HINDUSTAN
Ranchi, Rourkela, Thursday, 6th June, 2002
Campaign to reconstruct old Social order -
Satish Sharma,
Translated from the following clipping
Rourkela, 5th June: People and societies have a natural tendency to help each other in times of trouble. Every cultured society and progressive government thinks about the welfare of its citizens. On the basis of availability of resources, societies and governments take steps for the welfare of the people. In developed countries, governments try to provide complete social security. In developing and underdeveloped countries, it is not possible to provide complete social security. However, these societies have internal social configurations, elements which save the society in the time of crisis. In times of crisis, people help each other. These internal configurations, elements, are their strength.However, with the passage of time, these configurations have weakened. Due to a lack of resources, governments are unable to provide welfare schemes for their people. Schemes are devised but often not implemented. In this situation, with the breaking of social formations, networks, and lack of social security measures, people in developing countries are facing a dual loss.
In the age of economic liberalisation, developed countries find it difficult to provide complete security to their citizens, now citizens are expected to help themselves, their dependence on government is expected to be reduced. This has led some people towards the old customs and traditions which have previously provided emotional and social support. In spite of experiencing financial inadequacy they get support through the customary systems in their society.
Can these customs be organised and constructed as per the requirement of the people? To put forward this view, sociologist (social work educator) Dr. Manohar Pawar initiated a process of informal care and welfare systems. The establishment of this process has been inspired by the experiences of collective engagement, in social welfare and their traditions and customs at the local level in Asia Pacific countries. After much research in this direction, Dr. Manohar Pawar who is an academic at Charles Sturt University in Australia, established this method of social organisation eighteen months ago. To promote this idea he is organising workshops at different places. In this series Dr. Pawar organised a workshop between 27th May and 31st May in Jharsuguda. In the press conference after the workshop, Dr. Pawar told the journalists that most of the groups in Asian countries have traditions which are beneficial for social welfare. But in the name of modernization we are moving away from them. In ancient times people were self-reliant at the local and village level. Communities with the help of mutual cooperation, had their needs met. Why then, today, are they dependent on the government for everything? Even the developed nations hope that instead of depending on the government, people will learn to help themselves. In this context he is trying to understand the internal social order of Asian communities.
Dr. Pawar further added that we have to work towards reviving the good qualities of our cultural heritage. In this workshop he encouraged all the participants to reconstruct their old, but useful systems. Dr. Bipin Jojo, a faculty member of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences has considered the initiatives of Dr. Pawar as significant for the self- reliance and participation of community members for mutual support at the local levels. We must not underestimate traditional life systems.
This initiative of Dr. Manohar Pawar has been supported by the Japan Foundation Asia Centre and awarded the "Quality of Life" award by the Association of Commonwealth Universities.
