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Social work in India has reduced itself to near inaction. The government and the society need social scientists and not parasites of fictitious poverty. This is a wake-up call and a commentary on a sector that is supposed to support mainstream economy and stand by the country in its hours of crises. Let us get the comatose third sector back to work, because presently the returns are mere shadows of true Gram Swaraj ^[1] .

I would like to draw a parallel between the ‘window of discourse’ and the ‘window of social work’ in India. The Overton window ^[2] is the name of the window of discourse or the band of ideas around which acceptable public narratives and discourses are construed. The window implies that policymakers desist from venturing into uncharted areas for fear of rejection by the public – their masters. Similarly, social work in India operates within the frame of such a window, and hitherto has been unable to mainstream obscure ideas or change goal posts or even go anywhere near ‘innovations’. The complacency of ‘going with the flow’ is comfortable.

With over 3.5 million Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) ^[3] in India (one for every 500 people), this sector legitimately has an enviable reach of at least 3X that of the government. Sample the doctor to patient ratio in India of 1:1456 ^[4] or the agri-extension officer to farmer ratio of 1:1162 ^[5] . Each NGO then further fissions into many smaller nuclei groups of volunteers and community workers. It is thus the biggest platform of and for change. Investment in an NGO is, by far, the best guarantee to bring about mass scale behaviour change, practice reforms and run a self-reliant Gram Swaraj.

Gram Swaraj or a sustainable rural autonomy can potentially weather the onslaught of climate emergencies, market volatility and tricky employment aspirations. It is potentially an indispensable support to national life and character. With the correct blend of capital and human capital investments, the return from social work of NGOs can be the highest possible. But after 73 years, the NGOs are primarily implementing agencies, hardly ever willing to jump the windows of discourse.

Yet, the sector boasts of relentless ‘activists’. Where is the action or disruption that marks this activism? What is this activism for? Maybe for self-eulogising awards, but that’s not human development! The sector is yet to demonstrate the temerity to innovate with the world’s largest population of below 30-year olds ^[6] and the world’s fastest growing middle class. ^[7]  What are they waiting for?

The civil society organisations (nee NGOs) spend over 90% of their time, waiting for the next project announcement by a public service department to apply for a grant. Because they do not have their own programmes, or if there are, then the programmes are designed to be a ‘permanent outcome’ of the public welfare programme(s). The fit is perfect. Their scale of impact is directly proportional to their capacity in wooing the existing national and state programs, whether the beneficiaries want them, need them or not. The ‘beneficiary’ is blurred in this case because over 75% of the budget (from the grant) is spent on staff salaries. Who is the beneficiary in this case?

The rate of conversion of specific needs of a demography into a full-fledged, targeted intervention is well below 10% – one in 10 current needs of the community is targeted by the social development programs. Government schemes are well planned but poorly executed because:

• NGOs selected as implementation partners lack basic capacities to implement
• There is no ownership of the schemes
• The Collectors get transferred frequently and the Collectorate is ill-equipped in terms of professional manpower and skills

The Collector ‘owns’ a district and yet s/he rarely gets support from NGOs in implementation and feedback.

Community needs change rapidly. But the implementation methodologies have not evolved since the late eighties and early nineties, when India embarked upon a slew of health programs with the help of multilateral and bilateral support. The same flip charts, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), above-the-line / below-the-line approaches and materials are used till date which are cornball, unimaginative and uninspiring. Nothing much has changed since the Jawaharlal National University (JNU) alumni took to social work. New institutions and ideas get buried under a quick job in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) department in a company. The young MSWs/MBAs/IITians ^[8] brim with possibilities but are yet to know the market – the recipients of their models. They learn go-to-market theories in the classrooms and leave them behind.

Let us take the example of education. What happens after Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) ^[9] is published every year? Barring a few interventions in states like Rajasthan, Maharashtra and a few others, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects for example, have still not been taken up rigorously as a thrust area. Children need assistance in their psycho-social barriers in learning mathematics and overcoming their trepidations. Only giving ICT (Information and Communications Technology) based video lessons is tokenism and not the solution. The future minds of this world continue to wade their way through lacklustre, painful, obscure education. The human touch is absent. No wonder AI & ML are already in the room.

Social work has now turned into contract work? Prominent NGOs of India are building houses and roads because that adds to their balance sheet and not to their core strength. Should we expect builders to be NGOs? If yes, then rightfully so, the government has decided to make GST compulsory for NGOs. 

NGOs should be idea laboratories with social scientists working closely with MSW/MBA qualified program managers. If all involved will manage, who will ideate? This will soon lead to a BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) wave in social work, without an iota of innovation, barring a few mediocre attempts to create mobile phone apps or data collection spreadsheets in the name of technology interventions. The MSW is expected to help the welfare schemes of the country (the government) to reach the unreached. Leakages in welfare schemes have not helped us reduce poverty the way the government has committed to in the SDGs ^[10] .

The livelihood programmes in states like Odisha, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana are doing well with new and unfamiliar approaches. New age social work should bring fresh perspectives to the large sums of taxpayer money being invested on low income groups. An effective deployment of this money will mean reduced social strain between the haves and have-nots. Is this not the fundamental ideology of the self-claimed activists? But are they helping in the professional development of social workers?

The students should realise the significance of social work, their chosen career path – that they can and should function like a professional conduit or a gateway to redistribute income from the young to the elderly, from taxpayers to subsidy recipients and from the rich to the poor. One rupee spent on social work should deliver an impact of at least 2000X. They would be responsible for at least 13% of the GDP which is government spending in India with impact at such a mega scale. The economics of social work is by far the most powerful link between an underdeveloped and developed economy. This potential of the sector is currently squandered. A national social forum like CII ^[11] or FICCI ^[12] , with predominantly young social workers, is part of the answer.

There is a tragic vacuum in civil society leadership in the country in thought and action. Civil society is both the idea universe, the programme workshop and much more than only the third sector. Return from any investments here will be manifold and sustainable. Yet we seem to miss the simple markers. The most potent of all change vehicles is presently antiquated and mostly off-road.

So, are we here to lament a lost Paradise? OR to disrupt and re-centre to create an evergreen Eden? The choice is ours. It might be too early for my epitaph but contributions to the GDP ^[13] and GHI ^[14] are still awaited. 

The country is looking to me and my fellow brethren in social work.

References

[1] Gram Swaraj a special term coined by Mahatma Gandhi which promotes conversion of every village into a self-efficient autonomous entity where all the systems and facilities for a dignified living are available. More at http://gramswarajindia.org

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

[3] https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/225651/14/14_chapter%204.pdf

[4]https://www.deccanherald.com/business/budget-2020/the-doctor-population-ratio-in-india-is-11456-against-who-recommendation-800034.html

[5]https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333842261_Agriculture_Extension_System_in_India_A_Meta-analysis

[6] https://www.statista.com/statistics/271315/age-distribution-in-india/

[7]https://www.financialexpress.com/economy/after-japan-india-poised-to-overtake-us-to-become-2nd-largest-middle-class-market-in-less-than-4-years/1289336/

[8] MSW – Master of Social Work , MBA – Master of Business Administration , IIT – Indian Institute of Technology

[9] ASER – http://www.asercentre.org/?p=133

[10] SDGs – Sustainable Development Goals – https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300

[11] CII – Confederation of Indian Industry

[12] FICCI – Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry

[13] GDP – Gross Domestic Product

[14] GHI – Global Hunger Index – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Hunger_IndexGG