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Social work is both a profession and social science. It involves theapplication of social theory and research methods to study and improve thelives of people, groups, and societies. It incorporates and utilizes othersocial sciences as a means to improve the human condition and positively changesociety's response to chronic problems.

Social work is a profession committed to the pursuit of social justice, tothe enhancement of the quality of life, and to the development of the fullpotential of each individual, group and community in the society. It seeks tosimultaneously address and resolve social issues at every level of society andeconomic status, but especially among the poor and sick.

Social workers are concerned with social problems, their causes, theirsolutions and their human impacts. They work with individuals, families,groups, organizations and communities. Social work and human history gotogether. Social work was always in human societies although it began to be adefined pursuit and profession in the 19th century. This definition was inresponse to societal problems that resulted from the Industrial Revolution andan increased interest in applying scientific theory to various aspects ofstudy. Eventually an increasing number of educational institutions began tooffer social work programmes.

Social work has its roots in the struggle of society to ameliorate povertyand the resultant problems. Therefore, social work is intricately linked withthe idea of charity work; but must be understood in broader terms. The conceptof charity goes back to ancient times, and the practice of providing for thepoor can be found in all major world religions. The practice and profession ofmodern social work has a relatively long scientific origin, originating in the19th Century. The movement began primarily in Europe and North America. Thesettlement movement's emphasis on advocacy and case work became part of socialwork practice. During the 20^th century, the profession began to relymore on research and evidenced-based practice as it attempted to improve itsprofessionalism. Today social workers are employed in a myriad of pursuits andsettings.

The International Federation of Social Workers states, of social worktoday, "social work bases its methodology on a systematic body ofevidence-based knowledge derived from research and practice evaluation,including local and indigenous knowledge specific to its context. It recognizesthe complexity of interactions between human beings and their environment, andthe capacity of people both to be affected by and to alter the multipleinfluences upon them including bio-psychosocial factors. The social workprofession draws on theories of human development and behaviour and socialsystems to analyze complex situations and to facilitate individual,organizational, social and cultural changes."

The current state of social work professional development is characterizedby two realities. There is a great deal of traditional social and psychologicalresearch (both qualitative and quantitative) being carried out primarily byuniversity-based researchers and by researchers based in institutes,foundations, or social service agencies. Meanwhile, many social work practitionerscontinue to look to their own experience for knowledge. This is a continuationof the debate that has persisted since the outset of the profession in thefirst decade of the twentieth century.

One reason for the gap between information obtained through practice, asopposed to through research, is that practitioners deal with situations thatare unique and idiosyncratic, while research concentrates on similarities. Thecombining of these two types of knowledge is often imperfect. A hopefuldevelopment for bridging this gap is the compilation, in many practice fields,of collections of "best practices" which attempt to distill researchfindings and the experience of respected practitioners into effective practicetechniques.[citation needed] Although social work has roots in the informaticsrevolution, an important contemporary development in the profession isovercoming suspicion of technology and taking advantage of the potential ofinformation technology to empower clients.

Course Details:

Professional social workers are generally considered those who hold aprofessional degree in social work and often also have a license or areprofessionally registered. Social workers have organized themselves into local,national, and international professional bodies to further the aims of theprofession.

The minimum educationalqualification for a career in social work is Master in Social Work (MSW), whichis a 2 years course open to all graduates from any stream. But candidates withSociology background would get some preference. Many government colleges,universities and private educational institutions are offering this coursethroughout the country. There is also M.Phil. and Ph.D. programmes in SocialWork offered by many institutions. Besides educational qualification career insocial work requires certain personality traits like compassion for theunderprivileged and urge to help them, capacity to work hard underfar-from-perfect working conditions, patience and dedication.

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences(TISS) was established in 1936, as the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School ofSocial Work. In 1944, the Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work wasrenamed as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The year 1964 was animportant landmark in the history of the Institute, when it was recognized as aDeemed Universityby the Government of India (GoI).Since then, the TISS has been expandingcontinuously in terms of educational programmes and infrastructure.

Over the years, the Institute hasmade consistent contributions to civil society and the development sector,through its education, research, field action and extension and today, the TISShas earned recognition as an institution of repute from different Ministries ofthe GoI; various State Governments; international agencies such as the UnitedNations; and the non-government sector, both national and international. A highdegree of freedom and autonomy shape the positive work ethos and creativity inthe Institute facilitating strong linkages between education, research, fieldaction and dissemination, whose bulwark is a commitment and responsiveness tosocial needs.

Several institutes anduniversities are offering Bachelor and Master Degree in Social Work in India.Some most important among them are Indian Institute of Social Welfare andBusiness Management, Calcutta; Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai;Institute of Social Sciences, Agra; University of Delhi, Delhi; RajasthanUniversity, M.S. University of Baroda, Bombay University, AurangabadUniversity, Mangalore University, Loyola College of Social Sciences, Trivandrumand Madras School of Social Work, Chennai. List of the colleges offeringdifferent courses in social works are:

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