The Hindu : Karnataka / Gulbarga News : Expert calls for scientific qualities in social work

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 15, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Gulbarga

Expert calls for scientific qualities in social work

Special Correspondent

AN HONOUR: H.M. Marulasiddaiah, eminent sociologist who delivered the Srinivasrao Raghoji Endowment Lecture, being felicitated in Gulbarga on Thursday by the industrialist Radhakrishna Raghoji. The medical teacher, P.S. Shankar, is seen.

GULBARGA: H.M. Marulasiddaiah, eminent sociologist, on Thursday lamented that the present generation has forgotten old values and attributed it to the disintegrating the joint family system.

Delivering the Srinivasrao Raghoji Second Endowment Lecture organised by the P.S. Shankar Pratishtana and the Sangameshwar Welfare Trust here, Dr. Marulasiddaiah, who is the director of the JSS Institute of Post-Graduate Studies in Social Work in Mysore, said that the concept of old age homes and forcing the elderly to spend their last days there has robbed the younger generations of knowing and adopting the values on which the society survived.

He said the degeneration of values, selfishness, alienation, immorality, and wrong interpretation of rights and responsibilities are the main reasons for the present state of affairs.

Stressing the need to bring professionalism in social work, he said the scientific approach adopted by the United States of America in the late 19th century should be adopted by India by imbibing the scientific qualities in social work and making it a participatory activity for the society to overcome its problems.

He decried the recent tendencies of the rich and powerful nations of abrogating the rights of the developing and under developed countries.

Dr. Marulasiddaiah, who was responsible for introducing "Swatcha Grama" based on his research, said it is a shame that Gulbarga remained a dirty city even after it was declared as a corporation years ago.

The city has a look of a "mega slum" without drainage facilities and a proper disposal system for garbage and solid waste. He said that the six-lakh population of the city should also be partly blamed for the lack of basic amenities.

"If people work together, then the city can become a `model city' by removing all the dirt and garbage," he said.

P.S. Shankar, medical teacher and writer, presided.

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Expert calls for scientific qualities in social work