Social Welfare Administration and Social Policy
Administration essentials
Gulick's POSDCoRB - planning, organising, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, budgeting - is the standard framework. Principles: division of work, unity of command, delegation, span of control, accountability, social audit.
Structure of a voluntary organisation
General body → governing board/executive committee → executive secretary → programme staff → volunteers and beneficiaries. Registration options for a Kerala NGO: the Travancore-Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Registration Act, 1955; Indian Trusts Act, 1882; or Companies Act, 2013 (Section 8). Foreign funds require FCRA registration; corporate funds come under Section 135 CSR (2 per cent of average net profit).
Policy frame
Directive Principles of State Policy (Articles 36–51), especially Article 41 (right to work, education, public assistance in sickness, old age and disablement), the 73rd Amendment (panchayati raj), and Kerala's welfare pensions, ICDS and PM-JAY. Social policy is the state's plan for welfare; social welfare administration is the machinery that delivers it.
Worked example
A community group wants to build a dialysis support unit. Reasoning: first resolve legal identity (register under the 1955 Act with a memorandum, by-laws and board), then banking and PAN, then funding (CSR or State Social Security Mission), then staffing and monthly social audit. Skipping registration blocks CSR and FCRA money.
Traps
Confusing social policy (goals) with administration (means); believing FCRA is needed for all donations; forgetting audit and annual returns.