Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai has emphasized on the need to mobilize voluntary labour and contribution for the development of the nation. Speaking at a function organized at the capital the other day, Prime Minister Dr. Bhattarai referred to the role of volunteers in mobilizing resources and efforts for implementation of development schemes. He stated that the government has prepared a plan to launch a national volunteers mobilization scheme to complement the government’s efforts for the development of the country. As mentioned by the prime minister, many community development actions are initiated and implemented country wide for which the voluntary contribution and labor is at the core. Even for those projects and schemes aided to and supported by the government, there has been the lion’s share of the voluntary labour and contribution to assure that the development schemes were executed to benefit the local communities.

The community initiated and managed projects have been found to be cost-efficient and effective while generating and consolidating sustainable and enduring benefits to the general populace. Even today when the material benefits and interests are put at the forefront and voluntarism is said to be on the wane, the indigenous initiatives materialized with the volunteer spirit and unenforced voluntary contribution have left their mark as the key catalyst of social development in the country. We are very aware of the fact that the National Development Service (NDS) conceptualized and promoted to tap into the zeal and capacity of the students doing their Masters had been mobilized to support the community endeavors for development. The contribution made by the NDS volunteers, especially to meet the community needs of competent teachers, can be mentioned as the point of reference. The present government should take cues from these initiatives successfully undertaken in the past and seek to tap into the values and spirit of voluntarism. While such schemes are plotted, apprehensions loom large that the government can politicize and create platforms to mobilize and entrench the network of political cadres and functionaries in the guise of volunteers and voluntary workers. The government induced volunteerism or the one surviving on the state resources directly or indirectly breeds corruption and cannot succeed at all. It is therefore necessary to ensure that this should not be a forum to supplant real and genuine voluntarism by the state-aided exercise feeding on the public exchequer.