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COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION, 3.0. Objectives, 3.1. Introduction, 3.2. Meaning, Definitions, objectives and Nature of Community, organization, 3.3. Historical development of Community organization, 3.4. Principles of Community Organization, 3.5. Skills and techniques of Community Organization, 3.6. Community Organization and Community development
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3.0. Objectives, After studying this unit you will be able to, Understands the theories related to community organization, Can develop the knowledge about the skills and techniques of community, organisation, Collect information about the basic principles of community organization, Comprehend the principle of community organization and apply it in the field of, social work, Can get vivid information regarding community organization as a method of, social work., 3.1. Introduction, Community Organisation is one of the primary methods of social work. It deals, with intervention in the communities to solve the community problems. As a, method of social work community organization can solve the problems of many, people in the community through their collective involvement. Community, organisation and community development are inter-related as two sides of same, coin. The community organisation includes other methods of social work, that is,, group work, and casework. The power structure plays a role in community, organisation. The social workers need to know the community power structure to, practice community organisation method, which is used for empowering people for, their development. The details are provided for social work students to understand, and practice community organisation effectively., 3.2. Meaning, Definitions, objectives and Nature of Community organization, 3.2.1. Meaning of Community Organisation, Before we get to know more about community organisation as a method of social, work, let us first understand the meaning of the term we use. The term community, organisation has several meanings. It is being often used synonymous to, community work, community development and community mobilization. In, general, community organisationmeans helping the community to solve its, problems. In the context of social work profession in India, the term is used to, denote a method of social work to intervene in the life of a community. In, sociology we learn that society and social institutions are more than just a
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collection of individuals. It includes how those individuals are linked to each other., These are sets of systems such as economy, political organisation, value, ideas,, belief systems, technology, and patterns of expected behaviours (social, interaction). It means that just a collection of individuals living at a common place, are not necessarily organised. To call them organised they need to have a set of, common ideas and expectations. This gives them a social structure and some social, processes that make the organisation something (social). It goes beyond the, individuals that compose the community., Further it is important to note that just forming various groups in community, having some structure or form (e.g. having a president, treasurer, secretary, etc.), does not make the community organised. It is not the multiplicity of institutions,, interest groups or set of activities, which make an organized community. Actually, it may create more conflicts and disrupt normal life. Thus the important, determining factors of community organisation are interaction, integration and coordination of the existing institutions, interest groups and activities,and evolving, new groups and institutions if necessary, to meet the changing conditions and, needs of the community., 3.2.2. Definitions of Community Organisation, To study and to be able to engage in community organisation practice it is, necessary to have a clear definition. There are several definitions available in, literature, which have been put forth at different times and in differing context. The, common element in most of them iss matching resources to needs. We will discuss, here two most widely accepted definitions of community organisation., Murray G. Ross (1967) defines community organization as a “process by which a, community identifies its needs or objectives, gives priority to them, develops, confidence and will to work at them, finds resources (internal and external) to deal, with them, and in doing so, extends and develops cooperative and collaborative, attitudes and practices in the community”., In this definition by “process” he meant a movement from identification of a, problem or objective to solution of the problem or attainment of the objective in, the community. There are other processes for dealing with community problems,, but here he called the community organisation process as one by which the, capacity of the community to function as an integrated unit grows as it deals with
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one or more community problems. The task of the professional worker in, community organisation is to help, initiate, nourish, and develop this process. His, task is also to make this process conscious, deliberative, and understood., “Community,” in the sense in which it is used here, refers to two major groupings, of people. Firstly it may be all the people in a specific geographic area, i.e., a, village, a town, a city, a neighbourhood, or a district in a city. In the same manner, it could refer also to all the people in a province or a state, a nation, or in the world., Secondly, it is used to include groups of people who share some common interest, or function, such as welfare, agriculture, education, or religion. In this context, community organisation may be involved in bringing these persons together to, develop some awareness of, and feeling for their “community” and to work at, common problems arising out of the interest or function they have in common., The second definition we will discuss here is by Kramer and Specht (1975), which, is in more technical terms. They defined that “Community organization refers to, various methods of intervention whereby a professional change agent helps a, community action system composed of individuals, groups or organizations to, engage in planned collective action in order to deal with special problems within, the democratic system of values.”, According to their explanations, it involves two major interrelated concerns: (a) the, interaction process of working with an action system which includes identifying,, recruiting and working with the members and developing organisational and, interpersonal relationships among them which facilitates their efforts; and (b) the, technical tasks involved in identifying problem areas, analyzing causes,, formulating plans, developing strategies and mobilizing the resources necessary to, have effective action. The analysis of both these definitions reveals that they cover, the “Need-Resources Adjustment” approach, “the Social Relationships” approach, and a combination of the two ideas of meeting needs and development of cooperative attitudes. The distinguishing features of community organization practice, are derived largely from the three dimensions., Walter W. Pettit in 19252 defined it as “Community organisation is perhaps best, defined as assisting a group of people to recognise their common needs and, helping them to meet these needs.”
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Russell H. Kurrtz in 1940 defined it as “Community organisation is a process, dealing primarily with program relationships and thus to be distinguished in its, social work setting from those other basic processes, casework and group work,, which deal with people. Those relationships of agency to agency, of agency to, community and of community to agency reach in all directions from any focal, point in the social work picture. Community organisation may be thought of as the, process by which these relationships are initiated, altered or terminated to meet, changing conditions, and it is thus basic to all social work...”., Wayne Mcmillen in 19473 defined it as “Community organisation in its generic, sense in deliberately directed effort to assist groups in attaining unity of purpose, and action. It is practiced, though often without recognition of its character,, wherever the objective is to achieve or maintain a pooling of the talents and, resources of two or more groups in behalf of either general or specific objectives.”, C.F. Mcneil in 19544 defined it as “Community organisation for social welfare is, the process by which the people of community, as individual citizens or as, representatives of groups, join together to determine social welfare needs, paln, ways “Community” in the sense in which it is used here, refers to two major, groupings of people. Firstly it may be all the people in a specific geographic area,, i.e., a village, a town, a city, a neighbourhood, or a district in a city. In the same, manner it could refer also to all the people in a province or a state, a nation, or in, the world. Secondly, it is used to include groups of people who share some, common interest or function, such as welfare, agriculture, education, and religion., In this context community organisation may be involved in bringing these persons, together to develop some awareness of, and feeling for their “community” and to, work at common problems arising out of the interest or function they have in, common., Aims and Objectives of Community Organisation, The general aim of community organization is to bring about and maintain a, progressively more effective adjustment between social welfare resources and, social welfare needs. It is concerned with :, (a) The discovery and definition of needs.
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(b) The elimination and prevention of social needs and disabilities,, (c) The articulation of resources and needs, and the constant readjustment of, resources in order better to meet changing needs., The other objectives are:, 1. To secure and maintain an adequate factual basis for sound planning and action., 2. To initiate, develop, and modify welfare programmes and services, in the, interest of attaining a better adjustment between resources and needs., 3. To improve standards of social work to increase the increase the effectiveness of, individual agencies., 4. To improve and facilitate interrelationships, and to promote coordination,, between organization, groups and individuals concerned with social welfare, prpgrammes and services., 5. To develop a better public understanding of welfare problems and needs, and, social work objectives., 6. To develop public support of, and public participation in, social welfare, activities. Financial support includes income from tax funds, voluntary, contributions and other resources., Nature of Community organisation, Community Organisation as Macro Method, Community organisation is considered as a Macro method of practice in social, work. (Arthur E. Fink) It is used for solving community problems. The term Macro, is used because of its ability to involve a large number of people in solving the, social problems. Community organisation is a macro method because this method, can be successfully implemented at local level of
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community, or at state level and at regional levels of the community or even at the, international level. For example, community organisation can help in pollution, control at local, state, regional, national and international levels. It is a macro, method because unlike casework which deals with only one person at a time or, group work which deals with limited number of participants, community, organisation deals with large number of people at any given time. For example,, Poverty cannot be solved by using individual approach like casework as there are, many people affected by poverty. Individual approach is not practical where the, magnitude of the problem is alarming. In such cases we have to use a method,, which can help a large number of people. While comparing other methods of social, work community organisation as macro method is useful for solving widespread, economic and social problems like poverty., Community Organisation as a Problem Solving Method, In community organisation method the community is the client. Community, organisation solves the community problems and fulfills the needs of the, community. Many of the community problems like social injustice, poverty,, inadequate housing, poor nutrition, lack of health, lack of medical services,, unemployment, pollution, exploitation, bonded labour system, illicit arrack, dowry,, female infanticide, women and children trafficking, drug trafficking etc. can be, solved by using community organisation method. In problem solving generally, there are three basic aspects. These are study, diagnosis, and treatment. First the, problem has to be studied. For this, we have to collect information regarding the, problem. From the information collected we have to identify the main causes. This, is called diagnosis. Based on the findings, or diagnosis, a solution is evolved that is, called treatment. We consider this model as medical model because doctors study, the patient to find out the causes for illness and based on findings, treatment or, medicines are prescribed. Such a model can be used in community organization, method. Problems can be solved only with involvement of people due to which, resources are mobilized to solve the problems. This method is specially applicable, in Indian situations, because in India a large number of people are affected by, poverty or other poverty related problems which need speedy solutions. For this, community organisation as a problem solving method is most effective to solve, community problems. For example people in certain area suffer due to lack of, water for their cultivation. With the help of the community organiser and people’s, participation, watersheds can be made and ground water level is increased. Water
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stored during rainy season can help the people to continue cultivation. Here the, whole village problem is related with water for irrigation and drinking purpose,, which can be solved by using community organisation method., Community Organisation method is used for the following:, a) To meet the needs and bring about and maintain adjustment between needs and, resources in a community., b) Helping people effectively to work with their problems and plan to realize their, objectives by, helping them to develop, strengthen, and maintain qualities of participation, selfdirection and cooperation., c) Bringing about changes in community and group relationships and in the, distribution of decision- making power., d) The resources of the community are identified and tapped for solving the, community problems., Difference between community organisation and community development, There are many similarities between community organisation and community, development. But for theoretical purpose it is possible to differentiate community, organisation and community development., a) Community organisation is a method of social work but community evelopment, is a programme for a planned change., b) Community organisation emphasizes the processes, but community, development emphasizes the end or goals., c) Community organisers are mostly social workers and social change agents, But, community development personnel can be from other professions including, agricultural experts, veterinary experts, and other technical experts., d) Community organisation is not time bound. It is achieved step by step according, to the pace of the people. But community development is time bound and time is, specified for achieving the development objectives., e) In community organisation people’s participation is important. But in, community development people’s development is important., f) In community organisation governments and external agencies assistances are, not important or needed. But in community development external assistance from, the government or other agencies is considered important.
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g) Community organisation is a method of social work and this method is used in, many fields. But unlike community organisation community development is, considered as process, method, programme, and movement for planned change., h) Community organisation is used in all the fields but community development is, used mostly in economic development and for the development of living standards, of the people., i) In community organisation planning is initiated by the people through their, participation. But in community development planning is carried out by an external, agency mostly by the government., j) In community organisation people are organized to solve their problem. But in, community development goals have to be achieved and for that people are, organised., k) Community organisation is universal to all communities. But community, development programmes differ from people to people depending upon whether, the area is rural, urban or tribal, and other characteristics of the area. Even though, there are differences, both are interrelated. The relationship is so close, so that, community organisation process and principles are accepted fully. Both are like, two sides of the same coin. The ideal community development takes places where, community organisation method and its various steps and principles are effectively, put into practice., Community Work and Community Organisation in Social Work, Having discussed the meaning and definition of Community organisation let us, now try to compare it in the context of community work and social work, profession. In social work the term “community work” is often used with different, meanings. In social work literature we find that the term “community work”,, “community development”, “community organisation” and “community, empowerment” are at times interchangeably used for the work with communities., Some authors have used these terms for the same types of work whereas others use, them to refer to different types of work with communities., Community work has a long history as an aspect of social work. It has passed, through various phases. All over the world it has been recognized as an integral, part of social work practice. History shows that community work even preceded, social work education. In UK and USA community work in social work began in, the 1800 with the charity organization movement and the settlement house, movement. During the initial phase in UK, community work was primarily seen as
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a method of social work, trying to help individuals to enhance their social, adjustment. The main thrust was to act as a means to coordinate the work of, voluntary agencies. In India the experience of working with slum community in the, city of Mumbai lead to the establishment of the first institution of social work, education in 1936. Community work as a method of social work in India is largely, seen as a process of developing local initiatives, particularly in the areas of, education, health and agricultural development. The focus of the work is, to, encourage people to express their needs, and enable them to avail the existing, resources, in order to meet these needs., There are several ways in which social work practitioners and others work in the, community. In social work we find three main approaches namely, Community, Development, Community Organisation and Community Relations/Services., While these approaches represent different situations or areas of community work,, there are fundamental similarities in what is being attempted. Their components, are often interlinked and at times overlapping. What is important for us here is to, understand that the community work is one of the basic social work processes. It is, being used to attain the same basic objectives, as casework and groupwork. As you, may be aware all the social work methods are concerned with removal of the, blocks to growth of individual, group, or community, release of their potentials,, full use of internal resources, development of capacity to manage one’s own affairs, and their ability to function as an integrated unit. In community organisation,, social work is concerned with the initiation of that process which enables a, community to overcome those blocks (apathy, vested interests, discrimination), which prevent the community from working together; and facilitate release of, potentials, use of indigenous resources and growth of cooperative attitude and, skills which make possible achievement of even increasingly difficult objectives., Thus, community organisation started more as a product of the maturation process, than as the beginnings of a profession. The increasingly complex and, interdependent nature of modern society makes community organisation almost a, pre-requisite for smooth functioning of any society., 3.4. Principles of Community Organization, Principles of community organisation, in the sense in which the term is used here, are generalized guiding rules for the sound practice. Principles are expressions of, value judgments. The principles of community organisation, which are being, discussed here, are within the frame of and in harmony with the spirit and purpose
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of social work in a democratic society. We are concerned with the dignity and, worth, the freedom, the security, the participation, and the wholesome and, abundant life o every individual. This implies following the principles of, democracy, involvement of the marginalized, transparency, honesty, sustainability,, self-reliance, partnerships, cooperation, etc., In the literature of community organisation we find various sets of principles., Dunham (1958) has presented a statement of 28 suggested principles of community, organisation. He grouped those under seven headings., (i) Democracy and social welfare, (ii) Community roots for community programs,, (iii) Citizen understanding, support, and participation and professional service,, organisation of social welfare services, and (vii) Prevention., Ross (1967) outlined specific principles – the elementary or fundamental ideas, regarding initiation and continuation of community organisation processes. These, principles have been discussed in terms of the nature of the organisation or, association and the role of the professional worker. The twelve principles, identified by Ross are:, 1. Discontent with existing conditions in the community must initiate and/or, nourish development of the association. 2. Discontent must be focused and, channelled into organisation, planning, and action in respect to specific problems., 3. Discontent which initiates or sustains community organisation must be widely, shared in the community. 4. The association must involve leaders (both formal and, informal) identified with, and accepted by major sub-groups in the community. 5., The association must have goals and methods and procedures of high acceptability., 6. The programme of the association should include some activities with an, emotional content. 7. The association should seek to utilize the manifest and latent, goodwill which exists in the community. 8. The association must develop active, and effective lines of communication both within the association and between the, association and the community. 9. The association should seek to support and, strengthen groups which it brings together in cooperative work. 10. The association, should develop a pace of work relative to existing conditions in the community. 11., The association should seek to develop effective leaders. 12. The association must, develop strength, stability and prestige in the community., Keeping in mind the actual practice situations in India H. Y. Siddiqui (1997) have, worked out a set of 8 principles.
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1. The Principle of Specific Objectives 2. The Principle of Planning 3. The, Principle of Peoples Participation 4. The Principle of inter-group approach 5. The, Principle of democratic functioning 6. The Principle of flexible organisation 7. The, Principle of Optimum Utilisation of Indigenous Resources 8. The Principle of, Cultural orientation, . Skills and techniques of Community Organization, 1. Skills in Rapport Establishment 2. Skills in Identification of Needs 3. Skills in, Resources Mobilization 4. Skills in Programme Planning 5. Skills in Programme, Management 6. Skills in Evaluation 7. Skills in Recording 8. Skills in Encouraging, Community Participation 9. Skills in Working with the group 10. Skills in working, with the individuals 11. Skills in Mobilizing Community Action, Skills of an Effective Community Organizer:, Problem Analysis – One of themajor tasks of the community organizer is to assist, the people in arriving at a solution to the problem. The organizer is capable of, identifying the problem and making the people to identify, analyse, give priorities,, select an appropriate priority, mobilize resources, make a plan of action,, implement, monitor, evaluate, modify and continue., Resource Mobilization – Any problem of the community while working out the, solution requires resources. The resources may be in terms man power, money, material and time. On one hand the organizer is aware of the availability of the, resources within the community or outside the community and on the other makes, the people to identify the sources of resources and the way to tap such resources., Settings of Community Organisation, There are different areas where community organisation has scope. The, community organizer can practice community organisation in different settings., The settings can be identified based on certain characteristics like location and the, nature of administration. Geographical Location Rural, Urban, Tribal Sector, Institutional, Non- institutional Or Organised, un-organised Model Locality, development Social planning Social action The target group with whom the, community organizer is going to work with has to be identified and understood., The needs and problems of the community Role of Community Organiser in, Different Settings in different settings will not be the same, and moreover, the, characteristics of the people in different settings are likely to vary. Accordingly the, methods and techniques of community organisation and the roles of community
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organiser will have to be used in such a way as to suit the differing settings and, characteristics of people., The organiser can use different methods to identify, assess the need, analyse and, understand the situation. There are two levels of understanding, the first level is the, understanding of the community by the organiser and the second level is making, the community to understand their own situation. Different methods and, techniques can be used to understand and make the community to understand., Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) and Appreciative Inquiry can be more useful, in this regard. Since these are not within the scope of this unit, it is not discussed, here. Whatever may be the settings there is a community or a group of people with, needs and problems. Inother words there is a general discontentment which has to, be focused and channelised in such a way that the people come together, think, together, plan together, implement and evaluate their actions., In all the stages the community has to be fully involved and their capacity, increases as a result of access and control over resources and decision making., Therefore in community organisation the community organiser has to play, different roles in making the people to be on their own, without any dependency, syndrome. The types of settings may be have limited. But it can be said that, herever there are people living together or where like minded people or the, affected individuals come together, they form a community demand their due share, from the society., Social Work Intervention with Communities and Institutions In different settings, depending on the needs and problems and the social situation of the community the, roles and strategies have to be changed. Moreover, all the roles need not be applied, in all the settings. In order to adopt the process or the steps involved in the practice, of community organisation methods and skills and accordingly the roles can be, selected and applied. Rural area is differentiated from the urban, based on the, population size, density of population and occupation of the people. If any area the, population is more than 5000, the density is more than 300 per square kilometer, and more than 75 per cent of the people are engaged in agricultural activities, such, areas are called rural area. Along with these characteristics if the geographical, location in general is in the hills occupied by tribals it is called the tribal area. In, the case of urban area the population is more than 5000, density is more than 300, per square kilometer and more than 75 per cent are involved in non-agricultural, activities. Among the people inter-personal relationship and receptiveness is high
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and positive in rural and tribal areas, whereas in urban area the primary, relationship within the community is rather low. Organising rural and tribal people, is less difficult compared to urban people. In the institutional and non-institutional, settings the people are organised and not organised respectively., In an institution due to the organisational structure there is possibility to bring the, people together for any common purpose, whereas in the case of non- institutional, there is not structured pattern and hence it may be difficult to bring them together., Role of Community Organiser in Different Settings The three models of, community organisation expect different sets of roles. In locality development, model the people come together to discuss and decide about the improvement of an, area, or locality, emphasizing the broader participation at the local level in goal, determination and action. In the social planning model the people come together, and gather pertinent facts about the problems, then decide on a rational and, feasible course of action. It is a technical process of solving social problems., Arranging and delivering goods and services to people who need them. External, help is more. Interested group members participate. Broader participation is less., Social action model brings the people to destroy the oppressors. Basic changes in, social situations are brought about by organising the affected segment of the, population so that they make demands on the larger community for increased, resources or better treatment in accordance with social justice and democracy and, redistribution of power, resources and decision-making. The community organiser, has to see, observe and understand all the settings and the models before, responding or making the people to respond to the situation., 3. 6.Historical development of Community organization, In a broad sense we can say wherever people have lived together, some form of, organisation has emerged. These informal associations of people always tried to do, good to the people in need and protect the rights of the society. On the contrary the, history talks about the formal organisations which were set up for the welfare of, the community. The first efforts at community organisation for social welfare were, initiated in England to overcome the acute problem of poverty, which led to, beggary. The first effort of its kind was the Elizabethan Poor Law (1601) in, England, which was set up to provide services to the needy. Another important, landmark in the history of community organisation is the formation of London, Society of organising charitable relief and repressing mendicancy and the Origin of, the Settlement House Movement in England during 1880.
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In fact, these movements had a major impact in the United States of America. In, 1880 the Charities organisation was set up to put rational order in the area of, charity and relief. The major community organisation activities in the United, States could be classified into three periods:, 1) The Charity Organisation Period, 1870-1917, This era is the beginnings in social welfare in USA. The first citywide Charity, Organisation Society (COS) was established in the Buffalo in 1877 in USA. This, movement was started with the influence of London Charity Organisation, established in 1869. In USA, Rev. S. H. Gurteen, an English priest who had some, association with London Charity association and had moved to Buffalo in 1873, gave the leadership to this movement. Within a short span of six years the COS, had reached to more than 25 American cities. Charity organisation was concerned, about two things:, Providing adequate personal services to families and individuals in need., Take steps to address the issues/problems in social welfare., Apart from this service, the COS also took initiatives in promoting co-operation, among the various welfare agencies. From this movement of charity organisation, emerged many such service oriented organisations i.e. Social service exchange,, Community welfare councils, Councils of social agencies., 2) The Rise of Federation 1917 to 1935, It is a period where we can see the growth and development of chests and councils., It started with the rise of war chests in 1917 and ended with the enactment of social, security act, which set the stage for development of the public welfare programmes, in 1935. A large number of chests and councils came up after first world war. The, American Association for Community Organisation was organised in 1918 as the, national agency for chests and councils and it later became known as community, chests and councils of (CCC) America. The Cincinnati Public Health Federation,, established in 1917 was the first independent health council in American City. It, isin this period that the American Association of social workers organised in 1921,, the first general professional organisations, set up its training for the social workers
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and others who specialized in community organisation. A community chest is a, voluntary welfare agency, co-operative organisation of citizens and welfare, agencies, which is the powerful local force for community welfare that handles, large funds. It has two functions. It raises funds through a community - wide, appeal and distributes them according to a systematic budget procedure. Secondly, it promotes co-operative planning, co-ordination and administration of the, communities social welfare., 3)Period of Expansion and Professional, Development 1935 to Present Time It is in this period that we see the greater use of, the community organisation process in the field of public welfare. A marked, significance of this era is the establishment of Federal Security Agency where we, see maximum involvement of the Govt. in welfare programmes. In 1946 the, agency was strengthened and re-organised following which in 1953 Department of, Health, Education and Welfare was established., Another important development during the period is the professional development, that took place. Some of the important professional developments were: The, National Conference of Social Work in 1938- 39 undertook a study on community, organisation, which was later published under the title “Generic Community, Welfare Organisation”. Based on this, another study took place in 1940, but due to, American involvement in World War II an active programme could not take off., In 1946, at the National conference of social work in Buffalo, the Association for, the Study of Community Organisation (ASCO) was organised. The main objective, was to improve the professional practice of organisation for social welfare. In, 1955, ASCO merged with six other professional organisations to form the National, Association of Social Workers. Community organisation has been recognized as, integral and important aspect of social work education in the American Association, of Schools of social work education. At present there is an active committee of, Council on Social Work Education involved in the production of teaching, materials in community organisation. The first contemporary textbook on, community organisation titled “Community Organisation for Social Welfare”, published in 1945 has been written by Wayne McMillan., Another development in the history of community development is seen in the wake, of World War II. Wartime needs were very special and crucial. During this time, many councils and community war services came to the forefront. Among them
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(USO) United Service Organisation is of prime importance as it was the union of, many forces that served the needs of the military personnel and defense, communities. The other striking characteristics of the period is the immense, increase in the volunteer service i.e. defense council, American Red Cross and, USO which co-ordinated and recruited the volunteers. Another development that, took place at the wartime is the growth of closer relationship between labour and, social work, which is considered a great significant to community organisation., The other developments that took place after the World War II that are very, specific to community organisation area are as follows., The rehabilitation of the physically and mentally Challenged, Mental health planning, problems of the aging, Prevention and treatment of juvenile delinquency., In order to address these issues separate bodies were set up and we see the entry of, international agencies in the field of community organisation. The present situation, in community organisation is the emergence of the new community development, programmes, which aim at providing, services to the less developed areas in, international social welfare. Therefore the present agenda is on working with the, whole community and greater emphasis is on self-help., Community Organisation in UK, Baldock (1974) has summed up the historical development in UK by dividing it, into four phases., The first phase : 1880-1920:, During this period the community work was mainly seen as a method of social, work. It was considered as a process of helping the individuals to enhance their, social adjustments. It acted as major player to co-ordinate the work of voluntary, agencies., The second phase : 1920-1950:, This period saw the emergence of new ways of dealing with social issues and, problems. The community organisation was closely associated with central and, state Govt.’s programme for urban development. The important development in, this period was its association with community association movement.
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The third phase 1950 onwards :, It emerged as a reaction to the neighbourhood idea, which provided an ideological, base for the second phase. It was a period of professional development of social, work. Most of the educators and planners tried to analyze the shortcomings in the, existing system. It was also a period where the social workers sought for a, professional identity., The fourth phase:It is a recent period that has seen a marked involvement of, community action. It questioned the very relationship of community work and, social work. It was thus seen as period of radical social movement and we could, see the conflicts of community with authority. The association of social workers, and the community were de- professionalised during this period. Thus it was, during this period that conflictual strategies were introduced in the community, work, although even now there is no consensus on this issue (Baldock 1974)., History of Community Organisation in India, A historical account of community organisation is not available in India, as there, has been only limited documentation on social work literature in general and on, community organisation in particular. Community organisation has its roots in the, Charity organisations in the United States. They realized the need of the people, and tried to organise the people to co-ordinate their work. The main activities were, social welfare, raising funds, seeking enactment for social legislation and coordination of welfare activities. The spirit behind all these activities was charity. In, India, the very concept of charity is deep- rooted in the religious philosophy. Even, before the commencement of the social work education in India in 1936, the, community work was in place, already in existence. But in the first phase from, 1936 to 1952 the community work was in a dormant stage. During this period, social work was in its infancy and not many were employed in the community, settings because there were hardly any jobs that provided an opening for, community organisation. Professionals preferred to work in casework settings., It was in 1952 that the community development project was launched by the, government of India and with this we find the emergence of a new era of, community work. The basic objective of community development in India was to, awaken the rural people of their needs, instilling in them a sense of ambition for, better life and making them aware of their right and power to find a solution for, their problems. According to Mukerji (1961) “Community development is a, movement designed to promote better living for the whole community with the
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active participation, and if possible, with the initiative of community”. According, to him community development can be divided into two process. 1) Extension, education, 2) Community organisation. Extension education was expected to, improve the quality of human beings by improving his/her knowledge and skills., By community organisation Mukerji had in mind the setting up of three institutions, in the village., Village Panchayat, The village co-operative, The village school, During this period the thrust of the community work remained in rural areas, whereas social work remained mostly urban in character. From 1970 onwards we, could see a new trend in the community work practice. The social workers, expanded their scope and operational area from their traditional approach of, casework to other development fields. For example, people working with school, children started working with the community. The NGOs and voluntary, organisations adopted community approach. This shift has in-fact led to the use of, process of community work. By and large the community work has remained, welfare-oriented., The current phase of community work in India is experiencing a growing, dissatisfaction with its own practice or rather the outcome of its practice. So efforts, are on to create alternate ways of working with communities. In-spite of these, the, professionals are involved in a variety of projects in both rural and urban areas, to, promote better living for the community., Another trend in the community work is the involvement of the Business houses in, promoting welfare in their neighbourhood. This is commonly known as CSR., (Corporate Social responsibilities) The business houses i.e. Tata’s, Escorts, and, some of the multinational companies too have joined in this venture. This trend has, attracted many professionals in this field., The main objective of community development is to develop village communities, by methods, which will stimulate, encourage and aid villagers themselves to do, much of the work necessary to accomplish the desired goals. The changes, conceived and promoted should have the involvement of the people and should be, acceptable to them and put into practice by them.
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There is a common philosophical link between community organisation and, community development. Both aim to enable people to live happily and a fully, developed life. Both have basic faith in the common man and his right to selfdetermination within the framework of the society. Both give emphasis to self-help, and help the people to help themselves to solve their own problems. However,, community organisation and community development should not be considered as, synonymous., CD is concerned with the promotion of all aspects of life including social,, economical and cultural; both in rural and urban areas. While CO is concerned, with adjustment of social welfare needs and resources in cities, states, nations as, well as in villages. CO is practiced in the USA on a voluntary basis, while in, almost all the developing countries CD is a government-sponsored programme. CO, is a product of urbanization and industrialization. Here the main concern is, problems of the population mobility, problems of the family, problems of the aged,, problems of, juvenile delinquency, of unemployment and provision of social security. But CD is, concerned with how to induce people to meet their basic human needs. CO tends to, be more process oriented while CD as practiced in India tends to be target oriented.
