NAME OF AUTHOR-DEEPAK NAYAK 
                  History, Philosophy and Fields of Social Work  
                
               UNIT-I 
                
                  1. BASIC CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL WORK  
                   
               Contents of the Unit 
                
               1.0. Introduction 
               1.1. Unit Objectives 
               1.2. Social Work 
                    Meaning and Definition 
                    Scope of Social Work 
                    Objectives of Social Work 
                    Functions of Social Work 
                    Methods of Social Work. 
               1.3. Social Welfare 
                    Meaning and Concept 
                    Scope of Social Welfare 
                    Objectives of Social Welfare 
                    Residual and Institutional Concept of Social Welfare 
                    Distinctions between Social work and Social Welfare. 
                    Distinction between Social Welfare and Social Service  
               1.4. Social Action 
                    Meaning and Concept of Social Action 
                    Process of Social Action 
                    Social Work and Social Action and Social Reform 
               1.5. Social Security 
                      Meaning and Concept 
                      Methods of Social Security 
                      Social Security in India 
                      Social work and social security in India 
               1.6. Social Justice 
                    Concept of Social Justice 
                    Scope of Social Justice 
               1.7. Human Rights: 
                    Meaning and Concept 
                    Universal Declaration of  Human Rights 
               1.8. Social Development 
                    Meaning of Social Development  
                    Indicators of social development 
                    Objectives of Social Development 
                    Principles of social development 
                  
                
               1.0.  Introduction 
                
                      
                     Social work as profession of the most recent times has not developed in isolation. 
               It has developed its body of knowledge by pulling various ideas from different relevant 
               disciplines. ‘The basic concepts of social work’ in the sense we use in this unit, deals 
               with  the  fundamental  knowledge  about  some  of  the  important  concepts  which  are 
               incorporated/included in the study and practice of social work profession. In this unit, 
               attempt has been made to discuss those concepts in a lucid way. 
                
                
               1.01 Objectives of the Unit 
                
                
                     The main objective of the Unit is to make the students or readers familiar with the 
               basic  concepts  which  constitute  important  part  of  social  work  knowledge.  It  is  of 
               optimum importance to understand and know about these basic concepts for they are the 
               foundation of social work practice. 
                     After studying this unit, the readers will be able to comprehend and conceptualize 
               the following matters: 
                    Meaning, concept, scope, objectives, function and methods of social work, 
            Concept, scope, and objectives of Social welfare. 
            Distinction between social work, social welfare and social service 
            Meaning, process and methods of social action and difference between social 
           work, social action and social reform, 
            Meaning and Methods of social security and social security in India 
            Concept and Scope of social justice  
            Concept and importance of Human Rights 
            Meaning and objectives of Social Development 
            Interrelationship between some basic concepts  
         
         Meaning and definition of social work 
         
        The meaning of social work is so complex and dynamic that it is almost impossible to 
        give  a  universally  accepted  meaning.  It  has  been  graded  by  different  individuals  in 
        various ways on the basis of understanding of different individuals in the society under 
        the following points: 
         
        Meaning of Social Work to a man in the street 
         
           A common man in the street has a very simple interpretation about social work. 
        According to any one who performs some good deeds for the people is doing social work. 
        In  this  regard  the  man  in  the  street  however,  tries  to  make  a  distinction  between  an 
        ‘ordinary man’ who carries on community activities voluntarily without any payment and 
        the ‘welfare worker’ who is appointed by a welfare agency for undertaking welfare work 
        in the community and paid for his work. He has his own way of explaining social work in 
        the light of his experience and knowledge needy people in the community. According to 
        him good and voluntary work by an ordinary man and the social welfare by the paid 
        agents more or less is the same thing, but in case of the former, there is more warmth of 
        feeling towards the beneficiaries. 
            
              
        Meaning of Social Work to a Semi-professional 
          
        This interpretation of social work is given by those who are not trained social workers but 
        work in some welfare agency. They believe that they have the right to be called as social 
        worker just because they are engaged in welfare activities. In their belief, because a 
        person employed in the welfare agency, and carries on welfare activities, he is a social 
        worker and his activities are social work practices. 
         
           However, Proff. Clarke points out two deficiencies in their concept of the social 
        worker and social work. Firstly, they seem to forget that not all persons who work in the 
        large welfare fields are social workers but may be experts in housing, recreation, social 
        insurance, nursing, accounting etc. Secondly, they neglect to consider the professional 
        qualities of a social worker and so fail to understand what makes a person social work 
        professional. In this connection, it may be argued that a mother who successfully relieves 
        her sick child is not for this reason, entitled to be called a doctor, who is a professional. A 
        profession is characterized by special knowledge and skills, systematic training, certain 
        code of ethics, social recognition etc. all of which social work has. Therefore, it can be 
        concluded that the interpretation of semi-professionals about social work cannot be valid 
        for social work.     
         
        Scientific meaning 
         
        The third interpretation of social work is given by Dr. Helen Witmer. It is of course 
        scientific but it is too narrow to represent the real and perfect concept of social work. She 
        says the function of social work is “to give assistance to individuals in regard to the 
        difficulties  they  encounter  in  their  use  of  an  organized  group  services  or  their  own 
        performance  as  member  of  an  organized  group.”  By  organized  group  she  meant 
        institutions  like  family,  the  neighborhood,  the  school,  the  church,  hospitals  etc.  For 
        example in regard to family, the function of social work is to facilitate the family’s 
        normal  activities  through  counseling  with  individuals  about  the  difficulties  they 
        encounter in family life, providing financial assistance or other material helps that are 
        necessary to secure a family’s adequate functioning or helping the members to avail the 
        required services from the different sources. 
         
           In her scientific interpretation of social work Dr. Witmer does not consider all 
        agencies which claim to carry on social work activities as social work agencies. For 
        instance,  she  does  not  believe  that  public  relief  agencies  are  social  work  institutions 
        because they primarily concerned with providing some form of assistance to all who meet 
        certain  specifications  temporarily  rather  than  working  at  scientific  solution  of  the 
        problems through social  readjustment  with  their  impaired  environment.  She  excludes 
        many activities which she feels are not directly connected to the problems of the people. 
        If the end is not the development of general capacities but that of helping individuals 
        solve the particular problems they encounter in group relations, then alone she would call 
        the activities as social group work in particular and social work in general. In this sense 
        most of the activities  like  that  of  Scouts,  Boys  Clubs,  and  recreational  activities  are 
        excluded from social work activities by her. 
         
           Having limited the activities of social work, she further points out that social work 
        has a defined personnel norms and values and material apparatus. The personnel of social 
        work operate largely through agencies which utilize professional knowledge to carry on 
        professional  activities  and  laymen  to  determine  agency  policy.  It  has  its  norms  of 
        conduct, which define its organization and its material apparatus includes land, buildings, 
        furniture, records, food and clothing for clients and journals and books etc. She was of 
        the view that the main objective of social work is to remove those obstacles which are felt 
        in the process or in performing the role.