TWO DAY NATIONAL SEMINAR
ON
EMERGING TRENDS AND CHALLENGES OF
PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION IN INDIA
(Sponsored By ICSSR, Southern Region, Hyderabad and Telangana University,
Dichpally, Nizamabad)
3rd – 4th March, 2015
At
TELANGANA UNIVERSITY
SOUTH CAMPUS, BHIKNUR, NIZAMABAD.
Organized by
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK
TELANGANA UNIVERSITY, SOUTH CAMPUS, BHIKNUR,
NIZAMABAD-503102, TELANGANA STATE, INDIA.
1
ABOUT THE TELANGANA UNIVERSITY
Telangana University was established through Act Number 28 of 2006, Government of Andhra
Pradesh to cater to the academic pursuits of backward and rural student community that belongs
to Nizamabad and Adilabad districts. Due to the inadequacy of facilities of Higher Education in
these two districts and inability of existing universities to cater to the needs of Post Graduate and
Research Programmes in remote and inaccessible backward and tribal areas and with a view to
remove the regional imbalances of Higher Education in the United Andhra Pradesh, the
Telangana University was established at Dichpally in Nizamabad district. It is exactly located in
a picturesque and greenery land about 577 acres at dichpally. The university, at present is
offering 24 Post Graduate courses where around 1500 students are pursuing their studies in
various course at the University Main Campus, South-Campus at Bhiknoor and College of
Education at Sarangapoor.
SOUTH CAMPUS-BHIKNOOR
The PG College of Bhiknoor is exactly located in picturesque and greenery land about 43 acres
at Bhiknoor. Bhiknoor PG Centre has been taken over by Telangana University from the
Osmania University during the academic year 2008-2009 and it is renamed as Telangana
University South –Campus, Bhiknoor. Few Courses have been shifted from Main Campus to
South-Campus. The South-Campus at present is offering 4 courses from the Academic Year
2012-2013. About 275 students are pursuing their studies in various courses at South –Campus.
Following are the courses offered at South Campus, Bhiknoor
1.
2.
3.
4.
Master of Social Work (MSW)
M. Sc. Organic Chemistry
M. Sc. Physic and Electronics
M. Sc. Geoinformatics
NIZAMABAD DISTRICT
Nizamabad is a town situated in the Telangana State. Nizamabad owns the Corporation Status.
River Godavari passes through Nizamabad district. Nizamabad is located 165 kms away from
Hyderabad, connecting to NH-44. Nizamabad is also connected by the train route from
Bhuvaneshwar to Mumbai covering the places Vizag, Vijayawads, Warangal, Secunderabad,
Nanded, Pune etc., Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Shamshabad is the nearest airport. For
every 15 minutes we have a bus facility between Hyderabad and Nizamabad as well as Warangal
and Nizamabad. There is a Saraswathi temple at Basar on the bank of Godavari River which is
the prominent holy temple in Asian Continent, 35 kms away from Nizamabad.
2
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK, TELANGANA UNIVERSITY
The Department of Social Work was established in 2008, has been in the forefront of academic
and field innovations in the Telangana Region and has been consistently upgrading its
curriculum to make it more responsive to the social challenges in Telangana. The Department is
well known for its teaching and instructional program as well as innovative field action projects.
It boasts of first rate highly qualified and field grounded faculty. It maintains a progressive and
people centered focus in its pedagogy, research and field action. The teaching faculty is
constantly engaged in advanced research and field action projects to inform its instructional
programmes. Members of the faculty also serve on various committees for the formulation,
monitoring and implementation of development initiatives, both in the Government and the NGO
sector. Several high quality publications from reputed publishers have been produced by
members of the faculty.
Presently, the Department offers the MSW Program with an intake of 30 students offering all
three specialization as Family and Child Welfare, Medical and Psychiatry Social Work and Rural
Urban and Tribal Community Development.
Research and field action projects have been the backbone of the instructional program of the
Department. Presently, the Department is focusing on research and field action projects in the
areas of Life Skills Program, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental sustainability,
Need assessment and impact studies on CSR, Women, Youth and Ageing etc.
Recently, the Department has initiated to take up the following long term initiatives:
1. CREAM-Centre for Research Evaluation and Monitoring
2. TJSS-Telangana Journal of Social Sciences
ABOUT THE SEMINAR
Professional social work education began in India as early as 1936 and the profession has
survived and grown during the past more than seven and half decades. The profession will
celebrate its completion of eight decades after another year. The number of social work schools
and departments offering social work education in colleges and universities has grown rather
exponentially resulting in healthy and unhealthy trends of late. Social work education in the
country, being a part of the traditional arts and science stream of higher education, is faced with
innumerable challenges. There are no regulatory mechanisms and quality assurance strategies in
place due to the absence of a national council and proper standardization and accreditation of
institutions offering social work education. The noble helping profession of social work will be
at crossroads in India right now, having to look back and take stock of what all have been
3
accomplished so far, understand the current trends, realities and challenges and decide future
directions taking into consideration, the various opportunities and threats.
Over the years, increasing professionalization and specialization lead to distinct difference
between voluntary social work and professional social work with proper university level
education. Until the advent of the new economic policy and the resulting tirades of powerful
market forces and demands, professional social work education and practice in the country had a
welfare orientation. But, with liberalization, privatization and globalization, a subtle paradigm
shift has occurred and the so-called helping profession started leaning more or rather heavily on
a managerial approach. During ·the recent decades, there has been a strong inclination among
social workers, to get into human resource management. At this juncture, there seems to be a
philosophical, or maybe even moral and ethical dilemma in the profession as to whether the
traditional welfare oriented functions of social workers should be retained with the interests of
the poor, needy, marginalized or alienated people in mind or the profession should just cater to
the demands of the market forces and demands and re-invent itself. But, then we have a serious
problem or rather, an identity crisis of the profession. Social work education in the country has
been seriously affected by this philosophical dilemma and social work educators seem to be
feeling helpless victims of circumstances.
In this context the Department of Social Work, Telangana University is going to organize a TwoDay National Seminar on, “Emerging Trends and Challenges of Professional Social Work”.
OBJECTIVES OF THE SEMINAR
1. To deliberate on the contemporary nature of social work, its role, mandate, functions and
characteristics within the human services and broader society.
2. To apply research and analysis skills to critically evaluate evidence, assimilate existing
and emerging knowledge, practice skills and values regarding social work practice and
theory.
3. To explore the core social work values and moral and ethical frameworks are represented
in your perceptions and response to social issues.
4. Collate and appraise data from a variety of reliable sources, critically analyse selected
trends and social issues, and develop creative responses to address the challenges and
opportunities for the social work profession.
5. To address the challenges of Social Work in Indian context.
SUB- THEMES OF THE SEMINAR
1. The role of social work, and the social worker in contemporary society and emerging
changes in Professional Social Work Education;
4
2. Workforce composition and direction of the social work sector;
3. Impact of Social change and social issues on current social work practice;
4. Emerging trends and challenges from the available evidence bases and identify future
areas for Social Work Research;
5. Research methods and analytical techniques used by the profession and human
services sector, including evaluation, participatory action research, and in-depth
analysis of qualitative/quantitative research papers, and trend and other client/service
data from reliable sources; and
6. Ethical and professional issues in practice, professional Standards of Practice.
7. Innovations in Curriculum, pedagogical methods and evaluation systems,
8. Challenges of concurrent field work, social work internships, and job placements.
9. Social Development and Sustainable Development
10. Urban, Rural and Tribal Community Development
11. Health, Mental health and Psychiatric Social Work
12. Family, Child Welfare, Women and Youth empowerment
13. Technology and Professional Social Work Education
14. Ecology and Environment
15. Legal Systems, Criminology and Correctional Administration
ABSTRACT/FULL LENGTH PAPERS
Participants are requested to send their abstracts/full length research articles on:
 A4 size paper using font size in Times New Roman with single space.
 Abstract should include a concise title, name of the author(s) and address.
 Name of the presenting author should be underlined.
 The abstract should not exceed 250 words.
 Participants are further requested to mail soft copy of abstract on or before 28th
February, 2015 to tusocialworkdept@gmail.com.
 Hard copy of full length must be submitted at the time of registration.
 Best selected full length papers will be published in proceeding with ISBN No. within
three months of the National Seminar.
VENUE
Seminar Hall, South Campus, Telangana University, Bhiknur, Nizamabad, 503102.
5
Chief Patron
Sri C. Parthasarathi, IAS
Hon’ble Vice-Chancellor, Telangana University, Dichpally, NZB.
Patron
Prof. R. Limbadri
Registrar, Telangana University, Dichpally, NZB.
Seminar Director
Dr. M. Vijay Kumar Sharma
Head
Department of Social Work, Telangana University, South Campus, Bhiknur, NZB.
Seminar Co- Director
Dr. K. Rajeshwari
Chairman, BOS
Department of Social Work, Telangana University, South Campus, Bhiknur, NZB.
Seminar Co-Convenors
Mr. B. Anjaiah, and Mr. B. Veerabhadram,
Assistant Professors, Department of Social Work, Telangana University, South
Campus, Bhiknur, NZB.
Seminar Co-Advisors
Dr. M. Yaladri, Academic Consultant
Mr. V. Laxman, Academic Consultant
Mr. K. Narasiah, Academic Consultant
Mrs. M. Rama Devi, Academic Consultant
For further Details Contact:
Dr. M. Vijay Kumar Sharma,
Head, Department of Social Work, Telangana University, South Campus
Bhiknur, Nizamabad, 503102, Telangana State, India.
Mobile: 9440874630
E-mail: tusocialworkdept@gmail.com, drmvksharma@gmail.com.
6