NELLORE: Former Vice-Chancellor of Andhra University K.V. Ramana has stressed the need for setting up a national council for social work.

He was addressing the two-day national-level seminar on ‘Social Inclusion and Social Work for Social Development', organised by the Department of Social Work (DSW) of Vikrama Simhapuri University in association with the Indian Council of Social Science Research here on Wednesday.

Mr. Ramana observed that there was a lack of trained agencies and professionals involved in social work and the standard of education was deteriorating. As the (UGC) cannot afford the total funding of social work, the government should constitute the National Council for Social Work which can monitor, regulate and fund the various social welfare activities, he said.

He underlined the need to focus on women, physically challenged, weaker sections, illiterates and other targeted groups in the society. VSU Vice-Chancellor C.R.Visweswara Rao said several problems including gender discrimination, deprivation of school and higher education and poverty were haunting the people in the country and needs social inclusion to solve the problems.