Department of Social Work organised a Seminar

Seminar on religious and humanitarian roots of social work and social service

As part of its value added programmes, the Department of Social Work organised a seminar on the Religious and Humanitarian roots of social work on 8^th July 2013.   The MSW course has one foundational paper titled “Social work profession, philosophy and ideology”.  The department organised this seminar to supplement the learnings from this paper with inputs from experts on specific areas of learning.

The first address revolved around the contribution of Blessed Fr Chavara to the field of education, social service and his message to the world.  FR Jose C.C, Principal, Christ Junior College,Bangalore, delivered this lecture which highlighted the contributions of Blessed Chavara as well as sterling aspects of his personality which helped him start the first indigenous congregation in India.  This address was highly informative and was a great eye opener to the students as well as the staff members of the department.

The second address was on the religious roots of social work.  As is well known, the pillar of social services has been charity and philanthropy.  These are important features in the evolution of professional social work. These activities in most societies are traced to the religious life of people and the doctrines that religions uphold.  These observations were comprehensively brought out by the lecture delivered by Fr George, Director of BOSCO a pioneering NGO of Bangalore city.

The third lecture revolved around another pillar of social services which is humanitarianism. Prof T.S. Chandrasekhar of the Bangalore University very poignantly pointed out that all the methods of social work practice would remain incomplete without the inclusion of the humanitarian approach.  Apt examples were given to highlight how the practice of social work is essentially the practice of humanitarianism.