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This study explored how Malaysian Indian viewers read and perceived the portrayal of sexual violence in Tamil movies produced in India. Sixty youths were selected, using a purposive sampling method...

Community Organization and Development (COD) is one of the core methods of social work and is taught in schools of social work across South Asia. This study is based on the semi structured interviews with social work educators in Nepal and Pakistan, and the personnel narratives of the authors. It provides a background of teaching Community Organization and Development, with its practices and methods in South Asian region (particularly in Pakistan and Nepal). The study discusses the nature and challenges for community work and its relationship to social work teaching and practice. Its main theme is to find out the answer that, how to teach and nurture students of social work to gain perspectives and skills of community organizing? The study concludes that social work educators specializing in teaching and practice will have to (un)learn and refocus. The teaching strategies to engage students need to be revised and re-interpret with the new social work curriculum teaching methodologies.

This paper makes a case for why welfare economics should be integrated and taught in social work courses, taking Malaysia a case in point. This is mainly a conceptual paper and secondary da...

South Asian governments have initiated political reforms engaging in rhetoric that resonates with the paradigms of good governance and empowerment of people. This article, applying a political social work framework, analyses reform policy in Pakistan and India in South Asia. By doing so, the article investigates the politics of local governance reforms in Pakistan and India within the context of domestic politics, institutional power and dynamics, and bureaucratic traditions and civil society activism. The article argues for renewed South Asian political social work that catalyzes robust local governance through citizen participation, resulting in the empowerment of people.

Not everyone benefits and is able to make the most out of migration. Migrant workers, both men and women, from poorer countries are exposed to vulnerabilities and disadvantages of living and workin...

Established in 1959, the Tribhuvan University (TU) is the oldest, and was the only, university in Nepal until 1991, when Kathmandu University (KU) was established under an Act of parliament using a public–private partnership modality. While the private higher education sector created new kinds of opportunities and accelerated some innovation, it has also introduced a wide array of problems in Nepalese higher education. This chapter examines the process of hidden privatization and possibilities for regulating private higher education in Nepal, which has surpassed the public sector in many ways. Taking the case of social work education and the nature of its privatization, this chapter argues for higher education sector reforms and political will to restructure higher education. The strategies should include monitoring and developing a robust, ethical private sector that is driven not only by profit but that plays a crucial role in ensuring quality and access, and contributes to the overall goals of higher education of Nepal.

Background and aim : There is an increased understanding of and appreciation for teachers' work from other disciplines, primarily for formulating individual plans and enhancing one's teaching based on observations and shared reflections. This article reviews how reflective practice, which is self-initiated and focused, informs the understanding and improvement of teaching practices, demonstrates interaction with students, and guides teaching experiences. This article aims to explore reflective practices that were meaningful for engaging in in-class instructional teaching practices. Methods : A self-study methodology was used to examine the complicated relationship between teaching and learning and knowledge in action of teacher education pedagogy. Results and discussion : As teacher, we understand the importance of problem-solving, establishing connections between relationships, and motivating students to think about missing connections or reconsidering them. Implications: The benefit of the Teaching Triangle was enhancing interdisciplinary relationships, understanding professional teaching relationships, and learning from each other without boundaries. Conclusions : Three aspects of the interdisciplinary reflective practice that emerged were adopting philosophy and purpose-driven goals; facilitating teaching pedagogy and technology; and creating culturally safe and effective student learning environments.

The Kingdom of Bhutan, a Land of the Thunder Dragon is a tiny and ancient kingdom nestled in a tapestry of mountains and plains, is not a serene Buddhist Shangri-La as the world imagines, argues Th...

Undoubtedly, social work has a long history of responding to the needs of vulnerable populations, including those who experience natural or human-made disasters. Historically, social work has been ...

Social work is contextual yet increasingly internationalized. The development of Global Agenda in 2012 by the IASSW, ICSW and IFSW gave educators and practitioners an opportunity to reflect on challenges of social work education and the profession in their respective countries. The current article discusses the key factors that confront and influence social work education and practice in the Asian region. The article brings out deep-rooted perceptions amongst educators in the region. The authors endeavour to present select views of social work educators from South Asian countries and suggest possible steps to realize the four goals of Global Agenda in the context of those countries.

The objective of this paper is to review the current thinking and action concerning breaking the cycle of child abuse in Malaysian society. The purpose is to illustrate some of the key issues, questions, and concerns for professional social work in the field of child abuse. The paper focuses on what social workers need to know and what do they know about child protection, and how to improve child abuse reporting, monitoring and review capacities in order to break the mould of child abuse and to craft a robust child protection system in Malaysia.

Poverty in Nepal is deep, diverse and multifaceted. This article examines the conceptual and policy links between poverty, policies and human rights. This paper aims to provide some pathways for an increased understanding of policy and politics dimensions of poverty in Nepal. This examination is further informed by a critical social work perspective, sharpened through the authors' presentation at a USM and CSU sponsored research colloquium on poverty as a human rights violation. Beginning with a description of the present level of poverty in Nepal and the values underpinning Nepalese social policy, we then analyse anti-poverty initiatives by the Nepalese successive governments and non state actors and examine the role of Nepalese nascent social work profession in the gigantic task of crafting poverty free Nepal.

The emergence of an ageing population is a relatively new phenomenon in Nepal and has only just become an area of interest for researchers, health and social care practitioners and policy-makers. Life expectancy in Nepal has risen by more than 20 years in the past three decades and is currently 68 years of age. Until recently, Nepal was one of the few nations where men, on average, outlived women. As Nepal moves through the health transition this is no longer the case with recent statistics suggesting that an average life expectancy for females is now 69 years, two years greater than males. The ageing process in Nepal provides both challenges and opportunities for professionals, organisations and researchers. This paper provides an overview of the main issues related to an ageing population in Nepal and draws on research conducted under a British Academy Small Grant (BASG) project which ran from April 2011 until April 2012 in collaboration with the Nepal School of Social Work (NSSW), Kathmandu. Central is...

Our cities are increasingly becoming the sites where children socialize, observe, and learn how society functions and many local and global activities have impacted children's health and well-being. The Child-friendly Cities initiative, launched by the United Nations Children's Fund and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in 1996, draws in diverse stakeholders to place children at the center of the urban agenda. Based on social work research, this article analyzes the acclaimed status of Biratnagar Sub-metropolitan city, Eastern Nepal, as a child-friendly city. Despite its efforts, the city of Biratnagar is yet to meet the required criteria to claim itself as a child-friendly city. Further improvements by the city administration in achieving children's participation in decision-making, child-friendly legal environment, and code of conduct are essential. Based on the evidence, the authors advocate for bottom-up approaches that include children's voices and their real participation in city governance and a strong political will to craft child-friendly cities, not as a policy rhetoric but for real. Enabling children to fulfill their potential as equal participants in crafting child-friendly cities will require adults to relinquish some of their hegemonic powers of decision-making on behalf of children.

Disasters around the world disrupt the lives of millions of people, especially pushing many children into armed conflict, prostitution, drug trafficking and other dangerous situations, resulting in violation of their rights. Approaches to disaster management continue to be largely technology-centred, top-down and isolated from human development processes in the region. The rescue–relief–rehabilitation (3R) model of interventions largely results in treating children as beneficiaries and not as actors. This article offers possible lessons for Africa, based on the South Asian experience of how children’s rights are (not) practised in the context of disasters.

Drawing on interviews and personal accounts of the author working in Nepal for the last 7 years, this paper discusses the evolution of social work education and challenges for its growth in Nepal, a country that is going through a series of transitions and is emerging from a recent decade-long armed conflict. Due to a lack of formal recognition and commitment from state and non-state actors, the future of social work in Nepal is in the hands of university-affiliated colleges and the few social work graduates and educators. Their commitment, strategies, and passion are crucial to the survival and growth of social work in conflict-stricken, transition Nepal in South Asia.

In this article, we will explore how local politics of policy, in the interaction with governance mechanisms, have produced specific polity outcomes in the irrigation sector of Andhra Pradesh. The water sector of Andhra Pradesh, which has been struggling within inefficiency, poor performance, deterioration, and lack of participation as elsewhere in India, has undergone substantial reforms aiming at Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM). Previous research has indicated how reform policy choices were contested and mediated by relevant actors and how this affected the outcome in key areas of irrigation management. This is referred to as the politics of policy. We will look at multi-level governance in a situation where different tiers represent different institutional basis, and argue that the politics of policy at multiple levels of governance can be perceived as a form of support and/or resilience by actors to new governance mechanisms/arrangements.

This article presents an overview of definitions of international social work (ISW), current debates, and future course of ISW profession and teaching. After a brief introduction, Section What Is ISW?: The Debate presents the debate on what is ISW. Scholars have argued that social work is a contextual profession and hence international and global social work debates are vane. Section Internationalization of Social Work: Profession and Education further elaborates the debate on internationalizing social work profession and education. The following Sections International or Universal Social Work? and International but Not Global? present the discussions on quest for universalism and on global social work. Section Conclusion is a concluding one.

As one of the poorest countries in the world, Nepal (with 30 million people) is going through a series of transitions and is rewriting its constitution. Access to education and now to higher education is limited in Nepal.

Most academic research on international adoption focuses on either psychological or pedagogical aspects of adoption. This research project aims to investigate the social paradigms informing practices of adoption in Nepal. It is crucial to study the ways in which international adoption is institutionalized especially when there is a huge criticism about international adaption practices in Nepal. Central in this process are adoption agencies, Child Care Homes and legal institutions. Increasingly, they have become the brokers of adoption, mediating between birth parents, orphanages, adoptive parents, and various state agents from sending and receiving countries.The general objective of the study is to review the legal procedures and gaps regarding inter and intra country adoption procedures, study the status of child care homes in the Kathmandu Valley and to identify the people’s perspective on domestic and international child adoption.The main findings and recommendations are: 1. Though the current study is located within the Kathmandu valley the results will have implication for the Nepalese policy on both domestic and intercountry adoptions. 2 .From the Public Perceptions study, it is clear that in Nepal a large majority of the general public are not fully aware of the intricacies of adoption policy and processes, hence leading to misconceptions about adoptions, especially with intercountry adoptions. 3. Public perception suggests that laws and policies should be made transparent, and monitoring body is to be formed to ensure the safety of the child. The child should not be adopted until the prospective adoptive parents prove that they have sound economic condition or financial security and are committed to the child’s future and well-being. 4. The child care homes that are involved with adoption services were not very open to share their work with others, They were not entirely transparent and worried about the future of the sector. 5. The children who are currently kept at the so-called child care homes and are ready for the intercountry adoptions legally may not be real orphans. Some may be ‘paper orphans.’ Hence the government should further investigate the facts and make necessary legal and social arrangements to protect the rights of the children. 6. The international agencies that are involved in intercountry adoptions are also showing inhibition when it comes to sharing views and details of their work in Nepal. This may be due to their unclear role, uncertainties involved with the law and policy at the time the study was carried out. 7. The adoption policy is heavily contested by the different interest groups (The Hague Conference on Private International Law, Government bureaucrats, NGOs, INGOs, Law makers, Media, Embassies Child care homes, Academic and research institutes) in Nepal and hence the policy is an outcome of push and pulls factors. 8. The evidence suggests that 35 percent of respondents opined that they do not pay attention to caste, while 16 percent of the respondents remarked that categorization (age, sex, caste or religion) does not make any difference to them. It is very encouraging and the government policies should further encourage domestic adoption in Nepal. 9. There are ample opportunities to encourage domestic adoptions but this is not yet fully explored both by government and non governmental institutions. A useful approach could be to start with foster care families and progressively encourage domestic adoption practices in Nepal. Domestic adoptions based on only social On the basis of the results this study strongly recommends that Nepal should ratify the Hague Convention as soon as possible and make rules for institutions involved in adoption to follow the Convention and other international ethical standards and practices. 11. This study shows the evidence that there are lacunas in the adoption policy formulation in the country. The majority of the respondents interviewed stated that they are not aware of the current policies and were not consulted or involved in the policy making. This suggests that the policy making is guided by self interests of few stakeholders and hence may not work in the best interests of the child. 12. There is a need for trained human resources ( trained social workers and child psychologists) to work in the child care/orphanages as the study found that the staff working in the current homes are not trained in general and not skilled to work with children with difficulties. 13. The study strongly recommends that no child should be placed outside his or her family unless it serves the child’s best interests. The institutional care/model to address the issue of orphans (especially in the case of double orphans) also needs further investigation and policy dialogue in Nepal. 14. Further academic research in this area is urgently needed to provide inputs policy making process in the country and also to provide alternative approaches to intercountry adoption.