Buddhist Practice: A Paradigm-Shipt for Contemporary Social Work Professionals

Abstract

In present context we are heading towards building rich economy and India being the 5th largest economy (World Economy Ranking, 2023) on one hand and on the other hand richest 1% of the total population bags nearly twice the wealth of the country resulting in widening disparities, inequalities, power imbalances and exacerbating injustices. It becomes essential to introduce the readers with a concept “Buddhist Practice in the Realm of Social Work Discourse’’ that can be a win-win situation strengthening the economy and uplifting the marginalized thereby driving towards holistic welfare. Not a single discipline is left untouched from ‘dominant social paradigm’ and often authors positioning the “social question” it becomes all the more necessity to ponder on healthy and effective ways of understanding and implementing the idea of Buddhist Economics instead of ideally strengthening economically at the cost of those who are marginalized and thereby playing unwittingly a prominent role in widening the ditch between have and haves not. Readers will get an understanding of what role Buddhism can play in professional social work. The readers will get an insight on the relation between Buddhism and social work practice, and the necessity for integration of Buddhist practice and ethics within the realm of social work profession.The author has made sincere efforts to ignite spark within the academic fraternity to intertwine the two; “the Buddhism and Social Work” and add new knowledge within the literature. This paper would also make the readers understand the importance thereby connecting Buddhism and Social Work Profession as the existing literature in Buddhist social work is limited and lacks the required attention.