Challenges in Social Policy Making for Psychiatric Disability in India: Lessons and Way Forward for Social Workers

Social workers have been influential policy makers due to their understanding of the sociocultural-political scenario of the state and core social work values of social justice and social change. In India, the engagement of social workers in policy and political change has been restricted due to various internal and external work challenges. The authors in this article present two case studies of challenges faced by social workers in policy making in India. In the first case, the social worker dons the role of a change agent for setting up a social welfare system based on policy practice for persons with psychiatric disability in the rural community. In the second example, the social worker acts as a policy expert who is a catalyst between the service users (of psychiatric disability in urban community) and the state in influencing disability policy making. The lessons learnt and the way forward from the challenges faced in the two case studies are discussed.