Know It All

As a social worker, it is important for you to have adequate knowledge about the issues you are dealing with. While an educational qualification - graduate or post-graduate - in social work is not mandatory, it definitely is an added advantage. Professionally run organisations do prefer some sort of qualification.

You could also be a professional - lawyer, doctor, counsellor, teacher - involved in social work. Naturally, your expertise could be used in that particular area. For example, a teacher can work with a project that educates street children. Similarly, a doctor can participate in health camps in rural or slum areas.

Ultimately, you could be a student or a housewife; it is your passion for a cause that matters! What is stopping an uneducated domestic worker from fighting for better employment conditions for others of her kind? Or a bar dancer from seeking respectable jobs for other bar girls? In the end, they are both instruments of change.

Money Matters

Most social workers offer their service on an honorary basis or are paid a token sum either on a monthly basis or for projects undertaken. Suffice to say, don't expect to support a life of luxury with the money you earn as a social worker.

However, as more and more social work organisations become more and more professional in their approach, the need for qualified professions is on the rise. More often than not, they offer salaries a notch or two below industry standards. So, you can still take home a monthly salary of about Rs. 8,000 to Rs. 10,000 depending on the kind of work you do and for whom.

The role of a social worker is dynamic - it gives you the opportunity to tap your true potential for a cause you truly believe in. After all, didn't one man bring down an empire?