Senior volunteers wanted - Vizag
My article in the Times of India
Dated 3 January 2016
In a vast country like India there is always
plenty of work to be done. There are farms to be maintained, water to be
provided for agriculture and for homes, power to be generated and distributed, children
to be educated, people and things to be moved every day, newspapers to be
printed, babies to be made and delivered, the sick to be attended, financial
services to be provided, politicians to be elected and Arnab has to shout for a
couple of hours every night on TV.
Plenty of
work
We have work to do because, we are 1.3 billion of
us on a land mass of 2,973,193 square kilometers. We are in dirty crowded
villages and teeming dirty crowded cities. We have a humongous 179.6 million folks
below the poverty line in our ancient country and that my friend is 20.6% of planet
earths poorest. One in four Indians are completely illiterate and Government
schools with their “pass-them-anyhow” policy are churning out students who
cannot write or read a paragraph in any language.
Inadequate
staff
Why it that corporate and privately run
organisations are adept at setting targets and meet them every year, earn
consistently and deliver shareholder value year after year and Government
cannot do the same? Yet it is the government that has the laws, the police, the
revenue department, the army and the whole government machinery to twist any
arm to make things work as they would like it to. Yet they do not deliver. When
pressed to give a reason why, most officials quote “political interference”, “lack
of funds” and “inadequate staff”. One of these three reasons can be fixed quite
easily and that brings us to the point of this article.
The oldie
goldie years
Many Indian men and women spend all their lives
working for successful organisations and over the years acquire considerable
expertise in one field or the other. Then one day, when they are brimming with
knowledge and have reached their peak of productivity, it is time for them to
retire. Talk to any senior citizen wearing a golf caps, shorts and a striped
T-shirts and walking briskly on the beach. You will find that they have been techies,
managers or professionals some time in their recent past. Now after retirement,
there is not much to do except watch cricket on TV, or go off to the USA for
three months at a time to visit their children and look after their
grandchildren. When in Vizag they gather with their peers to exchange views
among themselves. Many have worked in key positions and have risen in their
organisations against stiff competition because they have better people skills,
been smarter and harder working than the rest.
Senior
talent pool
India’s aging population is now over 100 million
people. That is around 8% of our population. With advances in medicine this segment
of population is continuing to grow. Elderly in urban areas tend to live
healthier and longer; therefore it is safe to assume that 10% of Vizag’s
population of 20 lakhs will be elderly and that works out to 2 lakhs elderly.
Then let us assume that just 5% of those elderly people still capable of and
want to work. That gives us a pool of 10,000 capable people who have the
intellect, the energy and the aptitude to work for their community and their
city. Most senior managers have so much experience that they can understand
jobs they have not done before and hit the ground running. This means that we
can tap the resources of this group by investing in a short orientation
programme.
Mentoring
advantage
There is an argument that if the elderly continue
to work beyond their retirement they will take away jobs from the younger
people who are coming into the job market. However there is a shortage of
skilled hands on technical and administrative people in India at the moment so
this fear is unfounded. Moreover when the young work with experienced people a
process of mentoring helps transfer skills from seniors to juniors. This is
vastly useful especially in technical fields. Now that India has embarked on a
move to build its infrastructure the need for experience is greatest.
Embracing
volunteerism
Volunteerism is big and organized in Europe.
Thousands of volunteers from European countries land up in India every year to
volunteer in teaching and other community activities. Though there are many
organisations providing services to incoming volunteers the activity is not
organized for domestic volunteers. According to a March 2012 report from the
ministry of statistics, 1.5% of India’s population volunteers for some activity
or the other. Most of this volunteering happens at grassroots-level through
small organizations. Predominantly volunteers are young people working to get
some experience under their belt and to pack some punch in their resumes.
However there is very less volunteering opportunities for senior citizens and
they end up doing some odd jobs for their association or their local temple. Yet
these are the guys who have the experience and are willing to work the most.
Missing
connection
So we have a situation where there is a shortage
of skilled and experienced people on one side and a bunch of senior people on
the other side who would like to be useful to society. What is missing is the connection
in between. Take the case of GVMC which is struggling against great odds to get
the city ready in time for the International Fleet Review. Wouldn’t they be
benefitted by having a citizen’s representative in every ward overseeing work
done by outsourced contractors? In Bengaluru the police are using civilian
traffic wardens to do a great job of smoothing out traffic in several high
density areas. Can Vizag police not initiate the same system here? VUDA is
taking up extensive tree planting in several areas, have they asked for help in
maintaining the trees from the local community? Education in tribal areas is
dismal with hardly any Adivasi child being able to read and write. There are
people who are willing to do teaching on a voluntary basis but the ITDA just
does not care. All that the Government has to do is set up a system to register
volunteers and call them for help when there is a peaking of work load. Sounds
simple? It is, all it needs is a little outreach from our Government and the
citizen will go more than half way.
The age
of App
This is the age of apps. If you can call a cab,
order a meal, get a carpenter or book an appointment with a doctor from your
smart phone why cannot we have an app to get a volunteer to help the local
administration in the time of their need? During IFR thousands of visitors will
be coming to our city. Some would like to be taken around, shown the sites and
told about Vizag. This is an opportunity for senior citizens to support our
city by taking on the role of volunteer guides. You see such people in many
countries. They stand at intersections in a red blazer and a badge offering
help to lost tourists or directing them to a public convenience. No doubt there
are legal issues, how will the reporting structure work, how will the volunteer
be trained? All these are minor details. As good citizens many are ready to go
more than half way to participate in our city’s activities. Will the local
administration reach out?
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