Social Action:

UNIT 1 SOCIAL ACTION: CONCEPT AND Concept and Application

APPLICATION
*Archana Kaushik
Contents
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Social Action: Concept and Related Terms
1.3 History of Social Action
1.4 Scope and Relevance of Social Action
1.5 Social Action: Some Reflections
1.6 Let Us Sum Up
1.7 Further Readings and References
1.8 Answers to Check Your Progress

1.0 OBJECTIVES
Social Action is one of the auxiliary methods of working with people in
professional social work. In this unit, you would be able to understand the
meaning and concept of social action. It traces the history of evolution of social
action in the Indian panorama. It also covers related terms having similar goals
and processes. After going through this unit, you would be able to appraise the
importance and significance of social action as a method of social work. This
unit also chalks out unique characteristics of social action with relevant micro
and macro level examples. Overall, this unit would give you comprehensive
idea of social action and its applicability in critical issues that surround the
contemporary world.

1.1 INTRODUCTION
Social Action has been used to signify a wide range of primarily voluntary
initiative to bring out change in social systems, processes and even structure.
Social workers, more often than not, have divergent opinion about the scope
and relevance of social action. This ambiguity has even accelerated the debate
whether to recognize social action as a method of professional social work.
It may be reiterated that in professional social work, six methods of working
with people have been identified — casework, group work and community
organization are the primary methods while social action, social work research
and social welfare administration are the auxiliary or secondary methods. You
may recall that differential social situations led to emergence of case work and
group work in the western countries, while social action was more popular in
countries like India.
As trained social workers, our aim is to help distressed people remove their
problems and resolve conflicts. Whatever method, we opt to use in a social
situation, we seek to improve the barriers and divisions between people, promote

*Dr. Archana Kaushik, Delhi University, Delhi

Social Action for the bonds that cement social relationships and ensure well-being. At times,
Community Development
skewed power equations and resource accumulation in the hands of a few create
hurdles in the way of ensuring well-being of the disadvantaged clients. And no
option is left for social workers but to come in conflict with the current
configuration of inequality and diswelfare. Through social action, we, the social
workers address the basic issues causing inequalities and injustice within the
social system and structure that push a particular population group on
marginalization.
Social Action is one of the most controversial methods of social work practice
that has brought about a lot of debate among the social work practitioners as it
addresses and uses the conflict present in social system to realize the goal of
social justice and empowerment. Social workers advocate for the rights of the
marginalized sections of the society. They may have to employ strategies like
hunger strike, sit-ins, protests and such other ways to demonstrate their
discontent. It is the usage of such strategies that have made social action a
debatable issue and a controversial method of social work.
There are situations in the social environment that precipitate inequality and
injustice, adding to the vulnerabilities and impoverishment, hardship and misery
to certain sections of society, which, even after much of efforts, are not resolved
amicably — such circumstances call for social action. It is a method of social
work by which rights and interests of marginalized people are protected by
coming in conflict with systems and structures that perpetuate accumulation of
resources and power to disburse those resources in the hands of a few who are
insensitive to the needs of weaker sections of society. Through social action,
skewed resources and power are redistributed to uplift the disadvantaged groups
in the society. Added to this, scope of social action is also to build a democratic
and just, transparent and harmonious social structure and efforts are directed
towards achieving these objectives too.
In this unit, the meaning, process, relevance and scope of social action would
be covered at length. You may realize that social action is one of the most
applicable and appropriate methods in the India’s context. Narmada Bachao
Andolan and movement that led to realization of Right to Information Act, are
some of the finest examples to show how pertinent social action is in the
contemporary social environment. Let us look into the concept of social action
in detail.

1.2 SOCIAL ACTION: CONCEPT AND

RELATED TERMS
The term Social Action is being used to depict a spectrum of voluntary action
or initiatives that aim to address relevant social, political, economic, ecological
and ethical issues in the country. In the last few decades, the term has become
increasingly ambivalent and ambiguous with interplay of varying meanings and
contexts. A wide range of activities like; charity, relief work, service delivery,
public policy initiatives, advocacy campaigns, social movements, socio-political
mobilization, networking for desired social change have been clubbed under
the gamut of the term – social action. In a layman’s understanding, social action
would cover whole rubric of activities directed towards desired social change
for the benefit of masses. Varying meanings emerging out of different types and
contexts of problems and their interventions makes social action a complex and Social Action:
Concept and Application
yet dynamic concept.
In the Indian context, social reform movement and following movement for
political freedom and the tradition of Gandhian approach to social work and
social action have played a crucial role in shaping the perspective of social
action meant for the upliftment of downtrodden. Social action is taken as a
transformational practice to meet the objective of promoting well-being by
bringing change in the arrangements in social system that lead to inequality and
injustice, preventing people from realizing their full potential as self-determining
agents. Likewise, from Gandhian perspective, social action as a practice covers
varying degrees of samrachana (reconstruction) and sangharsh (struggle).
Let us understand the concept of social action through some of the definitions in
the social work literature.
Mary Richmond, for the first time, in 1922, made use of the term social action
in social work. She has defined social action as “mass betterment through
propaganda and social legislation”. This definition stresses on improving the
condition of huge sections of population as an aim of social action with
propaganda and social legislations as main strategies.
Lee (1937) stated, “social action seems to suggest efforts directed towards
changes in law or social structure or towards the initiation of new movements
for the modification of the current social practices”. Planned social change
seems to be the aim of social action as per this definition.
Coyle (1937) noted, “social action is the attempt to change the social
environment in ways, which will make life more satisfactory. It aims to affect
not individuals but social institutions, laws, customs, communities”. This
definition stresses on collectivistic approach of social action rather than
individualistic.
Fitch (1940) maintained that social action is legally permissible action by a
group (or by an individual trying to promote group action) for the purpose of
furthering objectives that are both legal and socially desirable. This definition
focuses on inclusion of those strategies that are legally permissible in the process
of social action.
Further, Sydney Maslin (1947) presented limited scope of social action by
regarding it as a process of social work mainly concerned with securing
legislation to meet mass problems. This definition confines the scope of social
action in securing social legislations.
Hill (1951) described social action as “organized group effort to solve mass
social problems or to further socially desirable objectives by attempting to
influence basic social and economic conditions or practices”. Here, influencing
basic social and economic conditions has been highlighted as the function of
social action.
Wickendon (1956) applied the term social action to that aspect of organized
social welfare actively directed towards shaping, modifying or maintaining the
social institution and policies that collectively constitute the social environment.
Desirable change in social structure is the key element in this definition.
Similarly, Solender (1957) maintained that social action in the field of social
Social Action for work is a process of individual, group or inter-group endeavour, within the
Community Development
context of social work philosophy, knowledge and skill. Its objective is to
enhance the welfare of society through modifying social policy and the functioning
of social structure, working to obtain new progress and services.
Likewise, Baldwin (1966) defined social action as “an organized effort to
change social and economic institutions as distinguished from social work or
social service, the fields of which do not characteristically cover essential
changes in established institutions. Social action covers movements of political
reforms, industrial democracy, social legislation, racial and social justice,
religious freedom and civic liberty, its techniques include propaganda, research
and lobbying”. This is a comprehensive definition of social action, noting its
uniqueness in relation to other social work methods, strategies and techniques
being used and dimensions covered.
Friedlander (1977) stated that social action is an individual, group or community
effort within the framework of social work philosophy and practice that aims to
achieve social progress, to modify social policies and to improve social
legislation and health and welfare services. Modifying social policies and
improving legislations are significant aspects of this definition.
All these definitions give different viewpoints of social action and yet share
many common features. To some, its scope is broad while others limit its
relevance and significance in their definitions. Similarly, differential opinions
are expressed regarding the usage of strategies and tactics of social action. Let
us look at some more definitions of social action, especially those by Indian
social work authors.
Nanawati (1965) considered social action as “a process of bringing about the
desired changes by deliberate group and community efforts. Social action does
not end with the enactment and signing of social legislation, but that the execution
of the policies was the real test of success or failure of social action”. This
definition focuses on long term impact of social action as indicator of its success.
Moorthy (1966) stated that “the scope of social action includes work during
catastrophic situations such as fires, floods, epidemics, famines, etc., besides
securing social legislation”. Work during calamities and disasters have been
highlighted in this definition.
The Institute of Gandhian Studies defines social action as the term commonly
applied to “social welfare activity, which is directed towards shaping or
modifying social institutions and policies that constitute the social environment
in which we live.”
Singh (1986) maintained that “social action is a process in which conscious,
systematic and organized efforts are made by some elite(s) and/or people
themselves to bring about change in the system which is instrumental in solving
problems and improving conditions which limit the social functioning of weaker
and vulnerable sections. It is, on the practical plane, nearer to social reform
than to social revolution, which aims at smashing the entire existing social
structure and to build up a new social set-up. It is conflictual in nature but at the
same time non-violent”. This broad definition covers many shades of social
action – clarifying the process, goal, target groups, nature, resemblance with
social reform and ethical base of non-violence.
Thus, we observe that social action is considered a method of social work Social Action:
Concept and Application
practice that aims at bringing about structural changes in the social and economic
systems largely through social legislation and alterations in social policy.
Disadvantaged section is the target population and mass mobilization is crucial,
yet, target group may or may not actively participate in the planned intervention.
It is planned and conscious effort with specific strategies and techniques to be
implemented to achieve the goals of equality, social justice and empowerment.
Now, attention may be diverted to some of the social interventions and processes
that share similar aims and objectives as social action. One such term is
Advocacy. A Latin word, advocacy means — raising voice on behalf of others
[ad- on behalf of others and voca-raising voice]. It is an activity that influences,
motivates and encourages democratic powers to take decisions on various social
issues and problems in favour of downtrodden and marginalized population.
Advocacy may be defined as the process of influencing and persuading those
people who have social, political and economic powers so that they can bring
desired changes in the policies with the aim to ensure equitable resource
distribution in the social system.
Advocacy, in its aim and even usage of strategies is very similar to social
action. They share same values and ethics as their belief in equitable distribution
of resources, human rights and social justice. In fact, many of the social workers
consider advocacy as one of the strategies of social action, the latter being
broader and more complex.
Another term that shares similarity with social action is Social Movement.
Wilkinson (1971) defined social movement as “a deliberate collective endeavour
to promote change in any direction and by any means, not excluding violence,
illegality, revolution or withdrawal into ‘utopian’ community”. In another
definition, Blumer (1957) says, “social movements are collective enterprises
to establish a new order of life”. Peasant movement, tribal movement, dalit
movement, women’s movement, students’ movement, etc., are a few examples
of social movement. The downtrodden and the marginalized communities have
mobilized themselves and raised their voice against the failure of state and
society to safeguard their livelihood and Rights. Social action and social
movement share same ideological beliefs and values, but social movements
have been, more often than not, unplanned and sporadic while social action is a
well-defined process initiated and guided by social work professionals in the
light of theoretical and conceptual basis. However, you may recall that Narmada
Bachao Movement is led by a social work professional, Ms. Medha Patekar.
Social action is taken as an auxiliary method of professional social work. It is
an organized effort to change or improve social and economic institutions. Some
of the social problems like dowry system, depletion of natural resources,
alcoholism, housing, health, etc., can be and have been tackled through social
action. The objective of social action is the proper shaping and development of
socio-cultural environment in which a richer and fuller life may be possible for
all the citizens. From the above discussion, certain peculiar features of social
action may well be delineated. It is essentially, an intervention directed for
solution of mass problem(s) and aimed at improvement of mass conditions. It
talks about influencing institutions, policies and practices. The goal of social
action is redistribution of power, resources, human and material. It aims to do
Social Action for advocacy on behalf of, or along with, mobilized sections of disadvantaged
Community Development
client population. It tends to influence the decision-making process at the political
and social levels.
Thus, we see that social action is seen as a method of professional social work
to be used to bring about or prevent change in the social system through a
process of making people aware of the socio-political and economic realities
that influence or condition their lives and by mobilizing them to organize
themselves for bringing about the desired results through the use of appropriately
worked out strategies, with the exception of violence. Let us take a look at the
historical processes related to emergence of social action as method of
professional social work practice.

Check Your Progress 1

Note: Use the space provided for your answer.
1) Enlist five peculiar features of social action as given in the definitions
above.
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................

1.3 HISTORY OF SOCIAL ACTION

India has a long tradition and history of reform movements, voluntary actions
and philanthropic initiatives with the aim to seek welfare of masses, which you
have read in your other blocks covering history and philosophy of social work.
This must have given you an idea that in the light of social situations, that were
mainly social problems affecting the masses, reform movements took place in
India. Even during Bhakti movement, Kabir, Nanak, and other religious reformers
in their preaching addressed the removal or abolition of social evils in the
name of traditional practices that were creating hurdles in the well-being of
common people.
It may be noted that in the West, problems were mainly psychosocial in nature,
more focused to individual behaviour and social interactions. This resulted in
development of methods of social work practice like casework and group work,
which was further substantiated with Freudian psychoanalytical theories and
Erickson’s psychosocial theories that were developed during that period only.
In India, problems were of different nature — illiteracy, poverty, exploitation
of lower caste people, untouchability, abuse and exploitation of women and
inherent practices of gender discrimination and the like. These social evils
prevented a large section of the society from getting equitable distribution of Social Action:
Concept and Application
resources and opportunities for development and thereby enjoying a dignified
life. Social reform movement led by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Iswarchandar
Vidhyasagar resulted in abolition of sati pratha, measures for permitting widow
remarriage among Hindus, entry of women in the formal education system and
so on. Dwarkanath Tagore, Debendranath Tagore, Keshab Chandra Sen and
others worked for founding educational institutions for women and emancipation
of women in West Bangal. In western part of the country like Maharashtra,
Prarthana Samaj established in 1867 in Bombay clamoured for caste reform.
Justice Ranade considered the Father of the Renascence in Western India,
founded Widow Marriage Association. Similarly, Jyotiba Phule established
orphanages and schools for girls. In the same way, Ramakrishana Mission
founded by Swami Vivekananda did a lot of social service like starting
dispensaries and orphanages, running schools, etc.
All these initiatives set the stage for more concrete form of social action. Certain
benefits of these social reform movements were passage of social legislations
like abolition of sati custom, widow remarriage Act, mobilization of masses
and awareness about social evils. Further, historical evidences reflect that though
there have been history of social reform and social movements for more than
two thousand years in India, a more formalized and coherent form of social
action emerged in the beginning of the nineteenth century. This formalized social
action which emerged as a political response to the colonial state by the British
in India. As the social base for political freedom broadened, the dividing line
between social movement for abolition of social evils in the country and political
movement as freedom struggle almost disappeared. Movements led by socially
enlightened individuals, particularly, in the last half of the nineteenth century,
helped in creating social and political spaces for social action.
Freedom movement, especially led by Mahatma Gandhi laid foundation of a
strong culture of social action. It may be noted that the legacy of the Gandhian
social action has played a crucial role in laying the foundation of social action
in India. Gandhian social action includes a combination of samrachana (that is,
reconstruction) and satyagraha (insistence on truth). He practiced and preached
for imbibing values of non-violence, stressed on ideas of swadeshi (of one’s
own country) and swaraj (self-rule). Gandhian ideology of peaceful protest in
the freedom struggle has made the whole world bow down in front of his
ideology, conviction and belief. Alongside, he also stressed on reconstruction
— The Tolstoy farm was set up by Gandhi, with the funding support of his
German friend Kallenbach, Sir Ratan Tata, Nizam of Hyderabad, Indian National
Congress and Muslim League. These led to formation of various kinds of
institutions to strengthen social action.
Further, Gandhian activism to protect the rights of peasants in Champaran and
Kheda and the rights of mill workers in Ahemdabad demonstrated the
effectiveness of micro-level social action in influencing the larger political
arenas and action. The Gandhian praxis of grassroots political struggle along
with macro-level policy initiatives and broader interventions for social reform
further set the guidelines for social action. The ideas of satyagrah and swadeshi
served both as ethical principles as well as political strategies. The cumulative
social action at the socio-political arena helped in the emergence of a more
radical stream in the freedom movement in the first decades of the twentieth
Social Action for century. Inspired by Gandhiji, the political movement, infused with the spirit of
Community Development
social reform, became a national movement participated by all, irrespective of
caste, creed or community.
After 1920, for about three decades, many other instances of social action
emerged at the center-stage. Prominent ones are communist movements, Dalit
movement initiated by Dr. Ambedkar, the Hindutva movement propounded by
Hindu Mahasabha and Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh. In consonance, the social
reform movement against the hegemonical Brahmanism, led by Mahatma Phule
in Maharashtra, Narayana Guru in Kerala and Periyar Ramaswamy Naykkar in
Tamil Nadu were other important social justice initiatives. The reformist
initiatives for the welfare and equality of women by Pandita Ramabai and
Savitribai Phule also played significant role in the endeavours of political
freedom. Likewise, Ramakrishna Mission initiated a number of charitable,
reformist, educational, welfare and development activities.
All these small scale and large, regional and national level social action
initiatives propagated mass mobilization, mass awareness and action, provided
ample opportunity to practice skills, techniques of social action, encouraged
leadership among few and ability to question surroundings among the masses
that hamper their social functioning. This in turn, strengthened the historical
background of social action in India and courage and confidence to fight for
freedom against colonialism.
After Independence, many young idealists expressed their dissent to the apathy
of the state and to the cynical manipulation by the dominant political parties.
Social action by JaiPrakash Narayan, social movement led by Medha Patekar,
Aruna Roy and Arvind Kejriwal’s initiatives for Right to Information Act and
many more are some fine examples of relatively recent social action
interventions.
Worldwide trend: Likewise, the world history is also full of examples of social
action that were expressed in the form of Civil Rights Movement, Student Unrest
in the USA against the Vietnam War, the revolt in Prague against the authoritarian
State, the Naxalite movement in India and the neo-left movements in different
parts of the world. Many of these movements were a reaction to an increasingly
authoritarian and oppressive state and associated insensitive socio-political
processes. Emergence of Liberation theology was an expression of dissent to
the oppressive power structures of the state. Feminist movement sought to
question the structure of patriarchy. The two aspects common in various kinds
of movement were the sense of dissent (to traditional state, power structures,
culture and ideologies) and a mass mobilization to bring about change in the
existing structure and system. These social movements, reform initiatives and
social action activities formed the background for social action as a method of
social work practice.

1.4 SCOPE AND RELEVANCE OF SOCIAL

ACTION
Being one of the methods of professional social work, social action, undoubtedly
shares a striking similarity with the former term. As the approach of social
work practice has shifted from charity to empowerment, the scope of social
work has expanded enormously. With emergence of rights based approach, Social Action:
Concept and Application
relevance of social work practice has become almost omnipresent. Ensuring
rights of the child would mean that we have to tackle problems like child labour,
processes causing street children, education of children (drop out, retention,
quality of education), discrimination against girl child in family and community,
child trafficking and child prostitution, poverty, malnutrition, health problems,
disability among children, delinquency, child abuse, exploitation, and the like.
This would also include provision of optimum opportunity to all the children
for growth, development and participation. The social work professionals may
have to work at preventive, rehabilitative, ameliorative, curative and promotive
levels. Further, if the causative factors are looked into and social work
professionals decide not to opt for softer approaches, then dealing with most of
the above-mentioned problems would require practice of social action. For
instance, abolition of child labour would demand policy and legislation
initiatives at the macro-level along with mass mobilization that would discourage
remunerative child work in all forms.
The scope of social action is very vast and it is one of the most apt methods of
social work practice even in today’s context. The innovative approaches,
participatory techniques, outreach, and holistic thinking are critically important
in creating a better world, which is indeed the vision of social work profession.
In fact, it is due to social action by some of the socially enlightened people and
voluntary sector, that various basic Rights- the Right to Health, the Right to
Water and Food, the Right to Shelter and Work, the Right to Knowledge, the
Right to a Dignified and Just life, the Right to one’s Entitlements, etc., have
been put on the table. Recently, the successes made in terms of legislation like
as Right To Information Act and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act are
because of concerted efforts and constant pressure exerted on the government
by civil society organizations.
Apparently, you may think that if government of our country that has committed
itself to be welfare-state, takes adequate measures for the welfare and
development of the weaker section of the society, then, what is the scope left
for social action. Hypothetically you may be right but despite the pro-active
face of the government, socio-demographic indicators give us a dismal picture
of the country. Nearly 40 percent of the country’s population is living below
poverty line. Poverty levels continue to be high even though every year newer
schemes and approaches for poverty alleviation are designed and implemented.
Even after nearly 60 years of Independence, there are places like Kalahandi
where still people die of hunger. At many places like in Orissa, people sell off
their offspring for 10-20 rupees because of poverty. Crores and crores of rupees
are allocated for combating poverty, and statistics reflect that numbers of people
below poverty line are increasing every year.
Further, Female literacy rate in the country is still nearly 50%. According to
one estimate, close to 50% of students in the age group of 6-11 years are not
able to read, write and do simple arithmetic. Similarly with respect to health,
the situation is very bleak if not worse — 80% people opt for private health
care system when need arises as government health care system lays behind
both in quality and quantity. It is estimated that about 3% of the population are
pushed below poverty line every year because of health expenditure. Social
security system in the country lags behind even those nations that are economically
quite poor off compared to us.
Social Action for Nonetheless, taking the broader and optimistic view of India’s fast progress
Community Development
and booming economy would not let us (the social work professionals) to pay
attention to problems like poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, gender
discrimination, female foeticide, child labour, accessibility and affordability
of adequate health care system, provision of social security system and so on
and so forth. Social action is meant to bring about necessary changes in the
policy and legislation for well-being of disadvantaged sections of society. Further,
if policies and social legislations are in place, then focus should be shifted to
implementation stage. Social workers may have to deal with problems like
corruption, red-tapism, insincerity, lack of accountability and transparency that
hamper formation of egalitarian social structure. Thus, despite innumerable
schemes and programmes, policies and legislations, if things at grassroots are
not right, then, social action may be carried out to set the systems right, which
indeed is the need of the hour in the present Indian context. It may be affirmed
again that there is a need to bring out necessary changes in the system — fixing
people who are not performing their duties sincerely, people who are corrupt
and eat up money meant for the welfare of the poor, politicians involved in
various scams — all these situations call for social action as milder approaches
would not work in such cases.
There have been innumerable instances of successful work accomplishments
through social action. Trainee students of social work during their fieldwork
have demonstrated excellent use of social action in various situations — in
urban resettlement colonies, students have taken up issues like preparation of
ration cards for poor, improving bad roads, unhygienic and unsanitary conditions
prevailing in the surroundings, non-availability of teachers in government run
schools, and the like. They mobilized community people and confronted the
responsible authorities like Municipal Corporations, Public Works Department,
local MLAs/MPs of the area and other elected leaders, created pressures through
signature campaigns, sit-ins, hunger strikes, morchas, involved media to create
pressure and have got the work done.
Thus, social action is a powerful tool that becomes much more effective if the
primary stakeholders (beneficiaries) are mobilized to create the pressure. Now-
a-days, even media is playing a vital and pro-active role — justice in Jussica
Lal Murder case, Priadarshini Mattoo case were resolved after media’s social
action. Even Indian cinema has projected potential of social action in excellent
manner through movies like Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Rang De Basanti that have
triggered successful social action and advocacy in different parts of the country.
In this and other units of the block, you would come across many examples of
social action that have been carried out in recent past in various parts of the
country that would again project the scope of relevance of this method of social
work.

Check Your Progress 2

Note: Use the space provided for your answer.
1) Discuss briefly the scope of social action with elderly with special
reference to India.
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
 Social Action:
1.5 SOCIAL ACTION: SOME REFLECTIONS Concept and Application

Inspite of being a very powerful tool of social change, social action, for decades
together, has not been able to attain adequate attention in social work teachings
as well as practice. It is only in mid-1970s that social work educators began to
visualize social action as an important instrument in social development. As
the empowerment approach gained momentum, the relevance of social action
increased further. There was a paradigm shift in the way planning and
implementation of socially relevant projects and programmes were taken up.
Initially social planners and policy makers planned for the people at grassroots
‘assuming’ their problems and needs (Trickle down theory). Then, gradually
there was shift in the focus and primary beneficiaries are now involved in the
process of planning and implementation which is bottom up approach. With
73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments people at grassroots are enabled to
take active part in social auditing through gram sabha and ensure accountability,
transparency and judicious use of their resources. Though many evaluation
studies have shown that panchayati raj system is a paper tiger, it may be visualized
as a solid system, at least anatomically, that needs social action intervention
and people’s active participation may be sought to make the system function
effectively.
The radical social work approach could not gain ground strongly, despite a
rich historical and cultural background because of several reasons. One,
fieldwork training, in majority of educational institutions, is not designed in
such a way that trainee students spend substantial time in the community and
develop a rapport strong enough to mobilize resources. Such restrictions often
drive students not to take up hardcore issues. Therefore, skills needed for social
action are not inculcated adequately among the trainees. Second, many of the
voluntary agencies have to depend for funds either on government or international
agencies. They were coming in conflict with the system that comprise of
government control. International agencies or foreign funding too have their
own guidelines and they may not fund for the hard pressing issues requiring
social action. Third, social work professionals may not feel motivated enough
to contribute required time and energy resources in the community, which may
not be part of their job (employment). Voluntarism has its own limitations,
which is, at times, internally driven. Lastly, social action is very difficult,
requiring proficiency in communication, analysis of social situation,
perseverance, ability to mobilize people, adequate usage of strategies like
signature campaign, sit-ins, hunger strike, persuasive skills, which is not
everyone’s cup of tea. Medha Patekar, during her Narmada Bachao Andolan,
was often threatened for life. Resisting such crisis is not easy for most of the
social work professionals.
In most of the Third World countries, welfaristic approach dominates due to
charity and religious obligations being the starting point of social work. In that
context, adopting an empowerment perspective, largely through consensus, is
not an easy task. Facilitating increased access for maximum number of people
to the essential social service needed for their development, obviously, would
call for social action as a primary method of social work. Unfortunately enough
literature is not developed on social action. The use of the process of social
action requires far greater clarity on the part of trained social workers of its
Social Action for goals and objectives, conceptual framework, ideological and belief system.
Community Development
There is a need to build up a new theoretical discourse and perspective on
social action, based on a fresh look at the various social action practices and
institutionalization process, in the context of the paradigm shift in the production
of knowledge, communication and political process.
Thus, we can consider social action as the most ‘controversial’ and yet the
most challenging method of social work profession. The process of social action
is often moulded by the larger socio-political contexts and cultural ethos. Social
action encompasses both moral and political undercurrents. Unfortunately, social
work practice in India has not depicted any significant changes in the social
structure or in major problems like poverty, child labour, women exploitation,
illiteracy, unemployment, etc., and to a large extent, social work professionals
have confined themselves to service delivery roles. Becoming a change agent
was taken up by a handful of social work professionals.

However, there are some slippery patches while practicing social action,
avoidance of which requires a great deal of maturity on the part of the social
work practitioners. Oftentimes, when one gets lot of recognition and support
from the public while mobilizing people, it becomes difficult to control
temptation to ‘enjoy’ power. As seen in several recent mobilizations (disguised
as social action), political parties approach the leaders for collaborations for
their petty gains. While political platform gives power to bring about the desired
change in the social structure and systems quite rapidly, more often than not,
people get caught in the clutches of vote politics and lose out their actual goal
for which the mission and the movement began. On the flipside, public support
fizzles out soon if the desired results are not achieved in a limited time. Thus, a
social worker practicing social action needs to be very careful of the dynamics
of this powerful method of working with people.
One of the interesting facts that you may realize is that while there is no dearth
of interventions through social action in the country, before or after independence,
often, change agents have been the non-social workers. Stated otherwise, social
action was done by various people in many parts of the country and most of
them never had social work background, understanding of theoretical frameworks
and professional skills and expertise. It just required commitment, understanding
of the issue at hand and conviction and courage. In the next unit, you would be
able to understand various facets of social action in a better way when we will
deal with principles, values and ethical considerations in social action as a
method of social work.
Check Your Progress 3
Note: Use the space provided for your answer.
1) Mention very briefly any social action intervention that you have initiated/
experienced/observed in your surroundings.
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
...............................................................................................................
 Social Action:
1.6 LET US SUM UP Concept and Application

Social action is one of the very challenging and powerful methods of social
work practice. It is used for mobilizing masses in order to bring about structural
changes in the social system or to prevent negative changes. It is based on
human rights perspective and adopts the process of empowerment through
redistributitive justice. Certain social problems like poverty, exploitation, abuse,
stigmatization, ecological issues, bonded labour, child labour, women
empowerment, substance abuse, etc., can be tackled through social action. The
main objective of social action is to bring solution of mass problems, improve
in mass conditions and redistribution of power, resources (human, material and
moral). Other similar terms like advocacy and social movement were also
mentioned. We discussed the historical evolution of social action tracing bhakti
movement, social reform movements and political struggle led by Gandhiji.
Gandhian ideology plays a crucial role in social action.
While discussing scope and relevance of social action, we explored that majority
of developmental issues in the contemporary world may be resolved through
social action. If we want to have long term solutions and believe in human
rights and empowerment perspective, then social action becomes apt for us.
Certain problems were also discussed in the light of the fact that social action,
though relevant, is not very popular. Constraints in social work training, our
personal value system, dependence on the state machinery (who may be the
perpetrator of injustice) are some of the issues that create hurdles in the usage
of social action as a method of social work practice.

1.7 FURTHER READINGS AND REFERENCES

1) Britto, G.A.A., (1984): Social Action and Social Work Education in the
Eighties, in Social Work and Social Action (ed) H.Y. Siddiqui, Harnam
Publications.
2) Britto, G.A.A., (1984): Some Principles of Social Action, in Social Work
and Social Action (ed) H.Y. Siddiqui, Harnam Publications.
3) Samuel, J. (2000): Social Action: An Indian Panorama,(ed.), Pune:
Voluntary Action Network India.
4) Chowdhry, D. Paul, (1992): Introduction to Social Work, Atma Ram &
Sons, Delhi.
5) Davis, Martin, (2000): The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Social Work,
(eds.) Blackwell Publishers, Massachusetts, pp.317-318.
6) Friedlander, W.A. (1977): Introduction to Social Welfare, Prentice Hill,
New Delhi.
7) Moorthy, M.V., (1966): Social Action, Asia Publishing House, Bombay.
8) Nanavati, M.C., (1965): Social Action and The Professional Social Work”
social work forum, vol.III, no.2, pp.26-29.
9) Pathak, S.H., (1971): Social Welfare, Health and Family Planning, New
Delhi.
Social Action for 10) Siddiqui, H.Y., (1984): Social Work and Social Action (ed.), Harnam
Community Development
Publications
11) Singh, Surender (1986): Social Action in Horizons of Social Work (ed).
By Surender Singh & K.S. Soodan, op. cit. p. 161.
12) Foran, J. (2003): The Future of Revolutions. Landon: Zed Books.