Adherence to Ethical Guidelines in Practice by Social Workers: An Empirical Study in India

Abstract

Ethical decision-making and problem-solving skills are the two most important competency areas of every social worker. There is a universal acknowledgement that adherence to ethics is a fundamental requirement to transform practice into an effective, humanitarian and just process, where the interests and dignity of all stakeholders are protected. The present study was conducted to explore how far social workers in India follow the ethical guidelines in their respective practice settings. Since social work education and training in India had a strong American influence for more than six decades, the National Association of Social Workers' (NASW) Code was taken as reference document for testing its compatibility to Indian practice settings. The study was based on 133 practitioners drawn from four different zones of India. A mailed questionnaire was used for data collection. The findings do not reveal the need for entire rejection of the NASW code, but the study provides evidence of a need to contextualise the code to the Indian social milieu.

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