Welcome to the 11th Indian Social Work Congress, 2023 to be held on November 3-5, 2023!

We are pleased to invite academicians, researchers, practitioners, students and social work professionals to be part of this historic experience to discuss and deliberate some of important issues and challenges of professional social work today.

Social work is committed to facilitating and promoting self-reliant individuals, sustainable group practices and an egalitarian and undivided society through the science of teaching and the art of doing. With the early moorings in social service traditions and organized social welfare, social work has evolved to cater the changing needs of society in the wake of industrialization, urbanization and obtuse development. It marked its presence to provide specialized services to individuals, groups and communities. Social work as human service profession is committed-Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The global commitment to LNOB Pledge (leave no one behind) amidst shrinking state welfare, diminishing social capital and increasing humanitarian crisis demand revisiting the pedagogies and practices. It is important to revisit the existing practices of teaching-learning on one hand, and on the other, to review, reflect and learn from the sustainable models of engaging people on the margins. This Congress would like to revisit the efforts of social work community in the past and deliberate on the plans for future.

In the last eight decades, social work progressed enormously in terms of the spread of social work educational institutions and students receiving professional education and embarking on their journey as human service workforce. The period also saw dynamic responses and initiatives on the part of the professional bodies of social work, government regulatory bodies, academic institutions and individuals in shaping and imagining the profession. This resulted in the production of the voluminous literature on social work including the textbooks and encyclopaedias of social work, review reports and model curricula, and the publication of professional journals.

Adhering to the pedagogy of the question rather than the answer, there is a need to re-examine and reflect on the journey travelled so far. The profession of social work in India is not without contestations. Still, there are many good old unresolved questions around the very professional status of social work and its indigenous base in India which need to be explored in conceptual and theoretical realms. During COVID-19, the community of professional social workers in India has launched a digital advocacy campaign for setting a national council for social work education. It is quite ironic that social work is still entangled with the rigidity of societal structures and the uncertainty of professional limits coupled with profound intellectual and ethical musings. There are also questions on the future of social work in the wake of the shrinking welfare sector and competition in the job market from allied professions. Equally, pertinent is the need to look back and reflect on our socio-political legacy, the professional literature developed, the evolving nature of the curriculum and the intervention models that emerged from the field. The challenges and opportunities within the larger questions of disciplinary contours and professional competencies are two aspects for critical scrutiny. This requires a renewed discussion on social work pedagogies and practices in India. The voyage of relooking the past paradigms of social work requires a convergence of its sailors (educators and practitioners) for deliberations in the fast-changing contemporary times.

We call upon the social work community representing the academicians, professionals, researchers and other stakeholders committed to human service professions to come and contribute to this deliberation on social work education in India. We hope that together the fraternity could introspect and reflect on a better present as well as the future of our profession, professional education and sustainable practices.

 

In solidarity

Local Organising Committee and Organizing Team