New Delhi, March 29
A workshop on ‘Strategies for the Involvement of Social Workers in Rehabilitation of the Disabled’ was organised by the Department of Social Work, University of Delhi, in collaboration with the Rehabilitation Council of India.
The two-day workshop aimed at developing different strategies for the involvement of social work professionals in the rehabilitation of the disabled. It also purported to critically examine the existing training module developed by various agencies and develop a course curriculum for training of social workers at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Two scientific papers were presented in the workshop on social work professionals and the rehabilitation of disabled and law and disability by Dr Sushma Batra, Reader, Department of Social Work, and Prof Parmanand Singh, Dean, Faculty of Law. The workshop will develop a model syllabus to be used by more than 150 social work institutions across the country.
The workshop generated discussion on development of syllabus and examined the current modules available for the purpose. The chief guest, Mr Jerry Pinto, Programme Officer, Child Protection, UNICEF, deliberated on the definitions of disability which, he said, was more medical rather than social. He observed that social work professionals needed to emphasise on the preventive aspect of disability, including understanding and leading the preventive programme with a special focus on community-based rehabilitation.
It was also pointed out the rehabilitation programme should emphasise on women and children focussing more on the aspect of social integration. The participants included psychiatrists, sociologists and representatives from the allied fields.
