An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Divya Kannan (IASH-CWIT Fellow, 2026)
Child Welfare and International Humanitarianism during the Nehruvian years in India: Between Nation-Building and International Humanitarianism: Child Welfare in Nehruvian India
This talk examines the emergence of child welfare and professional social work in post-independence India through the career of Mary Clubwala Jadhav (1909–1975), founder of the Madras School of Social Work and a leading figure in national and international humanitarian networks, as part of an ongoing larger project. Child welfare became a critical site through which the Nehruvian state negotiated nation-building, international development, and women's public leadership. Moving beyond narratives that frame postcolonial welfare as either an extension of colonial philanthropy or a transplantation of Western social work models, the talk demonstrates how Indian social workers selectively adapted transnational humanitarian ideas to local political and cultural contexts. Drawing on varied archival sources, I explore the tensions between universal child rights and culturally embedded notions of family, gender, morality, and citizenship, situating Indian child welfare within broader histories of global humanitarianism.
Meeting ID: 384 971 962 716 1
Passcode: nV6Rg79e