Social work, as described by renowned scholars is a professional activity of helping people to help themselves; to enhance their coping abilities in times of stress and rendering them self reliant.
This description gives a general idea of the wide range of the activities of the profession; what remain hidden in this general aspect are the acute angles which it contains.
A lady, a domestic helper by profession starts her day by leaving her home in the early hours, rather, her room and three kids; all below ten years of age. Her husband, a rickshaw puller is also an alcoholic and a drug addict. The lady has one more child a teenaged girl, but she keeps her away from home at some ‘kothi’, also as a domestic help; because she fears of her safety in the company of her own father!
After completing the first shift of her work at two-three houses she reaches her home only to find another series of mishaps happened to the children in her absence or any other guardian. Someday either the two year old eats something bad or gets hurt. Ill health is nothing new anymore. All three children spend sleepless nights, coughing, vomiting, in pain. Nothing known about days….as nobody knows what they do at all in the day. According to the family poverty is the main problem. The people who appear to be ‘blessed’ to her only suggest her to send the children to government school or bring them along to work; use boiled water; adopt healthy habits, and visit a health centre. Visiting health centre seems to be the most important to literate minds but not to her. She donot have time to take her ailing children to the doctor. She is not interested in ‘free treatment’ …as it is not free for her; it costs her…her time…her working hours…and thus her living.
Sometimes, somewhere in lives like these ‘free services’ provided by the government fall short in fulfilling the needs of the needy. People cannot afford to wait in long queues at hospitals for hours, they do not get their children admitted in schools as they are needed as foster parents of their younger siblings at home.
Here is where social work comes in action. A social worker helps such families by counseling the male member and helping him overcome the addiction, he/she make him realize the problem, and ways to fight against the odds. Then the social worker brings the facilities of suitable medical care in the range of the family. Encourage them to adopt a healthier way of living. Educate the family about the need of literacy of their children for better present as well as future. The methods adopted focus on developing coping abilities, overcoming malpractices, linking with available resources, and providing them with suitable choices.
Thus as the problems today come in compound forms, as if, in ‘all-in-one-package’; every one leading to other; social work also tries to touch all such aspects of life; bringing people towards a better life through crystallization, sensitization, counseling, social mobilization, environment modification etc.
...crystallization, sensitization, counseling, social mobilization, environment modification etc....very nicely worded article. Motee justy indeed. Did you write this for some magazine!
ReplyDeleteI am doing something about this suffering, e.g. in this new city tat I am living in, the guys next door get drunk, bang on my door, chew pan, the whole place stinks. I tried talking to them for a week, then things got worse..they want me to go down to their level...now I keep a distance, I need to concentrate on my main work.
Little talks with people can't change them. They like the stink and misery. I had to use 4 bottles of acid to clean the common toilet. Still they just piss and don't pour water. Some of them are married with kids yar? How is this?
The other day, I bought some fruits from the sabzi mandi, I was going back home, and it was pretty dark, and this monkey came from nowhere and just slashed my fruit plastic bag, all the fruits were on the road. And he had his filling. Cool monkey. Now how could I teach the monkey some manners! I learnt my lesson. Change has a momentum of its own. All we can do is facilitate for its chances. So I work on that facilitation and hope against hope for the best.