CII BLOG

ENVISIONING DEVELOPED INDIA THROUGH VOLUNTEERING – ACT TODAY FOR AN EQUITABLE TOMORROW

A nation’s biggest asset is its people. When these individuals choose to exercise the power bequeathed to them by political or social architectures, they create the terra firma for accountability and change. Volunteering is a strategic way for people to deploy their time and skills to aid progress and enable the change they believe in. While volunteering is a common feature across cultures, there is merit in disassociating it from charity and shaping it into a tool of participatory development. This will serve many purposes, the primary one being to create an effective platform for multi-stakeholder convergence, collaboration and engagement.

Volunteering is good for the Youth

India stands at an inflection point of its growth trajectory and volunteerism can accentuate the process, especially in the context of its unique demography. The youth have both the verve and the vision to shape their dreams. When this dream includes India, it puts the country firmly on the fast lane to growth. However, for the youth to understand India in its entirety, it is important for them to walk together with different people, and volunteering is the best way to do so. The leaders of tomorrow should be acquainted with the India of today, and starting to volunteer early is a strategic way to start the process. We should look at institutionalizing volunteering and weaving it into the very fabric of our education system to mainstream it. This will serve our youth in other ways as well; volunteering brings perspective, builds character, and shapes worldview — these are the pillars on which both sense and sensibility stand firm. It is also a way to keep the youth engaged, productive, and grounded.

Importance of industry engagement

Civil Societies are an important part of the development narrative of India. Much of the success of the country’s development programs depends on the role of Non-Profit Organizations (NPOs) as the vehicle for last-mile service delivery in India. However, most NPOs working at the grassroots lack the skills and the processes needed to run a project effectively. Corporate India can bridge this gap by running pro bono capacity-building programs for these NPOs. Many companies in India also have well-established Employee Volunteering Programs (EVPs) that involve the junior cadre, designing and running development projects alongside their regular corporate responsibilities. This is a win-win situation for all stakeholders involved. While it helps the intended beneficiaries, it also hones the operational skills of the corporate workforce, builds empathy, and brings about a deeper and more rounded understanding of different markets and geographies in the country. CSR can be more than just a corpus for conventional development. CSR projects can serve as drawing boards for volunteering programs that leverage trends such as digital volunteering, micro-volunteering, and even skill-based volunteering. These programs can serve as templates and a learning source for other stakeholders who want to introduce volunteering programs.

Need for a common vision

Volunteerism works better when there is a popular vision for the country because it leads to more strategic projects, and consequently there are better and more meaningful volunteering opportunities. In 2008, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) led a mass-visioning exercise to arrive at a popular idea for India based on what the people wanted for the country by its 75th year. India@75 has now evolved into India@100, a people’s movement to shape India into a developed nation by 2047, it has sowed the seeds of an eponymous, industry-led people’s movement that leveraged collaboration and volunteering to help address India’s most pressing problems. A vision framework such as India@100 that envisions a developed India by 2047 can therefore become an enabler.

Volunteering is Easy

Many want to volunteer but do not know how to access opportunities or what volunteering entails. This gap can be bridged by creating popular engagement platforms at various levels.

CII, through the India@100 Foundation (erstwhile India@75 Foundation), organizes the National Volunteering Week (NVW) annually from January 18-24. It involves corporates and nonprofits opening their existing projects for public engagement via volunteering. The intent is to engage maximum people through multiple volunteering opportunities to give them an exposure and experience of volunteering.

Technology if leveraged can play a critical role in making volunteering opportunities easily accessible. The Foundation has helped build the National Volunteering Grid (NVG), a digital platform that brings together the three stakeholders i.e. Industry, Individuals, and Institutions, and thereby connects prospective volunteers to volunteering opportunities.

Finally, while volunteering is an exercise in choice, it is also important to create an eco-system that encourages it. The value of service to others is one that needs to be instilled at various levels: the family, the school, and even the workplace. Apart from just self-development, volunteering is where we can find leaders and thinkers in the making. Mahatma Gandhi had said, “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others”. Volunteering celebrates the true spirt of service.

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