Indian Social Work

This book provides multiple frameworks and paradigms for social work education which integrates indigenous theories and cultural practices. It focuses on the need to diversify and reorient social work curriculum to include indigenous traditions of service, charity and volunteerism to help social work evolve as a profession in India. The volume analyzes the history of social work education in India and how the discipline has adapted and changed in the last 80 years. It emphasizes the need for the Indianization of social work curriculum so that it can be applied to the socio-cultural contours of a diverse Indian society. The book delineates strategies and methods derived from meditation, yoga, bhakti and ancient Buddhist and Hindu philosophy to prepare social work practitioners with the knowledge, and skills, that will support and enhance their ability to work in partnership with diverse communities and indigenous people. This book is essential reading for teachers, educators, field practitioners and students of social work, sociology, religious studies, ancient philosophy, law and social entrepreneurship. It will also interest policy makers and those associated with civil society organizations.