Origin of Social Work in UK-USA-INDIA

1. 1. HISTORY OF SOCIAL WORK UK-USA-INDIA PRINCE SOLOMON MCCSWD

2. 2. INTRODUCTION • religious motive which were called ‘charity, ‘Poor Relief’, ‘Philanthropy’,
and ‘Social reform’ • the emphasis being primarily on the soul of the giver to attain salvation
rather than the good done to the recipient. “In some Mohammedan countries at present day
reliance on providing for the relief of need by alms of the faithful still continues. • Christianity
and Judaism there is a call to comfort the weak hearted, to raise up them that fall, and to
loosen those whom Satan has bound: a call which has contributed most powerfully to our
modern desire to rehabilitate the offender and the disabled, to provide kindly care for the old
and the ailing and to understand and to help rather than condemn the social misfit”
3. 3. History of Social Welfare before Professional Social Work in United Kingdom Phase I - Social
Welfare during Prehistoric era (up to 1200 AD) • From the Garden of Eden the concept of
sharing is innate in human beings. The feelings of belonging, the readiness to mutual
protection, were just as essential as the selfish desire to dominate other weaker human beings.
• Though there was mutual aid in that society often the old, the sick, the crippled and the
handicapped were killed or abandoned by the tribe since they were a burden to the
community.
4. 4. Phase II – Church and Charity (From A.D. 1200to A.D. 1500)
5. 5. Phase III – Charity from Church to Government (From A.D.1501 to A.D.1600)
6. 6. Phase IV -The Elizabethan Poor Law of 1601 • (a) The able-bodied poor who were forced to
work in the house of correction and to whom citizens were forbidden to give alms. • (b) The
impotent poor who were unable to work; namely are, the sick, old, blind, deaf-mute, lame, and
mothers with young children. They were given out-door relief such as food, clothes, and fuel in
their own homes. • (c) Dependent children, who were orphans abandoned by their parents, or
whose parents were poor, were placed in ‘free homes’ (any citizen who was willing to take
them without charge).
7. 7. Phase V – Poor Law Reform of 1834 The need for Poor law reform was influenced by….. • “(a)
Economic Theory of laissez-faire presented by Adam Smith advocated that the state should
not interfere with private economy and certain of his followers pleaded for the elimination of
poor relief. • (b) Thomas R Malthus (1798) in his famous ‘Essay on Population’ pleaded that the
poor relief tended to encourage paupers to have more children in order to get relief for them,
and tended to raise the price of food, which again impoverished the working class. • (c) A parish
minister in Scotland, Reverend Thomas Chalmers (1780-1847), organized a programme of
private charity on the principle of neighborly aid”
8. 8. Poor law reform… cont… • Severe opposition to the Poor Law practice, the rising number of
paupers, and the heavy increase in the poor tax burden led to the appointment of the ‘Royal
Commission for enquiring into the administration and practical operation of the Poor Laws’ •
The factory Act of 1833 prohibited the employment of children less than nine years. • The
Prison Act of 1877 made prison by provide better food, ventilation, the cleaning of cells,
bedding and blankets, and medical care during illness.
9. 9. Poor Law Reform…. Growth of Voluntary Institutions • During the 19th century certain social
reformers like Francis Place, Robert Owen, Richard Cobden and many others started certain
movements to earn rights for the laborers and the formation of trade unions. • The
mushrooming of institutions private charities was greatly criticized as a waste of money and
having overlapping activities. • In order to overcome the chaos and the lack of coordination
between the many charitable church and philanthropic societies Charity Organization Society
(COS) (G.R.Madan, Indian Social Problems, 2010, p. 39) was formed in London in 1869.
10. 10. Charity Organization Society (COS) • The innovation caused the unmasking of many
‘professional beggars’ and people received aids from the public. • A group of citizens were
working as volunteers in the city, which was divided into districts. The example of the London
COS was followed in other large cities in England and Scotland and later it reached the USA. •
 In 1884 the first settlement house in the world known as, ‘Toynbee Hall’ was established. Its
objective was to promote education and culture, gather information regarding the conditions
of the poor and the need for social reform, and the general awakening of popular interest in
social and health problems and social legislations.
11. 11. Charity Organization Society (COS) • The growth of voluntary institutions created a need for
trained workers to serve the people, giving birth to Social Work education. “Octavia Hill was
conducting training in England as early as 1873. Series of lectures followed in London
throughout the 1890s.” • Thus, the first recognized Social Work education was started in the
year 1903, the school of Sociology in London, with a two year course of theory and practice
that grew from the efforts of the COS and “professionalizing effect” (M.Healy, International
Social Work, 2001, p. 21).
12. 12. History of Social Welfare before Professional Social Work in United States of America
Development of Social Welfare before 1900 • From the beginning of the seventeenth century
the colonist from England and other countries brought with them the customs, traditions, laws
and institutions from the mother country. • The traditional resources of the mother country
such as church, charities, hospitals, and alms houses did not exist in the settlements. •
According to the Elizabethan Poor Law, it is the responsibility of the local church to take care of
the destitute. Every town made provisions to the maintenance of the poor by supplying food,
clothing, firewood and house hold essentials to persons with legal settlements.
13. 13. Alms-house • The introduction of alms-house care did not improve the conditions of the
poor. In alms-houses, old, sick, tramps, vagabonds, blind, deaf-mutes, cripples, idiots and
insane, orphans, foundlings, unmarried mothers with their children, prostitutes, and criminals
were all put in these houses− often without separation of the sexes or age-groups.
14. 14. Poor Relief • “a) Private Charity Societies took initiatives to start orphanages and asylums,
because they objected to the placement of children and helpless invalid and old people in
mixed alms houses where they are forced to live with people with other deviant behaviors.
Private relief societies were often affiliated with churches, fraternal orders or national
benevolent associations, and they became the leading progressive element in American Social
Welfare during the 19th century. • b) The states themselves assumed responsibility for certain
classes of the poor such as the insane, feeble-minded and convicted offenders for whom there
were no adequate facilities. • c) Some local public relief authorities, under the influence of
state boards of charity, began to question the old concepts of poor relief….” (Friedlander,
Introduction to Social Welfare, 1950, p. 87).
15. 15. Private Charities • After the reform in the poor relief act, private charities took the lead role
in addressing the issues of the disadvantaged. However the activities of these private or
religious agencies were often limited to aid for special local groups • In 1817 a constructive
remedy for people in economic need was set up, the New York Society for the Prevention of
Pauperism, aiming to scientifically understand the causes of poverty and to develop a model
for rehabilitation instead of mere palliative of financial issues. • The society assigned
volunteers called ‘visitors of the indigent’ as its agents. It established an employment bureau, a
savings bank and encouraged the foundation of Mutual Aid-Mutual Life insurance groups to
protect their members against economic hazards.
16. 16. • Church and Charitable Organizations Association for improving the condition of the Poor
was started in 1843 in New York. The Association assigned ‘friendly visitors’ in every sub district
of the city in order to determine the need and the individual measures necessary in each
individual case.
17. 17. Birth of COS in United States of America • In the economi depression of 1873 • Reverend
S.Humphreys Gurteen, who had been previously in London and was, acquainted with the
Charity Organization Society, organized in 1877, the first society of this type in the United
States in Buffalo, New York. • Although the founders of these societies believed that poverty
was caused by personal fault, the friendly visitors found there were other factors that caused
destitution. They recognized that unhealthy neighbourhood and housing conditions prevented
 the maintenance of health and morals and low wages did not allow for the purchase of
adequate food and clothing − even with careful housekeeping and thrifting
18. 18. C.O.S • The introduction of C.O.S. gained momentum in promoting and enforcing social
legislation for improvement of housing, clearance of slum. The societies established
employment bureaus, loan societies, workshops, laundries, ‘wayfarers’ lodges, shelters,
training centers for the rehabilitation of the handicap, blind, deaf, and crippled. They also
created domestic training of girls, hospitals, dispensaries, visiting nurses, recreation and
summer camps, nurseries for young children, and related facilities.
19. 19. Settlement House Movement • The development of modern industry brought masses of
workers and their families into the city. They lived in overcrowded quarters without comfort or
space for their children, while relatives and friends were left in native rural villages and towns
where they had come from. Large number of the immigrants coming as immigrants to the USA
lived in overcrowded flats and unsanitary conditions. • There was not much mutual
understanding among the different racial and religious backgrounds, and they spoke different
languages. In 1887 Neighbourhood Guild of New York City was founded based on the idea of
Toynbee Hall in England. Soon Hull-House in Chicago, founded by Jane Addams and Ellen
Gates Starr in 1889, became popular
20. 20. HULL HOUSE MODEL • They met the needs of the neighbourhood through various
programs: day nursery and kindergarten, discussion and study groups, School of music,
dramatics, and arts, classes in rhythm and dancing, and workshops for children and adults.
Later the Hull-house organized playgrounds and summer camps for children. School reforms
activities which grew from the experiences of Hull-House (Friedlander, Introduction to Social
Welfare, 1950, p. 112). • Residents of settlement houses became the champions of Social
reforms and they became the pioneers of social Action Many active workers and volunteers of
the Charity Organization Societies felt the need for a deeper understanding of the behavior of
individuals and of social and economic problems. This led to the organization of the first Social
Work courses in New York in 1898
21. 21. EMERGENCE OF SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION evolution of Social Work education in the world
• In 1998 the NASW declared it the 100th anniversary of the Social Work profession. • a) Social
Work education evolving in the United States and Europe was an indigenous response to the
conditions of livelihood and the rapid development in the nineteenth century. • b) Social Work
was introduced by the Americans and the Europeans to other countries in Asia and Africa as
experts to address the problem of “underdevelopment”. • c) The introduction and
reintroduction of modern Social Work in the countries of former Soviet Union and Eastern bloc,
including Russia, the nations of Eastern Europe, China, and Vietnam under the foreign
influence (M.Healy, International Social Work, 2001, p. 20).
22. 22. • “two social movements in Social Welfare that began at the end of the nineteenth century
shaped the development of the profession of Social Work: the Charity Organization Societies
and the settlement house establishments,” (Van Wormer, 1997). Van Wormer, K. (1997). Social
Welfare: A World View. P.162 • The social movements gave birth to social organizations in the
Charity Organization Society in 1869 and the settlement house, Toynbee Hall in 1884 in
London. Within less than a decade, the United States adopted the concept of COS in 1877. This
is one of the earliest welfare model transfers shared in human services. The Hull House was
founded in 1889 following the visit of Jane Addams to Toynbee Hall •
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1931/addams- bio.html
23. 23. “Social Work education emerged almost simultaneously in Britain, the United States, and
the European continent at the turn of the century, quickly progressing in each location from
lectures to full-time training” (De Jongh J. , August 8-11,1972, pp. 22-36). De Jongh, J. (August
8-11,1972). A retrospective view of Social Work education. . In I. I. Work(IASSW) (Ed.), New
Themes in Social Work Education (Proceedings), XVIth International Congress of Schools of
Social Work, pp. 22-36. The Hague, Netherlands, New York: IASSW. In 1897, Mary Richmond
(Mary Richmond, 1917) urged for more of an organized training during her speech at the
 National Conference on Social Work. The summer institute started by the Hull house in
Chicago became a summer school in philanthropic work in the year 1898, founded by New York
COS, in response to Mary Richmond.
24. 24. Important Years and Events
25. 25. International Conference • In 1928 the first International Conference of Social Work was
held from July 8th to 13th in Paris, and it drew 2,481 delegates from 42 countries (Organisation
of the International Conference of Social Work, First Conference July 8-13, 1928).one section of
the conference was devoted to Social Work education. The world meeting in Social Work and
Social welfare became regular after the first conference. • The 1928 conference was also the
birth place of three major organizations, International Associations of Schools of Social Work
(IASSW), International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), and the International Council for
Social Welfare (ICSW).
26. 26. Origin of Social Work education in INDIA can be traced under three main heads • 1) Social
Welfare in the ancient and medieval period • 2) Social Work during British period • 3) Social
Work after Independence.
27. 27. 1. Social Welfare in the Ancient and Medieval Period • “The responsibility for individuals in
need of special assistance was shared by the rulers, the rich, and also by individual members of
the general community” The rulers took charity as a sense of pride and religious duty by
providing welfare measures for the people. • “Religion emphasized the values of charity,
philanthropy, and mutual help. The giving of alms, the feeding and care of destitute, were
considered acts of religious merit. The temple gave shelter to the homeless. • The joint family
provided for the care of the aged members and for the physically handicapped, the chronically
ailing, and the mentally deficient. Caste and community councils were often responsible
individuals in need of help
28. 28. • Kulavaka Jataka tells that Buddha was born in to a noble family. While he was young he
gathered thirty men of the village and influenced them to do public good. They got up early
and rallied forth with their clubs to roll out the stones that lay on highways and village roads,
they cut down trees, made rough places smooth, dug water tanks, and built halls. • Kautilyas
Arthasastra refers to the constructive work for public good as the joint efforts of the villagers.
One of the important forms of Social Work in ancient India was free food and education for
poor lads by learned teachers was called Vidyadana − It is considered to be the best of all gifts.
Even the poorest man gave something to eat to hungry students. • During the thirteenth
century the Muslims instilled the same spirit of social service through the field of religion and
education. Payment of Zakat or “poor tax”, was the essential reward of Islam Cont……
29. 29. 2. Social Work during the British Period • During the death of Aurangazeb in 1707, India was
the scene of conflict. The British who came as traders, took advantage of this conflict and
succeeded in establishing their defacto rule over India. The British rule and power in India was
transferred from East India Company to the crown in 1858. The Social Work profession during
the British period passed through various phases • (i) Social reforms: 1780-1880 • (ii) Social
service Organisations: 1880-1900; • (iii) Welfare of the Harijans, Tribals and Industrial
workers:1900-1920; • (iv) Preventive and Protective legislations: 1920-1936; • (v) Dawn of
Professional Social Work in India 1936.
30. 30. Social Reforms 1780 to 1880 • Social reform in India was the endeavor of the powerful
influence of early Christian missionaries. The work of Christian missionaries aroused various
leaders of modern thought. The missionaries attacked the various evil social customs
prevailing at the time. The impact of Western education also affected the Indian mind. Indian
reformers learned about the liberal ideas and equality of rights among sexes in European
countries − they were affected by their social system. • The Indian society is caste-ridden,
convention-ridden and priest-ridden. Those who suffered the worst from these evils were
women. • Kulinism was the practice by which it was socially possible for even a hundred
women to be given in marriage to one Brahmin by reason of his KUL (high status). Widows
 were subjected to a life of austerity and subjection if they refused to immolate themselves
(Natarajan S. , 1959, pp. 23-24).
31. 31. • Raja ram Mohun Roy (1722-1833) was the first Indian who raised a defensive reaction
against the social evils. As a religious reformer educationist and Social Worker, he is the symbol
of the efforts of the Indian mind to face the challenges of transition. He published the first tract
against SATI in 1818. He was also the founder of Brahmo Samaj (1828), a sect against idolatry
which included social reform as an integral part of the mission. • Justice Ranade (1842-1901)
was a great social reformer. In 1887 an organization for social reform came to being known as
Indian Social Conference. M.G. Ranade would give an address and summarize the social
picture. The subject covered a wide range: infant marriage, abolition of dowries, the position of
widows, education of girls, temperance, social purity, intermarriage between castes, and
charities, and Hindu-Muslim unity (Manshardt 1967 p.33).
32. 32. Social Service organizations (1880-1900) • The social reform movement spread throughout
the country, and there was emphasis on the expansion of education. The British educators had
introduced a new pattern of thinking based on rational thinking, democracy, and liberalism.
The work of missionaries and their rationalistic way of thinking, linked with modern science,
had a great appeal to the Indian intellectual. There were significant changes taking place in the
economic life of the country. • The villagers started to migrate in increasing numbers to the
new industrial towns. Pandita Ramabai, an Indian Christian missionary, established the Arya
Mahila Samaj in poona under prarthana samaj. Jotibal Phule – a non Brahmin worker and a
campaigner for caste reforms-organized a number of Social Work institutions, orphanages, and
school for girls. In 1887
33. 33. Social Welfare agencies from 1900 – 1920 • In 1904 the Indian Social conference was
attended by Muslims, Sikhs, Arya Samajists and Brahmos, Theosophists, Buddhists and
Rationalists from all over India. • In 1905 the Servants of Indian Society was founded, in 1908
the Bombay Association established a Seva Sadan, in 1911 the Social Service league was
founded, and in 1922 after the India Industrial Welfare conference Social Work from 1920-1936
From Ameliorative to Prevention Social Legislation Gandhiji and Social Work Social Welfare
Agencies Women Welfare Prohibition Goverment and Welfare Programmes Professional Social
Work
34. 34. BIRTH AND EARLY GROWTH OF PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION IN INDIA • A
settlement house-like agency, the Nagpada Neighbourhood House, was founded in 1926 in the
slums of Bombay, India by Dr. Clifford Manshardt-an American missionary. • From the
experience he gained in the settlement, Manshardt was very convinced “that the standard of
Social Work in India could not be raised appreciably until a permanent School of Social Work
was set up to engage in a continuous study of Indian social problems and to offer training for
Social Work on a graduate basis” • Clifford Manshardt sought the help of an Indian industrialist
for finance and opened the first professional Social Work school in the name of Sir Dorabji Tata
Graduate School of Social Work in Bombay in 1936. •