Social Welfare Services

Social Welfare Services

Social welfare services are intended to cater to the weaker sections of the population. These include women, children, handicapped, aged, scheduled castes and tribes.

Ministry of Welfare:

The Ministry of Welfare. Govt. of India, has been formed by pooling subjects related to welfare of the disabled, programmes of social defense, welfare of the scheduled castes and tribes and minorities.

The welfare of women and child development is looked after by a separate Department of Women and Child Development set up in the Ministry of Human Resources Development.

Welfare Programme:

Welfare of the disabled: The number of disabled persons in the country has been estimated to be around 120 lakhs.

1.     The Ministry of Welfare is implementing programmes for the early detection, treatment, education and rehabilitation of disabled persons, namely the blind, the deaf, the orthopaedically handicapped, the mentally retarded, spastics and the leprosy cured patients.

2.     Social defence: Problems of family and social disorganization are manifest in the form of delinquency, juvenile vagrancy, drug addiction, alcoholism and crimes of various types.

3.     In order to control these problems, programmes of social defence have been launched by the Government, mainly within the framework of specific legislation and allied measures.

4.     Women and child development: The Department of Women and Child Development in the Ministry of Human Resource Development has two bureaux : (i) Nutrition and child development, and (ii) Women's welfare and development.

5.     The Central Social Welfare Board and the National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development assist the Department in its functions.

6.     4.       Central Social Welfare Board: The Central Social Welfare Board was set up in 1953. It surveys the needs and requirements of social welfare organizations in the country.

7.     All welfare schemes sponsored by the Board are implemented through voluntary agencies such as Mahila Mandals. The Mahila Mandals receive grants up to the extent of 75 per cent for approved activities. Some of these activities are:

8.     Nutrition Programmes. These are feeding programmes to children in the age group 0-6 years, nursing and expectant mothers.

9.     ICDS Project: In the Fifth Five Year Plan highest priority had been accorded to child welfare programmes. The most important scheme in this field was the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) for children in the age group 0-6 years, nursing and expectant mothers, etc.

10.      Under the scheme, a package of services consisting of supplementary nutrition, immunization, health check- up, referral services, nutrition and health education and non-formal pre-school education was delivered.

11.      There are now 4131 ICDS projects operating in selected blocks in the country. A Child Development Project Officer is directly in-charge of each ICDS project. The focal point for delivery of services is an anganwadi.

12.      Other Activities: Numerous other- services are rendered such as organizing Working Women's Hostels, Foster Care Homes, services to physically handicapped persons, welfare services for the Aged and socio-economic projects.

Voluntary Organizations:

Besides the Central and State Governments, more than 10,000 voluntary organizations are also, engaged in social welfare activities. Important organizations are:

1.     The Indian Red Cross Society

2.     Bharat Sevak Samaj.

3.     The Kasturba Memorial Fund.

4.     Lions Club.

5.     Ramakrishna mission

6.     The Hindu Kusht Nivaran Sangh.

7.     Tuberculosis Association of India.

8.     Indian Council for Child Welfare.

9.     Family Planning Association of India.

10.                        All India Women's Conference.

11.                        The All India Blind Relief Society.

Special community health services 1. Industrial nursing:

The care of healthy people is the principal function of an occupational health service. This is quite unlike the care of sick people in a hospital setting. Doctors and nurses who are accustomed to the background of illness-oriented or curative medicine may not be quite successful in an occupational setting unless they are oriented to work in the care of healthy groups.

The aim of occupational health service is to keep the people at work healthy and to prevent them from falling ill. The whole emphasis is on prevention of ill-health and promotion of health.

Basic functions of an occupational health service:

It is useful to consider at this juncture the basic functions of an occupational health service:

To identify occupational hazards.

To advise on the control of occupational hazards.

It Is not the role of an occupational health service to become deeply involved in routine medical treatment (except to give initial treatment for injuries and illnesses of sudden onset).

To recognize at an early stage occupational or other disease and to screen vulnerable groups if advisable.

To give advice about the placement of people in suitable work.

To provide general advice and supervision .of conditions at work which may influence health such as general and food sanitation.

To undertake health education.

It will be seen from the above list that most of the functions are preventive.

Role of Nurses in occupational health services:

Nurses will have to function within the framework of the above listed functions, which are mostly preventive in nature. Accordingly the role of nurses will include the following:

1.     she will assist the medical officer at examination of employees.

2.     she will take an intelligent interest to protect and improve the physical and mental health of all workers.

3.     she will attend to daily treatment of minor injuries, and assist the doctor when necessary.

4.     she must have good knowledge of first aid

5.     she must be able to identify, assess and advise management on the control of any health hazards affecting employees

6.     she may have to run an immunization clinic, antenatal clinic or school health clinic

7.     she has to conduct health education in all situations

8.     she may undertake home visiting and propagate the ideas of health and family welfare.

The occupational health nurse must have a strong bias towards preventive medicine. One nurse can deal with between 500 to 2000 work people. She should attend refresher in-service training courses from time to time.