OYSTER’S FIRST EDITORIAL,  volume:1, January 2010;-

WHAT IS THE NECISSITY OF VOULUNTEREY ORGANIZATIONS IN WORLDS LARGEST DEMOCRATIC COUNTRY ?

The Human Society is highly diverse and heterogeneous. Despite prevalence of homogeneity at a particular level, heterogeneity is relatively stronger characteristic feature. Interestingly owing to dynamic aspect of society it keepschanging. The challenges of human society is either because it is too dynamic and in few cases the static occurrences of certain practices and institutions make things more challenging and at times the social problems arise owing to static-dynamic nature of society.

Indian Society with more than five thousand years of its glorious civilization is no exception. The weave of Indian society is too complex due to presence of multiple traditions and multiculturalism. Indian society is a very good example of dichotomous presence of traditionality and modernism. To be precise it is a melting pot. Despite diversities in various aspects of human living, Indian democracy and nationalism are the strongest unifying threads. India as a Nation and Civilization has come a long way with its set of challenges and achievements. The growing population has added and intensified the challenges. Government as an agency and a system despite its commitment and long reaching goals has its limitations. Moreover the challenges being faced by the country is also diversified. In this context voluntary action and services plays a pivotal role in community development. As Mahatma Gandhi had opined that “Voluntary service of others demands the best which one is capable of and must take precedence over service to self”. India as a Welfare state encourages the voluntary sector to take active part in various welfare programmers to ensure community development. Voluntary action is

instrumental in not only meeting the needs of the community and tackling its problems but also for participating in social, economic and political affairs of the community. Infact a Voluntary agency is nothing but organized action of people with a defined objective. While supplementing the Welfare objective of the State, Voluntary action and agencies encourage people’s participation and in implementing programmes launched by the Government for larger benefits of the community. It would not be an exaggeration to state that Voluntary agencies are significant partners of the state to ensure and enhance development process.  The roots of the Voluntary organization are rooted in the virtues like human touch, dedication, commitment, flexibility, innovation and most important community development centric.
India has more than 110 crores of population, and it is needless to say that meeting the challenges of such huge and diversified population is a gigantic task. Government alone cannot meet all the needs of the population whether primary or secondary. In this background Voluntary organization with their holistic approach become imperative agencies participating in the process of community development. Voluntary organizations play a distinctive and effective role in building up education, health care, women and child development, community development, social transformation, environment and social welfare to name a few. Infact voluntary action in India is not new. It has a strong philanthropic foundation. One cannot imagine Indian society without voluntary action.

 India has the largest population of youth in the world and thus the role of youth becomes highly significant in development process through voluntary action. Youth with their sheer energy, commitment and innovation are instrumental in bringing about desirable social change. The role of youth is very important in nation building. With constructive goals and a sense of direction youth can bring about overall development of the community. Further as torch bearers of succeeding generation participation by youth shall definitely accelerate the development process.  What are actually needed are the right motivation, aspiration and goal.

It’s a call of a citizen to all the citizens of the world that we owe to humanity irrespective of our gender, race, caste, religion, regional and ethnic identities, lets voluntarily unite to make our world a better place to live so that the coming generations can live in peace and harmony and a world free of fear, hatred and disease. Amen!

                                                                                                               BY

                                                                                                 DR.VINITA PANDEY