Social work and rural development

Priscilla WELIKALA

Rural development as expounded in the Mahinda Chinthanaya and explained by the Senior Presidential Advisor and Parliamentarian Basil Rajapaksa in the Daily News of April 2, 2009 is an area of great importance where much attention and emphasis is directed by the Government.

Development work has commenced in agriculture based less developed sections of the country which is not enjoying the benefits of modernisation and urbanisation.

Social workers

As a professional social worker who is academically and professionally qualified in this area of work, I thought it is an opportune time in the history of this country, where much development work is underway, to bring to the notice of those directly involved in these programs the important and positive contributions professionally trained social workers could make to realise the main objective of the Government to build a new Sri Lanka.

Social work is a practice profession, though not yet legally recognised in Sri Lanka.

It has the attributes of a profession and at present the National Institute of Social Development, which is the only degree granting institute in this country, in the field of Social Work Education is conducting professional social work education courses at the diploma level in the Sinhala and Tamil medium, BSSW and MSW degree level programs in the English medium. Trained social workers are equipped with knowledge and skills to foster, facilitate and strengthen basic social relationships in order to achieve the full development of the individuals and society by the use of social work methods - working with individuals and families, group work and community development. In the body of knowledge and theory of the social work profession are contributions from other disciplines such as anthropology, biological sciences, economics, psychology and sociology. This knowledge helps the trained social worker to be competent in the field of practice working with people. This is very important for people should not continue to remain beneficiaries of services only but they must develop the ownership and the will to sustain and maintain rural developmental projects set up for their benefit. This is a special skill of those trained in this profession.

Sri Lanka is basically an agricultural society with a rural population. A large percentage of our population live in rural areas but much attention has not been paid by succeeding Governments after Independence from Colonial rule in 1948 to give due recognition or attention to this sector of the population.

Pro-western attitude

As stated in the said article “Sri Lanka as a nation faced retrogression whenever a Government leaning towards western powers had ben in power.” The pro-western attitudes of the rulers epitomised by the bureaucrats did not pay much attention to the development of rural areas and its people.

A magnitude of problems was faced by the rural population. Poverty, unemployment, low productivity in the agricultural sector, all led to a low quality of life and this continued to remain a part and parcel of the rural sector.

It is really heartening to see positive changes taking place as the Government has accepted that no meaningful development can be achieved as long as a large portion of the population in rural areas cannot meet their basic needs in life.

The Gama Neguma and Maga Neguma programs are examples that will help the development of rural areas. Social development is as equally important as economic development and both together constitute ‘real’ development. With the acceptance and the realisation that both material and social progress are both equally important, the Government leadership is drawing more attention to social factors of development. The richest resource of a nation is its people.

Through the development of people with their involvement and active participation in all activities that concern them they develop a sense of ownership and desire to sustain and carry on development activities for their own benefit. Developing the potentials of people to become self-propelling individuals will be an important feature in rural development.

This positive attitudinal change in the people will definitely facilitate the process of building a new Sri Lanka.

In our country, social work is very often interpreted as social services. It must be very strongly said that social work is not social services, as interpreted by many as a meritorious or a philanthropic act. Meeting basic needs of people through service delivery in the process of working with people can be one aspect of social work but mere service delivery is not social work.

There are many voluntary organisations engaged in social services as a meritorious act and positive changes in these areas could be effected with the involvement of professionally trained social workers. Working with people and working for people do not mean the same thing.

In the profession of social work, working with people is a process; helping people to help themselves leading towards an acceptable level of social functioning through the maximization of one’s own potentials. The purpose and values orient social work practice and knowledge guides working with people with an understanding and giving due recognition to them to become active participants of their own development. Infrastructure development without people’s participation and active involvement can lead to problems as time goes on.

Development projects

People must not only remain as beneficiaries of development but must develop positive attitudes to develop ownership and responsibility to sustain and maintain them as and when the need arises. There are many examples of developmental projects undertaken by earlier Governments now abandoned after spending large amounts of money.

For the success of the present rural development programs and their continuous implementation the involvement and the active participation of people are very important. As mentioned, recruitment of professionally trained social workers will definitely contribute to make these developmental programs more meaningful to the people and ensure their active participation. Social work profession can definitely contribute to achieve the main objective of this Government in building a new Sri Lanka.