Social work has a long history in India, formally commencing with the founding of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (formerly Sir Dorabji Tata Graduate School of Social Work) in 1936. Following this, numerous schools have been established and currently there are more than 526 institutions offering courses in social work as a discipline and close to 7 lakh people currently employed in various roles. Social workers work towards strengthening the community and the individuals in the community to live to their best potential and are thus a vital part of society growth. 

Despite their prominence and importance, the profession does not have a formal council and education is largely unregulated. There are significant lacunae in the standards of curriculum, field practicum and research activities of social work education in India which need to be worked on. 

Keeping this in mind, a group of working professionals have proposed the National Council for Social Work Education Bill - 2021, a bill voluntarily prepared by a group of senior social workers under the guidance of Prof A S Desai, Former Chairperson, University Grants Commission and widely discussed by social work community.

The Bill seeks to establish a National Council for Social Work that will standardize social work education to ensure that every graduating social worker has a minimum level of skill and competency. It also seeks to pool in all locally available resources in the form of methods, practice or research papers and make it accessible to all thus furthering best practice. 

With the rise in requirement for social workers, it becomes imperative that every professional social worker has the skills and competency to do the best in roles that are critical to the person, the community and the country. 

The Student Interaction Platform (SIP), created and run by students of social work studying at the School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya, is a team of passionate and budding social workers. With the goal of bringing together students across universities to discuss about current issues, the team seeks to further the profession through peer-to-peer education.

The SIP strongly believes that the creation of a National Council for Social Work Education would greatly enhance social work education. We thus seek to solicit the support of social work educators, students, practitioners and others to make this Bill a reality. 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/student-interaction-platform