VOLUNTEERISM IN NEPAL
VOLUNTEERISM IN NEPAL
A Perspective on the Existing Policies and Practices
By Basu Dev Neupane
Mr. Neupane is President of SAMUHIK ABHIYAN, founder Secretary General and past President of the NGO Federation of Nepal.
Introduction
The terms ‘volunteer’ and ‘volunteerism’ are not new to Nepal and Nepalese society. They have deep roots in the diverse culture, lifestyle, and religions of the land. The volunteer activities here have been performed in different ways, and by several socio-cultural groups of people, since the dawn of civilisation. Due to the cultural, religious, and geographical diversity of the country, the meaning and type of volunteers and volunteerism may differ from place to place. But the term volunteer is traditionally understood as an individual or institution that promotes collective action in achieving a common goal with a strong commitment. Voluntary service has been understood by the Nepalese society differently in other times and contexts. In the western construct, Webster’s Dictionary has defined the concept of volunteer as “one who enters into or offers himself/herself for any service of his own free will”. In Nepali language, volunteer means “Swayamsewak”, (Swaaym: self and Sewak: servant) and volunteerism self-service. Rodi, Badghar, Guthi, and Parma are examples of traditional volunteer activities in Nepalese societies, which promote self-service, sustainability, and a participatory approach. This paper broadly classifies the various types of volunteer mobilisation practices, analyses the different aspects of three categories of volunteerism, each of which has its own comparative advantages and disadvantages. The need for recognition of these types of volunteer mobilisation practices remains an issue for consideration.
Classical Volunteerism
The definitions of the term volunteer and volunteerism have changed over time. Traditionally, voluntary services were promoted among communities, towards realising the sustainable management of social development initiatives, especially through cultural and religious activities. Guthi is a typical example of a voluntary organization that generates community services in managing socio-cultural activities
in a sustainable manner. This practice has been institutionalised, and still prevails in some socio-cultural groups of people, to promote a participatory approach in mobilising resources, with the active involvement of all stakeholders. Some of the traditional voluntary practices like Badghar and Kulha Chaudhary are effective in the management of water resources and irrigation system, especially in the Terai. Importantly, development programs initiated by traditional voluntary institutions
have been found to be participatory and sustainable.
The construction and successful management of various temples and other religious institutions in the country, continuity of the religious and cultural festivals, helping each other in the time of distress and emergency, and management of traditional water taps are good examples of volunteer mobilization through the Guthi system. These initiatives do, however, require external inputs. Nepal Charkha Pracharak Mahaguthi, the organization that promotes the Gandhian philosophy of development, was probably the first formally registered non-governmental organization in Nepal. It promoted self-help, sustainability, and a participatory approach, and has adopted many pragmatic concepts of the Guthies, to
safeguard the traditional concept of being and working together in determining one’s own fate. With the advent of the modern concept of voluntarism, which has introduced external volunteers, the welfare approach in the community of the Guthi philosophy, which was founded on self-service and sustainability has failed to deepen its roots in Nepalese society, although Nepal Charkha Pracharak Maguthi is still sustaining itself.
First Generation Volunteerism
Gradually, over a period of time, the terms ‘voluntary’ and ‘volunteerism’ have become defined and understood differently from the literal meaning of the term Swayamsewa or Swayamsewak . In the first generation of volunteerism, the western concept of “offering himself/herself for any service” became embedded into the eastern culture. The voluntary concept internalised in the east, as a part of its lifestyle and institutionalised in the social system, has been understood as a “leisure time” service delivery mechanism during emergency for needy people. The concept that was promoting sustainable development and participatory approaches has therefore been distorted into the welfare approach of development, done only by people who have surplus wealth and time. As a result, the traditional voluntary spirit
of “self-service” waned and dependency grew. Beyond the traditional concept of self-service and sustainability, the concept of receiving services and resources from “others” was promoted among the volunteers in implementing development programs. This type of service delivery mechanism could be regarded as the first generation of volunteerism promoting a welfare approach. This mechanism has helped the communities to cope with natural disaster and epidemics, to implement short-term projects, and to build infrastructure. But the entry of sporadic technical services and service delivery from external volunteers, into community development, also nurtured the dependency syndrome among the people. Therefore, this approach should be reviewed and re-defined to reduce dependency and establish people-centered sustainable activities at the local level. However, this type of volunteerism has also its strength in rendering services to the people at times of natural calamities, accidents, and disasters. The institution like Paropakar (para means others; upakar means welfare), established in late 1948, was highly successful in mobilising young volunteers to serve the people of Kathmandu suffering from cholera epidemic. The organization took the immediate objective of welfare and service as an “entry point” and changed its strategy over a period of time, to sustain the institution and to contribute towards national development. Paropakar successfully delivers sustainable services in the areas of health and education in many parts of the country. The spirit and philosophy of selfservice has been largely missing in mobilising volunteers. Sustainable and professional voluntary initiatives can therefore learn from Paropakar.
External Intervention
Traditionally, indigenous informal people’s organisations promoted and strengthened the spirit of volunteer services. But today organized and formal indigenous external institutions have started delivering planned volunteer services to the community. As a result, people are losing the spirit of volunteer mobilisation for self-help, sustainability, and promotion of a participatory approach. In the recent past, the involvement of national and international institutions in mobilising volunteer services increased rapidly. Over the last five decades, volunteer service, implemented by national and international organisations has provided essential services, especially in delivering in the areas of health, education, institution building, and income generating activities in the development of rural communities. This practice of volunteerism has helped immensely to harness the concept of mobilizing young people from outside the community in the form of national or international volunteers to deliver services. It has shown the community to be a fertile land for mobilizing external volunteers for national and international
voluntary organizations. It has unfortunately eroded community confidence in delivering services and facilitating the process of development and has increased dependence upon external personnel. As a result, people have lost their spirit of selfservice, and their capacity for local resource mobilization, and sustainable development practices.
Second Generation Volunteerism
In the present situation, only the traces of the traditional concept of self-service in volunteerism remain in the communities, these being largely limited to religious rituals. The modern form of volunteerism promotes the concept of welfare and external dependency, encourages mobilisation of external volunteers, which is likely to increase external dependency among the people. In the present context, there is a dire need to revisit the concept and definition of volunteer and volunteerism. Voluntary action is not limited only to welfare, essential service delivery, distribution of meals and other materials at the time of emergency. Volunteers at the local level can also be effective in the process of social mobilisation.
People in the communities have led many development initiatives with the voluntary contribution of their time and resources including management of drinking water schemes, community forests, irrigation systems, savings groups, and operation of local self-help groups to address the local problems. These initiatives are truly voluntary initiatives, but unfortunately are not recognized. These voluntary
initiatives should be recognised as meaningful development activities and mainstreamed into the national development process. In the first generation of volunteerism, voluntary service remained a leisure time activity with partial commitment. Partial commitment of volunteers has its own limitation in facilitating the development process. Therefore, full time commitment should be encouraged in volunteerism rather than a partial one. Continuity of process has to be encouraged. This approach can constitute the second generation of volunteerism.
Good examples exist of voluntary action in social mobilisation and development. Following the political change in 1951, when the Ranas lost their power, the traditional spirit and philosophy of self-service as a voluntary action lost its influence in society. Voluntary institutions were only slowly fostered during this period. However, a few voluntary institutions were promoted, formed, and strengthened during the Panchyat time. Many voluntary institutions, especially in the form of youth clubs, were promoted and supported during this period. However, people involved in these types of voluntary institutions were the supporters of the Panchyat system. Activities being implemented with voluntary efforts were limited
to organising sports competition, and delivering emergency services in the case of natural calamities. The voluntary institutions often enjoyed support from the government and were able to obtain land and other resources to construct buildings and other facilities, which did help these institutions to survive. Some voluntary institutions formed during the Panchyat time were effective in social mobilisation, especially in Kaski, Chitwan, Nawalparasi, Parsa, and Banke districts as also in mobilising the community and facilitating the development process.
Professionalism vs Volunteerism
A number of challenges remain in promoting volunteerism. One is in striking the balance between voluntary spirit and issue of professionalism. In the recent past, one limitation of professional development actors from outside the community lay in delivering services and facilitating the development process with full commitment. In the same manner, the local volunteers with full commitment lack professional competence in delivering services and facilitating the development process. In order to cope with this challenge, the relevant capacities of the local volunteers need to be developed and the volunteers have to be paid an appropriate amount of remuneration so that professional services with full commitment can be retained and sustained. It is difficult to retain the voluntary spirit with free services. Free of cost services cannot ensure professionalism.
Relevance of Voluntary Services
A critical examination of the existing practice makes three major development actors visible. The first actor is the Government, which has the onus of national development with full authority and opportunities, but was not effective in rendering essential services to the people over the last decade. Instability, internal struggle among political parties, Maoist insurgency, and deep-rooted corruption were the reasons. The Government failed to address issues like education, health, institution building at the community level, and livelihood that directly affect nearly half of the nation’s population. The second actor that plays a role in national development is the business sector. But unfortunately, this sector over the last decade failed to generate sufficient employment opportunities for the people or to contribute substantially to the process of national development.
The third actor is the voluntary sector, which has many comparative advantages over other sectors and has proved effective in mobilising local people towards selfservice in conformity to the true sprit of traditional volunteerism. However, the voluntary sector has also demonstrated dependency on external agencies in implementing programs to mobilise people at the community level. This sector, at times, is criticised for being family-owned and also for being controlled by local elite’s and to a great extent urban-based. However, with its comparative advantage over other sectors, the voluntary sector has been found to be effective in social mobilisation for self-service. The voluntary sector could be even more effective in raising awareness, mobilising communities, forming people’s organisations, facilitating the process of empowerment of powerless people, and enabling people in living a full and meaningful life. In the given situation, if people can be made aware, organised, and empowered, they can be instrumental in achieving social transformation and in bringing structural change to the society. The expected change that is the demand of the current situation could be brought by the meaningful and effective mobilisation of the voluntary sector. Hence, the voluntary sector is relevant and required for national development. But the concept of volunteerism needs to be reviewed and revisited thoroughly. The UN Declaration on celebrating year 2001 as the International Year of Volunteers was influential in revisiting the concept of volunteerism, in further strengthening the voluntary sector, and promoting the traditional concept of volunteerism embedded with the spirit of self-service, sustainability, and a participatory approach to national development.
Current Practices
Many types of volunteer mobilisation practices exist today. The earlier categories of classical, first generation and second generation of volunteer mobilisation have been further divided into other sub-categories, and are analysed below.
Classical Volunteerism: The traditional concept of volunteer mobilisation practices, which are a combination of self-service promotion, participation, program implementation, and local resource mobilisation, is practised by a limited number of voluntary institutions in a few areas of the country.
Guthi: This is the classical example of the traditional concept of volunteer mobilisation practices. The nearest meaning of the term Guthi in Newari language is living together in mutual trust and self-service. Accordingly, Guthi promotes selfservice, sustainability, and participatory approaches in the management of temples, religious institutions as well as in celebrating religious and cultural activities. The Guthies, that manage thousands of temples within the Kathmandu valley and elsewhere in Nepal, are an institution in itself, with a clear vision, resources, system, leadership skills, and members for its sustainable operation. Another feature of Guthi is participation of all stakeholders in the decision-making process, program implementation, and conflict resolution. The division of roles and responsibilities to meet individual interests, expertise, and competence is another key feature within a Guthi. This institution also promotes the process of local resources mobilisation among all the stakeholders. In the management of temples and religious institutions, the individuals or groups of people who established the temple or institution are made responsible in allocating resources, in the form of land or other physical property for its sustainable operation. The major thrust of the Guthi practice is thus collective or individual involvement in self-service and self-development. This practice has been institutionalised in the lifestyle of people, especially among the Newar community all over the country. But other non-Newar communities have also adopted the concept of Guthi, to meet the requirements of their own culture, religion, and context. However, this practice has been limited to labour exchange (Manka Guthi), and religious and cultural activities. The promotion of this practice in implementing other development initiatives could help to ensure sustainability, participatory approaches, and local resource mobilisation.
Badghar and Kulha Chaudhary: This is also a classical volunteer mobilization process practised especially among the Tharu communities of mid- and far western rural Terai. A household or individual democratically elected or selected at regular intervals is given full responsibility for social mobilisation to manage Kulo, a canal operated under collective ownership of all citizens. Under the shared leadership of Badaghar or Kulha Chaudhary owners, the Kulo is mobilised for sustainable operation, maintenance, repair, and cleaning periodically, particularly at the time of cultivation of crops. Badghar and Kulha Chaudhary are also responsible for disseminating information, hosting the community’s guests, and mobilising people for collective action in the community. There is no external involvement or intervention in this practice among the Tharu communities as they are the experts on this subject. But efforts could be made to introduce this practice to other communities without disturbing their own lifestyle.
Volunteerism for Community Mobilisation: Raj Kulo is the traditional community- based irrigation system practised in the mid-hills and the inner Terai region of Nepal. Raj Kulo is managed by a group of community people elected by the community. The group is responsible for equitable distribution of water, collection of water revenue, and uninterrupted supply of water with proper maintenance and repair by mobilising human and financial resources in a participatory manner. Raj Kulos have been quite successful in providing irrigation facilities for the community.
Though there are many successful cases of community-managed irrigation systems with voluntary mobilisation, Chhattis Mauja in the inner Terai of Rupandehi is the best example. There are quite a few cases of traditional voluntary mobilisation practices in the communities. For example, the communities, for years, have been voluntarily mobilizing local resources to construct Kuwa, a source of drinking water for community; Chautari, a short-term shelter for pedestrians; Pati, an inn for travellers used as a night-time shelter. However, these initiatives are limited to the rural area and are now declining.
Ama Samuha/Mother’s Club: Traditionally, used by the Gurung in the midhills of western and mid-western Nepal, and now also by other communities, these are informal groups mobilised to safeguard the rights and interests of self-motivated groups in mobilising local resources using their skills of dancing and singing. Efforts are however needed to mobilise the funds generated in the productive sector so that women will have access and control over resources, essential for women’s empowerment.
NGO-Promoted Volunteerism
After the restoration of democracy in 1990, the number of NGOs in Nepal has grown to astronomical figures. NGOs have their own comparative advantages in contributing to the development process but are not free from problems. Still they are now established as one of the main development actors. Recognizing the competence and credibility of the NGO sector, the National Planning Commission, starting from the eighth Five-Year Plan, has entrusted the sector with the responsibility to implement development programs in collaboration with the Government and local bodies. The recognized strengths of the NGO sector are competence in voluntary social mobilisation for meaningful participation of the communities in the decision-making process, program implementation, and local resources management.
Many NGOs in the country have become active in safeguarding their rights and interests, in addressing issues of public interest, and in mobilising local resources to implement people-led development initiatives designed for collective benefits. Savings and credit cooperatives are excellent examples of voluntary mobilisation by NGOs at the community level. Local Resource Mobilization: A number of NGOs have also mobilised voluntary contribution of time and financial resources from among their own members to sustain their operation. Musthi Daan, is donating a musthi (handful) of grain daily to a mendicant. However, Char Tare Youth Club (CYC) of Baglung has modified the concept through the daily contribution of 50 paisa (half a rupee) from their executive members to generate money for a capital fund. CYC is also generating financial resources from its well-wishers, ranging from Rs. 5 to 200 per month. The resulting
capital fund has also prompted local communities to make a voluntary contribution of used newspapers, which are sold for recycling, with the funds raised going to the organization’s capital fund. Promotion of Self-Help Groups: Many NGOs have also organized local communities into self-help groups to lead the people-owned local development initiatives by mobilizing local resources with active participation of the owners. A number of self-help groups have been formed all over the country to organize thousands of people to collect millions of rupees and lead hundreds of development initiatives. For example, Vijaya Development Resource Centre (VDRC) of Gaidakot organized 4,895 men and 1,630 women in 51 Village Development Committees (VDCs) of Parbat and Kapilbastu districts into fifty groups who have set up 33
savings and credit cooperatives and collected over 7 million rupees. The cash is lent to the community to operate micro-enterprises. This ensures self-employment and generates family income.
Delivery of Essential Services: The NGOs are instrumental in delivering essential services to the communities by mobilizing internal and external volunteers. The essential services include education, health, technical support in farm and offfarm income generating activities, and local institution building. NGOs have proved most effective in implementing non-formal education programmes all over the
country. Womens’ Literacy Program, implemented by PACT, a US-based INGO in partnership with the local NGO, has helped 300,000 women to become literate by mobilizing more than ten thousand volunteers at the community level. Activities like health-related awareness raising program for the prevention and control of HIV AIDS, nutrition, family planning, sanitation and safer motherhood have been successfully implemented by the NGOs by mobilizing local volunteers on a shortterm
basis. There are good examples of volunteer mobilisation to plant trees in protecting the environment. Volunteers were also mobilized by the NGOs in raising issues of gender equality, prevention of human rights, liberation of bonded laborers, and mainstreaming of dalits.
Infrastructure Development: The NGOs are also found mobilizing volunteers for the construction, management, and operation of essential infrastructure like drinking water schemes, school building, irrigation systems, trails, mule tracks, and suspension bridges. Volunteers are mobilized to transport materials to the construction sites from the nearest road head as also to contribute unskilled labors.
Volunteers are being mobilized to form committees to manage and operate the infrastructure. These management committees are responsible for mobilizing voluntary contribution of financial resources for maintenance and operation.
Direct Personnel Placement: There are a number of NGOs that mobilize national and international volunteers in communities to deliver specific services or to facilitate the development process by building local capacity, raising awareness, linking community institutions with other development agencies, organizing people into local organizations, raising issues of common interest, and by mainstreaming
issues of women, dalits, and other marginalized groups. For example, Samuhik Abhiyan mobilizes volunteers for placement in remote communities under its National Volunteer Program (NVP). Fresh university graduates, both men and women, are selected and trained in the process of social mobilization before placement in a community with a local counterpart for 18 months to facilitate the development process. The volunteers are hosted in the community by a local organization. Relevant and essential training in the social mobilization, management of people’s organizations, management of savings and credit, community organization skills and community facilitation skills are provided at regular intervals to the external volunteers, local volunteers, and representatives of the host organizations. The program is aimed at capacity building of volunteers, and at building a strong network for the local community and host organization with external development agencies, business sector, and local bodies. A major part of the fund required to implement the program is mobilized within the organization in the form of voluntary contribution by members in the form of remuneration paid for providing professional services to other institutions. The project is partially supported by the Japan Chapter of Samuhik Abhiyan on the basis of equal partnership.
Volunteerism with North American Roots: Another set of NGOs in Nepal instrumental in promoting volunteerism and mobilising volunteers to implement various activities and addressing social issues are national NGOs registered within Nepal with North American roots such as Junior Chamber, Lions Club, Rotary Club, and Round Table. In the Jaycees, volunteers benefit from its major four areas of opportunities, i.e., individual development, business, community development, and international relationship. Jaycees has 73 chapters all over the country and has mobilised nearly 5000 young volunteers aged between 18-40 years. It implements
programs to benefit its members and the communities. Similarly, the Lions Club has its chapters in major parts of the country and has mobilised large numbers of volunteers to serve people in various areas. The Rotary Club has mobilised volunteers to provide services to the community and has supported His Majesty’s Government in implementing projects to eradicate polio from Nepal. Round Nepal has also been active. These organisations are rooted among the elite groups mainly in the urban areas and are successful. They mobilise resources locally and are not dependent upon external donors, and have a
sufficiently developed infrastructural base in the form of land and buildings to sustain their operation. They also have a permanent source of income in the form of rent accruing from the infrastructure. They are capable of managing sustainable mobilisation of volunteers for self-development and service to the community.
However, they draw criticism in being inaccessible to the poor- middle class people, and for their limited ability to reach the poorest of the poor. INGOs: Recently many INGOs have also placed international volunteers in communities to deliver essential services in partnership with the government line agencies, private sector or NGOs. These volunteers have brought a wide variety of expertise and experiences to the Nepalese communities and have introduced new technologies, skills, and paradigms in the areas of natural resources management, education, management of people’s organisations, promotion of renewable energy, new business creation, marketing of products, and institutional building at the local level. The hard work of the foreign volunteers, especially those of women, have developed the confidence of the local people and encouraged them to work for their own development. However, in some communities the foreign volunteers are also being blamed for damaging the local culture through their alien lifestyles, food habits, clothing styles, and language, which develop a certain dependency syndrome among the local communities. Some people have also questioned the relevancy of the foreign volunteers in delivering the basic services, which could be better delivered by the local people themselves. NGOs have made remarkable achievement in mobilising volunteers and contributed immensely in the national development. However, there are some limitations of the volunteer mobilisation process that needs to be addressed for improvement in the future. A majority of the NGO-promoted volunteers are project-based,
dependent upon donors’ fund, and are controlled by the local elites. In spite of their positive intention and rigorous efforts, the self-help groups, management committees, and user’s committees often ceased working. The NGOs must learn from this and take time to orient the community so that they internalise the need for volunteer mobilisation before formation of such groups. Groups formed with proper orientation and internalisation and sustainability in the long run are found to be successful.
State-Promoted Volunteerism
The government has also mobilised volunteers in the sectors of health, education, environment, and infrastructure development. Health: In the health sector, the government mobilised young women as
community health workers in all the VDCs of Nepal, through basic training given in health with a health kit for use in the community. These volunteers have proved very useful in providing basic and primary health facilities in the rural area of Nepal.
Forestry: Forestry is another large sector where thousands of volunteers have been mobilised to form the Forest Users Groups, (FUG), to manage the community forest to allow sharing the benefits among its members. FUGs are instrumental in raising people’s voices on environmental protection, and are effective in ensuring people’s control and access over the forest and its products. Direct Personnel Placement: Recently, the National Planning Commission set up the National Development Volunteer Service, (NDVS), to mobilise volunteers for six months with the possibility of extension for one more term, to deliver the technical services, and facilitate the development process. The DDCs manage the volunteers at the district level. At times, however, the inadequate bureaucratic process reportedly hinders the state-mobilised volunteers and commitment to deliver services as well as a tendency to drop out or to be absent from the field remain.
Policy Environment
The voluntary sector in general and traditional volunteer mobilisation in particular is largely governed by age -old practices rather than policies or a legal framework. For example, the spirit and philosophy of traditional volunteer mobilisation initiatives have social but not legal recognition and the policy framework does not guide the process. However, the absence of legal provisions and policy guidelines is not impeding the values and belief of volunteer mobilisations at the community level. The absence of legal provisions and policy framework to govern the traditional volunteer mobilisation process has contributed to the freedom of their operations. But, due to the absence of legal provisions and a policy framework, the traditional voluntary initiatives and institutions are not entitled to many state benefits packages like subsidy, tax exemption, and capacity building packages. Attempts to bring traditional volunteerism under the government policy framework could strengthen the spirit of self-service and self-development.
Attempts were made to bring the voluntary organisations within a legal framework with the enactment of the Association Registration Act 2034 and Social Welfare Council Act 2049, both of which are government endeavours to provide a legal umbrella to all voluntary organisations and provide legal protection, recognition, and rights in the process of further promoting and nurturing voluntary institutions. They have yielded some positive results in the promotion, formation, and strengthening of voluntary organisations. The formulation of these acts could thus be taken as a landmark and affirmative step towards the development of voluntary organisations in Nepal. These acts have direct implications for the voluntary sector. Other acts and policies related to local governance, drinking water supply, irrigation, health, education, and micro finance have indirect implications for the voluntary sector. The discussion below examines, the direct implications of the Association Registration Act 2034 and Social Welfare Act 2049.The Association Registration Act 2034, clearly indicates that no citizen of the country is entitled to establish and operate a voluntary association without formally registering with the District Administration Office. A minimum of seven people can form a voluntary association and apply for registration at the District Administration Office. They must also provide the prescribed amount of registration fee and various information about the association.
The term “association” is defined as a voluntary organisation, club, council, study center, and friendship association formed with the objective of development and extension of social, religious, literary, cultural, scientific, educational, intellectual, physical, philosophical, financial, or professional activities. This provision has resulted in the registration of all types of institutions in one act, without any distinction between their specific objectives. Any change in the specified objectives or amalgamation of the association with other associations requires ratification by a two-thirds majority of the members present in the general assembly and is subject to approval by the local authority. Specifically, the voluntary non-governmental development organisations are facing a sort of identity crisis as their objectives, activities, and funding sources might differ from those of the religious and cultural associations. The local authority, if found necessary, could designate an officer to check the books of accounts of the association any time. The designated officer is entitled to charge up to three percent of the balance amount within the association as fees. The local authority has the right to suspend or terminate registration of the association if the specified objectives are amended or the association is amalgamated with another association without prior approval of the local authority, if activities are against its specified objectives or if the association is found to be not following the guidelines or policies issued periodically by His Majesty’s Government. Autonomy, which is the key element and spirit of any voluntary organization, has been breached by the
Act. In contradiction to the values of volunteerism, the government local authorities are given full control over the operation of voluntary organizations. This may be the price the voluntary organisations have to pay for getting legal protection from the government.
The Act has authorised voluntary organisations to possess, utilise, and sell physical property. This will certainly encourage voluntary organisations to generate resources for their operation but the provision of automatic property transfer to the government in case of insolvency and failure in functioning of the association or any other causes inhibits development of organisational infrastructures, capital funds, and local resource mobilisation. Similarly, the Social Welfare Council Act 2049 also has some implications for the voluntary sector in general and voluntary NGOs in particular.
A voluntary organisation is free to apply for affiliation with the Social Welfare Council in a prescribed format along with its constitution, name, address, and profession of the executive members, and address of the registered office. This provision in the Act has safeguarded the autonomy of the voluntary organisations and allows them to be registered with the Social Welfare Council. Any voluntary organisation seeking a financial grant from His Majesty’s Government, foreign governments, international organisations or foreign missions for any project or activity is required to apply to the Social Welfare Council for approval. Applications received are critically reviewed for consultation with the line ministries for approval within 45 days. However, projects designed against the interest of the nation may not be approved. This provision obliges the voluntary organisations to provide information on their source of funding to the Government, which is essential to ensure financial discipline and transparency, and in establishing the credibility and reputation of the voluntary organisation. But, it may also impede the voluntary spirit of local resource mobilisation at the community level.
Conclusion
Traces of traditional voluntary mobilisation practices exist, particularly in the rural areas of Nepal, which need to be preserved, promoted, and nurtured. However, watchful efforts should be made not to destroy the values, beliefs, and spirit of the true sense of volunteer mobilisation processes. Serious attempts made by some NGOs or other types of organisations to adopt the traditional voluntary mobilisation practice require further encouragement and support from all stakeholders. The contribution of the NGO sector in the social mobilisation process, which actually is promoting a true sprit of self-service and self-development, needs to be brought into the framework of volunteerism by redefining and revisiting the conventional definition of volunteerism as a free and leisure time service delivery at the time of an emergency. The legal framework and rigid policy guidel ines could hinder promotion of volunteerism. Hence, ideally, the voluntary sector should be left to take its social course of action with social recognition. Still, a regulatory framework and information system within the voluntary sector is essential for its own development. Hence, the legal provisions and policy guidelines should be made conducive in the greater interest both for the voluntary sector and the Government.
References
Workshop Report on the Needs and Challenges of Nepali Non-Governmental Organizations, organized by Samuhik Abhiyan, 1992.
The Society Registration Act, 2034.
The Social Welfare Council Act, 2048.
