IAS Diaries Part 14 - Power of Voluntarism

As probationers when we join a particular district, we are full of ideas and enthusiasm of how we would make a difference and the novelty of the field experience excites us to the zillion possibilities that we can create. But to transform these dreams and ideas, we often are faced with the lack of resources or funds and then most of the ideas have to be withdrawn or put to rest for a while. Also, the manpower or the existing machinery is often engaged with various other tasks and it’s becomes difficult to realign them for your cause. Sitting in balcony one evening overlooking the ghats of Brahmaputra, I pondered, there must be many people in Tezpur willing to come forward to do something for the their city. I was sure there were many people who would have liked to cleanse these wonderful river banks of the litter our own brethren had left behind. And driven by this novel faith in the power of voluntarism, was born the idea of Volunteer For Tezpur(V4T).

With the little experience of the field, I was sure that there were numerous students and citizens always eager to volunteer for various developmental and awareness initiatives for the betterment of the district or their own locality or town. To bring all these people on a forum, we started a WhatsApp group called the Volunteer for Tezpur (V4T). To publicize this idea we used several social media platforms and in no time there were numerous requests to join this group. But to contain the frivolous and the wannabes, we adopted some light screening process. There are many more who wish to join even today but I personally feel ten highly determined volunteers can make a larger difference than thousand non-serious ones.

So finally the platform was ready to tap the potential of voluntarism in the city of Tezpur. I decided that it would perhaps be better to start with small and not so difficult tasks. That would help to build a good team who would be able to take bigger problems in the later stages. And to discuss and deliberate the same, we called a meeting which was more meant to be an ice breaker. There is this war memorial inside the Circuit House with ample space to sit on the steps with a grand view of the river. I thought such a place, which was bound to evoke emotions of service and sacrifice, was perfect to start our initiative of voluntarism. And it so was.

It was so wonderful to meet so many people full of ideas for Tezpur and ready to donate their time and energies to take it forward one step at a time. I suddenly felt empowered and excited about the prospect of working on all these ideas that were floated. At that very time, the pitch for digital awareness was at its peak. So we took the task to make aware the locals shop owners and small businessmen the relevance of using these new e-wallets and other online payment methods. Our volunteers went around the Tezpur Market and spread awareness about these things and they also helped these shop owners to get started with these new e-payment alternatives. We started this project where one needed to convince one shop owner to go digital and then to post a selfie with that person. That trended for a while and we covered good many shops. 

  

The next task we took was to clean up the river ghats of the Brahmaputra. Recently there was a festival on the bank of the river wherein people had dirtied the banks with plastics and other forms of garbage. There were several other ghats which the locals use for Picnics and recreation but leave it littered beyond imagination. And garbage produces more garbage. People hesitate littering a clean place and we worked with this very idea of spot fixing. The glittering white sands of Jahaj Ghat were filled with colors that would give none the joy. It had been a while and no one had taken this up and I thought cleaning this ghat along with the volunteers would send a good message to the citizens of Tezpur who would then come forward in the other cleaning initiatives.  And it happened as expected. At the end of that cleanliness drive, it almost felt like being transported to the Rann of Kutch.

Another issue that was put forward by all was the exponentially rising traffic congestion in the city courtesy the narrow lanes all around. Now Tezpur is very small place and it occurred to us that one could easily move around with a bicycle to cover the entire city in no time. At least the schools and college going students can take up cycling instead of roaming around in four-wheeler. The Tezpur University where all students use bicycles is a wonderful example in this sense. So we started a group to promote cycle in the city and made several long distance trips to promote it as well. We even came up with this promotional video which you can see below. Taking inspiration many students bought new cycles and the cycling revolution has just started. More and more colleges are starting their own cycling clubs which certainly is a good sign for this movement.

During the Namami Brahmaputra river festival, we wanted to promote Tezpur Tourism and to raise some money for underprivileged kids education. We combined these two and organized a fund raising T-Shirt sale where the proceeds would go to a foundation. Through these T-shirts we promotes the tourism prospects of Tezpur. Our volunteers also went to an orphanage to teach kids computers and other skills. We also organized a blood-donation camp. As I write this, we are working on the finer details of a pro-environment campaign called Mission Prokriti. And there will be many more initiatives to come in the future as well. We have also drafted a constitution for this organization to ensure continuity even after some of us move out.

V4T has been a wonderful narrative and through these small steps, I feel we have moved forward a bit if not much. This platform has also rejuvenated the bond of Citizens with Institutions which I am sure would be helpful in future initiatives. I look forward to create more such forums wherever I go. And at the last, I would like to quote Elizabeth Andrew to sum up,

“Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart.”

P.S. News article on V4T, CLICK HERE.