1 Social Work: Definition, Scope, Values and Practice in India · 1.1 Foundations of social work
1.1.1 Social work: definitions, history, scope and the profession in India
Social work is a professional, scientific helping service that improves the social functioning of individuals, groups and communities; it grew out of the Charity Organisation Society (London, 1869) and the settlement movement (Toynbee Hall, 1884), and became a profession in India with the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work, Bombay (1936), now TISS.
- APPSC Paper I
- Standard level
- 12 min read
- Free
Core facts
- Friedlander (1955): social work is a professional service, based on scientific knowledge and skill in human relations, that helps people, alone or in groups, reach social and personal satisfaction and independence.
- Herbert Stroup: social work is the art of bringing resources to meet the needs of individuals, groups and communities by the scientific method of helping people help themselves.
- Werner Boehm (1958–59): social work seeks to enhance the social functioning of individuals, singly and in groups, by activities focused on their social relationships.
- Mary Richmond: Social Diagnosis (1917), What is Social Case Work? (1922); called the mother of social case work.
- Global definition (IFSW–IASSW, Melbourne, 2014): a practice-based profession and an academic discipline that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people; core principles: social justice, human rights, collective responsibility, respect for diversities.
- Elizabethan Poor Law: 1601 (England); Poor Law Amendment Act: 1834.
- Charity Organisation Society (COS): London, 1869 (C.S. Loch, Octavia Hill); first in USA at Buffalo, 1877 (Rev. S. Humphreys Gurteen). Volunteers called "friendly visitors"; the root of case work.
- Settlement house movement: Toynbee Hall, London, 1884 (Canon Samuel Barnett and Henrietta Barnett); Hull House, Chicago, 1889 (Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr). The root of group work and community organisation. Jane Addams: Nobel Peace Prize 1931.
- First training: summer course (Summer School in Philanthropic Work) of the New York COS, 1898; it became the New York School of Philanthropy (1904), now the Columbia School of Social Work.
- Abraham Flexner (1915): "Is social work a profession?" — answered not yet. Ernest Greenwood (1957): five attributes of a profession: systematic theory, authority, community sanction, ethical code, professional culture.
- NASW (USA) formed 1955; first Code of Ethics 1960.
- India's first school: Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work, Bombay, 1936; first director Clifford Manshardt (American missionary); renamed Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in 1944; deemed university 1964. TISS started the Indian Journal of Social Work (1940).
- Central Social Welfare Board: 1953, first chairperson Durgabai Deshmukh.
- Methods (six): primary: social case work, social group work, community organisation; secondary (auxiliary): social welfare administration, social work research, social action.
- Functions of social work (Indian texts): curative, correctional (corrective), preventive, developmental. Areas of social change named by Pierce: prevention, reform, re-socialisation, rehabilitation and planning (2023 key).
Explained
1. What the definitions share. Every standard definition has the same parts:
- a helping activity, done as a profession (training, knowledge, skills, ethics);
- the client may be an individual, a group or a community;
- the aim is social functioning: the fit between a person and the demands of his or her social roles and environment;
- it helps people help themselves (self-help, not dependence);
- it uses resources of the family, agency, community and state.
2. Social work and its neighbours. Exams test the difference.
| Term | What it is | Who does it |
|---|---|---|
| Social service | help given to a person in need (charity, relief) | anyone, often volunteers, no training needed |
| Social work | scientific, method-based helping to restore and develop social functioning | trained professional |
| Social welfare | the organised system of services, laws and institutions for well-being | state and voluntary agencies |
| Social reform | change of harmful customs and institutions by movements | reformers, leaders |
- Social action is one method of social work: organised mass effort to change laws or policy.
- Social security is protection by the state against contingencies (old age, sickness, unemployment), through social insurance and social assistance.
- Social reform aims at society; social work aims at people and their functioning, though both seek change.
3. History in the West (stages).
- Charity and religion: alms, church relief, guilds.
- Poor Laws (1601, 1834): relief by the state through parishes and workhouses; the "deserving" and "undeserving" poor.
- COS (1869): "scientific charity": investigate each case, register applicants, avoid duplication of alms, use friendly visitors. Led to case work (Mary Richmond, a COS worker in Baltimore).
- Settlements (1884, 1889): educated volunteers lived in poor neighbourhoods, ran clubs, classes and campaigns. Led to group work, community organisation and social action.
- Professionalisation: schools (1898 onwards), Flexner's challenge (1915), Richmond's Social Diagnosis (1917), professional bodies, the NASW (1955) and its code.
4. History in India.
- Pre-professional roots: religious charity (dana, zakat, temple and dharamshala relief), caste and village self-help, and the social reform movements of the 19th century: Raja Ram Mohan Roy (Brahmo Samaj, 1828; abolition of sati, 1829), Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (Widow Remarriage Act, 1856), Jyotiba Phule (Satyashodhak Samaj, 1873), the Servants of India Society (Gokhale, 1905).
- Gandhian constructive work: village uplift, removal of untouchability, Harijan welfare, khadi, basic education; trained volunteers rather than professionals.
- Professional stage: the Tata school (1936) began graduate training. More schools followed after Independence, including the Delhi School of Social Work (set up by the YWCA at Lucknow in 1946, moved to Delhi in 1948, part of Delhi University from 1961) and Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi (1947).
- After Independence: the Indian Conference of Social Work (1947), the Central Social Welfare Board (1953), the Planning Commission's Encyclopaedia of Social Work in India (1968), and UGC review committees on social work education (1965, 1980) and its model curriculum (2001). The Union ministry for welfare is now the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (name since 1998).
5. Scope and fields. Social work works wherever social functioning breaks down:
- family and child welfare (adoption, foster care, child protection);
- medical and psychiatric social work (hospitals, mental health);
- correctional social work: probation, parole, prisons, juvenile justice homes, after-care (this post's field);
- labour welfare and industrial social work (welfare officers under the Factories Act);
- community development: rural, urban and tribal;
- school social work, youth welfare, gerontology, disability, disaster relief;
- social policy, planning and administration.
6. Links to the society notes. Comte's law of three stages and Spencer's organic analogy are in SOC-BC-01; Ogburn's cultural lag in SOC-BC-03; theories of social change and social control in SOC-BC-04. Social work borrows these ideas to explain why problems arise when a society changes faster in technology than in its customs.
Common traps
- ✗ "The first COS was set up in Buffalo in 1869." ✓ London, 1869; Buffalo (USA) was 1877.
- ✗ "Hull House was the first settlement house." ✓ Toynbee Hall, London (1884) was first; Hull House, Chicago, was 1889.
- ✗ "Toynbee Hall was founded by Jane Addams." ✓ By Samuel Barnett; Addams founded Hull House.
- ✗ "TISS was founded in 1936 under that name." ✓ In 1936 it was the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work; renamed TISS in 1944.
- ✗ "Mary Richmond wrote Social Diagnosis in 1922." ✓ 1917; What is Social Case Work? is 1922.
- ✗ "Social service and social work mean the same." ✓ Social service needs no training; social work is a professional, method-based service.
- ✗ "Social action is a primary method." ✓ It is a secondary method, with administration and research.
- ✗ "The global definition of social work was adopted in 2000." ✓ The current one is 2014 (Melbourne); 2000 (Montreal) was the earlier one.
Quick revision
- Social work: professional help for social functioning; helps people help themselves.
- Friedlander: professional service on scientific knowledge and skill in human relations.
- Global definition 2014: social change, cohesion, empowerment and liberation; social justice, human rights.
- Poor Law 1601; COS London 1869, Buffalo 1877; friendly visitors → case work.
- Toynbee Hall 1884 (Barnett); Hull House 1889 (Jane Addams) → group work, community organisation.
- Richmond, Social Diagnosis 1917; Flexner 1915; Greenwood 1957; NASW 1955.
- India: Tata school, Bombay, 1936 (Manshardt) → TISS 1944; CSWB 1953 (Durgabai Deshmukh).
- Methods: case work, group work, community organisation + administration, research, social action.
- Functions: curative, correctional, preventive, developmental.
- Comte, Spencer: SOC-BC-01; cultural lag (Ogburn): SOC-BC-03.
Go deeper: Deeper (beyond what APPSC Paper I usually asks)
Deeper Advanced
- Is social work a profession? Flexner (1915) said it lacked its own body of knowledge and acted mainly as a mediator. Greenwood (1957) placed it on a continuum and judged it a profession. In India, a further gap is legal recognition: there is no statutory council or licence for social workers (2026), unlike medicine or law; a national council for professional social work has been proposed but not enacted.
- Residual vs institutional view (Wilensky and Lebeaux, 1958): residual welfare steps in only when family and market fail; institutional welfare is a normal, first-line function of modern society. Early COS work was residual; modern state welfare is institutional.
- Indigenisation debate: Indian social work education was built on American case-work models; critics argue it suits individual therapy more than mass poverty, caste and rural problems, and call for developmental and social-action approaches drawn from Gandhian and reform traditions.
- Correctional setting: the probation officer is a social worker in an authoritative (host) setting: the court or prison is the host agency, and the client is often involuntary. The same methods apply, with added duties to the court.
Practise this topic. Questions on Social work: definitions, history and scope; sociological foundations, with answers explained.
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