Jul 6
Why Is Volunteering Unpaid?
Volunteering for a social or environmental cause is nobel, fulfilling and influential. Sadly, it doesn't pay. Volunteering means choosing to do some work willingly and with no expectation of money. It does not necessarily mean that one should not get paid. Here, i'll try and argue that volunteers should be paid.It is the perfect job. Think about it - volunteering is something you do from your heart, it is something you love. It has flexible hours - there is no obligation to turn up for work, you can go anytime and for however long you want. It is not monotonous - you can volunteer for different projects all the time. You make a dent in the universe - you change a life, save a tree, make a difference. And now, it pays well. What more could one ask for in a job?
It is all inclusive. There is no retirement age and there is no minimum qualification required. No entrance exam, no job interview. Just pure enthusiasm and a desire to change the status quo. By the end of this decade, there will be half a billion youth, housewives and retired people in India. Even if half of them decided to volunteer for a cause close to their heart, we would turn the country around. This is also the segment of the population that does not really have a steady salary and would immensely benefit from being paid. Volunteering could also morph into a viable career option for a large number of people. As a nice side effect, the overall happiness quotient of the entire country will go up many notches.
The effect is multiplicative. Let us assume that a volunteer gets paid Rs.100 for an hour. The same Rs.100 could be used in two ways - buying half the textbooks required for an academic year for one student or to provide about 50 students one hour of good education. The same money, more often than not, goes farther in terms of impact and benefit and has a snowballing effect that will be hard to stop. This will have a similar, albeit bigger, impact as the age old arguments of paying teachers more and providing benefits to the people at the top of the pyramid.
Some people feel that money could 'taint' the act of volunteerism. As much as i disagree with that standpoint, i can probably relate to it. As everything else, taking the money is itself voluntary. People who wish to not get paid for their effort can choose to put the money back into the system; metavolunteering, this will be called.
So, there. It's time we start paying the people who bring a smile on millions on faces.
In a future installment: where does this money come from?
