The Science and Ethics of Intervention Programmes in Family and Child Welfare: Towards Building an Inclusive Psychology for Social Justice

Abstract

India’s cultural diversity is an illustration of sustainable engagement of people with their environment where cultural practices are in a delicate ecological balance often with meagre resources and harsh conditions. This balance is underestimated when programmes and services seek inspiration and guidance from global trends without adequate attention to local reality. Poverty is treated as a failure of the people (and by the people as a failure of the Government) rather than a consequence of long-standing structural marginalization. Blaming the victim has been an important theme in evaluating cultural practices of people living with disadvantage. This is a serious error in judgement both on scientific and ethical grounds. Despite enduring scholarly work that recognizes the need for context-sensitive theory and research in the field of psychology, institutional practices have remained largely loyal to global trends. Large-scale intervention programmes in community welfare persist with practices that derive directly from mainstream psychology, especially in the fields of education, family studies and child development. Through the financial and ideological push from international NGOs that prescribe objectives and strategies for intervention, the real problem remains ignored despite claiming impressive outreach. Primarily because of misplaced emphases and misconstrued priorities, intervention initiatives often fail to meet the objectives of social justice and equity. Furthermore, they may even result in distancing people in marginalized communities further, on account of unintended consequences of welfare activity. This can be seen in the large number of youth that hang precariously in between the world that they knew and the one that was implicitly promised to them. In spite of claims about coverage in terms of numbers, providing ecologically valid, cultural relevant and socially just services is restricted to a handful of committed agencies. This article will focus on specific instances of educational and welfare programmes that are advanced without either the knowledge about or respect for local community ideology in the desire to bring about social change for their “upliftment”. A special case in point is the persistent inability for the poor to access and participate in good quality education despite their enthusiasm and motivation. After providing an overview of the ideological mismatch between local culture and global policy, I will also give examples of experiments that have been successful in working towards ethically and scientifically sound welfare initiatives.