MSW candidates rue Govt’s failure to revise recruitment rules

Srinagar, Mar 12: The government has failed to revise the service rules for jobs associated with social work.
The eligibility criteria for various social work related posts in government sector is Master’s degree in any discipline without giving weightage to the candidates who have the relevant experience and qualification for the specific post.
Social work posts including district child protection officer, programme manager, programme officer for Children in need of care and protection, social worker, manager coordination, counsellor, child welfare officer and many such positions are taken up by candidates who are not experts in the field.
Shazia Manzoor, Assistant Professor at Department of Social Work, Kashmir University told The Kashmir Monitor that the issue arises because authorities haven’t revised the old recruitment rules for many years now.
She said that even NGOs know that those who have specific academic qualification and experience in social work are best suitable for social welfare jobs.
“The government sector including education department, SKIMS, GMC or others, however, treat social work and sociology at the same level,” she said.
Vaqar Amin, another professor in the Social Work department, said: “Government has not framed service rules for the field of social work that would have been considered when the eligibility for recruiting process is created.”
Non-framing of service rules for social work is impacting the future of post-graduates.
Anus Shafi Khan, who has acquired Masters in Social Work (MSW), said that he and the candidates like him have been facing injustice for many years.
Essar Batul, who too has MSW said: “I am expert in this field but when it comes to government jobs, people with sociology degree are preferred over us.”
Essar said that they are demanding the inclusion of MSW degree as eligibility criteria for government jobs requiring expertise in social work.
“It is not only injustice with us but also to the job profile because when the person with no expertise in the field is recruited for the post, he or she cannot do justice with the profession,” Essar added.
Touseef, another MSW student said she applied for the post of women welfare officer in Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme, in Srinagar.
“During the interview, candidates who had least experience in the relevant field were shortlisted. A JRF candidate with high merit was left out,” said Touseef.
Secretary Social Welfare Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Farooq Ahmad Lone said the recruitment is done on the bases of existing rules.
“As of now the qualification in existing service rules is taken as the eligibility criteria for these posts,” he said.
Dr Farooq added that social work department is a “new discipline”.
“We have received representation from the departments and we are considering and examining them,” he said.
“Rules are not only framed by one department but a number of departments which takes some time. But for sure rules will be modified,” he added.