Social work education in India and engagement with queer issues

Social work education in India predates the country's independence and can be traced back to the establishment of the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work (now known as The Tata Institute of Social Sciences) in 1936. In its formative years, social work education in India was deeply influenced by American and European curricula and models. The focus was on developing professionals skilled at imparting welfare services through state and other philanthropic agencies (Bodhi, 2011). Over the last 75 years, several review commissions have been set up by the University Grants Commission (UGC) to review the social work curriculum in India. In 2001, the National Curriculum for Social Work was developed under the aegis of the UGC. A manual on the standards for social work education was developed in 2003 and was accepted by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) (Social Work Educators’ Meet, 2011). The recommendations of the review commissions and discussions in formulating the curriculum focused on the necessity to move away from a welfare model of social work to an empowerment and transformative model with people's participation at the centre (UGC, 1980). Similarly, the need for social work education to be responsive to the context of globalisation, neoliberal political economies and the implications of the state–market nexus for the marginalised and vulnerable sections of the population has been highlighted (Alphonse et al, 2008).

As a result, social work education in India has moved away from the welfare, remedial approach and is engaging more with issues of structural oppression. Social structures of class, caste, patriarchy and the ways in which they cause structural inequalities find a central place in critical thinking in social work. Articulation of the ‘rights discourse’ that is critical of the ‘benevolent’ ‘welfare state’ and moves away from mere service provision to a discussion about entitlements is evident in the social work curriculum and practice. However, while there is a critical expression of inequalities and oppression that underlies poverty, caste discrimination and gender-based violence, this has not extended to interrogation of heterosexism, sexual hierarchies and gender binaries; some of the cornerstone ideas in queer theorising.