Notes on the concepts and

definitions of Social Welfare in

India
The terms social welfare is often confused with social service, social
reform, social work and social security, and all these term are often
used as synonyms. For a correct picture of the terminologies, let us go
through the following definitions.
1. Social Welfare
Social welfare term is related with the concept of welfare state.
Encyclopedia Britannica defines it as "a system of laws and institutions
through which a government attempts to protect and promote the
economic and social welfare of its citizens usually based on various
forms of social insurance against unemployment, accident, illness and
old age".
The Encyclopedia of Social Sciences also confirms this definition of
welfare state by explaining that the 'Welfare State' is the institutional
outcome of the assumption by a society of legal and therefore formal
and explicit responsibility for the basic well-being of its members.
The principle of 'normalization' is fundamental to the social welfare
system i.e. regardless of physical, psychological or social handicaps, a
person should be enabled to live, work and develop in a normal
environment.
2. How is Social Welfare Different from Social Services?
Social Services are those which are meant for the normal population
and seek to meet the basic needs like health care, education, housing
etc. Their aim is to develop the human resources of the country.
Social welfare on the other hand is targeted towards the upliftment of
vulnerable sections of the society such as handicapped, destitute
children, women, backward tribes, castes, classes, etc. Unlike social
services the welfare services are mostly family and community
oriented. The term social welfare originated in the Beveridge Report of
U.K.
3. How is Social Work different from Social Welfare?
Social welfare has a broader meaning and covers social work and other
related programmes and activities.
A social worker is a professional who must wait for his clientan
individual, a family, a group or a whole community to take the first
step to seek his help in terms of counselling or material aid. But the
social welfare worker is not constrained by the self imposed limitations
of the professional social workers.
4. Social Reform
Social evils likes superstitions, dogmatic rituals of various forms
engendered by lack of proper education and rational thinking, denial of
education to women folk, their low status and degradation, their
exclusion from property rights, their marriage at an early age, the
prohibition of widow marriage, unequal marriages-old-aged man
marrying young girls, sacrifice of children at the altar of gods and
goddesses for their appeasement and invocation of their blessings for
the fulfilment of their wishes, inequities, social injustice, caste-system,
the upper classes exploiting the lower castes especially the scheduled
castes, scheduled tribes and backward classes, the practice of
untouchability, use of alcohols etc. can be eradicated by social reform
and movements.
SANGEETA AGARWAL
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Social reform is the foundation of social welfare as because most of the
social legislation and social welfare programme in post-independent
India is chiefly concerned with those spheres of social functioning that
became the battle ground for social reforms and which provided a basis
for the modern social welfare services.
5. Social Security
According to ILO (International Labour Organization), Social Security
is the security that society furnishes through appropriate organizations
against certain risks to which its members are exposed. These risks are
essentially contingencies against which the individual of small means
cannot effectively provide by his own ability or foresight alone or even
in private combination with his fellows.
It is charac teristic of these contingencies that they imperil the ability
of the working man to support himself and his dependents in health and
decency.
The Indian State has enacted various legislations to provide benefits to
the people affected by the contingencies like industrial accidents,
maternity, sickness, etc. Some of these legislations are: Workmen's
Compensation Act of 1923, Maternity Benefits Act 1961, the
Employee's State Insurance Act 1948, the Employees' Provident Fund
and Miscellaneous Provision Act 1952, Employees' Family Pension
Scheme 1971, Payment of Gratuity Act 1972 etc.
6. A Brief Discussion of Social Welfare Measures in India
The social scenario in the country has been fast changing due to rapid
urbanization and industrialization, with the emergence of information
and technology as the major force behind industrial development. The
unending flow of rural population to the already crowded cities and
towns in search of employment has resulted in serious problem like
over crowding, emergence of permanent slum dwellings, breakdown of
joint family system, unemploy ment, poverty etc.
Other social problems like untouchability, torture of women and
children are quite common in India. Inequality in term of economic
and social status is prevalent. In order to safeguard the interests of the
disadvantaged sections of the society, the Constitution of India
guarantees that no person will be denied 'equality' before the law
(Article 14).
It also promises 'right to education' and 'public assistance' in the old
age and disablement (Article 41). To safeguard the interest of these
groups, some legislation was also enacted. They include-the Immoral
Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956 (as amended and retitled in 1986); the
Probation of Offenders Act, 1958; Juvenile Justice Act, 1986; the
Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances Act, 1988, the Persons with Disabilities (Equal
Opportunities, Protection of Rights and
Full Participation) Act, 1995; Prevention of Begging Acts (State Acts)
etc. Simultaneously, the Government has undertaken many welfare-
cum-development measures right from First Five Year Plan with the
major objective of extending preventive-cum-curative-cum-
rehabilitative ser vices to meet the special needs of these vulnerable
groups. Thus, the developmental planning has been made responsive
right from the beginning not only to attend to the existing problems but
also to address the situations emerging from time to time.
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