Initiative, innovation and institutions: The study of emerging trends in voluntarism in rural development in India

Abstract

The individual urge to extend one's responsibility for social change beyond mandated or formal duties is far more pervasive than is generally assumed. However, not each individual with such an urge takes voluntary initiatives. In still fewer cases, are initiatives transformed into innovations. It is only rare that innovations are institutionalized in society. What are the barriers which prevent initiatives becoming innovations in a society where conformity and compliance are considered part of normal courtesy while disagreements and deviance are often treated as disrespect? How does one distinguish the phenomenon of voluntarism from the actions of voluntary organization? Given the fact that problems of rural development in India are very complex and widespread, how far can isolated initiatives of voluntary organizations bring about large scale social change? How does one nurture and sustain voluntarism among a minority of professionals working in mainstream organizations such that their need for creative extra-organizational space is met? Donor agencies have given lesser attention to voluntarism than NGOs in developing countries. Is it possible that public and private organizations can sustain support to voluntary organizations in the long run without nurturing voluntarism among a minority of employees within? This paper traces the roots of voluntarism in Indian cultural ethos in part one. The trends in the growth of voluntary organizations vis-a-vis voluntarism in rural development/ social change are reviewed in second part. Implications for research and action both at the global and national level are drawn in the third part. The paper argues that the roots of voluntarism in Eastern societies are anchored in concept like 'aparigrah' rather than charity preceded by accumulation. It is regretted that government world over are far more keen to support voluntary organizations rather than nurture 'developmental volunteers' some of whom play the role of 'organizational insurgents'. It is thus submitted that international and national aid agencies might very deliberately thwart the pressure on state to respond to the urges of disadvantaged people making non-violent paths of social change more and more difficult.