CHARACHAR

Nandadulal Bhattacharyya

 

Introduction
The memory of the terrific train accident has not faded away. On June 2, 2023, the Chennai
bound Coromondol Express while passing through the Balasore in the state of Odisha running
at a speed 120km/hr entered into the loop line and collided with a stationary goods train.
Some coaches were derailed. At the same time, Bengaluru-Howrah superfast express train
dashed against the said coaches giving rise to “tripple train collision” which definitely is the
rarest event. The number of deaths and the number of the injured were reported officially to
be 294 and 1200 respectively. As soon as the collision caught the attention of the public, all
rushed to rescue the passengers trapped and send them to nearby healthcare centres and
hospitals. It is true that a handful of opportunistic wrong-doers seized the event to loot money
from the pockets, steal purses and snatch ornaments and valuable articles with all their
might. But most of the people sprang into voluntary action and worked as good Samaritans.
The full spirit of voluntarism was yet to be perceived. Because of severe haemorrhage, many of
the victims needed blood for urgent transfusion. When different mass media transmitted the
news, hundreds of youths came out and stood in long ques with a view to donating voluntarily
their blood – the precious life saving fluid in order that the lives of the languishing are saved.
The police, the administration, the blood banks and the hospital authorities which were
helpless and hopeless at the pathetic situation were surprised and moved at the
overwhelming response of the people. John Keats once said, “The Poetry of the earth is never
dead”. The unsung and unheard youth activists also proved that ‘volunteerism is never dead in
a vibrant society’.
The case of the Red Volunteers during the COVID-19 pandemic can be taken up in the same
breath to tell the saga of voluntary action. A reign of panic prevailed all over the world on
account of highly communicable nature of Corona Virus. Even the common people tried to
maintain physical distance as well as social distance. At that critical juncture, the Red
Volunteers in the State of West Bengal took the centre stage. They braved the morbidity and
mortality of the infection and visited door to door to help the virus victims. The trained ones
read oxygen saturation level with pulse oximeter, collected throat swabs for laboratory testing
and administered medicines to the sick and the suffering. Some were seen shopping for
essential commodities and foods for supply to those who have been starving. Voluntary action
again showed its charisma to the politicians and the public.
That voluntary work can do miracles, will be evident from a real narration. Marimuthu
Yogananthan is an Indian Tamil, aged 54 years, working as a bus conductor on
Mundamalai-Gandhipuram Route under Tamil nadu State Transport Corporation,
Coimbatore. His hobby is to plant saplings for which he spends 40% of his monthly salary. In
last 28 years, he has planted 1,20,000 trees which is indeed a marvellous feat. He also educates
school and college children about the hazards of felling trees. He reportedly succeeded in
driving out tree mafias from the Kotagiri forest. He is honoured everywhere as the ‘Tree Man of
India’. The point is that there is a plethora of experts in India in the subject of ecology and
environment, climatology, meteorology, dendrology, silviculture, etc. But how many of them
do care for their voluntary involvement in fighting against the menace of global warming at
the ground level?
As a matter of fact, although the planners, policy makers and the opinion builders will not
always recognise, volunteerism is a way of life. It makes the society worth living and inculcates
the spirit of living together. Long live those teachers who offer free educational support and
guidance to the learners so that they can rise to eminence; those doctors who afford their
prime time in conducting free health check-up camps in remote rural areas, those engineers
who design and develop plan and supervise free of cost the constructions of the community
shelters during floods, the scientists who take trouble to go to land, ascertain problems and
solve the same in the laboratory with a view to disseminating their findings to those lying in
the land; the small and marginal farmers who contribute to the best of their capacity to hold
the marriage ceremony of the girl of a landless labour, the low-earning employees bearing the
treatment charges of T.B. or leprosy patients in the neighbourhood and the loto and toto
drivers who stop their vehicles and take the young, the old and the ailing to safety places and
do not mind for the time lost!
Dr E. F. Schumaker was really right when he pronounced – ‘Small is beautiful’.
Vivacities of Volunteerism and Voluntary Action

 

• • Volunteers act out of free will. There is no superimposition, external pressure or dictation.
    Volunteers only follow dictates of their own conscience.

• • Volunteering does not entertain any extra motive. Mostly people work to satisfy their greed
    for P – Position, P – Privilege, P – Power, P – Purse, P – Prosperity. For volunteers, it’s simply
    a hobby to enthral.

• • Voluntary action is honorary and non-profiteering in nature. So, it is definitely less
    expensive.

• • Volunteering is a matter of choice. Depending on areas of their own interest volunteers
    can work in the fields like poverty alleviation eradication of illiteracy, women
    empowerment, organisation of health awareness camps, afforestation, rehabilitation
    service for the disabled, promotion of small and cottage industries, drives against
    superstitions and black magic, fund raising for the sick and the suffering, training of social
    animators, action program for value orientation and character formation and popularising
    art and culture.

• • Voluntarism envisages commitment. Once motivated, the volunteer carries the task for
    competition for it is pleasing to his /her self. The work is not abandoned halfway. It is but
    wholehearted involvement that comes to surface.

• • Volunteerism allows one to understand one’s self worth. He/she is placed in a better
    position to perform SWOT analysis (S=Strength, W=Weakness, O=Opportunity, T=Threat).
    Each and every volunteer acquires KASH (K=Knowledge, A=Attitude, S=Skill, H=Habit).

• • Volunteering means equality and equity. The judge, the professor, the banker, the trader,
    the office worker, the housewife, the doctor, the draftsman, the driver, the addlescent boy,
    the researcher, the technologist, the rickshaw-puller all are in the same boat to serve the
    humanity. There is no barrier to caste, gender, language, race, religion, economic and
    social status.

• • Voluntary sector provides a fertile ground for cultivation of a good number of values. These
    include compassion, empathy, self-esteem, self-confidence, dignity of individuals and
    respect for others.

• • Volunteering steers one out of one’s comfort zone. The volunteers may have to render
    quality service in an away, alien and adverse situation. They must adapt themselves to the
    changing circumstances.

• • Voluntary action is complementary to government, semi-government or
    quasi-government effort. Volunteers can reach out more speedily to the distressed and
    disadvantaged than the government officials. Bureaucratic procedures and practices
    don’t hinder the movement of volunteers. The ex-Prime Minister of India Rajib Gandhi,
    once said, out of Rs 100.00 allotted, Rs 15.00 reach to the beneficiaries through
    government establishment and machinery while the reverse figure holds good for the
    voluntary agencies i.e. the beneficiary gets Rs 85.00. Actually, the overhead cost in case of
    voluntary organisations is very low.
    The Clarion Call of the Day
    It is usually seen that the professionals dismiss the role of the volunteers as that of the
    armatures. The authoritarians hold that, government must be everywhere and
    non-government/voluntary body nowhere. They do not mind even if the government is
    divorced from the people or divergent from the path of growth and development. Let the
    different schools of contend. The objective reality is that about 20,00,000 voluntary
    organisations work in India. A statistical estimate shows that nearly 18 crore of people are
    connected with these in some form or other. The focal point should be to train and develop
    their potential on a continuous basis. The collective will must be unleashed to the maximum.
    The organisations moving sluggishly must be electrified and energised with wither thousands of resilient and resonating organisations propelled voluntarily by lakhs of competent, committed and conscientious people. Otherwise, the vast sector of human and social welfare cannot be saved from stagnation nay retardation.