Striding into a new dawn

Every nation has a time in history when its growth journey progresses significantly, and this historic period is known as ‘Amritkaal’. For India, this is the Amritkaal, where India will see a massive transformation during this time in its history. Numerous such nations exist in our immediate vicinity, having transformed themselves through comparable rapid advancements over a period of time. At this pivotal point in its history, India is well-positioned to accelerate its growth trajectory. However, it is imperative to acknowledge that realising this potential will require a great deal of commitment and faith in the country's destiny, as well as a great deal of desire, potential, talent, and capabilities among Indians, particularly the younger generation, and unwavering leadership. To create India a ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047, a great deal of efforts must be done in a mission-mode manner. A bold, ambitious, and transformative agenda that is communicated to all stakeholders is required for this to occur. The youth, who make up the majority of our population, need to play a very crucial role as they will guide India towards becoming Viksit Bharat by 2047. Viksit Bharat@2047 is the vision of Government of India to make India a developed nation by 2047, the 100th year of its independence. The vision encompasses various aspects of development, including economic growth, social progress, environmental sustainability, and good governance.

To fulfil the goal of ‘Vikshit Bharat’ and to establish ‘Ram Rajya’, professional social workers have important role to play to ideate and contribute to the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047. In order to properly utilise the skills and efficiencies of our young social workers, we need to decolonise the Euro-American centric social work curriculum in Indian universities. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it was realised that our professional social workers completely failed in their duties while the social workers engaged in Sewa Bharati and other prominent nationalist voluntary organisations played tremendous roles. The theories/models/values and principles taught in the social work curriculum in most of the social work institutions are outdated and are purely Western. They have lost their significance. The Euro-centric scholars in social work in India still maintain the status quo and have completely sidelined the Indic wisdom and Indian knowledge systems in the field of social work. Despite numerous attempts by UGC to indigenise the curriculum, it has still remained Euro-American centric. Bharatiyakaran of Social Work curriculum, which is absolutely an integrated, inclusive and holistic curriculum, has to be adopted among the social work institutions of India which will definitely enhance their skills and potentials and help them effectively to contribute to achieve Vikshit Bharat and to establish an aspiring India, one that advances and reasserts herself as a Vishwaguru, a leader of humanity.

Majority of the social work institutions have been attempting to adapt to the imported Western curriculum in the Indian context for the past eight decades. Bharatiya Samaj Karya Parishad (BSKP) has been promoting and striving to establish Bharatiyakaran social work curriculum, which has attempted to bring a synergy between the traditional wisdom of India and the global standards for social work education. Such an endeavour is quite essential in achieving Viksit Bharat by 2047, as per the vision of our Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The Bharatiyakaran of social work curriculum now incorporates Indian knowledge, beliefs, customs, and culture that were earlier completely side-lined and neglected. When creating a new curriculum, consideration has been given to the research, social service, and rural development expertise of India's ancient culture.

The expansion of social work's philosophical foundation—which had previously been left out of the curriculum—is the main goal of the Bharatiyakaran of the social work curriculum. It was thought that expanding the conceptual/philosophical and value-based foundation of social work are essential to the process of indigenising the social work curriculum. As a result, enough attention was placed on identifying various Indian indigenous models of rural development and social reconstruction during the curriculum's design process to make it more comprehensive, accessible, and integrated.

The Bharatiyakaran of Social work is inspired by Indic philosophical base of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" (the entire world is our family) and "Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah" (let everyone be happy). In true sense, the social work profession can add to the vision of Viksit Bharat which encompasses various aspects of development, including economic growth, social progress, environmental sustainability, and good governance that are aligned with the values, principles and ethics of social work profession.

The goal of ‘Ram Rajya’ is to ensure justice for all, equality, non-violence, self-rule, prosperity, development of moral and spiritual values, decentralisation of power, economic equality, education, and social inclusion. These Indian socio-cultural principles culminate in the concept of Ram Rajya. Since Bhagwan Sri Ram has always embodied these ideals, he is revered not just in India but also internationally. Social work professionals should work to fulfil their ultimate goal to establish Ram Rajya. The social work values Dharma, Nistha, Satya, and Ahimsha should be part of social work curriculum in the Indian universities as social workers need to be social models for the society. Ram Rajya is the moral model of an aspirational India, one that advances and makes a comeback as a Vishwaguru, a leader of humanity. Our nation's aspirations will be monumentally reasserted and reaffirmed with the establishment of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya in the year 2024.

With the blessings of Bhagwan Sri Ram and the establishment of Ram Mandir, it will mark an era where professional social workers should focus on achieving the ultimate goal to establish Ram Rajya and to contribute to the mission of Vikshit Bharat @ 2047.

Dr. Bishnu Mohan Dash is Professor of Social Work in Dr. B. R. Ambedkar College, Delhi University; and Dr. Sunil Prasad is faculty in Northeast Regional Institute of Management, Guwahati. Views expressed are personal