Thirty years ago when I started doing voluntary work (digging wells for drinking water) at villages in India´s Rajasthan, it was simple. No money, no prospects, no expectations – just tremendous job satisfaction. Living and working in a village was not what ´respectable´, ´normal´ people did in the late 1960s and 1970s, so you were left alone. It was the best of times to try new ideas; it was .the worst of times to explain what you were doing because it did not make sense to others, especially friends and family.
Voluntary work was not considered a profession. It was associated with welfare and charity and had nothing to do with development. You took a living wage (what you need to make ends meet), not a market wage (what you are worth). Today, what people call voluntary has been corrupted by big money, compromised by alien Western methods and ideas, bought by massive foreign funds and swamped by people who are narrowminded and greedy for recognition, for legitimacy and for financial security, sadly believing that this will attract the best (who or what decides what is best is a different matter).
Volunteerism of the kind that exists in these times suffers from moral bankruptcy. The courage to want to help the poor without taking away their dignity and self respect in a simple, direct and uncomplicated manner is just not there. Donor money has destroyed the ability to innovate, be flexible, think simple and be independent. The so-called volunteers are no different from any other profit-making body in the open market. They see no harm in being totally dependent on foreign funds, being co-opted, controlled and manipulated even as they see great danger in their own government. They look down on their village institutions that have stood the test of time because Western education has taught them that what is progressive, modern and sustainable is what comes from the West.
The multi-million budget groups talk about transparency and accountability so long as it applies to others. Between 1984-89, in a move to make people think about financial discipline and public accountability, there was a move to draft a code of conduct for voluntary agencies by the agencies themselves. This sounded so threatening that many got together to form VANI (Voluntary Action Network India) just so that the code was not adopted. The code was welcomed by village-based groups but vehemently opposed by urban groups backed by foreign funds. The code was never adopted.