Submitted by: Rijo John

Submitted to: Ms. Ayushi Mathur

Course: BSW

GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Most people use the term “growth” and “development” interchangeably and accept
them as synonymous. But in reality, the meanings of these two terms are different.

GROWTH:-
Growth refers to physical increase in some quantity over time. It includes changes
in terms of height, weight, body proportions and general physical appearance.

In Britannica, growth is defined as “an increase in size or the amount of an entity”.

It means growth involves all those structural and physiological changes that take
place within individual during the process of maturation. For example, growth of a
child means the increase in weight, height and different organs of the child’s body.

Hurlock has defined growth as “change in size, in proportion, disappearance of old

features and acquisition of new ones”.

According to crow and crow “Growth refers to structural and physiological

changes”. Thus, growth refers to an increase in physical size of whole or any of its
part and can be measured

Characteristics of Growth:
 Growth refers to physical changes.
 Change is quantitative.
 Growth does not continue throughout life.
 Growth stops after maturity.
 Growth occurs due to multiplication of cells.
 The changes produced by growth are subject of measurement, they may be
quantified and observable in nature.
 Growth may or may not bring development.
 Growth is one part of development process

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DEVELOPMENT:-
Development refers to the qualitative changes in the organism as whole.
Development is a continuous process through which physical, emotional and
intellectual changes occur.

In Webster’s dictionary development is defined as “the series of changes which an

organism in passing from an embryonic stage to maturity”.

In Britannica the term development is defined as “the progressive change in size,

shape and function during the life of an organism by which its genetic potential are
translated into functioning adult system.” So, development includes all those
psychological changes that takes in the functions and activities of different organs
of an organism.

According to Skinner, development is continuous and gradual process.

According to Crow & Crow development is concerned with growth as well as

those changes in behaviour which results from environmental situation.

Thus, development is process of change in growth and capability over time due to
function of both maturation and interaction with the environment.

Characteristics of Development
 Development refers to overall changes in the individual.
 It involves change in an orderly and coherent type towards the goal of
maturity.
 Development changes in quality.
 Development continues through out life.
 Development is progressive.
 Development occurs due to interaction with the environment.
 Development brings qualitative changes which are difficult to measure
directly, they are assist through keen observation of behaviour in different
situations.
 Development is possible with out growth.
 Development is a wider and comprehensive term.

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Q) Define Growth & Development. Quote instances from your field work
and support your answer.

I have been allotted to “GUNCHA FOUNDATION” an NGO. This NGO is an

initiative to help street and underprivileged children. Their core areas of
intervention include education, health, counselling and recreational activities.
This NGO helps and prepares the kids in Shram Vihar community to attain
better future and try to empower them by providing the knowledge and skills in
different fields like education, dance & co-curricular activities. They provide
nutritional food to the children through which the children gets attracted and
build their interest in education.

The center of this NGO is in Shram Vihar, it is a slum area, which is located
behind Kalindi Kunj metro depot. The majority of people living here are
Rohingya migrants, Bangladeshi migrants and people from different parts of
India. The livelihood of the people living here are from collecting waste
materials, which is thrown away from Hospitals and bringing them to Shram
Vihar and segregating the non-biodegradable waste materials and even some
people there sell balloons to feed their families.

As I went for a field visit there I saw few ladies who were surrounded by
bunches of waste, it was a very un-hygienic place. As I draw close to them I
saw that they were segregating non-biodegradable waste such as syringe,
glucose bottles, medical equipments etc. which were brought from the
Hospitals. Suddenly my attention went on a lady from that group of
segregators, on one of her hand she was holding her baby and with the other
hand she was segregating waste. This incident really touched my heart and
forced me to think, the thing which came in my mind was what wrong did this
child do to suffer this much, this child from her infancy itself is brought in such
an environment that she is seeing and learning from her mother how to
segregate waste. If, the things goes on like this they have no future except this.
After seeing this pathetic condition in front of me I went and talked to them,
from them I got to know that they are working there on a daily wages of

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Rs.200/- and that all the major share of the money goes in the hand of the
superiors. They also told that each house there has 5-10 children. These people
are in a very depressing state and full of stress in their lives. Such people with
metal and psychosocial disabilities are vulnerable group as a result of the way
they are treated by the society. They are subjected to stigma and discrimination
on a daily basis, and they experience extremely high rates of physical and
sexual victimization. These people have born and raised up with so much
difficulties in their lives that they have become used to it. When I talked to
these people to guide them and mobilize them and when they come to know
that someone is there who even cares for them they feel really happy and
attached to me and this feeling of happiness and attachment creates a feeling of
hope in their hearts, a hope of a better future.

As we know that education is one of the most important factor of development

in this contemporary world and that illiteracy also leads to poverty. So as per
the main focus of our NGO is to give education to the children so that in the
coming days they can stand up on their own to support their family and to
attain better livelihood options for them and to achieve great heights in their
lives.

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