Indigenization of Indian social work

Abstract

In India, the curriculum of social work that was introduced in the beginning was heavily influenced by the western social work model. After decades of academic hegemony of western theories and concepts, academicians in India have begun to find it difficult to apply a few of the concepts in the Indian context. Indigenization of social work education simply means indigenizing existing social work curriculum so that it can be applied in the Indian context. The western model of social work, in particular that of North America, that is generally followed in Indian social work education, needs to be made to fit the local situation in order to address the local problems; the process of making social work education applicable, effective and result oriented in a particular context may be described as indigenization of social work practice. The main objective of this chapter is to analyze the extent of existing Indigenization in the curriculum of the various schools of social work in India. The chapter attempts to present academic references of the indigenous academic contributions made by Indian academicians in the field of social work. The chapter also focuses on efforts made by social work educators for the indigenization of social work education in India along with the citing of Indigenization cases.