensure the sustainability of the project. Thecommittee meet regularly to discussed and designed the interventionsfor their own community and also contribute (financially and volunteertime) as per the requirement and consensus decision. The processwas maintained in such a manner that the community representativecould take control over the recovery process gradually and the intendedprogramme can be facilitated. Further various community mobilizationactivities were aimed to ensure that the community members joinand develop capacities to work together.

Any disaster destroys the social fabric of the society. TheTsunami had a major impact on the social life, and social gatheringamong the community people reduced, community based celebrationwas almost stopped. It was essential to normalize the situation throughcultural intertwine of the programme activities. Within the programmeframework the volunteers organized various community mobilizationactivities, where participation of the community people was mostessentially emphasized with mobilization of local resources in termsof monitory contribution, giving volunteer time, sharing variousresponsibilities for organizing the events, providing space, facilities,materials etc. These contributions from the community were alwayshighlighted to encourage the strength and self-reliance of thecommunity people. Simultaneously, there were other health activitiesin the Tsunami affected communities to deal with various issuesregarding water and sanitation, cleanliness and hygiene, preventionof communicable disease, prevention of malaria and mosquito borndiseases in coastal areas etc. CBHFA (Community Based Healthand First Aid) approach was used to improve the health condition ofthe target communities (Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS)-

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Kanyakumari District Branch, 2008, p. 8; Bhadra & Pratheepa, 2009;Singh & Mini, 2009). Towards this direction community volunteerswere specially trained on health assessment and topics like MalariaPrevention, diarrhoea and ORS preparation, breast feeding,Tuberculosis, etc. More over house to house visits to create awarenessand mobilizing the entire community to address issues were done.Clean up campaign and hang up campaigns for ITNs (InsecticideTreated Nets), rallies on de-addiction, health promotion and hygienepromotion were conducted (IFRC, 2009, pp. 33-34). Through thecommunity participation and engagement all the activities wereimplemented and driven by the volunteers, community committee,leaders in the community. Some of the such important participatoryevents that were organized for community resiliency building bystrengthening the support systems, for gradual transformation ofcommunity ownership, rebuilding sense of belonging, and capabilityto engage in higher order functioning are mentioned here.

Community wide meeting: For wider acceptance of theprogramme, and mass level communication with all the communitymembers the ‘community –wide meetings’ were most crucial step.The ‘community wide meeting’ were conducted in quarterly mannerthat the community people are made aware about the progress. Inthis meeting there were number of social and cultural programmewith the children, women, youths, and lectures by the local eminentperson to facilitate a better cohesive, cooperative atmosphere in thecommunity. This motivated them to contribute their valuable services,develop sense of ownership and ensured sustainability of theprogramme. The community volunteers had taken the lead role inorganizing the meeting with support of community committee andother local agencies like local youth club, self-help groups etc. Prizedistribution of various competitive cultural activities, recognition oflocal volunteers by giving training certificate and displaying theplanning for the community were done as part of each ‘communitywide meetings’. In each of these meeting at least sixty percent of thecommunity members participation was entrusted that could augmentthe process of normalization. Dissemination of right information is afundamental requirement in the process of community engagement

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and rehabilitation in the psychosocial support programme that waspracticed in the recovery project.

Community health mela (Fair): The objective of the mela was topromote health awareness among the general community, encourageowning responsibility for their well being, disseminating messages toother community members on health and psychosocial wellbeing(IFRC, 2009). Community health melas as a community mobilizationactivity were planned by volunteers, committee members where audiovisual displays, distribution of pamphlets, cultural events, rallies,community kitchen and exhibitions of various IEC (Information,Education and Communication) were conducted. Through a rigorousparticipatory process and following behaviour change communication(BCC) principles the IEC materials were designed and developed(Bhadra, 2012, p. 120). Health stalls were established and messageson disease prevention, health promotion, hygiene, sanitation, nutritionand the issues related to psychosocial well being were provided. Thisevent fetched a huge participation too, not only from the community,rather the volunteers and community members from the neighbouringcommunities too. Hence, the event helped to showcase a lot aboutthe community initiatives and became a model to be followed byothers too in the community. Similar community mela was organizedin every targeted community and subsequently the communityvolunteers themselves started organizing and managing the same.

Cleanup campaign: Within CBHFA through cleanup campaignawareness was created on mosquito borne diseases and environmentalhygiene factors that should be practices at the individual, family andcommunity levels. The community members were motivated to keepthe drainage clean, water stagnant areas identified and removed inorder to remove the mosquito breeding sites and reduce the incidenceof mosquito borne diseases. In the campaigns entire communitiesincluding the young and aged participated and removed the bushesand other waste materials dumped on the streets and buried it in pits.This exercise was done in frequent interval to ensure a sustainablechange. This effort brought cohesiveness regardless of age andmotivated to keep the entire community clean.

Community Small Projects: This was called as resiliency buildingactivity specifically as the activity had very intense focus oncommunities’ capability to initiate, maintaining, sustain and evaluate

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an activity that would bring some developmental scheme for thecommunity people. Small projects were identified, planned, initiatedand managed by the communities with the help of Volunteers andabout one third of financial help was provided from the Red Crossproject budget. These small projects fostered group identity, cohesion,partnership and a spirit of working collectively to identify localproblems and find appropriate solutions which were culturally andtraditionally appropriate. Small projects were intended to preparehealthy and safe communities by providing opportunities to developsocial networks and contributing for the programme by mobilisinglocally available resources. Small projects like waste management,refurbishment of library, tailoring unit, computer training, children’spark, providing play materials to youth clubs, were undertaken by thepeople in the communities. In every project community people madesignificant contribution in-terms of voluntary hours, providing space,giving financial contribution and also organised sponsorship for thecommunity projects and had monitored and sustained these efforts.

The Tsunami rehabilitation project in Kanykumari wascombination of such various activities through psychosocial supportprogramme where building resiliency by enhancing capability of thecommunity people through community participation were the keyfactors. In the initial days of the project while project staff interactedwith the key community leaders, functionaries of local institution,formal, informal community groups and organizations, the acceptanceof the programme was seen and gradually the active participationwas derived. The process of engaging the community in activeparticipation after a disaster is most critical step by using thecommunity organization principles and process. The Initial passiveparticipation include giving consent to the programme, joining in someprogramme on call, but as the programme need to get activeparticipation, the essential considerations become to obtain morevoluntary time and energy of the community people, contribution inorganizing the programme by providing resources, utilizing the humancapital (i.e. skills) in the programme and establishing stronger socialcapital (i.e. social support and net-works) for the programmaticbenefits (Bhadra & Pratheepa, 2009).

The pre and post assessment that was done specifically for theRed Cross intervention in an interval of 30 months showed that the

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intervention facilitated a subjective well being, the spirit of voluntarism,quality of life, community cohesion and also facilitated communitycontrol for sustainability. Through project monitoring and evaluationsystem, it was seen that that quantitatively the project activitiesachieved almost hundred percent of targeted intervention and projectactivities, but qualitative changes were essential to understand howthe community became the key stake holder in their process ofrecovery. The evaluation showed five important qualitative changesthat contribute towards social work knowledge building for practicein disaster intervention.

First, as a basic method or social work practice, communityorganization is most crucial in the post disaster recovery programme.The IASC–MHPSS Guidelines (2007) mentioned “communitymobilization and Support” (pp. 93-115) as one of the core mentalhealth and psychosocial support programme that dealt with ensuringcommunities’ ownership and control of emergency response,facilitating community self-help, organizing appropriate communalcultural, spiritual and religious healing practices for the survivors.Within the time bound project though everything could not be achieved,yet a tune towards the suitability was strengthened. Therefore, thetransition of a community from ‘victim’ to ‘victor’ can happen only incase of appropriate community oriented practice towards buildingresiliency in long-term.

Second, community organization and mobilization of thecommunity people in the recovery programme is most vital aspectthat can work as a platform for all other interventions in the community.Any kind of intervention in the community like, housing, livelihood,water & sanitation, disaster preparedness or health promotion,community engagement is pivotal for successful intervention. Thecommunity is the ultimate stakeholder and thus, the communitymembers need to be engaged to own the programme designed forthe people in the community. These all ensure the capability of thecommunity that is connected with enhancing functionality, ensuringwell-being, sustainability and marking the community resilient thereof.

Third, survivor respond to the active interest and concern (Sekar,et al., 2005, p. 42) even at the time of most traumatic event andsubsequently, but the effort should be to ensure a positive strength togain power by overcoming the traumatic experiences through

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normalization of reactions and by rebuilding social support mechanisms,at individual, family, and community levels (Sekar, et al., 2005, p. 46).The survivors, while interacting with the community volunteers, joiningin group meetings, community events develop positive coping ability,accept the loss and work for his/her own revival and become morecapable to deal with stress reactions and decide future course ofaction. At family level as the routine gets establishes, betterrelationships are strengthen among the family members and familyas an unit is taken care through different other programme like housing,livelihood, microfinance, self-help initiatives that augment the holisticsupport. So the process of recovery through engagement is effectivelyan effort of building social capital (developing social supportmechanisms, strengthening community based institution, groups,organization and net-works) and human capital (skill building). Thecircle of support is optimized, by strengthening individual initiatives,family unity and mobilizing community resources.

Fourth, community is at the center of recovery and the ultimatestakeholder in the disaster intervention. Therefore, ensuringparticipation in recovery means an active engagement of the survivorsin a bottom up approach that empowers the community for ownershipof their own recovery process. A participation of community withoutpower transfer is disempowering. Approach of putting externalresources for recovery without engaging the local community doesnot help to engage the community to develop a sustainable pattern ofrecovery and building capability. So empowering models always haveto belief and focus on local resources as Zastrow (2010) described“every environment is full of resources”. (p. 73).

Fifth, the situation of emergency in a community after a disastercalls for immediate support, that usually do not have room forencouraging survivors’ active participation, but from the time of reliefthe gradual increase of participation of the community member shouldbe envisioned and implemented by the responding agencies. Thegradual involvement of community members in the recovery finallystrengthens the community. As quickly the community is engagedand taken through the participative process the recovery is hastened.But, actual process of engaging the community is very crucial, asthere is high chance that some powerful groups in the communitymay try to capture the power and control the voices the survivors.

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Therefore, intensive community meetings, engaging the differentgroups, undertaking most accurate community mapping exercise, andcreating a strong base of support through mobilization activities arevital.

The implementation is a long drawn continuous process that needsto be strengthened in the community to continue the developmentalactivities beyond the life-cycle of the project period. In this case thiswas the Tsunami response project till December 2009. Strengtheningthe communities’ strength, to develop a better functioning communitywith safe, healthy, and competent individuals, families and communitieswas an essential expected outcome for sustaining the communityinterventions. The project activities in psychosocial support programmeengaged the survivors at all the three levels and resiliency was builtat the levels of individual capacity enhancement, augmenting the familyand groups’ net-work with supporting mechanisms and communities’ability to decide their requirements and joining as volunteers to soughtchange of their own condition. The recognition and use of thecommunity resources was the visible strength that ensuredsustainability at four dimensions. Considering the capability approachthe human resource identification was a bigger achievement thatencouraged survivors for giving maximum voluntary hours forcommunity work and discussing the issues beyond personal and familyinterest in community gathering. Second, the knowledge and skillswas sustainable as the program ensured the skill building whileimplemented the programme with community engagements at everypossible way. Considering the concept of Nussbaum (2011) it is clearthat the survivors were able to live in phase of rehabilitation withcomplete sense of control over the environment and with considerableemotional integrity. Third, a collective consciousness was seen todeal with problems in the community and an importance of self-initiatives was strongly felt of the survivors. Many of the volunteers,informal leaders and community members expressed the view thatthe programme has brought an energy to look at their personal andcommunity strength. It was common that local people used tocontribute their voluntary time and money for the religious purpose,but this programme showed that people are more intended to contributefor their development purposes. Fourth, the programme developed avolunteer’s base in the local communities and institutions (school,

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colleges, health care centers, and groups) that strengthen the localbranch of Red Cross and also continues the Red Cross activitiesafter the life of the project. Specifically, the community small projectas symbol of unity and working together established a sense ofcommunity effort that is identified as’ sense of Place’.

The community to emerge as the key stakeholder in the disasterrecovery process it is essential to understand the psychology of placethat facilitates ownership of the community people in the recoveryprocess. With various loss and damage the specific problem whichthe disaster survivors face is the loss of ‘sense of place’. After adisaster displacement is most common, may it be temporary orpermanent. Though in some of the situation people return to theirearlier place of living but in most of the situation after a severe disasterthe people has to be resettled in other places. Therefore, they losethe sense of attachment, familiarity and identity with the place(Fullilove, 1996). A place of stay, which was considered safer to livefrom generations together, suddenly become unfamiliar due to thedevastation in disaster. Subsequently, help rush to the affected placeor community, but if effort is not made to ensure the community torevive from the shock, establish their attachment with the place,develop familiarity with the surrounding and strengthen new identityas an individual, as a community member, by ensuring theirparticipation in the recovery process the shock may linger on forlong. The psychosocial support programme establishes this ‘sense ofplace’ which is an essential component of well-being. For social workpractice in field of disaster intervention the use of core methods of(i.e. case work, group work, community organization) with a strongmechanism of community based monitoring and appreciation of localknowledge, cultural wisdom, strength, and resource base are thedriving force for building resilient communities. In this process thestrength based perspective become the main guiding principle for therehabilitation of the survivors of disaster.

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13. IFRC. (2008, July 21). Federation-wide Tsunami Semi-annual Report 2004-2008: India Appeal No. 28/2004 . Retrieved from Reliefweb: http://reliefweb.int/report/india/federation-wide-tsunami-semi-annual-report-2004-2008-india-appeal-no-282004

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Subhasis Bhadra


Tamil Nadu Child and Family Health Study :A Preliminary Study

Wright, R.1, Krygsman, A. 2 Ilango, P.3 Levitz, N.4

Abstract

This paper describes the findings from a preliminary studyconducted in five districts in Tamil Nadu, South India throughout2009-2010. The objective was to determine the conditions necessaryto conduct a health survey to examine socioeconomic factors,interrelatedness to health status and quality of life of children andmothers. Results suggest that social service organizations have thepotential to improve the health status and quality of life of childrenand mothers in Tamil Nadu and a health survey is feasible.Implications and recommendations for conducting internationalpreliminary studies are discussed in relation to the findings.

Key words: international collaborative research, children &mothers, social work practice with communities, communitydevelopment.

Tamil Nadu Child and Family Health Study:A Preliminary Study

The genesis for developing the Tamil Nadu Child and FamilyHealth Study emerged from the World Health OrganizationCommission on Social Determinants of Health. Systematic differencesin health within and between countries occur according to differencesin socioeconomic status. Interestingly, these socioeconomics relateto lower health, regardless of the wealth of the country (Marmot,Friel, Bell, Houweling & Taylor, 2008). The authors suggest that lifechances, such as high levels of illness and premature mortality, varyby birth and rearing locations. Further, the existence of such striking

1. Corresponding Author: Robin Wright, Ph.D., Associate Professor, School of Social Work, Universityof Windsor, 401 Sunset Avenue, Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9B 3P4, Tel.: (519) 253-3000 extension3060 Fax: (519) 973-7036, E-mail: [email protected]

2. C.C.C., M.S.W., Ph.D. student, Counselling and Psychotherapy, University of Ottawa, Faculty ofEducation. Ottawa, ON.

3. Ph.D., Professor and Head, School of Social Work, Bharathidasan University, Trichy, Tamil Nadu,S. India

4. Ph.D student, School of Social Work, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON.

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health inequalities is an affront to social justice and an ethicalresponsibility of all people to take reasonable action to avoid theinequitable distribution of power, money and resources (Marmot etal., 2008). Toward this end, the Commission on Social Determinantsof Health calls for the aspiration of closing the gap in health inequitywithin a generation and identified three overarching recommendationsthat form the basis of the current study: (1) improve daily livingconditions as they relate to improving the wellbeing of girls and women;(2) tackle the inequitable distribution between men and women ofpower, money, and resources; and (3) measure and understand theproblem and assess the results of action. In order to follow theserecommendations, assessments are necessary to determine feasibilityand to fully understand the local conditions that lead to theseinequalities. For example, Wholey (1994) explains that a lack of pre-research activities, in terms of preliminary and planning meetingscan seriously hinder international collaborative research. In keepingwith this recommendation and in an effort to work towards the goalsset out by the World Health Organization, preparatory activities werepursued to assess the feasibility of conducting a future health surveyand possible service intervention for women and children living infive districts in Tamil Nadu, India (i.e., Triuchirappalli, Thiruvarur,Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, and Ramanathapuram).

The objective of this study (referred to as Phase I) was todetermine the conditions necessary to conduct a health survey toexamine socioeconomic factors including their interrelatedness tohealth status and quality of life forchildren. Specific objectives included:(a) identification of exemplary social service organizations; and (b)assessment of the receptiveness of these organizations to participatein data training and the data collection process. To accomplish theabove, a multi-stage, multi-method approach was used that includeda literature review to identify criteria for assessing exemplarycommunity-based organizations, consultations with key informants,and five site visits in Tamil Nadu, South India.

Literature Review

Although India was one of the first of the developing countriesto create a National Mental Health Program in 1982 aimed at

Wright R, Krygsman A, Ilango P, Levitz N


integrating mental health care into general health care services(Srinivasa Murthy, 2003), public health statistics in India have focusedmainly on mortality to the neglect of morbidity and dysfunctionassociated with psychiatric and psychological problems (ICMR, 2005).This neglect has resulted in the health care system being unable toprovide the appropriate treatment to those in need (ICMR, 2005).Data on social and psychological determinants of health is lacking.This data would serve to augment the physical health informationcurrently available. Specifically, population data on social andpsychological determinants of health in Tamil Nadu and India areespecially lacking. While not unique to India, lack of resources isamplified here, as the country is presently undergoing rapidmodernization, and provisions for psychological problems are laggingbehind provisions for economic development.

For example, utilization of maternal health care services varysubstantially among the southern states of India, with Tamil Naduplacing in the middle of the states on standard of living, education andhusband’s education which are significantly associated with utilizationof maternal care (Navaneetham & Dharmalingam, 2002). As amiddle-income state, Tamil Nadu shows the best performance inimmunization levels, lower inequalities by wealth and lower genderdifferentials in India (Pande & Yazbeck, 2003). Major factorscontributing to infant and child mortality are vaccination and utilizationof maternal health care services. Further, the utilization rates ofmaternal health care services also contribute to maternal mortalityrates (Gupte et al., 2001). Preference toward private service provision,even in extremely low-income situations is also apparent(Navaneetham & Dharmalingam, 2002).

Some have underscored the fact that the opinions and experiencesof families have not been effectively assessed, which is important tounderstanding family involvement and mental health more clearly(Srinivasa Murthy, 1999). Here, the focus on gender disparities bythe World Health Organization is brought into focus. Involving womenin this type of research has become an important issue in improvingquality of life for all women with attention to the changing publichealth and scientific research needs and opportunities in the 21st

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century (NIH, 1999). Certainly, attention to gender issues is essentialin addressing issues of poverty, physical health and mental health(Bhogle, 1999; Kapur, 2003). Whether following natural disasters orin more stable periods, attention to gender issues are essential inaddressing issues of poverty and mental health both in normal timesand following natural disasters (Bhogle, 1999; Kapur, 2003). Researchattention has focused on disaster relief and policy but little researchhas been done with respect to children and mothers unrelated tonatural disasters in the general population.

The role of Indian voluntary organizations is large anddemonstrates a high level of concern for the needs of individualswith physical and mental health problems. In India, self-help groups,support groups, community workers and religious organizations areactively looking for effective and efficient ways of addressing theseproblems (Higgins, 2007). Community mental health care serviceshave risen, primarily through the voluntary sector, responding to theneed for community-based mental health care service alternatives(Srinivasa Murthy, 2003). Furthermore, the proposed study iscongruent with a social determinant of health approach, which isemerging in India (Chattergee, 2009). According to Chattergee (2009),the social determinant perspective accurately reflects the multifacetednature of the lives of the most vulnerable and recommends the trainingof personnel to empower grass roots community participation indeveloping interventions and programs and evaluating their effects.Poor health outcomes are more likely where social inequalitiesintersect e.g., for women and children of women with no educationin poor households in rural areas (Chattergee, 2009).

To assist in the selection of exemplary community-based socialservice organizations, the literature identifying best practices forevaluating community-based organizations was also reviewed(Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1996; Commissionon Social Determinants of Health, 2008; Delgado, 2000; Hohmann& Shear, 2002; Marmot et al., 2008; Offord & Racine, 1999; Weisman& Gottfredson, 2001; Wright, 2007). Table 1 describes and summarizesthese practices.



Table 1: Best Practices for Assessing Effective Community-based Programs

Category Best PracticeMission The organization’s mission should actively

embrace the needs of women and childrenin the area.

Funding To retain quality staff and ongoingcommunity programming, potential for corefunding from a wide range of sources.

Staffing Staff should• be knowledgeable about how gender

inequities influence the health andmental health needs of women andchildren;

• have relevant training andeducation; and

• capacity to develop and incorporatein practice and teaching the socialdeterminants of health.

Community outreach Programs should• reach out to and engage uninvolved

women and children;• collaborate with community social

service organizations; and• have capacity to inform policy

makers and other stakeholders onissues of health equity.

Program activities Programs should• focus on health and mental health

services for women and children;• be primarily ongoing rather than

short-term; and• be diverse, and tailored to the

specific needs of women andchildren.

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Evaluation & Programs shouldresearch • be aware/interested in best practice

research on women and children;• regularly collect information

regarding health equity such asclient demographics andparticipation.

Motivation Organizations should• motivated to engage in future

collaborations; and• confirmation of participation may be

informal or formal at this stage.Thus, the intent of this study is to expand upon the understanding

of the topic by identifying exemplary community-based social serviceorganizations. Moreover, to determine whether exemplarycommunity-based social service organizations adhere to these bestpractices, they will be applied to the study’s review of programs.

Methodology

DesignIn an effort to address the gaps in the literature, the purpose of

this preliminary study was to determine the conditions necessary toconduct a health survey, to examine socioeconomic factorsinterrelatedness to health status and quality of life of children andmothers. Specific objectives included: (1) identification of exemplarysocial service organizations; (2) explore the extent to which theseorganizations adhere to best practices; and (3) assess the receptivenessof these organizations to participate in data training and data collectionprocesses.

Sampling strategy and data collectionA multi-stage, multi-method approach that involved key

informants and site visits was employed. First, the investigative teamin India identified a list of key informants from the government,academic and non-profit sectors. Second, based on the responsesfrom the key informants, a total of five sites were identified in five



districts as exemplary models based on the following criteria: (1)positive history of activities in the community, (2) collaborative activitieswith the community, (3) good leadership indicated by evidence ofcommitment to improving the lives of women and children andenthusiasm toward such efforts, and (4) infrastructure to supportand maintain data training and collection and future program activities(Wright, 2007).

Site visits were conducted to five sites across five districts inTamil Nadu, South India. All of the sites were located within thedistricts of Triuchirappalli, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Nagapattinam, andRamanathapuram. Nagapattinam, and Ramanathapuram were districtsthat were especially affected by the 2004 Tsunami. Throughout thesite visits data were collected from key site personnel (i.e., managers,directors, medical doctors, nurses, social workers, nuns, teachers,principals, faculty, and chancellors of the participating universities)and service users through focused group discussions and consultations,review of program documents, and on-site observations to determinewhether the five sites met the seven best-practice criteria outlined inTable 1.

Description of the sites The site located in Triuchirappalli, site 1, was a hospital

committed to serving the vulnerable populations or the underprivileged,inclusive of socioeconomic status and spiritual beliefs. Their approachto health was holistic and community oriented. The site located inThanjavur, site 2, was a school dedicated to educating female childrenfrom the lower strata of society who would have had limitededucational opportunity. In Tiruvarur, a school that evolved fromproviding community services for women and children to providingelementary, secondary and post-secondary education was selectedas a site (site 3). Evidence of fieldwork training in social work andnursing was present at the school and was therefore familiar withassisting Masters of Social Work students in their fieldwork, research,and had infrastructure for management of students and studentimplemented programs and activities. The site selected from theNagapattinam district was a community social services centre (site4), which organized the social work programs and activities for the

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district. The site was involved in imparting skill training programs,awareness programs on health and hygiene, self-developmentprograms and specialized in community development, skill training,and mental health. In Ramanathapuram, a community social servicescentre was selected (site 5). The aim of this organization was toprovide community based social work activities, educational activities,and research.

Data AnalysisMembers of the Canadian and Indian investigative team were

present at each site visit and took detailed notes during the interviewsand compared notes to ensure consensus. Data were initially reviewedin a line-by-line analysis to examine possible emerging themes withinthe prescribed categories derived from the literature of mission, funding,staffing, community outreach and education, program activities,capacity to evaluate and conduct research and motivation to participatein future collaborations. Using an established five-stage procedurewhere data are scanned, edited, refined and reassembled, themeswere extracted and interpretations made within each of the categories(McCracken, 1988).

FindingsAs previously stated, the purpose of the site visits was to

determine whether the sites that were identified as “exemplary”models by the key informants met best practice criteria as discussedin Table 1. The following discusses the extent to which the sites metthe best-practice criteria.

Mission: All sites had clear mission statements, and theirobjectives and activities were well established with a focus on womenand children and in the case of children, and were particularly focusedon the advancement of women and girls. For example, one site hada mission statement of: “Promoting programs for preventing schooldropout, to check child-labor and child abuse, and empowerment ofwomen, especially affected by the tsunami, through education andskill training”.

Funding: Two of the six data collection sites demonstratedevidence of long-term stable funding. Stable funding sources included



continued local government support and support of religiousorganizations. Three sites had evidence of international fundraisingand volunteering activities. All sites had substantial volunteer staffingsupport from local religious organizations and undergraduate andgraduate student placements. Further, embedded within skilldevelopment programs and programs facilitated by continued studentplacements were microeconomic activities that supported the sites.These included training in production of arts and crafts, jewelry,organic toiletries and farming that temporarily provided employmentfor women and financial support for the continuation of programming.

Staffing: Staff had appropriate training and post-secondary orgraduate education, primarily social work and nursing degrees. Theability to maintain supportive relationships was demonstrated in relationto the continued extensive community outreach and support programs.In terms of culture, all sites expressed an inclusive care philosophy,either in mission statements or in on site interviews.

Community outreach and education: The extent of ongoingprograming and the extent of community outreach activities wasexceptional. Each site engaged and recruited a considerable numberof women, children and families both on site and off- site in the broadercommunity. For example, sites engaged in in-patient and out-patienthealth services, mobile health clinics, organization of social workprojects that included training and skill development programs.

Program activities: Programs and services were tailored to meetspecific needs of service users. Collaboration with community serviceproviders and University programs was evident. While the majorityof sites focused on skill development activities (e.g. production ofjewelry, arts and crafts and sustainable farming skill), this could notbe assessed at one site. As previously stated in the funding section,microeconomic activities were evident. Two sites also supportedentrepreneurial business activities for participating women in orderto create sustainable individualized long-term employment outside thesites. Outreach activities involving health clinics and health awarenessalso had staff well versed in access to community services to whichparticipants were directed to and often provided counseling for socialstressors and mental health issues.

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Evaluation and Research: All sites expressed an interest inparticipating in research activities although the extent of researchand evaluation experience was unclear for the majority of sites.However, all sites reported research and evaluation activities as anintegral part of training for nurses and social workers students inplacement. In all of the sites visited, the infrastructure in terms ofspace, administrative support, and communication facilities was foundto be appropriate for the purposes of gathering data for a futurehealth study. Given the volume of programs provided, it was unclearif the programs were based on the latest research, along with evaluatedtargeted outcomes. Activities and participant demographics werecertainly kept and were presented during on-site interviews; however,the extent to which this occurred was unclear.

Motivation to participate in future collaborations: All siteswere rated on a three point scale regarding motivation. The threeitems in the scale included: (1) lack of motivation; (2) motivated toparticipate in future collaborations, and (3) highly motivated toparticipate in future collaborations. All five sites were highly motivatedto participate in future collaborations. This was evident in theiragreement to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) withIndian and Canadian Universities. Leaders and/or staff expressedenthusiasm to utilize skill and knowledge to serve society byparticipating in this study. For example, administrators of one sitewere enthusiastic to “utilize their expertise and knowledge to servethe society through this study”, which they think “will be an eye-opener regarding the future citizens’ and mothers’ health status”.Three sites specifically indicated the importance of making thegovernment aware of the results to develop appropriate policies withrespect to women and children. For example, the leader of oneorganization expressed “we hope the outcome of this study will alsohelp the government to formulate an appropriate health policy”.Participants in focus groups also identified the importance of collectingthe survey information on women and children’s health in order toformulate appropriate arguments to governing bodies to affect policieson district and state levels. One participant suggested that the UnitedNations should be included in dissemination of the study findings.



Indeed, the desire to use data collected to advocate for local needsof women and children was identified independently by several serviceproviders involved in separate site visits.

DiscussionThe objectives of this study were to: (1) identification of

exemplary social service organizations; (2) explore the extent to whichthese organizations adhere to best practices; and (3) assess thereceptiveness of these organizations to participate in data trainingand data collection processes. After all components of the preliminarystudy i.e.; the literature review, key informant consultations and sitevisits were completed it was ascertained that there were enoughresources, local interest and community investment to continue withthe project. Results suggest that social service organizations incollaboration with schools of social work have the potential to improvethe health status and quality of life of children and mothers in TamilNadu and that a health survey is feasible and warranted in order tocorroborate these claims.

The commitment, motivation and dedication of communitypartners and universities to engage in the Tamil Nadu Child and FamilyStudy were very promising. All community partners selected werefound to have appropriate infrastructure, stability of funding and atremendous amount of community outreach activities and studentinvolvement. Therefore, exemplary social service organizations wereidentified in five districts of Tamil Nadu. Although not all sites engagedin continuous formal research projects, there was a considerableamount of on-going data collection in terms of program activities andparticipation and substantial receptivity of participating in researchactivities was apparent from the site visits and evaluation. Potentiallearning and training opportunities exist here for faculty and studentsas well as community organizational members. From this evaluationit was established that this region of Tamil Nadu needed further studyand that a health survey with follow-up program implementationappeared possible.

Though many international studies may not have the resourcesto conduct site visits as a part of the initial feasibility process this

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particular investigation found it an important factor in assessing if theproject should progress or not. The ability to provide clarificationand explore project goals with potential service providers, on-sitekey informant consultations and the opportunity to meet staff at eachsite were important aspects of determining whether the project mayproceed. Results from the study suggest that social serviceorganizations in collaboration with schools of social work have thepotential to improve the health status and quality of life of womenand children in Tamil Nadu and a health survey is feasible.Implications for international social work practice and futureresearch

Each of the programs explored by the study set high standardsfor programs and services seeking to work with vulnerablecommunities to reach their potential. Each holds possibilities for futureresearch and social work programming. Most simply, understandingother programs along with their successes and challenges provides abackdrop to review other social work practices. While demographicsmay differ, principles of empowerment and the attainment of universalhuman rights remain the same across cultural divides, and areespecially salient for social work. Similarly, while individualsthemselves may exist in different spheres, poverty and lack of accessto resources is of international concern, regardless of its origin.Further, understanding linkages between social work and otherdisciplines, including public health and psychology can only strengthensocial work practice.

As globalization increases, and immigration continues to be aglobal trend, understanding concepts of health and mental health forthe Indian community will be helpful for practitioners around the globe.Specifically, understanding some of the challenges Indians may face,and some of the potential solutions the Indian community has put intoplace can help to strengthen social work practice with clients of Indianorigin. Similarly, as a region of the world affected by natural disasterin the recent past, lessons can be learned by other communityprograms facing similar challenges, with populations facing similarfears or even similar health responses to natural disaster.



Social work practice may look very different in different contexts,what is termed social work in North America, may be a voluntaryservice, or a national program in different national settings. As thisstudy reviewed a variety of community based program settings, thewider definition of social work practice is highlighted.

This can serve to strengthen practitioners’ understanding of theirroles and the multi-faceted work that they do each day. Lastly,communication across difference is a central tenant in all social workpractice, as practitioners seek to work with a wide variety ofcommunities, often different than their own.

Social Work in Cross Cultural ContextsMultiple connections were made during this study, between

schools and agencies, between different universities and betweencountries and cultures. Connections between students and agenciesare common within social work education internationally, through fieldplacements, volunteer opportunities or class field trips. In exposingstudents not only to programming, but the research that can informprograms, this project allowed students a greater understanding ofthe processes behind the creation of successful social workprogramming. Extensive research exists on the importance of servicelearning, and of the essential nature of community involvement forsocial work students (Hendricks et. al., 2005, Knee, 2002; Nadel, etal., 2007). This report highlights future potential for social workstudents to communicate across cultural contexts, presentinginteresting opportunities for social work education, either virtually, orliterally.

Despite team members coming from two different countries (i.e.India and Canada) the commonalities that facilitated the project andenhanced the success of the project appeared to reside in theprofessional and academic backgrounds in social work. Specifically,these commonalities included: a common language, ethical principles,common understanding of vulnerable populations, importance ofresearch to influence policy and particularly the commitment to socialjustice issues and oppression of women and children. The teammembers demonstrated the ability to build such sustainable and

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equitable partnerships which provides a template to engage students,community partners and researchers in the process of research tobuild lasting relationships pivotal to the success of the project. Further,the rapport built in the preliminary phase enhanced opportunities forfurther collaborations including the continuation of the current projectand future student and faculty exchanges.

Future Social Work ResearchThe collaborative nature of this project is especially salient. Both

social work practitioners and social work academics find themselvesin interdisciplinary settings. Here, both Canadian and Indianresearchers brought specific expertise, and were willing to givedifferent insights into the sites visited and to the project itself. Whileboth shared groundings in Social Work, differing experiences andcontexts allowed for a diversity of opinions and ideas. The successfulmanagement of these differences was essential to the thorough reviewof sites and to the completion of the project. Secondly, in seeking to‘uphold the right of clients to be offered the highest quality servicepossible’ (CASW, 2005), social workers must understand thepopulations they are working with. In reviewing criteria for sites tobe reviewed, diligence is paid in understanding each from a varietyof viewpoints. This diversity of expression and experience is essentialin social work research, in order to fully capture data. Further, thisstudy sets the stage for the use of commonly accepted screeningtools in future studies. Here, the importance of relying on previousresearch is highlighted in order to ensure future reliability andtranslation of findings. The current findings present successfulcommunity programs, which are utilized by Indian communities, andcommunity members facing a wide variety of life challenges.

Conclusion

Given the diversity of culture, research practices and generalknowledge bases of the team members engaged in internationalresearch and in order to develop the professional relationships neededto successfully implement international research, preparatory activities



are of the utmost importance (Riessman, 2005; Wholey, 1994).Engaging in an preliminary study is especially important in internationalresearch in order to clarify the research protocol; provide culturaladaptation and understanding amongst the investigative team, andcreate a collaborative research team. In its thorough review of fivesites in Tamil Nadu, India this project satisfied these recommendations.

Together with community practitioners, university faculty, andinternational consultation, many of these areas are ripe for changeand for the addressing of disparities in health and access to resources.These collaborations would not be complete without the communitiesthemselves, as their members form the basis for all interventions. Itis here that this project has shown the greatest success and promise.In interacting with communities on a wide variety of levels, this projectnot only discovered feasibility for further work, but an abundance ofhope for change, and improved conditions. It is this hope that willform the basis for the next phases of this study, and for changes inthe years to come.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. This work was generously supportedby a grant from the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. The investigativeteam wishes to thank many of the participants in the study thatcontributed their voice to the advancement of this project. Theinformation garnered from this preliminary study provided muchinformation regarding the potential for a successful Phase II to theproposed study, international collaborations, lessons learned, theimportance of feasibility studies and the information gathered toprevent future problems from occurring for the current study as wellas future studies of this nature.

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2. CAUT (Canadian Association of University Teachers). (2010). Academicstaff working abroad: Guidelines for working overseas. Ottawa, ON: Author.Retrieved June 26, 2011 from http://www.caut.ca/uploads/AcademicStaffWorkingAbroad_Web.pdf

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Micro Social Work Practice in theContext of Bangladesh

Tulshi Kumar Das1, Md. Fakhrul Alam2

Abstract

In Bangladesh, non-government organizations (NGOs) andgovernment organizations (GOs) generally work at micro and macrolevels to improve psychosocial functioning of individuals, and alsofor the improvement of socio-economic conditions of people. Theydeal with the issues of domestic violence, child rights violation,crime and delinquency, health care, poverty alleviation etc. atindividual and family level. Although social work graduates aremostly found involved in these activities under NGOs and GOs,they are still not in a position to apply their academic knowledgebecause of lack of policy guidelines that explicitly use of socialwork skills within the organizations. The present study selected‘Women Support Program’ (WSP) that deals with domestic violenceand micro-credit program of Bangladesh Rural AdvancementCommittee (BRAC) which addresses socioeconomic constraints ofthe poor women. The study explores the possibility of applyingmicro social work knowledge and skills in the activities of WSP andmicro-credit program of BRAC by analyzing eight cases (four fromWSP and four from BRAC), interviewing with the concerned workersand analyzing records kept in the office. The findings of the studyidentifies a certain level of limitations in the activities that aretraditionally carried on by both the programs, and suggest to theefficacy of micro social work knowledge and skills for better socialwork outcomes.Key words: Social work practice, Bangladesh, Micro social workskills

Social work practice in Bangladesh

Social work education was introduced in Bangladesh in mid 1950s(Rahman, 2001; Das, 2012; Samad, 2013). Efforts were made toapply social work knowledge and skills on a modest scale to benefit

1. Professor, Department of Social Work, Shahjalal University of Science &Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh, email [email protected]

2. Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work, Shahjalal University of Science& Technology, Sylhet, Bangladesh, email: [email protected]

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the people at the field level. The practice of social work is generallyperceived non-existent in Bangladesh as it appears limited in practicesettings. Pertinently questions are raised around the utility of socialwork education in Bangladesh and at the diversity of employment inwhich social work graduates are being represented. The five publicuniversities produce social work graduates that are mostly employedin different GOs and NGOs undertaking and implementingsocioeconomic and psychosocial activities (Das, 2013). Some of thegraduates work in public and private banking, colleges and universities,civil services and business organizations etc. (Das, 2013). Social workgraduates employed in NGOs, work as development workers, andinvolved in planning, development and implementation of multiplesocioeconomic activities (Davis, 2001; Das, 2012; Reza & Ahmmed,2009). A portion of the graduates found employed in NGOs, alsoprovides psychosocial guidance and counseling, advocacy, motivationto young people. Social work graduates employed in GOs and NGOsperform a wide range of activities which are very much similar andconsistent with the activities of professional social workers (Das,2012). It is to be noted that there are many workers who may nothave received formal qualifications in social work but are employedand also designated as social or welfare workers in GOs and NGOs,and undertaking similar activities along with their colleagues whomay have formal qualifications. The list of activities that socialworkers are involved is a myriad. Activities such as group formation,leadership development, group dynamics, conflict resolution, programplanning and implementation, self help, self employment andemployment generation, rehabilitation, resource mobilization andutilization, awareness campaign, people’s participation, womenempowerment, community education, disaster management, ruraldevelopment, guidance and counseling, therapy, motivation, providinglegal aid and training, hospital services, correctional services, providingsocial security benefits etc. are undertaken in NGOs and GOs(Rahman, 2001; Das, 2012). Where social work graduates are involvedin the above activities the outcomes seem to be significantly superioras a result of their rigorous training. Social work background is underrepresented in the Chief Executive and higher management cadresin NGOs and GOs, thus posing a significant barrier to genuine

Tulshi Kumar Das, Md. Fakhrul Alam


development of social work profession, and to full realization of socialwork outcomes for the clients. The prevailing notion amongst thesocial workers is that their knowledge and skills are not made full useof in the plans and strategies of the agencies in which they work.Overall in the Bangladeshi society, there is little evidence that socialwork is preferred profession and its scope is understood in the contextof its commitment to the underprivileged (Das, 2013). Planners, policymakers, administrators are also unaware about social work educationand practice, resulting in ignoring social work practice at GO andNGO levels. There seems to be enough scope for social work practicein socioeconomic development fields and psychosocial activitiesdesigned and implemented by different organizations (Rahman, 2001).But, in reality, due to lack of awareness and lack of comprehensionby concerned policy makers, social work practice remains at bay inthe context of Bangladesh. It is in this context the authors undertooka study to explore the activities of two selected organizations forunderstanding the possibility of applying social work knowledge andskills at individual and family level. The study sought to discover theeffectiveness and potentials of micro social work practice (MSWP)in the context of the organization.

Methodology

Women Support Program (WSP) is a government organization,deals with the problems of destitute and tortured married women,and on the other hand, BRAC is an NGO, develops, plans andimplements multifarious activities for socioeconomic development ofthe poor. Micro-credit program of BRAC is most prominent one whichhas been introduced to benefit the poor women living in rural andurban areas. The present study has therefore only concentrated onthe activities of WSP and micro-credit program of BRAC which arepurposively selected to explore the potentials of MSWP in the contextof Bangladesh. The activities of WSP have been keenly observed asthe researchers made several efforts to interact with its two importantofficials, assistant director and social welfare officer, directly involvedin its core activities. Moreover, four women residing in the sheltercenter of WSP have been selected for conducting case study.

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In BRAC, two program organizers (POs) working in twodifferent areas, directly involved in field level micro-credit activities,have been selected for interviewing. Furthermore, four women thatwere beneficiaries of micro-credit from BRAC have also beenselected for conducting this case study.

Activities of WSP

WSP, although it is a program, has initially been introduced as anorganization in Dhaka in July, 1995; and at present it has been operatingits activities in six divisional cities namely Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi,Khulna, Sylhet and Barishal of Bangladesh (Rahman, 2005; Hasan,2011; Das, 2011; Chakraborty, 2011). The major activities of thisorganization are to provide legal aid, shelter, and rehabilitation to theoppressed, helpless and distressed women (Rahman, 2011;Chakraborty, 2011). It also tries to prevent and mitigate domesticviolence and marital conflicts through providing counseling, mediation,arbitration, negotiation and litigation. WSP has four core components.They are (i) Cell for the prevention of violence against women(CPVAW), (ii) Women support center (WSC), (iii) ANGANA(Income generating program) and (iv) Employment information center(EIC) (Das, 2011; Rahman, 2011). All theses four components havebeen introduced by Dhaka divisional office of WSP. The entire fourcomponents have not been yet introduced in other divisions.

WSP in Sylhet:

WSP has been working in Sylhet division since October 1996,which is situated at Majumdari, close to the city hub (Chakraborty,2011). It has undertaken multiple activities to benefit the oppressedand depressed married women of Sylhet region and these are:

• Providing legal advice to the oppressed married women ofall categories;

• Receiving allegations of different types from oppressedmarried women, arranging hearing and mediation meetingbetween two parties, reestablishing family ties throughcounseling, motivation, negotiation, exchange of ideas andmutual understanding;



• Filing unsettled cases of the oppressed married women inthe ‘magistrate family court’ through the lawyer of the ‘legalaid cell’;

• Collecting dower money and subsistence allowance fromhusband of the divorced and separated women with orwithout children;

• Gathering information and following up legal actions withregard to women oppression due to dowry demands, illegaldivorce or separation, illegal second marriage, non-recognition of wife, refusal of fatherhood of the child, andin case of denying maintenance; and

• Collecting information about different types of criminaloffences like rape, kidnapping, murder for dowry, trafficking,acid throwing etc. and taking actions accordingly (Rahman,2005; Chakraborty, 2011; Das, 2011; Rahman, 2011; Hasan,2011) in addition the agency WSC has introduced, provisionof possible security and temporary shelter (not more thansix months) to the shelter-less women with children agedbelow 12 years of age. In these shelters they are providedwith food; training; clothes; social work treatment;counseling and primary education free of cost. WSC inSylhet has introduced sewing for the women residing in theshelter;

(ii) Providing medical treatment for ensuring physical andmental health of the recipient women and making them selfreliant with all types of support including legal aid; and

(iii) Taking steps toward improving the quality of life andmodifying the behavior pattern of the recipients and childinmates staying in the ‘shelter center’.

Nature of cases dealt with by WSP:

WSP handles multiple types of ‘cases’. A ‘case’ may have anyof the following or a combination of the causes such as a womanwith mostly marital problems that cause disaster to her life. Womensuppressed because of dowry demands; illegal second marriage ofthe husband; husband having illicit relationships; drug addiction of thehusband; torture committed by husband and in-laws; forced

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separation; arbitrary divorce; not recognizing non-registered and secretmarriage; denying maintenance; not accepting the fatherhood of thechild; misunderstandings and conflicts in conjugal life etc. The studyhas conducted four case studies which have been explained below.


Romena (23) was married 9years ago. She was unable to givebirth within the first two years ofher marriage, and therefore, herhusband and in-laws startedmaltreating her. Subsequently,husband kept on demanding hugeamount of money which wasfulfilled initially from Romena’sfather and as her father wasunable to meet these growingdemands of her husband Romenahad left her husband’s house, andmoved to live with her parents’house for the last three yearswithout receiving maintenancefrom husband. Meanwhile, herhusband has developedrelationship with another woman,and therefore, Romena wished toseek assistance from WSP.

After one year of marriage, thehusband of Kulsuma (26) wasasked to bring money from herpoor parents. Although the firstdemand was fulfilled, her husbandcontinued to demand moremoney. Within four years ofmarriage they had two children;and demands of dowry alsobecame stronger. Since Kulsumarefused to bring more money, she

Immediately after gettingmarried, Shafi (18) was labeledas abnormal by her husband andin-laws. She was oftenmercilessly beaten up; and at onepoint of time she was forced toleave her husband’s house, andhad to take shelter with parentswithin a year of marriage. She isnow with her parents for the lasttwo years without anymaintenance and communicationfrom her husband.

Parvin (32) is the mother ofseven children. Once she had asevere quarrel with her husbandbecause of which her husbandlocked her inside the room andthrashed her mercilessly. Afterthat incident, her husbandfrequently beat her up, leaving herinjured often. As thoseunbearable movements grew, shewas forced to go to her poor


Activities of BRAC

Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) is todaythe largest international non government organization which has beenworking in eleven countries across the world including Bangladesh.The organization started its activities as a relief organization in thename of Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC)in 1972, aiming at serving the refugees returning to Bangladesh fromIndia after the liberation war in 1971 (Chowdhury & Bhuiya, 2004;BRAC, 2004; Develtere & Huybrechts, 2005; Reza & Ahmmed,2009; BRAC, 2012). Later on, it turned its focus on poverty alleviation,empowerment of the poor, especially women empowerment, mostlyin the rural areas of Bangladesh. The organization was subsequentlyrenamed as Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC),which has become simply BRAC since 1996 (Chowdhury & Bhuiya,2004; BRAC, 2012). It is reported that around 126 million people inthe world have been benefited one way or the other due to the activitiesperformed by BRAC (BRAC, 2012). BRAC has right nowintroduced multidimensional programs like agriculture and foodsecurity, community empowerment, disaster, environment and climatechange, education, gender justice and diversity, health, nutrition andpopulation, human rights and legal aid services, integrated development,microfinance, services to the potential migrants (migration), targetingthe ultra poor, water, sanitation and hygiene, enterprise and investmentsthroughout the country (Halder, 2003; Develtere & Huybrechts, 2005;Reza & Ahmmed, 2009; BRAC, 2013). Among all the programsintroduced by BRAC, only micro-credit program has been purposivelychosen for this study for understanding its entire activities that have

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was driven out of husband’shouse with two children. She hasnow been living with parents alongwith her children for two years,receives no maintenance and alsowas not receiving anycommunications from thehusband.

parents with all her children. Herhusband immediately got marriedagain without taking Parvin’spermission; and the second wifealso gave birth to a baby. Parvinwith all her children lives inparent’s house now receives nomaintenance from the husband.

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been supposedly benefiting the poor. There are a number of NGOsoperating micro-credit program in Bangladesh (Das & Kazal, 2007;Reza & Ahmmed, 2009). BRAC, as an NGO, commenced its micro-credit program in 1974. Currently the target populations for micro-credit program of BRAC are rural and urban poor women, youth andadolescents, migrant workers and small entrepreneurs (BRAC, 2012).Micro-credit program was first implemented in the vast rural areasof Bangladesh. Only in 1997, BRAC introduced micro-credit programin the urban areas to address urban poverty (BRAC, 2004). Afterthe commencement of micro-credit program, BRAC has so fardisbursed US $ 8.6 billion among 5.2 million borrowers; and therepayment rate of the borrowers has been reported as excellent(BRAC, 2012). The borrowers who are mostly women use the loansto manage their household finances and engage themselves in diverseincome generating activities. The women get united among themselvesunder village organization (VO) which brings gender solidarity, resultingin challenging the age-old patriarchal dominance at the family andcommunity level (Parmar, 2003; Chowdhury & Bhuiya, 2004). BRACworks for socioeconomic empowerment for the poor and destitutewomen under micro-credit program. It provides collateral free creditto its borrowers, and it ensures that the borrowers regularly save acertain amount of money. It also takes initiative to form a group thatconsists of around 30 to 40 women from the local community; thegroup is generally termed as VO, also considered vital organ foradministering basic activities (Rafi & Mallick, 2002; BRAC, 2004;Chowdhury & Bhuiya, 2004; Reza & Ahmmed, 2009; BRAC, 2012;BRAC, 2013). The VO plays very vital role to bring the memberwomen to one platform where they can interact with each other, canhave access to finance and information, share information and raiseawareness among themselves regarding contemporary issues thataffect their daily lives (Parmar, 2003; Reza & Ahmmed, 2009; BRAC,2012). VO of BRAC in the local community serves as an informalguarantor as it creates peer pressure on member borrowers for timelyrepayment of the loan. The borrowers are expected to repay theweekly installment regularly; and they deposit savings during theweekly meeting of VO (Alam, 2003; Develtere & Huybrechts, 2005;Reza & Ahmmed, 2009). The loans taken by women are generally



invested in poultry farm, livestock rearing, fruit and vegetablecultivation, handicrafts or rural trade which create self employment(BRAC, 2012).

Nature of cases dealt with by BRAC:

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The family of Nilufa (35)consists of seven members.Nilufa became a member of VOfor taking loan from BRAC. Shetook US $ 125 from BRAC, gaveall money to her elder son forlaunching a tea stall. Initially, thetea stall was running well andNilufa sincerely paid theinstallments. She could not payany installment in the last sixmonths, since her elder son fellastray and got into somechallenging situations, and almostclosed the tea stall. Nilufa hasbecome a defaulter now, andtrying to have second round ofloan for restarting installments toBRAC.

Khaleda (40) with sixmembers in the family, took loanfrom BRAC for buying a cowsince her rickshaw puller husbandused to earn little. The cow wasbought and it started giving milkwithin one year. Khaleda wascomfortable in paying installmentswith the money earned by sellingmilk. Unfortunately, the cowsuddenly died and Khaleda had

Papia (38) has eight membersin her family, took loan for threetimes with varied amounts, andcould sincerely pay theinstallments. She received fourthround of loan with US $ 250 forthe marriage of her elderdaughter. Her husband’s earningas a restaurant wage workerdoes not allow them to repayenough of the loan. So, Papiacould not manage to repay theinstallments for the last loan.

Krishna (43) has twelve familymembers including the secondwife of her husband. Herhusband is the only earningmember, works as a street vendor,earns little. Krishna took loanfrom BRAC and gave it to herhusband for his petty business.Meanwhile, she took loans fromseveral other organizations andfailed to repay loan installments.

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Micro level and direct social work practice

Social work practice is undertaken at micro, mezzo and macrolevels. Micro level social work practice refers to practicing socialwork directly with individuals, small groups, and families (Turner, 2005;Kirst-Ashman, 2010). Zastrow (2010) classifies social work practiceinto three levels- (a) micro- working with individuals on one-to-onebasis; (b) mezzo- working with families and other small groups; and(c) macro- working with organizations and communities. We seeMSWP as direct social work practice. Practicing social work directlywith individuals and families has also been termed as direct practice(Turner, 2005; Ambrosino, Ambrosino, Heffernan & Shuttlesworth,2008). On the other hand, working with individuals, couples, families,and groups is again considered as direct practice (Midgley, 2001;Hepworth, Rooney, Rooney, Strom-Gottfried & Larsen, 2010). Socialworkers are at present mostly found engaged with direct practice,accepting and working with individual clients, their family membersand trying to resolve the problems of clients. In the current study,working with individuals and family has been described as MSWP.But the categorization of different level of social work practice oftenbecomes blurred since social work with individuals remains incompletewithout dealing with family members and in many cases with thecommunity people in which an individual lives.

It is perceived that the activities undertaken by WSP and BRACare close to the activities that are generally adopted by micro socialwork practitioners. The present study focuses on social work practicewith individuals, families and individuals in groups who are also thetarget population of WSP and BRAC. Although the success of boththe organizations has been claimed as considerable, practicing microsocial work with the service seekers and effectively working withtheir family constellations would bring about much better results thancurrent outcomes. It is also felt that due to lack of social workknowledge, the workers of the organizations, in many cases, cannot


no source of earning money anymore. Therefore, she stoppedpaying installments and becamea defaulter.

Thereafter, she no more attendsweekly meeting of villageorganization (VO) and became adefaulter.


effectively deal with the problems of the service seekers, resulting inpartial success, even in some cases ending in a failure.

Knowledge and skills like individual problem solving, familytherapy, dissemination of information, guidance and counseling,motivation, assessment of the situation, mediation, negotiation,advocacy, networking, referral, follow up etc. related to MSWP havebeen tested for understanding the effectiveness in the activitiesundertaken by WSP and BRAC. In the current study, an effort hasbeen made to examine and evaluate the potentials of different piecesof social work knowledge and skills related to MSWP in order toperceive their effectiveness in dealing with the service seekers comingto seek help from WSP and BRAC. The authors also could findevidence of micro social work perspectives like strengths-basedpractices, evidence based and ecosystem perspectives for theireffectiveness in the activities of WSP and BRAC. Theories followedin MSWP like role theory, cognitive theory and person-centred theoryetc. have also been examined for understanding their potentials inthe activities of WSP and BRAC if applied.

The processes of micro practice

Women come to WSP with allegations of physical andpsychological torture committed mostly by husband and in-laws. WSPrecords these allegations and asks the complainants and the husbandand/or in-laws to be present before the workers on a given date.WSP listens to both the parties and tries to mediate between them.The workers sit with both the parties as many times as necessary tomediate and diffuse tensions and bring about compromise. Sometimes,authorities call the chairman/members of local government fromrespective regions and try to resolve the problems with their activehelp and cooperation (Rahman, 2005; Chakraborty, 2011; Das, 2011).When such efforts do not resolve the problems the organization filesa formal case in the court against the defendant (Rahman, 2011;Hasan, 2011). During the hearing of the case all expenses such ascourt fees and the lawyers’ fees are borne by the WSP authorities. Ifthe problem is resolved through mediation and arbitration on somespecific conditions, then the authorities follow it up to ensure theconditions to be fulfilled. The women who are traumatized becauseof physical and/or mental torture by the husband or in-laws, the WSP

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authorities provide counseling, sympathy, motivation etc. to assistthem healing and to release their agony (Rahman, 2011; Chakraborty,2011; Hasan, 2011). The women who do not have a shelter and cannotgo to family home with the husband are generally taken to ‘sheltercenter’ of WSP (Chakraborty, 2011; Rahman, 2011; Das, 2011).

In most cases, WSP workers are found not sufficiently skilled tomake proper assessment of the situation of the complainant and thismay be due to their lack of training or preoccupation with crisis andlegal work (Rahman, 2005; Chakraborty, 2011; Das, 2011). Whenmediations between the two parties are planned and held, WSPauthorities are often unable to explain the rights and privileges of thevictims before the defendants, resulting in uncompromising attitudeshown by the husbands and his relatives. This once again is a lacunain the training and understanding of social work values in the WSPworkers. Since the workers and managers do not have a fullunderstanding of mediation and arbitration processes a very mediocrelevel of mediation is seen and the victim often feels neglected andnot validated. Although the workers of WSP take up the motivationstrategy to gear up the depressed women, they frequently remainunsuccessful to motivate the complainants for helping them overcomethe barriers and starting afresh. The way counseling is provided tothe husband, in-laws even sometimes to the wife does not seem to bevery effective as the person playing the role of a counselor do nothave training on it (Rahman, 2011; Chakraborty, 2011; Hasan, 2011).WSP workers appear to be lacking in skills to deal with their advocacyroles. Thus the service recipients receive very little by way ofadvocacy from the workers. It is observed that the WSP workersonly target to resolve the problems by any means withoutunderstanding and assessing the entire situation causing less viablesolutions to the problems. Due to the complicated legal and economicframework that most WSP workers take there is a general failure ofsocial work function especially in micro practice contexts in thissituation. Previous studies corroborate that because of lack ofeffective follow up many cases remained unresolved (Rahman, 2005;Chakraborty, 2011; Hasan, 2011)

In the micro-credit program of BRAC, program organizers (POs)visit the VO once a week and receive weekly installments from theborrowers. They inspire the members to take pledge for thecommitment of complying with the rules and regulations of BRAC,



make them aware of social issues and help resolve conflicts amongthe members (Rafi & Mallick, 2002). Sometimes POs put pressure,take coercive actions or influence the group members to pressurizethe defaulters for ensuring weekly installments (Parmar, 2003;Develtere & Huybrechts, 2005). The borrowers hardly get any chanceto invest the loan in any productive economic activity since weeklyinstallment has to be made immediately. The loan is of small amountand is therefore invested in rudimentary types of economic activities(Alam, 2003; Ahmad, 2007; Das, 2012). POs do not counsel, neitherdo they motivate the defaulters for productive utilization of loans.The knowledge and skills of MSWP like counseling and guidance,motivation, advocacy, networking, utilization of resources, using innerstrength, encouraging self autonomy and self determination,dissemination of information, planning and problem solving capacity,understanding individual and family etc. are not followed in micro-credit program.

The context of microskills

Guidance and counseling is considered important professionalknowledge and skill in MSWP. The application of this knowledge andskill in a particular context may bring about success. The activities ofWSP may be better performed by micro social work practitioners.Therefore, the potentials of applying guidance and counseling in theactivities of WSP may be worthwhile. Likewise, micro-borrowers ofBRAC with motivation, guidance and counseling may utilize the loanbetter. Moreover, MSWP can make the borrowers enable,empowered, motivated, self reliant, educated, self directed, confident,capable of solving problem and better planning, help proper utilizationof resources etc.

The problems of service seekers to WSP and BRAC may bebetter resolved through taking the situation of the family intoconsideration, and therefore, family counseling and family therapy ofMSWP seem to be more applicable. Besides, application of mediation,arbitration and negotiation of MSWP in resolving the problems ofwomen under WSP may produce better outcomes.

The techniques of assessment and evaluation followed in MSWPcould be useful for understanding the situation of help seekers toWSP and BRAC for better planning and solutions of the problems.

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Sympathy and empathy skills practiced by micro social workers caninfluence the clients and workers of both the organizations to establishrapport and facilitate achieving the desired goals. The WSP andBRAC workers generally do not act as catalyst, broker and advocateto negotiate with and benefit the service seekers. Moreover,coordinating and networking with potential organizations and properutilization of resources are rarely followed by the workers of therespective organizations. Applying the knowledge and skill ofcoordination and networking in the activities of WSP and BRAC canbring about greater success.

Strengths based and ecosystem perspectives followed in MSWPmay be useful in the activities of both the organizations. Strengthsbased perspectives (SBPs) concentrates on the inherent strengths ofindividuals but do not ignore the challenges and limitations of theperson (Kirst-Ashman, 2010; Zastrow, 2010). It is also based onbuilding and fostering hope from within and working with precedentsuccesses of the individual service seekers (Pulla, 2012). If the SBPsare followed, the service seekers to both the organizations couldbecome mentally strong and confident which will, in turn, bring themlots of hopes and strengths.

Ecosystem perspectives deal with the core principle ‘person-in-environment’ or “how people and their environment fits” (Miley, O’Melia & Dubois, 2004; Payne, 2005) According to ecosystemperspectives, a person is a product of social, economic, political andnatural forces; and she/he constantly interacts with all these forcesin the society (Pulla, 2012). The purpose of the perspectives is toserve the individuals to eliminate or alleviate stresses by connectingwith personal and environmental resources so that effective copingcould be worked out (Payne, 2005; Terry, 2008; Gitterman, 2011).

Some of the theories like role theory, person-centred theory andcognitive theory followed in MSWP may also be effectively used inthe activities of WSP and BRAC. Role theory explains that person’sfunctioning is always influenced by many societal behaviorexpectations and person’s interactions with others. A particular roleplayed by an individual has been shaped and reshaped through multiplesocietal processes (Turner, 2005; Das, 2012). A service seeker toWSP or BRAC is not an alienated case rather her role andexpectations of her role by others make situation complicated, causingmultifarious problems for her life. Role theory helps the social workers



address potential and actual problems, risks, harm and injusticesassociated with client’s role functioning and role expectations(Kimberley & Osmond, 2011).

Person-centred theory emphasizes client’s present experiences,reduces the authority of help providers and tries to understand how aclient perceives an event which has affected him/her (Turner, 2005;Payne, 2005). Conflicts and inconveniences grow when the sense ofself and the experience gained through interaction with others doesnot match. Applying person-centred theory may ensure genuinerespect and value for the service seekers which could be empoweringand may also help them innovate ways for achieving self fulfillmentand self determination (Payne, 2005; Rowe, 2011). Therefore, thistheory which is mostly practiced by micro social workers may alsobe adopted in the activities of both the organizations for achieving thedesired goals.

Cognitive theory followed in MSWP helps individuals identifytheir negative thoughts and misconceptions that may have becometroublesome and encourages them to alter the old one replacing withnew pattern of thinking that brings solutions (Payne, 2005; Chatterjee& Brown, 2011). It believes people are creative and flexible, capableof reshaping irrational aspects of their life to respond to others andsituations (Turner, 2005). The theory has the potentials to be used inthe activities of WSP and BRAC which will make the service seekersself determined, goal oriented and autonomous.

Barriers towards applying micro social work

Currently both WSP and BRAC do not have much presence ofsocial work graduates. It is envisaged that future recruitments ofsocial work graduates may be useful to generate better outcomes forthe organization. Managers in both these agencies would probablygain more by following a professional approach that allows them tobe client centred. Our research has also brought to surface thatsocial work graduates due to their small number are unable to influencethe policy frameworks in the organizations. The pressure on returnof investment is so high that the micro-credit program of BRACseem to be less interested in the poor and their multifarious problemsrather they are more interested in ensuring the loans to be recovered(Alam, 2003; Ahmad, 2007; Das, 2012). Policy makers at state level

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as well as organizational level do not have enough knowledge aboutsocial work which creates obstacles toward the application ofknowledge and skills of social work in their activities (Samad, 2009).More studies on the applicability of micro social work in the activitiesof WSP and BRAC micro-credit program are required to engagefurther discussion on the potentials of MSWP in the contexts ofBangladesh.

Conclusion

It is understood that the activities developed and implementedby WSP and BRAC may be described as potential areas whereMSWP may be introduced. The activities of both the organizationsare very close to the activities of social work practitioners. The currentstudy makes a humble effort to explore the potentials of micro skillspractice in the activities of agencies such as WSP and BRAC micro-credit program. It is shown that the knowledge systems and skillsused in MSWP may also be used while performing the activities underWSP and BRAC. The negative effects of the activities of both theorganizations perhaps could well be handled if MSWP introduced.But it is strongly felt that MSWP in this regard may bring about muchbetter results. Further researches on potentials of MSWP in theactivities of WSP and BRAC may be suggested based on the findingsof this study.

References

1. Ahmad, Q. K. (Ed.). (2007). Socio-economic and indebtedness-related impactof micro credit in Bangladesh. Dhaka: The University Press Limited.

2. Alam, M. F. (2003). Final report on BRAC BDP. (Unpublished field workreport). Department of Social Work, Shahjalal University of Science &Technology, Sylhet.

3. Ambrosino, R., Ambrosino, R., Heffernan, J., & Shuttlesworth G. (2008).Social work and social welfare: An introduction (6th ed.). Belmont CA:Thomson Brooks/Cole.

4. BRAC. (2004). BRAC Annual Report 2003, Dhaka: Author. Retrieved fromhttp://www.brac.net/sites/default/files/Brac%20Annual%20Report%202003.pdf

5. BRAC. (2012). BRAC Annual Report 2011, Dhaka: Author. Retrieved fromhttp://www.brac.net/sites/default/files/BRAC-annual-report-2011.pdf

6. BRAC. (2013). BRAC Annual Report 2012, Dhaka: Author. Retrieved fromhttp://www.brac.net/sites/default/files/BRAC-Annual-Report-2012.pdf



7. Chakraborty, J. (2011). Final report on women support program (WSP).(Unpublished field work report). Department of Social Work, ShahjalalUniversity of Science & Technology, Sylhet.

8. Chatterjee, P., & Brown, S. (2011). Cognitive theory and social work treatment.In F. J. Turner (Ed.), Social work treatment: Interlocking theoretical approaches(5th ed., pp. 103-116). New York: Oxford University Press.

9. Chowdhury, A. M. R. & Bhuiya, A. (2004). The wider impacts of BRACpoverty alleviation programme in Bangladesh. Journal of InternationalDevelopment, 16, 369–386. doi: 10.1002/jid.1083

10. Das, T. K., & Kazal, M. M. H. (2007). The policy of ‘job for all and educationfor all’ and the empowerment of the poor in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Journalof Public Administration, 16(1), 111-123.

11. Das, T. K. (2012). Applicability and relevance of social work knowledge andskills in the context of Bangladesh. SUST Studies, 15(1), 45-52.

12. Das, T. K. (2013). Internationalization of social work education in Bangladesh.In T. Akimoto & K. Matsuo (Eds.), Internationalization of Social WorkEducation in Asia. Tokyo: ACWelS and APASWE.

13. Das, U. C. (2011). Final report on women support program (WSP). (Unpublishedfield work report). Department of Social Work, Shahjalal University of Science& Technology, Sylhet.

14. Davis, P. R. (2001). Rethinking the welfare regime approach: The case ofBangladesh. Global Social Policy, 1(1), 79-107. doi: 10.1177/146801810100100105

15. Develtere, P., & Huybrechts, A. (2005). The Impact of Microcredit on thePoor in Bangladesh Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 30, 165–189. doi:10.1177/030437540503000203

16. Gitterman, A., & Germain, C. B. (2008). In T. Mizrahi & L. E. Davis (Eds.),Encyclopedia of Social Work (20th ed. Vol. 2, pp. 97-102). New York: OxfordUniversity Press.

17. Gitterman, A. (2011). Advances in the life model of social work practice. In F.J. Turner (Ed.), Social work treatment: Interlocking theoretical approaches(5th ed., pp. 279-292). New York: Oxford University Press.

18. Halder, S. R. (2003). Poverty outreach and BRAC’s microfinance interventions:Programme impact and sustainability. IDS Bulletin, 34(4), 44-53. doi: 10.1111/j.1759-5436.2003.tb00089.x

19. Hasan, A. S. M. M. (2011). Final report on women support program (WSP).(Unpublished field work report). Department of Social Work, ShahjalalUniversity of Science & Technology, Sylhet.

20. Hepworth, D. H., Rooney, R. H., Rooney, G. D., Strom-Gottfried, K., &Larsen, J. A. (2010). Direct social work practice: Theory and skills (8th ed.).Belmont CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.

21. Kimberley, D., & Osmond, L. (2011). Role theory and concepts applied topersonal and social change in social work treatment. In F. J. Turner (Ed.),Social work treatment: Interlocking theoretical approaches (5th ed., pp. 413-427). New York: Oxford University Press.

22. Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2010). Introduction to Social Work & Social Welfare:Critical Thinking Perspectives. Belmont CA: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.

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23. Midgley, J. (2001). Issues in international social work: Resolving critical debatesin the profession. Journal of Social Work , 1(1), 21-35. doi:10.1177/146801730100100103

24. Miley, K., O’Melia, M., & DuBois, B. (2004). Generalist social work practice.New York: Pearson.

25. Parmar, A. (2003). Micro-credit, empowerment, and agency: Reevaluatingthe discourse. Canadian Journal of Development Studies, 24 (3), 461-476.

26. Payne, M. (2005). Modern social work theory (3rd ed.). New York: PalgraveMacmillan.

27. Pulla, V. (2012). What are strengths based practices all about? In V. Pulla, L.Chenoweth, A. Francis & S. Bakaj (Eds.), Papers in strengths based practice(pp. 1-18). New Delhi: Allied Publishers.

28. Rafi, M., & Mallick, D. (2002). Group dynamics in development of the poor:Experience from BRAC. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary andNonprofit Organizations, 13(2), 165-178. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27927774

29. Rahman, A. (2005). Final report on women support program (WSP).(Unpublished field work report). Department of Social Work, ShahjalalUniversity of Science & Technology, Sylhet.

30. Rahman, M. M. (2011). Final report on women support program (WSP).(Unpublished field work report). Department of Social Work, ShahjalalUniversity of Science & Technology, Sylhet.

31. Reza, M. H., & Ahmmed, F. (2009). Structural social work and the compatibilityof NGO approaches: a case analysis of Bangladesh Rural AdvancementCommittee (BRAC). International Journal of Social Welfare, 18, 173–182.doi:10.1111/j.1468-2397.2008.00604.x

32. Rowe, W. (2011). Client-centered theory: The enduring principles of a person-centered approach. In F. J. Turner (Ed.), Social work treatment: Interlockingtheoretical approaches (5 th ed., pp. 59-76). New York: Oxford UniversityPress.

33. Samad, M. (2009). Development of social work education in Bangladesh andneed for Asia-Pacific regional cooperation. In Proceedings, Seoul internationalsocial work conference (pp. 174-188). Seoul: Korea Association of SocialWorkers.

34. Samad, M. (2013). Social work education in Bangladesh: Internationalizationand challenges. In T. Akimoto & K. Matsuo (Eds.), Internationalization ofsocial work education in Asia. Tokyo: ACWelS and APASWE.

35. Turner, F. J. (2005). Micro practice. In F. J. Turner (Ed.), Encyclopedia ofCanadian social work (pp. 236-237).

36. Turner, F. J. (2005). Role Theory. In F. J. Turner (Ed.), Encyclopedia ofCanadian social work (pp. 325-326). Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier UniversityPress.

37. Turner, F. J. (2005). Person-centred theory. In F. J. Turner (Ed.), Encyclopediaof Canadian social work (pp. 276-277).

38. Turner, F. J. (2005). Cognitive theory. In F. J. Turner (Ed.), Encyclopedia ofCanadian social work (p. 73).

39. Zastrow, C. (2010). Introduction to social work and social welfare (10th ed.).Belmont CA: Brooks/Cole.



Abstract

Alcohol addiction has been termed as a ‘family disease’. Theimpact of alcohol addiction on the families living with individualwith addiction is enormous and has been documented. However thefamily and care takers who significantly contribute to the care,process of treatment, recovery and rehabilitation of the individualwith alcohol addiction hardly receive any attention and interventionin the de-addiction process of the client. Families and their memberliving with individual with alcohol addiction can be termed as passivesufferers. The authors believe that strengths based practice that hasan emphasis on positive qualities and attributes, is quite likely toproduce a different approach to social work practice with the familieswith alcoholic as well as clients that have a problem with alcohol.This paper contends that it is equally important to strengthen familysupport as members of the family assisting the addicted in theirrecovery process equally require interventions. The paper offersunderstanding of building coping and resiliency in the individualsand the families

Key Words: Alcohol addiction, recovery, de-addiction, individualwith an alcohol addiction, family support, strengths based practice;resilience

Introduction:

Drinking alcohol is as old as civilization. There is hardly anycountry, community or age in which drinking alcohol did not prevailand there are many cultures where the ingestion of alcohol beverageis regarded as a sign of respectability and modernism (Ghosh, 1999).About 10 to 15% of alcohol users develop alcohol dependence andbecome alcoholics. Anybody can become an alcoholic - age,

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Social Work, Walchand College of Arts and Science, Solapur,Maharashtra (India) email- [email protected]

2 Dr Venkat Pulla teaches Social Work at the Charles Sturt University. [email protected];[email protected]

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Building Resilience in the Families Living withIndividual with an Alcohol Addiction

Jitendra S. Gandhi1 , Venkat Pulla2

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education, intelligence or socio-economic status has nothing to dowith it. Large amount of revenue is generated from sale of alcohol.Yet, the hidden, cumulative costs of health care, absenteeism andreduced income levels related to heavy alcohol use are higher. Thesecosts were estimated to be 60% more than the revenue generated ina study from Karnataka.The person increases the quantity orfrequency and continues drinking even though alcohol causesproblems to his health, work life, family or social relationships.Alcoholism is often termed as a “family illness”, referring to itstremendous impact on the family living with an individual with alcoholaddiction. The impact of individual with alcohol addiction on socio-economic and psychological wellbeing of the family is obvious enough,which demands urgent intervention. Families living with individualwith alcohol addiction interrupt normal family tasks, conflicts in day-to-day living, economical drain of the family resources and leadinglife with social stigma becomes the characteristic of the family.Children living in the family with alcohol addiction also bound to facemany challenges. It is widely accepted that alcohol problems especiallyin a parent, contributes to the children’s risk and vulnerability. Manystudies reveal that children whose biological parents especially thefather engaging in substance abuse have a higher risk of developingalcohol problem at an earlier age and male children are found to bemore vulnerable with a four-fold risk (Muralidhar & Shankaran,2007). Alcoholism is treatable. With treatment it is possible to assistthe client, however, as with other diseases, the earlier the help issought, the lesser the damage and the better the recovery. In thispaper, we will attempt to write about the need for family interventionsand the efficacy of medical psychiatric social work in collateral workwith the family.

Alcohol Consumption in India

Alcohol consumption has been steadily increasing in developingcountries like India and decreasing in developed countries since the1980s. The pattern of drinking to intoxication is prevalent in developingcountries indicating higher level of risk due to drinking. Research inthe past few years has conclusively demonstrated that nearly one inthree male adults consume alcohol, and 5% of Indian women are

Jitendra S. Gandhi, Venkat Pulla


already regular users. Interestingly, the age of initiation of drinking isprogressively coming down. The following inset describes the extentof the problem in India.

• Nearly 30% of Indian men and 5% of Indian women are regularusers of alcohol.

• Alcohol is linked to more than 60 health conditions and a varietyof harmful effects ranging from brawls and accidents on roadto its effects on poverty and indebtedness in society.

• Indiahasbeen identifiedas the third largest market for alcoholicbeverages in the world attracting the attention of multinationalliquorcompanies.

• Sale of alcohol has been growingsteadilyat 6% and is estimatedto grow at the rate of 8% per year.

• About 80% of alcohol consumption is in the form of hard liquoror distilled spirits showing that the majority drink beverageswith a high concentration of alcohol.

• Branded liquor accounts for about 40% of alcohol consumptionwhile the rest is in the form of country liquor. By the sametoken India also has a large proportion of lifetime abstainers(89.6%). The female population is largely abstinent with 98.4%as lifetime abstainers. This makes India an attractive businessproposition for the liquor industry.

• Changing social norms, urbanization, increased availability, highintensity mass marketing and relaxation of overseas trade rulesalong with poor level of awareness related to alcohol hascontributed to increased alcohol use.

• Taxes generated from alcohol production and sale is the majorsource of revenue in most states (Rs.25,000 crores) and hasbeen cited as a reason for permitting alcohol sale. Four states -Gujarat, Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland - have enforcedprohibition.

• Profile of clients in addiction treatment centers in 23 states(including states with prohibition) showed that alcohol was thefirst or second major drug of abuse in all except one state,Gujarat.

• Large amount of revenue is generated from sale of alcohol.Yet, the hidden, cumulative costs of health care, absenteeism

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and reduced income levels related to heavy alcohol use arehigher. Trauma, violence, organ system damage, variouscancers, unsafe sexual practices, premature death and poornutritional status of families with heavy drinking fathers areassociated with alcohol use.

• Hazardous drinking was significantly associated with severehealth problems such as head injuries and hospitalizations. 15to 20% of traumatic brain injuries were related to alcohol use.

• Thirty seven percent of injuries in a public hospital were dueto alcohol. Seventeen point six percent psychiatric emergencieswere caused by alcohol and thirty four percent of those whoattempted suicide were abusing alcohol (Indian Alcohol PolicyAlliance, 2013)

The State Response

Efforts to address the growing problem of alcohol have beenextremely limited in India. It is suggested that this may be due to thelarge revenue that the consumption of alcohol generates in the country.The prevalence of alcohol into peri-urban, rural and transitional townsand cities, changing lifestyles, liberalized values among youth hasfigured amongst the clinicians, and in a number of studies (Gururaj,Murthy, Rao, and Benegal, 2011). Non-availability of good-qualitydata; lack of a central coordinating agency; non recognition of health;social and economic consequences; incorrect interpretation of healthbenefits and the impact of globalization have all contributed to theproblem (Gururaj et.al, 2011). In its recommendations the NationalInstitute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences ( NIMHANS) reporttitled ‘Alcohol related harm : Implications for Public Health and Policyin India’ ( 2011) laid emphasis on:

• Management and rehabilitation of alcohol dependents.• Increasing resources towards management of crime and

stepped up judicial efforts. Health education programs acrossthe country especially for drinking and driving.

• Outreach demand reduction activities by nongovernmentalorganizations.

• On the policy front, a few attempts have been made in thepast to reduce availability and demand.



The However, the Nimhans report claims that there is nosystematic evaluation with regards to identification of the efficacyand effectiveness of the efforts made which include:

• Prohibition• Increasing taxes on almost all types of alcoholic beverages.• Controlling illicit production of alcohol.• Programs to check drinking and driving to reduce road traffic

injuries.• Prescribing legal age for drinking (this varies across different

states within the country).• Fixing timing of sales in alcohol selling outlets.• Changes in packaging (smaller units, specified labeling, etc.)• Ban on advertising.• Encouraging manufacture of drinks with low alcohol content

(Gururaj, et al, 2011).

Need for Family Intervention:

Less is written, documented and researched on the passivesuffers in the family with individual with alcohol addiction especiallyspouses and children of the individual with alcohol addiction. Thefamilies living with individual with alcohol addiction usually hide thealcohol related problem in the family as a shameful secret and thusparticipate in the dysfunctional behavior. Families experiencingproblems with alcohol dependence are fragile, and harm related toalcohol is not confined to the drinkers themselves problem drinkerdespite alcoholism being characterized as a family illness (Sanikaran,Muralidhar & Benegal, 2008). A number of studies on domesticviolence suggest that while alcohol abuse by the spouse may not bethe primary cause of domestic violence, it increases a woman’svulnerability to violence perpetrated by her spouse or partner (Prabhu,Patterson, Dulmus and Ratheeshkumar,2010). Francis (2012) refersto Gerhart (2012) that developed a collaborative appreciativeapproach of working relationship with the clients and their familiescited by Francis, 2012). The collaborative approach of describes thequality of working relationship in which consumers’ voices arerespected and valued in the recovery process. The appreciative aspectof model is recognises and values the strengths and abilities of

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consumers, which generates the necessary momentum for recovery.Some of the practical elements in this approach that are consideredvery useful are:

• To build a partnership therapeutic relationship• To do mapping of the landscape for recovery - utilizing various

steps in assessment• Planning the treatment• Actual facilitation of recovery• Accessing resources• Ensuring follow-upWhile alcoholism is classifies as a mental health disorder, the

evaluation of psychiatric complaints in patients with alcohol usedisorders (i.e., alcohol abuse or dependence, collectively calledalcoholism) can sometimes be challenging. Heavy drinking associatedwith alcoholism can coexists with and contributes to a number ofseveral different psychiatric syndromes ( Shivani, 2002).

Assessment difficulties

It is said that heavy alcohol use directly affects brain functionand alters various brain chemical and hormonal systems known to beinvolved in the development of many common mental disorders (e.g.,mood and anxiety disorders). In Medical Psychiatric social work wenotice that clients with alcoholism express themselves as being sadand lack in concentration and are fidgety and sometimes they weep.The patient’s symptoms and signs may vary in severity dependingupon the amounts of alcohol used, and the longevity of usage. Largeramounts may be associated with more dramatic changes in mood,such as sadness, irritability, and nervousness. Alcohol’s dis-inhibitingproperties may also impair judgment and unleash aggressive, antisocialbehaviors that may mimic certain externalizing disorders, such asantisocial personality disorder. For instance, an alcohol–dependentpatient who appears morbidly depressed when acutely intoxicatedmay appear anxious and panicky when acutely withdrawing fromthe drug (Anthenelli 1997). In addition to the direct pharmacologicaleffects of alcohol on brain function, psychosocial stressors thatcommonly occur in heavy–drinking alcoholic patients (e.g., legal,financial, or interpersonal problems) may indirectly contribute to



ongoing alcohol–related symptoms, such as sadness, despair, andanxiety. These above areas are certainly in the realm of social work.Publication of the DSM–IV provided the Psychiatric social workersand clinicians to understand several “alcohol–induced disorders”rather than having to lump alcohol–related conditions under the moregeneric rubric of an “organic mental syndrome” (Anthenelli 1997).

Assessment methodology

Clients with alcoholism do not voluntarily disclose informationabout their alcohol use patterns and problems when they presenttheir psychiatric complaints unless they are asked directly about theiralcohol use. They tend to deny and minimize their alcohol–relatedproblems lead them to withhold this important information, which makesassessment and diagnosis difficult. As heavy alcohol use can blur orimpair memory, the information given by the patient’s during thehistory–taking also is less reliable. Therefore, Medical psychiatricsocial workers should gather information from family sources to makethe assessment holistic.

After obtaining a patient’s consent his or her history should beobtained from the patient and his family members including spouse,relative, or close friend. The information from family informantinterviews yield can serve several purposes. First, by establishinghow patterns of alcohol use relate to psychiatric symptoms and theirtime course, a clinician obtains additional information that can beused in the longitudinal evaluation of the patient’s psychiatric andalcohol problems, as described later. Second, by defining the rolealcohol use plays in a patient’s psychiatric complaints, the clinician isstarting to confront the patient’s denial, which is the patient’s defensemechanism for avoiding conscious analysis of the association betweendrinking and other symptoms. Third, by knowing that the clinicianwill be talking to a family member, the patient may be more likely tooffer more accurate information. Fourth, if the patient observes thatthe clinician is interested enough in the case to contact familymembers, this may help establish a more trustful therapeuticrelationship. Fifth, by involving family members early in the course oftreatment, the clinician begins to lay the groundwork towardestablishing a supporting network that will become an important part

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of the patient’s recovery program. Finally, the collateral informantcan provide supplemental information about the family history ofalcoholism and other psychiatric disorders that can improve diagnosticaccuracy (Anthenelli 1997; Anthenelli and Schuckit 1993).

A review of the patient’s medical records is another potentiallyrich source of information. This review should look for evidence ofprevious psychiatric complaints or of laboratory results that mightfurther implicate alcohol in the patient’s psychiatric problems. Thusassessments carried out collaterally will assist us as social workersin helping the patient and the families through the recovery processin a proper manner.

Recovery principles

Francis, 2012, complied the following ten key principles ofFollowing is a table consisting of 10 recovery that he adopted fromadopted from a previously literature survey conducted by UK byShepard et.al in 2008, as cited in Francis, ( 2012)

1. Recovery is about building a meaningful and satisfying life,as defined by the person themselves, whether or not thereare ongoing or recurring symptoms or problems.

2. Recovery represents a movement away from pathology,illness and symptoms to health, strengths and wellness.

3. Hope is central to recovery and can be enhanced by eachperson seeing how they can have more active control overtheir lives (‘agency’) and by seeing how others have founda way forward.

4. Self-management is encouraged and facilitated. Theprocesses of self-management are similar, but what worksmay be very different for each individual. No ‘one size fitsall’.

5. The helping relationship between clinicians and patientsmoves away from being expert/patient to being ‘coaches’or ‘partners’ on a journey of discovery. Clinicians are thereto be ‘on tap, not on top’.

6. People do not recover in isolation. Recovery is closelyassociated with social inclusion and being able to take onmeaningful and satisfying social roles within localcommunities, rather than in segregated services.



7. Recovery is about discovering – or re-discovering – a senseof personal identity, separate from illness or disability.

8. The language used and the stories and meanings that areconstructed have great significance as mediators of therecovery process. These shared meanings either support asense of hope and possibility, or invite pessimism andchronicity.

9. The development of recovery-based services emphasizesthe personal qualities of staff as much as their formalqualifications. It seeks to cultivate their capacity for hope,creativity, care, compassion, realism and resilience. Familyand other supporters are often crucial to recovery and theyshould be included as partners wherever possible.However, peer support is central for many people in theirrecovery. (shepherd et al. 2008 cited in Francis, 2012)

Strengths Approach

The authors believe that a strengths based practice (Pulla, 2012,Pulla and Mariscal, 2013) that has an emphasis on positive qualitiesand attributes, is quite likely to produce a different approach to socialwork practice with the families with alcoholic as well as clients thathave a problem with alcohol. The methodology as detailed in thestrengths perspective clearly assists in helping clients to identify,appreciate, and use their available strengths (Weick et al., 1989). Aswe move towards the recovery phase it becomes important to identifytheir talents, knowledge, abilities, and aspirations. During the doctoralresearch of the first author it was discovered that a number of clientstook to alcoholism as a matter of escaping from the ground realities.These realties did include, difficulties and issues with moneymanagement, difficulties at work lack of finding work or inability toretain work and or poor wages or inability to simply control as it hasbecome a daily ritual or practice. In raising questions such as ‘whatwould you be doing if you were not to be drinking?’ provides anopportunity to assist the clients to regain their personal power. Thisdoes not happen in the first sitting with the client. It is importantquestions that will assist clients reclaim their personal power in theirlives. The aim is to identify and develop personal and environmental

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strengths. Dennis Saleebey calls this process the as process thatpromotes healing and completeness, as individual see in front of themtheir chances to develop some control over their lives and makedecisions than impact them (Saleebey, 1996).

When we assume that an individual is the cause of personal painand social problems (e.g. blaming), we focus on the individuals insteadon the social structure. For instance, we may blame a battered womanfor staying in an abusive relationship with an alcoholic husband insteadof focusing on patriarchal values or the lack of available communityresources that might the recovery process and also assist the familyto resilience. We believe that strengths based social work approachencourages social workers to use the client’s and families personalstrengths and to discover resources in the environments to fulfill theclient’s needs and also the family needs to enhance the client’s aswell as family’s coping and resilience mechanisms. Thus creation ofa helping environment, by itself is an important task of social work.Research in the field of coping suggests that a number of peopleuse emotion-focused coping that rests on denial of the problem. It isnot only the individual with the problem of alcohol, but even his familymembers to an extent may deny the severity of the problem. There isalso the tendency to avoid the discussion around their problems despiteresulting in poorer overall health and growing including mental health(Pulla, 2013). On the contrary problem focused or action-orientedcoping is strongly related to positive psychological outcomes. Althoughthe importance of culture has been recognized, we still do not havewell developed constructs that facilitate cross-cultural research withan emphasis in ecology. Strengths based practice suggests thatresources are an inherent part of every culture (Pulla, 2012). It isimportant to address the importance of congruence or the good fit orlack of fit between demands and coping resources that determinesthe occurrence of stress and the ability of an individual to successfullymeet the challenge. Thus, coping and becoming resilient is dependanton the amount of resources available for the individual and the familyPulla, 2013). It is possible to conceive a two step model when theindividual recognises the stresses and strains associated with his orher problem, for example the frequency with which he or she is gettinginto the habit; the costs associated with it. The costs as we suggestwould include non monetary costs as well such as the behaviouraland mental health issues, personal perceptions of his ore her incidence



of drinking etc. If one is cognitively thinking at this step clearly this isa stage where he or she can initiate further steps to mitigate potentialstressfulness of the situation. Most often if assistance or help isunavailable at this stage he or she will enter into a secondary copingsituation which not actually might be counter productive and increasehis intake of alcohol. A number of people with alcoholic conditiontend to explain their condition itself as their coping and claim theirentrapment to various things around them and absolve their ownresponsibility. They would even argue with social workers that this istheir coping and that they are operating on the principle of ‘whatworks’ for them in those situations. Certainly in relation to alcoholism,more research in coping and secondary coping is required. Thefollowing pathways diagram assists social workers in their work withan individual with alcoholism in his or her recovery and rehabilitation.

Pathways diagram based on work of Shivani, Goldsmith andAnthenelli, (2002 )

Suggested Issue based intervention with the families

Families of individual with an alcohol addiction usually experiencea number of issues such as Loss of Hope; Loss of appropriateinteractional patterns, dwindling family resources; difficulties incontrolling their emotions and or reacting to traumatized incidentswithin home. In addition to these, households that have a male memberor the head of the household regularly drinking, the family has to bearsocial stigma. We have outlined some of the issues and attempt herethe possible social work interventions.

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Families of individual with analcohol addiction usuallyexperience following issueswhich minimize the supportsystem:• Loss of Hope.• Loss of appropriate

interactional patterns.• Drain of family resources.• Change in Role and

responsibility.• Emotional Trauma.• Social Stigma.• Loss of Quality of Marital

Life.• Loss of Support (Personal/

economical/psychological).• Existence of morbid family

environment.

Issues Social Work interventionwith the families

Psycho education:Whileindividual with alcohol addictionis taking de-addiction treatment,social worker can create anawareness regarding alcoholaddiction as a illness. Duringpsycho-education phase scientificinformation will be providestowards treatment, rehabilitation,recovery, follow-ups and overalloutcome of the treatment processto the families involved intreatment process of theindividual with alcohol addiction.Social worker also will emphasizeto minimize misconceptionsamong the families to increase theparticipation of the familymembers in the treatmentprocess of the individual with analcohol addiction.FamilyTherapy:Through FamilyTherapy social worker mayintervene in the family to addressvarious issues/barriers whichaffect the treatment and recoveryof the individual with an alcoholaddiction, such issues/barriersincludes: attitude of the familytowards individual with an alcoholaddiction, alcohol addiction,recovery rate, burden on existingfamily resources etc.Supportive Therapy:The familyusually faces various problemswhile treating the individual withan alcohol addiction, in suchsituation family requires supportand encouragement, PSW



provides the same to enhance andto keep intact family support forthe treatment process. Due to thecontinuous support by socialworker to the families of theindividual with an alcoholaddiction, families develop hopetowards treatment and recoveryprocess of the individual withalcohol addiction. Follow-Ups:Family is key ingredient to keepfollow-up of the treatment andrehabilitation process of theindividual with an alcoholaddiction, participation of familyin Follow-ups are equallyimportant as assessing client inthe follow-ups. Social workertries to assess barriers, tensionsin the relationship, dealing withindividual with an alcoholaddiction in daily living situation,behavioral pattern of theindividual with an alcoholaddiction etc. Familyenvironment Modification:Social worker assess the morbidphenomena existing in the familieswhich to prevent further relapse.Social worker assesses the familyand intervenes in the family tomodify the environment of thefamily which plays a supportiverole in the recovery process.Intervention to improveinteractional pattern amongthe family member: Tostrengthen cohesiveness amongthe family member, social workerfacilitates development ofrenewed interactional patternswithin the families and creates

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supportive environment,developing warmth and caringrebounding each member of thefamily to enhance interactionalpattern of the family. ImproveParenting: Social workerintervenes in the family toimprove parenting skills so thatless social, psychological damagewill take place with the childrenliving in the family, throughtraining regarding rebuildingtrusting, developing positiverelationship, understanding theneeds of the children, spendingtime with them. The aim of theseinterventions with children is toassist with behavioral as well aspsychological issues that mayimpede their development. Insome situations social workermay work independently withchildren too if the child requireany therapeutic intervention.Problem Solving Skills:Thefamilies with individual with analcohol addiction may not haveenough problem solving skills.Social worker revise these skillsand assist maximizing betteroutcomes on a day to day basisand minimizing day to day issues/conflicts faced by the families ofthe individual with an alcoholaddiction, i.e.- understanding ofone’s role and responsibility,money management, givingspace to each other etc.GroupTherapy:The families withindividual with an alcoholaddiction faces social stigma aswell as isolation, PSW provides



Conclusion:

Capacity building of various stakeholders to carry out preventionand intervention activities with the participation of various stakeholdersincluding the government, nongovernment and community basedorganizations and education and information dissemination that couldcreate a high degree of public awareness and dissuade harmful alcoholuse practices is needed.

Families living with individual with alcohol addiction have beenconsidered as passive sufferer and usually do not get attention andintervention in-terms of Bio-Psycho-Social treatment modalities. Thepaper revealed that families need to have social work intervention tostrengthen themselves in the process of treatment and recovery ofthe individual with alcohol addiction. The study also indicates an urgentneed to develop Bio-Psycho-Social intervention plan for the familiesliving with individual with alcohol addiction. The responsibility todevelop and deliver the Bio-Psycho-Social intervention for thesepassive suffers lies with mental health professionals such asP s y c h i a t r i s t , C l i n i c a l P s y c h o l o g i s t s a n d e s p e c i a l l y S o c i a l w o r k e r s .

References:

1. Antheneilli, R, M. A basic clinical approach to diagnosis in patients withcomorbid psychiatric and substance use disorders. In Shivani, R, Goldsmith, J,Anthenelli, R,M, (2002) ‘Alcoholism and Psychiatric Disorders’ in AlcoholResearch and Health, Vol. 26, No.2., http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh26-2/90-98.pdf retrieved 24/7/2013

2. Antheneilli, R, M.and Schuckit, M, A. Affective and anxiety disorders andalcohol and drug dependence: Diagnosis and treatment, Journal of AddictiveDisorders, 12: 73, 1993 cited in Shivani, R, Goldsmith, J, Anthenelli, R,M,(2002) ‘Alcoholism and Psychiatric Disorders’ in Alcohol Research and Health,Vol. 26, No.2., http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh26-2/90-98.pdfretrieved 24/7/2013

Group therapy where familiesshare their feeling, problems andachievement while living andtreating individual with an alcoholaddiction

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3. Francis, A. (2012) Journey towards recovery in mental health. In V. Pulla, L.Chenoweth, A. Francis & S. Bakaj (eds) Papers in Strengths Based Practice.Dehli, Allied Publishers, pp. 19-33.

4. Ghosh, B (1999) Contemporary Social Problem of India, Himalaya PublishingHouse, Mumbai

5. Gururaj G, Pratima Murthy, Girish N & Benegal V. (2011) Alcohol relatedharm: Implications for public health and policy in India, Publication No. 73,NIMHANS, Bangalore, India

6. Indian Alcohol Policy Alliance (2013), ‘Alcohol related Harm In India, a factSheet’, by Indian Alcohol Policy Alliance, New Delhi

7. Muralidhar, D & Shankaran, L (2007): Strengths based approach in socialwork practice in working with families with alcohol problem, Handbook ofPsychiatric Social work NIMHANS Publication, first edition Bangalore, Pg-89-100.

8. Pulla, V., ‘What are Strengths based Practice all about? In Pulla, V., Chenoweth,L., Francis, A., Bakaj, S. eds .,(2012). Papers in Strengths Based Practice,New Delhi: Allied Publishers

9. Pulla, V., Francis A, (2013) A Strengths Approach To Mental Health inFrancis,A, (edited) in Social Work practice in Mental health care: Theories,Practices and Challenges. Sage International- (In press) http://www.sagepub.com

10. Pulla, V & Mariscal ,S. (2013). ‘Strength-Based Approach for Social Change’in Contemporary of Social Work Education, Training and Practice, A, Azman,J, Sulaiman, P Singh J, Singh and M , T Mohamad. ( eds.) KL, Malaysia. InstitutSosial Malaysia, Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development.ISBN No: 978-967-5472-13-8.

11. Pulla, V, (2013), Contours of Coping and Resilience: the front story in Pulla,V, Shatte, A and Warren , S. eds, (2013) Perspectives on Coping and Resilience,Authors Press, New Delhi

12. Sankaran, L, Muralidhar, D and vivek Benegal. (2008). StrengtheningResilience within Families in Addiction Treatmet. Mumbai: The Indian Journalof Social Work ,Volume- 69, TISS.

13. Sanikaran, Muralidhar & Benegal (2008): Strengthening Resilience withinFamilies in Addiction Treatment, The Indian Journal of Social work, TISS,Vol-69, Issue-I, Pg-45-53.

14. Saleebey, D. (1996). The Strengths Perspective in social work practice:Extensions and cautions. Social Work, 41(3), 296.

15. Shivani, R, Goldsmith, J, Anthenelli, R,M, (2002) ‘Alcoholism and PsychiatricDisorders’ in Alcohol Research and Health, Vol. 26, No.2., http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh26-2/90-98.pdf retrieved 24/7/2013

16. Shraddha Prabhu, David A. Patterson, Catherine N. Dulmus and RatheeshkumarK S (2010): Prevalence, Nature, Context and Impact of Alcohol Use in India:Recommendations for Practice and Research, Journal of Global Social WorkPractice, Volume 3, Number 2. http://www.globalsocialwork.org/vol3no2/Prabhu.html (Visited on 13/8/12).

17. Weick, A., Rapp, C. A., Sullivan, W. P., & Kisthardt, W. (1989). A StrengthsPerspective for Social Work Practice. Social Work, 34(4), 350.



CSR: Role in Community Development

K.Hemalatha*, Manu Mathew**, Lovis Praveen***

Abstract

This article looks at the role Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) has in community development. Besides a universallyaccepted role in philanthropic work of corporations, CSR projectsare today achieving greater sustainability in their efforts resulting ingrowth and change in communities. This evolution has been possibledue to the collaboration of corporations with the development sector,especially the NGOs. From the past fifty years the western worldhas been looking at several dimensions of CSR; legal, ethical as wellas discretionary. But in India, It is only in recent years that dedicatedCSR departments and staffs have appeared in companies. Thesetrained professionals are designing effective community orientedprojects which are transforming communities albeit in a smallfocussed manner. This article will carry a short case study of onesuch CSR project of a large Multinational corporation functioningin India. This article stresses on the potential that CSR projectshave in the face of criticisms coming from certain quarters.

Keywords: Corporate Social Responsibility, Communitydevelopment, Internal and External CSR, community orientedprojects.

Introduction

While it is still contested whether corporations should have socialresponsibilities beyond a wealth generating function (Friedman, 1962),the world is increasingly seeing corporations fulfilling broader socialgoals. These have been happening within business firms withinitiatives like changing methods of production to reduce environmentalimpacts, changing employee relations both within the firm and acrossthe firms’ supply chains. The initiatives outside the firm include making

* K. Hemalatha, PhD, is Associate Professor, Department of social work, Christ University

** Manu Mathew is a research assistant in a major research project on CSR at Christ University

*** Lovis Praveen is a counsellor in a service providing company, PPC International.

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infrastructural investments in local communities or as more widelyseen in philanthropic community initiatives (Aguilera et. al, 2007).

Earlier corporations found it difficult to understand theconsequences of social and economic goals. Social goals weredirected towards stakeholders and economic goals towardsshareholders. It soon emerged that the development of the both thesegroups needed to be directly proportional and this led entrepreneursto believe that profit making need not be the only corporate goal. Asa result, companies started practising social responsibility activitieson a voluntary basis to attain various results such as building strongcompany - stakeholder relationship, motivating employees to enhanceproduction, influencing the community for development and reducingthe threat to environment. Companies also have a history of adaptingthe approaches advocated in professional social work. This hasresulted in good employee engagement practices besides theengagement of other stakeholders the deprived communities.

Community development in the CSR agenda

Community development is a multidimensional paradigm both inits scope and operation. In an attempt to give a definition to thisconcept, the Cambridge summary conference of (1948) in Hanachor(2009:5) stated that: “Community development is a movementdesigned to promote better living for the whole community with theactive participation and if possible, on the initiative and if not forthcoming spontaneously, by the use of techniques for arousing andstimulating it in order to ensure its active enthusiastic response to themovement.”

This definition of community development has implications tostakeholder perspective of CSR. Corporations can ensure sustainablerural and community development by ensuring community participationthrough “stakeholder dialogue” in strategy making and theimplementation process.

Murry (1966) in Bello I.O. and Bola Oni S (1987:1) projectanother dimension of community development as “the utilization under

K. Hemalatha, Manu Mathew, Lovis Praveen


a single programme of approaches and techniques which rely uponlocal communities as units of action which attempts to combine outsideassistance with organized local self determination and effort whichcorrespondingly seek to stimulate local initiative and leadership asthe primary instrument of change”. The field of professional socialwork has standardised the process of engaging with the communities.Practice principles and approached have been well researched andpresented in the contexts of several problem situations. Most agenciesinvolved in bringing changes at the level of communities haveincorporated one of the several approaches that social workadvocates.

With the adoption of these approaches, especially those that reston the perspective of “strengths found in all communities to upliftthemselves”, mutual benefits can be achieved for both the corporateand the community. These practices as part of CSR promote thelocal community to become a development partner for the companyrather than a passive recipient of philanthropy. The recent trends incorporate practices has motivated the practice of CSR due to itseffectiveness, recognition of impacts in a global scenario, increase incapital flow and wide appreciations of various ventures. The positiveoutcomes from these include skill training, employment opportunities,access to markets, business linkages and so on. Most of the privatesector initiated projects associated with community developmentprograms has promised a community driven development strategyensuring sustainability.

In its turn, CSR has also been evolving and projecting some ofthese features. Dahlsurd (2006) in his effort to analyse definitions ofCSR has listed several with community development as a prominentcomponent of CSR. World Business Council for SustainableDevelopment (2000) offers a perceptive definition “Corporate SocialResponsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behaveethically and contribute to economic development while improvingthe quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as thelocal community and society at large.” The NGOs India website statesthat “Corporate Social Responsibility is a business process wherein

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the institution and the individuals within are sensitive and careful aboutthe direct and indirect effect of their work on internal and externalcommunities, nature and outside world.” (2003)

These emerging definitions of CSR from the past decade clearlyproject that CSR is reaching beyond the narrow economic, technicaland legal requirement to the accomplishment of significant socialbenefits in local communities.

Besides these emerging visions, business experts have also startedredefining poverty as a business opportunity rather than a problem.The modern view of CSR as a business development tool targetspoverty as a marketing opportunity. The argument is that businessitself contributes for the community development through usualinvestments, creating employment opportunities and payment of tax.Even if the philanthropic aspect of business responsibility is nil, theend result of the contribution would be the same. This has in a verycoherent way changed the perceptions of the corporations towardsdeprived communities.

Another event has been noticed in countries such as China,Bangladesh and Argentina where companies are actively involved inpromoting employment of the marginal communities. In South Africa,social action movements have forced the companies to think of theirsocial responsibilities, leading to the growth of CSR in that continent.Researchers seem to see this occurrence as suggestive of CSRbecoming a development tool to address social justice and communitydevelopment. In becomes important in this context to understandwhat Blowfield and Frynas (2005) argue that the demands ofdeveloping nations are such that their solutions are to be looked fromevery possible source. These researchers report that companies haverealised that CSR has to be conducted at the intersection ofdevelopment, environment and human rights.

It is not surprising therefore that CSR has become a major focusof interest to the development practitioners, including professionalsocial workers whose practices, principles and philosophies overlapwith the emerging values being incorporated into the domain of CSR.



Curriculum developed to training students in social work are lookingat the emergence of CSR as a domain and are researching variousaspects such as collaborations with NGOs and CBOs, the role ofsocial workers in this domain and in the evaluation of the CSR projects.Apart from the development agenda of the governments and theNGOs, it is being realised in all schools of social work that CSRperspectives is worth pursuing and adapting into practice. This isreiterated by development agencies like the DFID of United Kingdomwhich states, that through CSR, the growth generated by corporationswould be more inclusive, equitable and poverty reducing.

Vivos (2004) goes to the extent of stating that CSR by its verynature is development done by private sector and it perfectlycomplements the development efforts of governments anddevelopment agencies. In fact, both the UN and World Bank havemade significant efforts in linking CSR with community development.Jenkins (2005) lists wide ranging development agencies collaboratingwith CSR initiatives such as SIDA- Swedish InternationalDevelopment Agency and UK’s DIFD- Department of InternationalDevelopment.

Table No. 1 Community development CSR projects inBangalore (N =25)

In one of their ongoing research projects, the researchers notedthe nature of CSR projects that companies in Bangalore are engagedin (N=25). Health and Education are the two major areas wherecompanies are investing their CSR resources. More than half of thecompanies under the study have health and education projects. Ruraland Agrarian projects are also being taken up in several companies.

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Some other companies have looked into the sustainability issues andthey have projects on energy conservation and development ofalternative source of energy. A few companies have citizenempowerment projects.

NGOs and CSR

The concept of Stakeholder Dialogue (Freeman, 1984) bringsforth the idea of NGO’s partnership in CSR. By brainstorming withNGOs, companies can generate a better strategy of communityinvolvement through the NGOs’ rapport and understanding of thecommunity dynamics. Community development interventions are notjust the provision of providing monitory and elementary resources tothe community. It is a long process of continuous communicationand empowerment through various development strategies such ascapacity building, education, making communities understand theirneeds through participatory approach, and planning developmentstrategies by considering differences between the felt need and actualneeds.

In India, most CSR initiatives are being developed andimplemented with the support of one or several NGOs. The CompanyNGO interphase is seen as vital in managing the logistics of a CSRprojects. In fact some of the company volunteers are actively involvedwith NGOs in operating CSR projects. Besides this, it has to beremembered that in the developing country context, factors such aslanguage, culture, education and pluralistic values of deprivedcommunities pose problems for a direct stakeholder engagementbetween companies and communities (Blowfield and Frynas, 2005).Companies have to create collaborations with NGOs to reach to thedeprived.

The early forms of business-NGO relations were mostlyconfrontational, with well-known anti-corporate campaigns. Todaynew forms of business-NGO engagement have emerged based on acombination of confrontation and collaboration strategies. Withoutabandoning advocacy and campaigning, today’s NGOs also engage



corporations and business associations to identify and disseminatecorporate best practices. They form partnerships to promote socialand environmental actions, provide technical assistance tocorporations, elaborate commonly agreed certification schemes,promote and design corporate social responsibility (CSR) standardsas well as management and reporting processes, and participate inCSR monitoring and auditing. These new forms of collaborationbetween business and NGOs reflect broader changes in the overallgovernance environment, while contributing to the reconstitution ofthe global public domain where firms carry out their activity (Arenaset al, 2009).

Table No. 2: Company perceptions on NGO association inCSR practice

In an ongoing study it was found by the authors of the presentpaper that 60% companies gave their opinion that execution of CSRactivities through NGOs is effective. NGOs have a key role to playin identifying the company’s interest and utilize the recourses in aproductive manner for the beneficiaries. Thus, the NGOs can buildthe link between the company and its stakeholders by making use oftheir grass root knowledge and interventions techniques.

Some of companies covered under the study have a formalMemorandum of Understanding with their partnering NGOs. Thereare companies in India who are aware of the possibilities and scope

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of CSR through NGO association, though CSR is in a nascent stagein India. Companies feel that the partnerships with NGOs are madeon the basis of issues of concern for the company and the expertiseavailable with the NGOs.

The partnering NGO in CSR is involved in the whole process ofplanning, implementation and evaluation of the development program.There are companies who completely entrust the project to the NGO.But many others partner with NGO at every step of the projectmanagement. To make CSR effective and result oriented, there mustbe the involvement of the representatives from both the parties, i.e.,the company and NGO, as well as the other stakeholders.

Joint meetings are held on CSR project evaluations with NGOs.Joint project evaluations are important as this can give an overviewof the effectiveness and drawbacks of the program. This can alsoincrease the trust and coordination between the company and theNGO.

Around half of the (52%) companies reported that they fundselected projects of the NGOs that come under their CSR’s area ofconcern. In these companies NGO representatives are playing anadvisory role in the planning of CSR projects. In the proposedamendment of Companies Act in India, it is recommended that theadvisory board for CSR should consists of three directors and oneamong them should be from outside the company and that can be amember from the partnering NGO.

Indian law and CSR

In recent years the Indian state has been placing great impetuson CSR initiatives. In fact the recent amendments to the Company’sAct (2012) have been explicit in its expectations from CSR. Thegovernment of India has adopted the following activities under CSR:

1.Eradicating extreme hunger and poverty2.Promotion of education3.Promoting gender equality and empowering women4.Reducing child mortality and improving maternal health



5.Combating human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immunedeficiencySyndrome, malaria and other diseases;

6.Ensuring environmental sustainability7.Employment enhancing vocational skills8.Social business projects9.Contribution to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund or

any other Fund set up by the Central Government or the StateGovernments for Socio-economic development and relief andfunds for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes, the ScheduledTribes, other backward classes, minorities and women

National Voluntary Guidelines published by Indian Ministry ofCorporate Affairs (2012) clearly suggests the guidelines for Social,Environmental and Economic Responsibilities of Business. Theguideline affirms the idea of “triple bottom-line approach” of businessthat gives importance to People, Planet and Profit. The nine principlesstated in the guideline look into all the aspects of internal and externalCSR activities with regulations on fair governance, safety andsustainability, employee welfare, stakeholder involvement, promotionof human rights, protection of environment, value of products etc.These initiatives will make CSR projects a tool for developmentprocess in India.

Professional social work and the developmentapproach of CSR

The above discussions impel readers to perceive the overarchinginterest that professional social work has in this area. Whether onelooks at the perspective of community development or the field ofCSR, one gets the impression that social work, its philosophies andideologies besides its approaches should be able to give a dominantthrust to the discussions and debates. The professional approachesof social work include the traditional welfare approach besides therights approach, the systems approach as well as the strengthsapproach. These have shaped the interventions that social workershave designed and implemented. There is every reason for

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professionals involved in CSR to assimilate these into their projects.The case study that is presented as part of this paper shows how theinputs from professional social workers have enriched the CSRinterventions.

Case study “Namma Halli”

This case study revolves around the efforts at Volvo, a majorSwedish multinational company involved in the manufacture ofconstruction machineries and working in information technology. Thecompany has been in the forefront of several CSR projects aroundthe world. Primarily the company’s effort is evident in the field ofsustainability and environmental protection. In this case study thecompany’s community development initiative at its Bangalore plantis being presented. Community development as envisaged by thiscompany is to help the community to get economically developed,educated and empowered to bring out the true potential of ruralpopulation.

The CSR projects have been operationalised by the companywith the active support of a NGO floated by another company TVSMotors Ltd. The NGO is called SST- Srinivasan Services Trust,which is spearheading several development projects across SouthIndia. This NGO promotes a programme called “Namma Halli”,literally Our Village, across several villages. It is worthy to note thatthis NGO has been working for the past twenty years in 1056 villagescovering the five states of Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra,Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu.

As part of its efforts, this NGO places one of its personnel in thecorporate to have a continuous dialogue with the company as well asclosely monitor the progress of the progress. At the Hoskote plant ofthis corporate, a representative of the NGO co-ordinates all the CSRefforts. Being a professional social worker, he is able to put in placepractices found in the administration of projects within developmentsector. The presence of a development practitioner within thecorporate ensures the continuous monitoring all the projects



The present case study was carried out in November 2012 intwo villages called Manchappanahalli and Hedachanahalli, adoptedfor the implementation of its CSR projects by Volvo. Both the villagesare situated within a two kilometre radius of the plant at Hoskotewhich is around 50 kilometres from Bangalore. Following the modelof SST practiced across the villages of India, work is being carriedout in these two villages also. The thrust areas of the project areEconomic Development, Education, Health, Infrastructure andEnvironment covering the entire population especially children, womenand farmers.

Economic development

Under the head of economic development two groups are underfocus: women and farmers.

The economic needs of women are being looked at mainlythrough the mechanisms of the Self help groups (SHGs). Theinterventions are designed to teach women the elements of Microfinance. Bank linkages have been created to create optimal supportfor the groups formed. Besides, to sustain the self help groups, someincome generation programmes have been initiated. Around 60% ofwomen of both the villages are involved in the self help groups. Fromstudies across India it has been noted that SHG formation is a richtool of women empowerment wherein skills like functional literacy,organizing skills, assertiveness and self confidence are inculcated.In the present study the areas that are evident include prevalence offunctional literacy among all the participants. The savings practicesseem to be well developed in all the groups besides some knowledgeof the usage of financial institutions. This particular area of workhas been implemented in these villages for the past three years.Professional social work principles would probably expect greaterinfusion of organizational elements in this programme. It has beenwitnessed in many projects that within this time period village SHGsare linked to zonal, cluster and some apex level structures. Theseare developments that have to be built into the present project tomake it more viable and sustainable in future.

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Coming to the farmers groups, the activities mainly created areeducational programmes around modern agricultural practices andtechniques. Much of this is achieved through the collaborations withagencies like UNICEF. Being an educational and awareness creationactivity, the evidence of change is minimal and is expected to be slowto achieve.

Education

This segment of their CSR efforts has the support of volunteersof the Volvo plant. In fact, it is entirely dependent on the efforts ofthe volunteers. This project is designed to infuse the regular interactionof the volunteers with the beneficiaries, who are school students inthis case. Both middle and high school children benefit from thisprogramme. The primary intervention is the continuous upgrading ofcomputer skills in the school children through interaction with volunteerslargely drawn from the IT segment of the industry. There have alsobeen instances of certain extracurricular elements that are beingdesigned and delivered to the students. Due to the structure of thisintervention of regular interactions between the volunteers and thestudents, considerable enthusiasm and interest has been createdamong them. Quite unfortunately this programme is taken up in athird village where the other community activities are not taken up.Once there is withdrawal of the project from these villages, theremay be issues related to sustaining the interest created. The officialshave to build certain safeguards to prevent this from happening.

Health

Health related intervention covers the entire population of thetwo villages along with some veterinary care. Periodic general healthcare camps, eye check up camps are conducted. As part of preventiveand promotive aspects of health care, nutrition and vaccinationsprogrammes are implemented and monitored in collaboration with



the anganwadi created under the ICDS (Integrated child developmentscheme). Across the nation very few CSR health programmes arefunctioning outside the Public-Private Partnership model. It becomesessential to collaborate with the Primary health centres and theaganwadis to promote health care. The same model is being replicatedhere.

Infrastructure and environmental

Work has been taken up again through the involvement ofvolunteers to create certain infrastructure at the schools adopted atTavarekere village. Here the volunteers from the Hoskote plant havedesigned the entire electrical installation of the computer centre ofthe school. Besides these all the equipment and computers for theschools have been provided by the volunteers. A compound wall hasbeen constructed around the anganwadi besides a cement roadthrough the village. In most of the Indian villages infrastructurecreation fulfils several needs of the villagers. Though it appears tobe an adhoc initiative with minimal investment, the utility of theseprojects is huge from the point of view of the beneficiaries. As a partof its environment initiatives, saplings have been distributed to manyof the villagers to green these villages. This of course is neither aunique nor a new programme that has been created.

Looking at these initiatives taken up by Volvo industries, a fewobservations need to be made. All the CSR projects are identifiedbased on the convenience factor rather than “Need”. This is animportant argument from the point of view of social work in the creationof effective interventions. But, one also has to look at the involvementof the corporate as well as volunteers and their contribution to theseprojects. This would be almost impossible if projects of situatedhundreds of miles away where need is felt. But it becomes necessaryto state that companies would be wiser to keep the needs of thebeneficiaries and the sustainability of the project in executing all oftheir CSR projects.

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Conclusion

India is a country with many well constructed laws and policiesbut hardly followed with purposeful implementation and monitoring.CSR can be one of the effective tools for sustainable developmentprocess if it is well regulated and encouraged throughout the country.In a highly populated country like India, where government policiesfail to reach common people, corporate can play a significant role insupporting the development process by their responsible contributionfor the welfare of their stakeholders. There are a few companies ofIndian origin which are making efforts for social development andunderstanding the importance of being socially responsible but, morevoluntary efforts are needed. Lack of professional knowledge insocial development and welfare and the application of the approachesdeveloped by social work professionals among the corporations canbe balanced through NGO involvements and having social workprofessionals in CSR committees or departments. Awareness onresponsibilities and duties of corporate citizenship and betterimplementation of laws and policies on CSR can make changes inthe attitude and approach of the corporate towards communitydevelopment.

References:

1. Arenas, D., Lozano, J.M. & Albareda, L. (2009). Professional Ethics in Businessand Social Life. Journal of Business Ethics , 175-197.

2. Jenkins, R. (2005, May). Critical Perspectives on Corporate SocialResponsibility. International Affairs , pp. 525-540.

3. Carron, M.P., Thomsen, L.T., Chan, A., Muro, A. & Bhushan, C. (2005,May). Critical Perspectives on CSR and development: What We know, whatwe don’t know and what We need to know. International Affairs .

4. Newell, P. & Frynas, J.G. (2007). Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility?Business, Poverty and Social Justice. Third World Quarterly , 28 (4), pp. 669-681.

5. Baxi,C.V. & Ray, R.S. (2012). Corporate Social Responsibility. New Delhi:Vikas Publishing House.

6. Visser, Matten, Pohl & Tolhurst. (EDs.) (2007). The A to Z of CorporateSocial Responsibility. West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.



7. Blowfield, M., & Frynas, J. G. (2005). Setting New Agendas: Critical Perspectiveson Corporate Social Responsibility in the Developing World. InternationalAffairs , 499-513.

8. Aguilera, R. V., Rupp, D. E., Williams, C. A., & Ganapathi, J. (2007). Puttingthe S back in Corporate Social Responsibility: A Multilevel Theory of SocialChange in Organiations. Academy of Management Review , 836-863.

9. Dahlsurd, A. (2006). Corporate Social Responsibility ans EnvironmentalManagement. Whley InterScience(Online Publishers)

www.interscience.whiley.com .

10. Srinivasan Service Trust. (2012). SST Report 2011- 2012. Bangalore: Retrievedfrom http://www. tvssst.org/

11. Volvogroup. (2013). Volvo Group Sustainability Report. Retrieved July 2013,from Volvo Group website: http://www.volvogroup.com

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Mobilizing Local Resources as a Catalyst inCommunity Development – A Case Study of

Kudumbasree Units in Kerala

Vidya Vijayan1

Abstract

One of the sustaining elements of communitarian social workis the meaningful involvement of the people who are supposedto benefit from the collective effort. A community that has theright orientation, has multiple sets of skills to see through theirown process of development, has a better chance of sustainingcommunity work in its development. Community-basedprogrammes and SHGs are important components of theneighborhoods, villages, towns and cities in which they operate.Such groups can improve the quality of life within their communitiesby responding to local needs, providing new solutions to problemswhich may be quite old. The indicator that such groups meet localneeds is their ability to mobilize people and resources within thecommunity. Every community, even the poorest, has resourcesthat can be used to implement projects that respond to local needs-both financial and non-financial contributions to improve projects.Local resources not only allow for the implementation of successfulcommunity projects, but also contribute to the long-termsustainability of initiatives. By mobilizing local resources tocommunitarian work, both the community and local contributorsbenefit in a number of ways. This paper explores Kudumba sreeprogramme for poverty reduction launched by the Keralagovernment which has really proved how a community can beemerged and flourish by using local resources. The programme as aneffective communitarian work marked its efficacy by bridging thegap between needs and resources in a cost effective manner.

Key words: community development, local resources, kudumba

sree

1. Research Scholar, School of Gandhian Thought& Development Studies,Mahatma Gandhi University email: [email protected]


Introduction

Kudumbashree is a multi-faceted women based participatorypoverty eradication programme jointly initiated by Government ofKerala and NABARD. It is implemented by community basedorganizations (CBOs) of poor women in co-operation with Local SelfGovernment Institutions. Kudumbasree is the flagship programme ofKerala state Govt.for poverty eradication which provides 2, 34,756self-employment opportunities to women below poverty line, Whichhas succeeded in making a significant dent on poverty in thestate6.The Kerala state Poverty eradication mission implemented theKudumbasree programme by organizing the poor by creatingcommunity based structure of women below poverty line with focuson self help demands led over by available resources under theleadership of local Government. This programme covers the entirerural area of about 1, 35,572neighbourhood groups, 13,199 areadevelopment societies, and 991community development societies.Kudumbasree is the largest micro finance institution in Kerala. Itmobilizes a sum of 376.06 cores as thrift and disbursed as credit to itsmembers. The thrift and credit societies at neighbourhood group levelmotivate and facilitate the poor to save and provide them with costeffective and easy credit. The poor families bring in small sumsaccording to their capacity, pool them together, for a corpus and takeback loans to meet their immediate needs without depending on moneylenders. Kudumbasree aims at eradicating absolute poverty within adefinite time frame of 10 years under the leadership of Local SelfGovernments formed and empowered by the 73rd and 74thAmendments of the Constitution of India. Unlike many other similarprogrammes, it follows a process approach rather than a projectapproach. The slogan of the mission is “reaching out to families throughwomen and reaching out to community through families”. In order toachieve the mission within a predetermined period, kudumbasree setthe following principal objectives

• Facilitating self identification of the Poor families throughthe poverty risk index

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• Empowering the women of the poor strata to improve theirindividual and collective capabilities.

• Encouraging thrift investment through credit by developingcommunity developed societies to work as informal banksof the poor.

• Improving income of the poor through upgrades of vocationaland managerial skill and creation of the opportunities forself employment and wage employment.

• Ensuring access to basic amenities like safe drinking water,sanitary facilities, improved shelter and healthy livingenvironment.

• Promoting functional literacy among the poor and supportingcontinuing education.

Hence Kudumbasree aims at the all round empowerment ofwomen and thus to eradicate the evil of poverty which is believed tobe helping them to develop a self sufficient, self reliant and sustainablelively hood in the near future.

The State led Kudumbashree Model

The big bang of decentralization of government in the state ofKerala in India came in two bursts in transfer of powers to localgovernments. First in October 1995 when the decision to transfermost of the development institutions to local governments along withstaff was made and the second in August 1996 when the decision totransfer about a third of State Plan resources to local governmentswas announced and the People’s Plan Campaign launched. Alongsideit was decided to universalize the Anti-Poverty Program of the Stateunder the name of Kudumbashree. Kudumbashree the State PovertyEradication Mission (SPEM) was launched by Government of Keralain 1998 with the active support of Government of India and NABARDfor wiping out absolute poverty within a period of 10years.(Kudumbashree Annual Administration Report, 2009-2010)The project is implemented through Local Self Governmentsempowered by the 73rd and 74th Constitutional amendments. Theslogan of the Mission is “Reaching out to families through women

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and reaching out to community through families”. Today 3.6 millionwomen participate in the Kudumbashree movement in the statecutting across political ideologies and religious faiths. Through theCommunity Development Society (CDS) system 36 lakh women ofState have been organized into 1, 82,969 grass root level Neighborhoodgroups. Apart from thrift mobilization and informal banking, the CDSstructure has given birth to 29,436 vibrant microenterprises.

Social and Economical Empowerment of Women –Kudumbashree Model of Kerala

In the post independence period of India in fact there is no droughtof programmes and projects to deal with the poverty situation.However all the programmes are planned and implemented by thebureaucrats without much insight and followed a top down approach.These programmes were supply driven and not need based and demanddriven and were not taken in to account of the magnitude of poverty,causes of poverty, and variables of poverty. The perception of povertyitself was ambiguous and vague and also the estimation of povertywas inaccurate, insufficient and purposeless. The income was onlyfactor that based for determining poverty. In fact it was based on thepurchasing capacity of the family to procure food. The aspirations ofthe poor, the basic needs of the poor, the levels of deprivations of thepoor were not considered and someone else took decision on hisprerogative. In this context it inevitable to discuss about the verysuccessful anti poverty programme of Kerala state government underthe brand name “Kudumbashree” means prosperity of the family.

The Kudumbashree is the largest poverty eradication missionand women-empowerment project in the country and also mightywomen’s movements in Asia with a full-time women membership of3.7 million, engaged in an array of gainful activities covers more than50% of the households in Kerala launched by government of Keralafor wiping out absolute poverty by empowering poor women flockfrom the state within a period of 10 years is a holistic, participatory,women oriented innovative overarching poverty reduction approach.This process is implemented through Local Self Governments formedand empowered by the 73rd & 74th Constitutional Amendments. The

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Mission follows a process approach rather than a project approach.The Kudumbashree envision prosperity of the poor families in thestate with multiple programmes that will provide them information,create awareness, build up their capability and capacity, enhancetheir confidence and show them opportunity for better social securityand empower them physically, socially, economically and politically.

STRUCTURE OF CBO’S IN KUDUMBASHREEa) Neighbourhood Group (NHG)The lower most tiers constitute the Neighbourhood Group

consisting of 20-40 women members selected from the poor families.These NHG’s are also called ‘Ayalkootams’ (meaning‘neighbourhood’ in Malayalam) by the women. Meetings are convenedon a weekly basis in the houses of NHG members. In the meetingthe various problems faced by the Group members are discussedalong with suggestions for improving the situation. In the weeklymeeting all the members bring thrift, which will be collected andrecycled to the system by way of sanctioning loans. Five volunteersare selected at this level: the Community Health Volunteer, Incomegeneration activities volunteer, Infrastructure Volunteer, Secretaryand the President. They look into the respective activities and problemsof their groups.

b) Area Development Society (ADS)The second tier is Area Development Society which is formed

at the ward level by federating 10-15 NHG’s. The ADS functionthrough three distinct bodies:

General Body: It consists of the five volunteers and all the NHG’isa part of it.

Governing Body: It is constituted by electing a President,Secretary and a five member Committee from the General Body.Links with the Local Self Government: In Grama panchayats theward member is the patron of the ADS and in Urban Local Bodies aseparate Monitoring & advisory Committee is constituted with theward Councillor as the chairperson.

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c) Community Development Society (CDS)At the Panchayat / Municipal level a Community Development

Society (CDS), a registered body under the Charitable Societies Actis formed by federating various ADS’s. It too includes three distinctbodies:

General Body: It consists of all the ADS Chairpersons and ADSGoverning Body members along with representatives of ResourcePersons and Officers of the Local Body involved in the implementationof the Poverty Alleviation and Women Empowerment Programmes.

Even though Kerala State is well-known for its egalitarian policiesin terms of healthcare, redistributive actions and social reforms, andits health indicators close to those of high-resource countries despitea poor per-capita income, it is not clear whether socio-economicdisparities in terms of life expectancy are observed. There is anincreased emphasis on encouraging NHG women to activelyparticipate in grama sabhas, thus politically scaling up. Activeinvolvement in preparation of anti poverty sub plans and in the gramasabhas are expected to improve convergence and empower women.Community contracting is also gaining increasing popularity.Kudumbashree’s upcoming Bhavan Shree programme is an exampleof implementation by the grassroots population. It is also an exampleof Kudumbashree trying to bridge the information and skills gaps foreffective community contracting. In this program, Kudumbashreeaims to motivate and train below-poverty-line (BPL) households toconstruct their own houses instead of waiting for years to obtaingovernment-subsidized housing. Loans will be provided at subsidizedinterest rates of 7.8 percent per year. Kudumbashree aims to providetechnical training to interested NHG members in building houses.The NHG infrastructure volunteer is responsible for collectinginterest. The CDS is responsible for ensuring prompt repayment ofthe loans and monitoring the implementation of the housing schemeat the grassroots.

New Areas of Intervention

• Arogya Swayam Sahaya Sangham (health self-helpgroups). Currently, Kudumbashree is focusing on capacitybuilding among NHGs to manage minor ailments as well as

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chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus and to promotehealth by changing risky behaviors. Kudumbashree is trainingNHG health volunteers to this end.

• Balasabhas (children.s clubs) are grassroots groups ofthe children of NHG members. The objective of these clubsis to the boost healthy growth and development of childrenand to provide an atmosphere for informal learning.

• Destitute identification and rehabilitation. From itsmonitoring system, Kudumbashree learned that destitutefamilies are being left out of NHGs. The KudumbashreeCBOs often failed to enroll the poorest of the poor in theirvicinity. According to the Kudumbashree staff, this wasperhaps because destitute families find it hard to contributethrift, set up and run profitable microenterprises, or toexpress their needs. Destitute rehabilitation is going to beone of the thrust areas of Kudumbashree in years to come.Elected representatives at the state, regional, grampanchayat, and CDS levels have already been trained inrelated areas. The central government released Rs 80million to Kudumbashree for a destitute rehabilitation andtracking program.

Research Methodology

Objective of the studyThe main objective of this research paper is to describe how the

economic and social empowerment of poor women flock ofKudumbashree mobilized resources effectively for communitydevelopment.

The study used both primary and secondary sources. Primarydata was collected by using a questionnaire schedule among 45kudumbasree workers in the Kunnamthanam (Gram Panchayat) ofPathanamthitta District of Kerala state, who claimed to havesuccessfully engaged in the self-employment programme. The sampleselection was on systematic random sampling. The questionnaire was

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developed to assess their socio-economic development after theirparticipation in Kudumbasree.

Programme. Secondary sources included books, journals,articlesand reports from newspapers, weekly’s, magazines, etc.The datacollected from both the primary and secondary sources were quantifiedand analyzed in qualitative terms which revealed that there wasconsiderable improvement in the socioeconomic status of womenwho participated in the Kudumbasree Programme in KunnamthanamPanchayat, Pathnamthitta district, Kerala.Basic Principles for the selection of the sample are as follows:

Normative identification of the poor – simple, non –monitoryindividuals. Indicators on the basis of which the study group is selectedincluded the organization of the poor, inclusiveness – every belowpoverty level persons.

Micro Enterprises: Kudumbashree definition of microenterprise. i. An enterprise with investment ranging from Rs.5000 toRs. 250000, ii. Turn over between Rs 100000 and Rs500000, iii.Generating at least Rs 1500 per member per month and an enterprisefully owned, managed and operated by members themselves (OME)

Some of the programmes undertaken by women forempowerment under Kudumbasree are shown below.

Laundry Units, Direct Marketing Group,Innovations in Kudumbashree: Thrift and credit and linkage

banking, micro enterprise development, clean Kerala business,Santhwanam, Rothstein KASS Women’s Initiative, EKSAT,

Nutrimix, Bhavanashree, Livelihood Oriented Business School(LOBS), Certificate course for the poor, GRQ (Goat-Rabbit-Quail)project, LED register, Market innovations retail network, Samagraprojects.

Hypothesis: -Women will become socioeconomically developedafter participating in Kudumbasree programme, Women taking partin Kudumbasree programme will be able to enhance their communitythrough effective use of resources such as manpower and localresources.

- Women joining Kudumbasree will become more participatory,involved and active, women will become more responsible after joining

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Kudumbasree programme, and women will be able to analyzethemselves or their strengths better after taking part in Kudumbasreeprogramme.

Table-1Showing the Banking Skill of Respondents

Results and Discussion

From table-1 it can be observed that 53% that of the respondentswho participated in kudumbasree programme developed their levelof confidence to take up responsibilities after joining the initiative.One fourth of the kudumbasree women said that they don’t havemuch confidence, but improved their level of confidence after workingin the programme. Only 22% reported that they lack confidence totake up responsibilities.

Table-2Showing the Participation in Gramasabha and Meetings

In these study 67% or 30 members from the study samplereported that they will actively participate in meetings by askingquestions and express opinions openly. 24% told that they only joinwith others and don’t openly express alone. 9% of them said thatthey don’t participate, but sit passively in the meetings.

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Particular No of respondents %Confident 24 53.34Not much confident 11 24.44Less confident 10 22.22Not confident

Particular No of respondents %Asking questions and 30 66.67express opinionOnly joins with others 11 24.44Doing nothing 4 8.89


Table-3Showing the Interest of Respondents in Co-Ordinating

Programmes

From table-3 it is observed that 67% of the kudumbasree womenshowed interest in taking up responsibilities such as coordinatingprogrammes and 33% did not take any responsibility at all.

Table- 4Showing the Self-Evaluation Capacity of Respondents

Table-4 shows the self-evaluation capacity of kudumbasreewomen. 35% reported that they have good capacity to evaluatethemselves. 27% of the Kudumbasree women felt that they don’thave that much capacity to evaluate themselves, but 38% of themfelt that they are improving very well in evaluating themselves afterattending each and every program me. It can be interpreted that theyare on the way to success. Many of them improved very well andthe rest of them are doing well and changing significantly.

The data obtained through the study was analyzed usingappropriate statistical techniques. The information collected throughthe interview method based on the self-developed check list by theresearcher, it can be inferred that the study proves that theKudumbasree program me has made a dramatic change in theeconomic; political and social life of its beneficiaries. Their monthly

Self Evaluation Frequency of respondents percentageDoing well 13 35.1351Fails to do better 10 27.027Feels better after 14 37.8378every timeOthers 0 00.00

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Strong Interest Frequency of %respondents

Yes 30 66.66No 15 33.33

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income exceeds the income of their husbands. Their incomeexpenditure pattern shows a significant developmental structure. Theyare spending 30-35 % of their income for the education of their childrenand 45% for substitution of food and costumes, 12% for medicineand 15-18% goes to their saving bank accounts. Their participationin Grama Sabah and public meetings improved. Their participationlevel in meetings becomes more active. They become more confidentin banking, and money transactions, they improved their skill in theco-ordination of meetings and communication skill and public speakingskill also improved. They shared that the attitude of in-laws andhusband had changed and they now consider as the earning memberof the family, got a significant position in the decision making in thefamily. The kudumbasree women disclose the feeling that they aregetting good psychological support from the group, they got thefreedom over the money they earned through their self-employmentand they are free from the hands of the money lenders.

Industrialization and extraction of natural resources have resultedin large scale women empowerment. The women got freedom ofwork and favourable working atmosphere especially group activityand they enjoy the division of labour. They got the freedom to spendthe money or purchase the things according to their will and wish.They came out of the kitchens and developed a positive attitudetowards the society. They have started feeling that they are also anintegral part of the society. The feeling of being productive buildsconfidence, self-esteem and self-worth in these women. This helpsthem to participate in all social spheres and create self-dependency.They themselves operate their bank accounts and all the membersshould take the responsibility alternatively, this improved their bankingskill and confidence in doing money transactions.

Focus Group Discussion

The researcher also conducted focus group discussions withtwo kudumbasree units on the impact of Kudumbasree members’on communitarian work and how their work enhance for community

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development in the Kunnamthanam Panchayath. The results of thediscussion are as follows:

1.Enrollment of illiterate adults in the Total Literacy Programsand ensuring that every child attends and completes primaryschool,

2.income-generation schemes for unemployed women,3.Shelter upgrading,4.Provision of household sanitary latrines,5.Provision of safe drinking water,6.Thrift and credit societies for improving access to credit,7.Health and nutrition education to improve childcare practices,8.Better use of existing health and integrated child development

services (ICDS) programs,9.Improving food availability through kitchen gardens and other

innovative measures such as foodgrain banks,10. Activities to address other special problems identified in

the communities.

Impacting the community

Field visit observations• Awareness about programs and services has increased (as

reported by NHG women), resulting in improved access ofsuch programs and services.

• Participatory planning still remains largely a .supply-driven,demand-driven process, where planning is limited primarilyto availing individual benefits from government programs.

• In active NHGs, women are confident and are capable ofarticulating their demands. The women have a voice andare appreciative of the platform. that the NHGs provides.

• Group activities have led to greater cohesion, serving as asocial safety net in times of crisis, reducing the feeling ofvulnerability, e.g., women contribute to the treatment of sickmembers of NHG households.

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• Considerable savings are being generated due to TCS,which provide credit both for both consumption smoothingand productive purposes.

• Thrift and credit societies are slowly but surely attractingbank credit facilities, based on the strength of the savings.However, NHGs are still facing constraints in realizing suchlinkages to the full potential.

• NHG members are undertaking both group and individualmicroenterprises.

• 8. There have been instances where the NHGs have shownthe potential for public action against social and economicinjustice, e.g., women took action against illicit liquor brewingand domestic violence.

• If implemented consistently, CDS has great potential toenlarge freedoms and capabilities of poor women

The following section describes the key achievements of theprogram to date.

• Thrift and Credit Societies (TCS). Kudumbashree promotesTCS at the NHG level to facilitate the poor to save and improve theiraccess to credit. Kudumbashree revitalized TCS with almost all NHGmembers belonging to these groups .A member can borrow up tofour times her savings.

Microenterprise. Program staff, working with other relevantgovernment departments and NABARD, identifies financially viableopportunities for the poor and promotes them aggressively

Participatory planning and implementation. This activityinvolves grassroots, bottom-up planning, and implementation ofprograms. This component is strengthened by efforts to increase theleadership of LGBs without compromising the autonomy and decisionmaking power of the CDS. There is an increased emphasis onencouraging NHG women to actively participate in grama sabhas,thus politically scaling up. Active involvement in preparation ofantipoverty sub plans and in the grama sabhas are expected toimprove convergence and empower women. Community contractingis also gaining increasing popularity, Kudumbashree’s upcomingBhavan Shree programme is an example of implementation by the

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grassroots population. It is also an example of Kudumbashree tryingto bridge the information and skills gaps for effective communitycontracting. In this program, Kudumbashree aims to motivate andtrain below-poverty-line (BPL) households to construct their ownhouses instead of waiting for years to obtain government-subsidizedhousing. Loans will be provided at subsidized interest rates of 7.8percent per year. Kudumbashree aims to provide technical trainingto interested NHG members in building houses. the potential for socialmarketing application for community mobilization. Kudumbashreecame up with the innovative idea of making the production of babyfood a micro enterprise activity.

After years of research by Kasargode District’s CentralPlantation and Crops Research Institute (CPCRI), the product‘Nutrimix’ came into existence and a number of Kudumbashreeenterprise groups are involved in its production in the state. In thisscheme, the baby food supplement is produced and supplied to‘anganwadis’ and ‘balwadis’ in specific area under the label‘AMRUTHAM’ and through this system there is an assured marketfor their commodities. The product is made out of simple and freelyavailable ingredients like Wheat, Bengal gram, Ground nut etc. andthe product has proved to be very successful in the pilot survey whenit was supplied to the underweight children in anganwadis ofBedadukka panchayat, and the children were able to gain normalweight within four weeks of the course.

Each nutrimix unit is assigned a particular block and their job isto cater to the demands of all the ‘anganwadis’ in the assignedpanchayats in their respective block. Therefore the extent of theirwork depends on the supervisor of the anganwadis of their assignedblock who places the order according to the needs of the childrenthere. The units, according to their need buy the provisions in bulkand gets it transported to their factory. Here they use their machineryto powder, husk and fry the provisions and then they pack and sealthem and transport them to their assigned block. In the case of unitswith no machines they get the provisions powdered elsewhere.

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Discussion and Conclusion

Sustainable economic growth is only possible when the povertyis wiped out from the economy. In fact in the case of our countyIndia the central government has coming up with innovative schemesevery year and sufficient fiscal allocation has made in union budgetfor eradicating poverty from our county and empowering poor women.Economic development is the base for other development. Collectiveeffort has been recognized as tenets of women empowerment.Through women empowerment leads to sustainable socialdevelopment. Economic development of women leads to better livingstatus in the family, educational, nutritional, and the health needs ofthe children were well satisfied. Economic independence throughkudumbasree improved the social participation of its members andthe Kudumbashree NHG movement is supporting for socialempowerment of poor women flock.

But in reality the statistics shows that the utilization of schemesand central fund for eradicating poverty and empowering women isvery limited from the side of various state governments. That meansa good central- state relationship is inevitable for eradicating povertyand empowering poor women in our county. In this context it is veryimportant to highlight the Kerala state government initiative and effortfor eradicating poverty through empowering poor women flock bysetting up “Kudumbashree”, the innovative woman based participatoryprogramme for wiping out absolute poverty from the State throughconcerted community action under the leadership of Local SelfGovernments. Today Kudumbashree is the largest women-empowering project in the country and also mighty women’smovements in Asia with a full-time women membership of 3.7 million,engaged in an array of gainful activities covers more than 50% of thehouseholds in Kerala. Built around three critical components–microcredit, entrepreneurship and empowerment, the Kudumbashreeinitiative has today succeeded in addressing the basic needs of theless privileged women, thus providing them a more dignified life anda better future by empowering them socially and economically. Theresearch paper is clearly indicating that the NHGs movement of

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Kudumbashree is significantly supporting for social and economicempowerment. The notable economic empowerment factors areincrease in personal as well as family income, reduction in debt andpossession of basic facilities/utilities at house. In the case of socialempowerment the notable factors are appreciation by the familymembers, appreciation in social functions, appreciation by theintermediaries, gripe against social tribulations, appreciation by thesociety, participation in social activities and team player of any socialorganization. The limitation of this research paper is that it onlyfocusing on two major empowerment factors namely economic andsocial, even though other empowerment factors are relevant. Eventhough the sample size for this research paper is very small comparedto the population the researcher could not generalize the findings ofthis research paper in Kerala.

AcronymsADS- area development societyAPL- above poverty lineBPL- below poverty lineCBO- community-based organizationCDS- community development societyGOI- government of IndiaGOK -government of KeralaLSG local self-governmentNABARD- National Bank for Agriculture and Rural

DevelopmentNHG- neighborhood groupNHGC -neighborhood group committeeTCS- thrift and credit societySHG-Self help groups

Reference

1. Brohman, John, (1996) Popular Achievement: Rethinking the theory andpractice of Development, Cambridge, Blackwell

2. Siva Prakash C.S. and Chandarsekar K.S., (2012) SHGs and socio-economicempowerment: A descriptive analysis based on Kudumbashree project in KeralaInternational Journal of Business and Management Tomorrow, 2(2), 1-10

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3. Geisler G.,(1993) Silences speak louder than claims: gender, household andagricultural development in Southern Africa World Development, (21)2, 1965-80

4. Nidheesh .K.B., (2009) Study on the changing process of Kerala Womenthrough Kudumbasree in Kerala.International NGO journal, (4)8,352-361

5. Sharma Pramila, Fulekar M.H. and Pathak Bhawana,(2012)E-Waste–Achallenge for Tomorrow,Research Journal of Recent Sciences, (1)3,86-93

6. www.kudumbashree.org

7. www.sjsry-kudumbashree.org

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‘We spent all our time trying to get the policy right, we shouldhave spent more time trying to get the politics right’ (Obama,2012)

Abstract:

Any discussion around India’s Social Policy, Social Welfare andSocial Development ought to be laid in the context of India’s sixtyyears of planning history. In this critical essay, I explore the viewsand treatise of octogenarian Shankar Pathak on social welfare policiesand development of the poor in India. In those sixty years ofplanning, India has certainly made strides, such as producing somebillionaires that enter into who’s who list compiled by Forbes,alongside its poor making world’s record officially included into thetop ten poor nations. India’s situation can be aptly captured andsurmised by borrowing the famous saying of American PoliticalEconomist ‘doing better but feeling worse’ ( Wildavsky, 1977, pp105), this paper examines Pathak’s (2013) views on social policy,welfare and social development in India and to an extent his viewson social work profession in India.

Pathak, S, (2013), Social Policy Social Welfare and SocialDevelopment, Niruta Publications, Bangalore, India, ISBN-978-81-923424-7-4

Introduction

I have spent some 38 years in India and even if I miss reflectingon my innings until my teenage, I vividly remember about my growingawareness of two rather pervasive phenomena in the Indian societyi.e. a hierarchical structure and abundance of stark inequalitiesamongst people. I used to ask my teachers in about these two major

1 Venkat Pulla, MA – Social Work, URCD, (TISS) PhD, Karnatak, BSc, BJ (Osmania), teaches socialwork at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga,NSW, 2678, Australia. Email [email protected]; [email protected]

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Social Policy, Social Welfare and SocialDevelopment-Pathak’s Ideas: A Critical Essay

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concerns. Overtime I came into social work and realized that thesetwo giant obstacles will stretch the limits of the profession. Historianscould see this being an Indian characteristic for centuries. It is thispathological condition that worried the Delhi school of social workacademic Shankar Pathak ( 2013) who worked his guts out in thelast one year to update some of his previous writings originally writtenin 1979-1987 period and subsequently added his reflections on thecurrent plagues and aliments in India. What I take from readingthese fascinating essays is that clearly there are many challenges inIndia: For the government, for the welfare sector and its people whenit comes to poverty alleviation.

The task of reviewing sixty years of official economic anddevelopment planning in India from the lens of social work constitutesa review of how good, bad, ugly and pervasive this commitment hasbeen towards looking after the poorer and vulnerable sections in theIndian society. Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi seems to havedeclared his vision to see that ‘poverty, as we have known it, will bea thing of the past. Every village will be electrified, assured of cleandrinking water and adequate health services. Education will beavailable to every child’ (Gandhi, Rajiv, 1987, quoted in Pathak, 2013)A couple of years ago Barak Obama was speaking on his healthreform and he said that ‘We spent all our time trying to get the policyright, we should have spent more time trying to get the politics right’I am reminded of this today in the context of the speed at which thenational government in India wants to speed up the food security billor the explicit abhorrence it showed towards the emerging anticorruption agendas.

Poverty and Social Work

Pathak nearly all his life analyzed the profession’s reach andoften questioned social work’s ‘apolitical’ stance. In his writings Pathakclearly indicates his yearning for social work to take on the role of an‘ideologist and a social actionist’. Pathak, with great admiration relatesto a story of a missionary in Travancore, South India. He says, in thelast century, the untouchables were not allowed to use the publicroads, visit offices and were denied education in schools and refused

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employment- one missionary according to Pathak described himselfas ‘political missionary and declared that if we want to work forsocial justice, we have to be political missionaries There is noalternative’ (Pathak, 2013, p196)

Pathak writes further:‘whatever be the phrase- social justice, distributive

justice, redistributive justice- the underlying idea is fairnessby man to fellow human beings based on the principle ofequality – social, political and economic’. It implies undoingthe wrongs done to segments of population for decades andeven centuries by those who had the power to take the lion’sshare of all social resources including human dignity. It impliescompassion, care and concern for the deprived and theexploited’ (Pathak, 2013 p.196)

Indian social work history has chunks about social reformersthat India had and about the causes that they tried to deal with inthose times. But as we tease those causes it becomes clear that agreat number of them actually dealt with poverty. ‘While the heritageseems to be the source of inspiration for modern social workers’Pathak, writes, ‘who unlike those early leaders like Raja Ram MohanRoy, M.G.Ranade, and Keshab Chandra Sen, failed to devote anyattention to the miseries of the poor, let alone make poverty the mainfocus of social work’ (Pathak, 2013, p 135) Historically social reformand social work in the industrially advances countries of the westoriginated around the problem of mass poverty , following industrialrevolution. Thus social work and social workers retained some kindof an attachment of link with poverty as part of their heritage. Pathakwrites:

‘As is well known, social reform movement in India hada different beginning. Certainly, the circumstances were notsimilar. As a result, the social workers in India have not felt itnecessary even to maintain a tenuous link with the problemof poverty….If they ( social workers) were concerned withthe poor as part of their work, it is because they had no choiceabout it’(Pathak, 2013, p 135)

Pathak expresses his unhappiness and contempt at the growingcorruption, lack of transparency, irresponsible leadership, and

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opportunist political sloganism, misguided and ill guided ambitionsamidst plenty of opportunity to right every wrong in the country calledIndia. Pathak does see a ray of hope in the profession of social workbut wishes that it was able to produce a cadre that could Sheppardand lead poverty alleviation. It is quite debatable in this context to seewhere Indian social work is heading. It is possible that it is producinga level of clerical functionaries similar to many western countriesthat sit and administer programmes handed down from the top. Socialwork consultations also take place with client communities occasionallyover programme and methodological changes. Social work appearsto be a profession bereft of ideology social action for social justice.Pathak writes:

‘If we want to work for social justice, we have to bepolitical missionaries. There is no alternative. We cannotspeak like radials and act like conservatives. That would behypocrisy unlimited. I am actively conscious of the fact thatthe task is not easy. But a beginning has to be made in allearnestness’ (Pathak, 2013, p, 196)

Certainly these questions that Pathak raises are paradoxical inthe context of social work philosophy. World over social work has anespoused commitment for equality and justice but the profession doesnot appear to be sensitive to incidences of injustices committed everyday. Be it India, or East Timor, or western nations like Australia orUnited Kingdom, - social work professional bear’s eyewitness toinjustice with limited reach and interventions. India needs a range ofsocial workers. If I may describe them they would fall under thefollowing categories. social work dreamers and achievers; daringsocial workers; innovative social workers; those that can work fromwithin the government and bring change; those who believe and workon Gandhian lines; social workers who can see the ecologicalconnections and can articulate them; social workers who work forLGBT and human rights areas; social workers who work for civilliberties; social workers who can articulate that all social work ispolitical and lastly a live wire brand of academics who have practiceinterests in social work. There is no other mantra for salvation ofsocial work in India but to start building such cadres of social workers.

Venkat Pulla


Pathak’s Approach

For social work academics that desire a critical appreciation ofthe more complex economic, public administration and policyphenomena, a sense of time and modern history of India, Pathak re-packs in his latest book titled Social Policy, Social Welfare andSocial Development (Pathak, 2013) , several anecdotal vignettesfrom his innings in social work. Pathak counts three scores of Indian’splanning and development through a interdisciplinary lens which makesthese essays, a must read for anyone who wants to understand whyIndia is unable to develop or on a more positive note that the countrystill has an opportunity to respond to ameliorating its poverty of itsmajority people. Eighty three year old Shankar Pathak has given sixtyyears of his thought approximating to the sixty years of planning inthis country called India. Shankar Pathak belongs to the era of socialworkers who gave unto themselves the privilege to critically evaluatethe contexts, concerns and the commitments of the state in the areaof welfare with the rigour that the questions deserved. Pathak (2013)raises the questions: what is the problem? Who owns the problem?Who ought to own the solutions and the final question are there anypolicy instruments that can be utlised? Pathak identifies governmentaction or residual work as a result of state actions, state legislation,law and its fiscal or monetary allocations as policy instruments towhich he clearly sees the need to add advocacy, and people’s voicesas important instruments. When I use the word advocacy I am talkingabout the possible role of social work advocacy in India. Certainlythe number of schools of social work has increased in India in thelast six decades and there are several thousands of non-state actorsthat work in the welfare sector which is clearly to be seen as anopportunity. Pathak sees that the definition of the stake holder isskewed in the Indian arena of planning development as a result of itshanded down policies that do not seem to yield a clear appreciationof the stakeholder profile. This is despite of years of post planningand post decision research in India. Pathak writes:

‘The poor have always been a happy hunting groundfor the politicians, the reformers and the academicians. Thisis not surprising. Poverty is good business for some people.

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Described as the salt of the earth nineteen centuries ago, thepoor today are known as the wretched of the earth and as thefourth world’ (Pathak, 2013, p, 119)

Do Bureaucrats Hate Poor?

Interesting fact of history that Pathak revisits in India relates topoverty of the Indian people that played a very major part in bothunifying the native population as a community in their struggle againstthe colonial power and in developing the sense of nationalism amongthe elite, thus ‘since 19th century monarchs and politicians have foundit expedient to legitimize their claim to hold power by an appeal to thepoor’ (Pathak, 2013, p, 130). I am fascinated by his candid but validobservations from his field work days in Rajasthan about howgovernment bureaucrats viewed the poor. Similar to Pathak, myown observations confirm that most government bureaucrats hatethe poor. Pathak (2013) says:

“…. Rajasthan gave me plenty of opportunities toobserve the deep hostility of the government bureaucracytowards the poor. There are of course, sympathetic anddedicated individuals at all levels of the bureaucracy. But theoverall mindset in these circles strikes me as extremely anti-poor’ (emphasis supplied by Pathak, 2013, p 200).

In the last 21 years for a substantial amount of time I worked instate bureaucracies in Australia, and I can confirm by ownobservations that hostility towards the poor cuts across all societiesand nations. My observations are qualified by experience of being onteams that work post disaster in communities to get the families andcommunities recover from the impending effects of disaster. Barringsocial workers and allied health workers, I have noticed hostilitytowards the poor as part of the objective culture of bureaucracy.

India’s poor, astonishingly, receive mention when the rest of thecitizen elites want to build sky scrapers or beautify the cities. Thepoor are cleaned out and can be bulldozed and their houses razed inthe wake of city development or road widening. These people can bebanished to the outskirts of the city. Pathak intrigues at the relationshipof the poor with the rest of the population. He finds that the relationship

Venkat Pulla


is akin to the concept of metropolitan –satellite relationship. The elitesand the well to do are the metropolitan keepers of the urban societythat can see the relegated lives of the poor to the untouchable squalorsof the cities or rural fringes: essentially built around the edifice ofinequality, exploitation and dependence. Pathak defines poverty ‘asa failure of a segment of the population to command essentialresources of life’ (2013, p, 134). The poor in the rural front have talesand pathetic sagas of farmer suicides, farm labour suicides, listlessnessand lack of equal opportunities for education and developmentconstantly causing high rates of incidence of internally displacedpopulations that move from one state to the other in search oflivelihood. Pathak, see the manifestation of anti poor stance ofbureaucracy through:

‘Pervasive tendencies to blame the victims for their ownpredicament, poor people are blamed for being lazy, for notsending their children to school, for squandering their moneyto drink and so on. In the context of drought relief, they wereconstantly accused (against all evidence of being unwillingto take up employment on relief works’ (Pathak, 2013, p200)

Amita Shah, director of Gujarat Institute of DevelopmentResearch, says, “Poverty reduction programmes must include issuesof economic growth, employment generation, socio-spatial equity,environmental sustainability and political stability within a holisticframework” ( Shah, A, in Mahapatra, 2011). There is inequality inthe efforts made to prevent people from poverty and get them out ofit. The numerous poverty alleviation programmes are inadequate andinsufficient ( Mahapatra, 2011). POVERTY is becoming hereditaryin India, at least for a sizeable population. That is the conclusionderived from a three-decade tracking of poor households in ruralIndia. A survey by the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC),an international association of researchers and academicians, claimsthat those who are chronically poor may pass on poverty to their nextgeneration. What’s more, people residing in tribal and forested areasare likely to remain poor forever, fomenting violent conflicts in future.Most of India’s forested districts are already dens of Naxalites (Mahapatra, 2011). Of the 29 such programmes studied in the survey,only nine could prevent people from falling into the poverty trap.

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Thirteen could enable escape from poverty and 16 could alleviatechronic poverty. Shashanka Bhide, a senior fellow of the NationalCouncil of Applied Economic Research says that a significantproportion of non-poor households may fall into poverty while a largeproportion of poor may not manage to escape it ( Mahapatra, 2011).

India’s population, irrespective of its numbers at any given pointof time, will always have nearly two thirds living in appalling conditions,gutters, and squalor. But they will of course run the cities relentlesslyfrom the rural environments or tribal habitats. Politicians occasionallychampion their cause but constantly feed on them and only marginaladjustments are advanced to those in poverty. The India ChronicPoverty Report about which Mahapatra ( 2011) wrote came at atime when the country was awaiting its latest National Sample Surveyfor estimation of poverty. On April 21, while unveiling the approachpaper to the 12th Five Year Plan for 2012-17, the Planning Commissiondisclosed that poverty has reduced from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 to32 per cent in 2009-10. This estimate is certainly critical for the nextPlan and the much debated National Food Security Law. In the tablebelow we present some select investigations into Chronic Poverty.

Mahpatra (2011) writes that India’s Supreme Court ordered theplanning commission to explain the basis of coming up with apercentage of people below-poverty-line (BPL) as being at 36 percent. The percentage helps the commission decide the direction ofdevelopment programmes and distribution of food grains under thepublic distribution system. The apex court’s observation came in thewake of a petition filed by nonprofit People’s Union for Civil Liberties.The petitioner contended that adequate food grains are not beinggiven to people living below the poverty line. Social workers ought tobecome familiar with this as this probably will enter into thefundamental rights within the constitution as the Right to Food. The

Venkat Pulla


court also challenged the commission’s estimates of BPL families.“There cannot be two Indias,” said the apex court while describingthe country’s high economic growth and consistent poverty. “Thepoverty level is reducing but at a slow pace,” (Mahapatra, 2011).

Poverty and Democratic Governance

I am not sure if there is a commonsense perspective that takesinto consideration a normative stake holder analysis before consideringplanning for poverty alleviation in India. I suggest that such anapproach to stakeholder analysis ought to have at least two variables:the interests of the stake holders and if they have any claims andwhom do they make these claims? From a social welfare perspectivethe stake holders ought to be the clients; provider organizations;government structures in India; people advocates; non state actorsand broader public. Pathak’s observations (2013) suggests

• lack of orchestrated consultation processes• lack of will to build collaborations with people around what

they need• non adherence to any collaborative production• prejudice towards the poor in India• Incapacity of understanding what the core problem is and

identifying what sort of policy options are required to dealwith it.

Pathak clearly sees that there are many systemic and socialobstacles that require attention before poor people’s rights and needsbecome claimable. He indicates that these firstly relate to the capacityin the Indian society and secondly to the willingness to developprogrammes of amelioration of the poor. Pathak examines the stategovernments in West Bengal, and Kerala (Kerala to a lesser degree)where the communists and communist with other progressive groupled coalition’s ruled for most of the six decades, to argue that theefficacy of their ideology ought to have had some difference in thepoverty claims of the people. Indian constitution with its cleardirections of principles of state policy allows for such variance suchthat the willingness of the state can positively be tempered by theideology, resources, ability to respond to local crisis and to pioneeralternatives for progress and models for other states to follow. Multi-

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party coalitions including those coalitions arrived through the makingof post-election alliances, are now the norm in the states as well as atthe centre in India. This means relatively higher support across theboard for smaller political parties with a narrower social andgeographical focus ( Mehta,Shepherd, Bhide, Shah and Kumar, 2011).

One new and serious consequence of the period of frequentelections and multiple coalition governments has been politicisationof the civil administration. However, the political situation has becomerelatively more stable since 1989, and since 2004-05 there have beenno mid-term elections or premature endings to a government at thecentre. India has now been led by the same Prime Minister andpolitical alliance for two consecutive terms ( Mehta, et al , 2011). It issignificant that, since the introduction of economic reforms, severalof the poorest states have been governed by regional politicalformations or by a national party that is not in power at the centrallevel. There has also been a strong wave of identity politics amongcommunities trapped in poverty. This has included a rise in theprominence of communal issues, formation and split of the‘backwardclass’ vote bank, dalit assertion and intensified efforts bywomen to attain political space ( Mehta, et al , 2011).

Tribal political elites in the Hindi belt have also successfullydistanced themselves from others by demanding their own territories,which in 2000 were carved out of Bihar (Jharkhand), Uttar Pradesh(Uttarakhand) and Madhya Pradesh (Chhattisgarh). A rise in thenumber of non-party networks of democratic people’s movementsand civil society activists has been a prominent feature of this era.These have challenged the purpose and process of the paradigmshift, using peaceful and democratic means around issues oflivelihoods, agriculture, displacement, disinvestment, the environmentand human rights. Some have also been associated with thenationwide and sometimes worldwide networks of anti-globalisationgroups (Mehta,et.al ,2011 ).

It appears that good governance is central to the achievement ofthe Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), as it provides the‘enabling environment’ for the realisation of the MDGs and, inparticular, the elimination of poverty from a social work perspective.The critical importance of democratic governance in the developingworld was highlighted at the Millennium Summit of 2000, about thirteen

Venkat Pulla


years ago where the world’s leaders resolved to promote democracyand strengthen the rule of law, as well as respect for all internationallyrecognized human rights and fundamental freedoms, including theright to development. A consensus was reached which recognisedthat improving the quality of democratic institutions and processes,and managing the changing roles of the state and civil society in anincreasingly globalised world must underpin national efforts to reducepoverty, sustain the environment, and promote human development.As such good governance people’s involvement and their inputs intothe planning process. From the human rights perspective enjoyingfreedom from fear and want can only be achieved when we createconditions that guarantee everyone to enjoy his or her economic,social and cultural rights, as well as his or her civil and political rightsin society.

In this regard, I am sure the Indian constitution has adequateemphasis that stipulates that everyone has the right to a standard ofliving adequate for health and well-being of himself and of his family,including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary socialservices, and the right to security in the event of unemployment,sickness, disability, or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyondhis control. The eradication of widespread poverty, including its mostpersistent forms, and the full enjoyment of economic, social, culturalrights, civil and political rights remain the interrelated goals. Thesevery rights are also expressed as millennium development goals thatIndia ought to be reminded constantly.

It is my firm belief that alleviating poverty is a daunting task tobe simply left to government; therefore I suggest that no one sectionin society is capable of doing anything with poverty. The paranoia inpolitical parties is all about showing some of stewardship in servicingthe poor. But political elites that sleaze on poverty and the bureaucratsthat programme the political mandates into successive governmentprogrammes and the economists that oversee the planning commissionprocesses often are left to be content adjusting the ill fated povertyline and bumping the ‘poor’ up or down. Seriously poverty has to beseen as every body’s business. It is not largesse thrown at poor orsemblance of social responsibility by some business houses. it is quitein order that we do not have a Harvard Management Schoolprescription for a solution for poverty. India has some of the top

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management schools that produce the managerial mandarins of thefuture, several that go away to make the rest of the world a betterplace to live. I believe that some deliberate and sustained dialogueneeds to take place between those who can provide good humanresources and build an enabling ethos in the society. India needs tofind its own answers for its poverty. Brilliant graduates and geniuseswith an un-ignited social conscience are also need to be providedopportunities to challenge their skills to find solutions for India’swelfare. The stakeholders in poverty alleviation ought to include thepoor, the average man on the street, the business houses, the country’stop management schools, the ruling elites, social workers and thethree tier government agencies to look at an integrated and holisticapproach based on inputs from all stakeholders.

How would India’s postcard on the MDGs implementation looklike? Will it focus on self reliance, prioritising the goals? Doing MDGsright is actually another way of meeting and strengthening humanrights in India. A need to link the agenda of development, humanrights and extreme poverty, as well as efforts to empower peopleliving in poverty to participate in decision-making processes on policiesthat affect them together are certainly required. If India aims tobecome a peaceful society its social work and welfare agenda oughtto create institutional and non institutional apparatus that is ripe fordevelopment and free itself from injustices and human rights abuses.

References

1. Mahapatra, R, (2011) Poverty begets povertyh t t p : / / www. d o wn t o e a r t h . o rg . i n / c o n t e n t / p o v e r t y - b e g e t s -poverty Accessed on 25/05/2013

2. Mehta, AK, Shepherd,A Bhide, S, Shah, A. and Kumar,A, (2011) IndiaChronic Poverty Report: Towards solutions and new compacts in adynamic context Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi

3. Wildavsky, A, (1977), Doing Better and Feeling Worse: ThePolitical Pathology of Health Policy, Daedalus, Vol. 106, No. 1,pp. 105-123Published by: The MIT Press on behalf of American Academy ofArts & Sciences Accessed: 26/08/2013

Venkat Pulla


Book Review

Perspectives on Coping and Resilience

Pulla, V., Shatte, A. and Warren, S. (eds.)(2013)

www.authorspressbooks.com

What helps people cope with disaster? What aids in theirrecovery? What factors support capacity for individuals andcommunities to build positive futures ‘out of the ashes’?(Pulla,2013).

In an era of economic rationalism and individualist politicalideology, resilience has become the catchcry for the contemporarysocial work. The advanced capitalist system has brought seeminglyendless challenges, a faster pace of life, displacement from familialstructure and a globalised world where cultural boundaries have beentransformed. In this globalised world the onus is on the individual tosurvive and to succeed. Coping and resilience have become theseminal concepts for social work in the quest for continuing workwith people, groups and communities within a system that promotespersonal responsibility and a reduced welfare state. Perspectiveson Coping and Resilience is an inspirational text for social work aswe endeavour to adapt to the challenges that contemporary lifeprovides.

Resilience, the capacity of humans to cope with and thrive aftertrauma and adverse life effects (Bonnano, 2004), is an often overlookedhuman response that may be utilised by social workers for the furtherbenefit of clients, groups and communities rather that the traditionalbiomedical focus and trauma discourse. To provide ethical service,professional service that aims for holistic care of the bio-psycho-social human, knowledge of resilience is vital. Bonnano (2004) statesthat resilience is often overlooked and underestimated and that peopledo survive damaging circumstances and situations on a daily basis sothat to not incorporate resilience is detrimental at the very least butalso denial of a highly effective, self determination based copingmechanism.

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This text, Perspectives on Coping and Resilience, begins withan introduction to terminology and concepts and draws upon the earlywork of renowned authors Lazarus and Folkman (1984) whose workon stress and coping is considered pivotal in contemporary socialwork literature. The inclusion of stories of coping and resilience inindividuals and groups as well as countries adds vibrancy to thisintroductory chapter and engages the reader with the link it buildsbetween theory and practice.

From here, this text continues on to take a philosophical approachto the resilience concept. Authored by Thomas Dukes, ( reference)this chapter is a comprehensive probe into the psychological andphilosophical underpinnings and explanations of adversity and the wayin which people build resilience from the depths of this adversity.Perspectives on Coping and Resilience contains also work from adiverse array of authors who cover such topics as building resiliencein children and adolescents, HIV and AIDS sufferers, people withdisabilities, victims of intimate partner violence and people withaddictions. Resilience in the organisational context is investigated asis the potential for the resilience concept to be applied to the corporateworld. As a text, Perspectives on Coping and Resilience offers acomprehensive assessment of resilience as a conceptual means toworking with people in an array of differing contextual environments.

A number of chapters from a variety of authors offer informationabout resilience in children and adolescents as well as young peoplewith disabilities. The use of art as the therapeutic milieu is discussedfor people with disabilities and as a framework for clinical practice inand of itself. The incorporation of art therapy as a frameworkcomplements the overall tone of the text in that the text itself iscontemporary in nature and a step away from the traditional bio-medical focus. Although contemporary in recognition, resilience isbecoming the favoured concept for not only the social work professionbut in many other organisational contexts as a means to limiting theneed for intervention, building instead upon the internal resourcesand community resources already existing and readily available.Despite an ethical commitment that denounces a focus on the fiscalover human welfare, the social work profession is impacted by

Jennifer Woods


overarching policy that places the most significance on economicsand expects individuals, groups and communities to take responsibilityfor their own welfare. As a result, this text offers sage informationfor resilience and means to building and utilising such measures. Infact the chapter entitled What World Bank Metrics Don’t Tell UsAbout Per Capita GDP: How a Nation’s Resilience Affects ItsProsperity ( reference) discusses the potential for human resilienceto build economic prosperity. Substantiated by empirical research andvalidated as such, this text is cutting edge in its contextual field.

Perhaps as a means to encompassing the diversity of theglobalised world, a chapter on the resilience and coping of refugees,displaced peoples and asylum seekers, increasing in number in steadystreams pouring from countries in conflict and poverty could wellhave been included. These people are often the very best examplesof resilience and coping that one could imagine. There are of coursesome anecdotal case studies and narratives incorporated throughoutthis text which give pivotal examples but an in depth chapter wouldoffer insight into this most contemporary issue. In a time of economicdownsizing and tightened spending on immigration as well asunprecedented numbers of people seeking asylum by boat or by landit is crucial to have an understanding regarding the ways that refugees,displaced person and humanitarian entrants can build resilience so asto best facilitate the continuance of contributing factors postresettlement. For social work this may be as simple as providingaccess and information about places to worship upon settlement aspart of the larger array of services that resettlement workers providein that religion has been positively linked to resilience for refugeegroups (Benson, Sun, Hodge and Androff, 2011).

Adaptation to life experience is a natural aspect of being human(Hill, 2013). The chapter on trauma is most especially significant in acontemporary, globalised world which increasing in population, putsan increasing strain on resources and still faces conflict in differingshapes and forms in most of its vast corners. Trauma is almostinherent to the human condition. Very few people escape the impactof some form of traumatic event or life experience. People survivetrauma, sometimes extreme and horrific but always subjective and

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as a result, serious for some, where for others perhaps not. Peopleovercome traumatic experience and rebuild their lives. Some people,from this traumatic experience, go on to experience personal growthand make positive changes for their life. This chapter discusses posttraumatic growth, a concept gaining in popularity and which againmakes perfect sense in an economic rationalist environment. With afocus on post traumatic stress and a deficits model, the traumadiscourse also effectively disables people rather that empowers.Rather this chapter, looks at the potential for people to respondpositively to stress and trauma and reframe the experience in a waythat fosters recovery and empowers the individual for future traumasand stresses.

Again, the chapter which discusses Emotional Regulation(Warren, 2013), is justified in a contemporary economic rationalistworld. Discussing the concept of emotion control and regulation placesthe onus of responsibility squarely in the court of the individual withregard to the way in which they will deal with life’s inevitable stressors.Steeped in Bronfenbrenners Ecological Systems theory( reference) ,this chapter does of course allow for recognition of the impact of theexternal, that being the exosystem,. macrosystem and chronosystemsbut focusses mostly on the individual’s ability to and need for emotionalself-regulation (reference). Of course emotional regulation is importantnot only from a political ideological view point. It is also most beneficialfor human to be able to regulate their emotional responses. The linkfor coping and resilience for the purpose of this textbook is that in theability to control one’s emotion lies the means to developing resiliencethat promotes positive response to adverse experiences. Withemotional control comes coping.

Thus it is evident that this text is at the forefront of contemporarysocial work literature which has an ethical consideration to workwith people in an empowering way despite an overarching neo liberalistideology. Providing the means to enhancing the human experienceand fostering self-determination and human dignity and worth,resilience allows for the utilisation of inherent human resources.Resilience can facilitate cultural competence and anti-oppressive workwith people with disabilities. It can be conceptually used to work

Jennifer Woods


with children with alternative mediums such as art and music therapy.Resilience and coping are the future direction for social work in aneconomic rationalist political ideology that has scarce resources anda never ending need.

Review by:Jennifer Woods, BSW (Hons)Charles Sturt [email protected]

References

1. Benson, G.O., Sun, F., Hodge, D.R. and Androff, D.K. (2011). Religiouscoping and acculturation stress among Hindu Bhutanese: A study of newlysettled refugees in the United States. International Social Work. 55 (4), 538-553.

2. Bonnano, G. (2004). Loss, trauma and human resilience. Have weunderestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events?American Psychologist. 59(1), 20-28.

3. Hill, R. (2013). Trauma creating beneficial change. In V.Pulla, A. Shatte andS. Warren (Eds.). Perspectives on coping and resilience.www.authorspressbooks

4. Pulla, V. (2013). Countours on coping and resilience. The front story. InV.Pulla, A. Shatte and S. Warren (Eds.). Perspectives on coping and resilience.www.authorspressbooks

5. Warren, S. (2013). Revisiting emotional regulation: evidence from practice.In V.Pulla, A. Shatte and S. Warren (Eds.). Perspectives on coping andresilience. www.authorspressbooks

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Samaja Karyada Hejjegalu 1 - SKH · Samaja Karyada Hejjegalu 1 Journal of Social Work Vol. III, No-8, August 2013 Editorial This special issue on “Building Resilient Communities:

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