DIMENSIONS OF GIVING AND VOLUNTEERING IN TAMIL NADU SOME GLIMPSES FROM TAMIL NADU Prepared by PRIA & Anjaneya Associates in Collaboration with the Center for Civil Society Studies, Johns Hopkins University, USA November 2002 Working Paper Number 5 Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) 42, Tughlakabad Institutional Area New Delhi - 110 062 Phone : (91-011) 608 1908, 608 8508, 606 0931/32/33 Fax : (91-011) 608 0183 Email : [email protected] Website : www.pria.org 36 C O N T E N T S Preface ii - iii I. Introduction 1 - 2 II. The Survey Instruments 3 - 6 III. The Salient Findings - Giving 7 - 17 IV. The Salient Findings - Volunteering 18 - 26 V. Emerging Patterns 27 VI. Cautions on Interpreting the Data 28 Annex I 29 - 30 Annex II 31 Annex III 32 References 46 Members of The Advisory Committee 47 PRIA Research Team 48 HOPKINS Core Team 48 37 PREFACE The Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) has been engaged, for some time now, in a rather voluminous exercise on mapping the nonprofit sector in India. The exercise aims to generate systematically as much of the information as feasible about the sector including the size, scope, areas of interest, sources of revenue, expenditure patterns, etc. The study, being carried out at the behest of the Center for Civil Society Studies (CCSS) at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in the United States, would help in devel- oping a better understanding of the role these organisations play in social and economic development process of the country. Since it is commonly believed that a sizeable proportion of revenues generated by the non-profit sector are raised from philanthropic contributions, efforts have been made to study have been made to study the quantum of giving and volunteering by the general populace as an adjunct to the mapping project. The surveys on volunteering and giving were conducted in the States of NCT of Delhi, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. These are the same five States where the organisational surveys were undertaken. The present paper, fifth in the series of working papers being prepared for wider dis- semination of the project output, summarises the key findings of the survey on volunteering and giving in Tamil Nadu. The paper essentially presents the basic findings in the form of tables with notes and does not go into rationalising any sociological theory or phenomenon. Historically, religious beliefs and cultural underpinnings in India have greatly influenced the common people to work for well being of others and of communities at large. However, the nature and form of philanthropy and volunteerism have varied with the changing socio-economic and political context. The contemporary trend represents a diversity in approach and philosophy. Importance of an authentic database for proper understanding of the phenomenon on giving and volunteering can not be overemphasized. Notwithstanding the aforesaid need, the official statistics has never collected any information on the subject. Thus, the contribution of volunteer force to the national economy remains unaccounted. Likewise, one has no clue on whether philanthropic contributions get channeled into economic activities and if so, does the phenom- enon imply any tangible benefit to the country. It is hoped that the data contained in this paper will help in bridging some of the data gaps on the subject, besides establishing linkages between philanthropy and revenues of the non-profit sector. We are grateful to the Institute for Policy Studies, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, for inviting PRIA to undertake the Study in India. We gratefully acknowledge continuous guidance of the core project team at the JHU and that of the Indian Advisory Committee. ii 38 The overall leadership to the study has been ably provided by Dr. S. S. Srivastava, Principal Researcher. The fieldwork for the survey was organised by the Anjaneya Associates, a Chennai based organisation, who also undertook data entry, tabulations & analyses with the assistance of M / S Shreyas Systems based in Chennai. The first draft of this Working Paper was prepared by Dr. M. Padmanabhan and Mr. N. M. Swamy. The JHU, the Ford Foundation (New Delhi), the Aga Khan Foundation and the Action Aid have sup- ported the Study. Sir Ratan Tata Trust has supported this publication. Dr. Rajesh Tandon President, PRIA November 2002 iii 39 DIMENSIONS OF GIVING AND VOLUNTEERING IN TAMIL NADU I. INTRODUCTION PRIA has been engaged, since late 1998, in a rather massive exercise on mapping the non-profit sector in India, an important aspect of which related to building up the statistical database on key dimensions of the non-profit sector. These dimensions were the size of the sector, areas where non–profits were involved, \practices of governance, employment generated by the sector, sources of their revenues and the like. Since it was commonly believed that a sizeable portion of revenues generated by the sector were raised from donations from communities they intended to serve and other philanthropists, it was natural to surmise that there was an intrinsic relationship between the attitudes on ‘giving & donating’ of the communities and the quantum of donations received by the sector. In this background, efforts have been made to generate information on patterns and quantum of giving and volunteering by the general populace, as an adjunct exercise to the mapping project. Philanthropy is a much cherished and coveted value of human life, in general. Human beings are, by nature, social creatures dependent on society from cradle to grave. Philanthropy covers a wide variety of concepts and behaviours, that have one theme in common - respect and love for human race, which prompt men to undertake giving and volunteering for the common good. However, one of the driving forces of human behaviour is self-interest. The modern society has brought to fore abundant evidence of influence of traits such as greed, selfishness, materialism and individualism in human conduct. In this background, prevalence of pro-society behaviour in the form of charity has fascinated philosophers and social scientists alike. Historically, religious beliefs and cultural underpinnings in India have greatly influenced the common people to work for the well being of others. Hinduism, which has remained the major religion in India - practiced by over 80 percent of the population, has promoted beliefs, ideas, values and practices aimed at public service, philanthropy and volunteering. The Hindu concept of Dharma laid down a code of ethics to promote moral and social behaviour, which reflects concerns for all other human beings (Tandon, 2002: 1- 3). Charity inspired by religious beliefs and values continued to remain popular and fairly wide spread in pre-colonial India. Philanthropy and voluntarism during the pre-colonial phase were closely intertwined with cultural and religious values, which were largely derived from the contemporary rulers. During colonial period, social institutions like, joint family, caste groups, guilds, and religiously motivated philanthropists continued to remain important source of social security and support in distress. Christianity and the colonial rulers brought in the more formal and organized form of voluntarism and philanthropy in India (PRIA, 2001: 1-5). 1 During the post-independence India, the nature and form of philanthropic actions changed significantly. The emergence of a strong welfare state, with responsibilities in almost all spheres of human endeavour and vested with wide powers, curtailed the space for voluntary action on the part of non-state actors. However, by end of 1970’s, the failure of the State to fulfill its welfare and development role lead many enlightened youths to undertake voluntary initiatives for addressing the emerging social problems. This generated a new phase of voluntary action in the post-independence India. By mid 1980’s, yet another dimension got added to indigenous philanthropy and voluntarism; this dimension related to the flow of foreign funds to the voluntary sector, which had immensely increased during the period. In certain quarters, there is a perception that excessive dependence on external resources has adversely affected the spirit of voluntarism. The nature and form of philanthropy and voluntarism have, thus, varied with the changing needs as well as with the changing socio-economic and political context. The contemporary trend represents a healthy diversity in the approach and philosophy of philanthropy, varying from spontaneous philanthropy to a more systematic and concerted efforts both, at individual as well as institutional level (Dadrawala, 1996, 10-11). From the concept of feeding the cow, the crow and the Brahmin, volunteers are found to be engaged in relief and charity, development work, politics and political education. However, the contemporary understanding about the phenomenon of giving and volunteering lacks authentic database. The official statistics has never collected any information on the subject. Thus, the contribution of volunteer force to the national economy remains unaccounted. Likewise, one has no clue on whether philanthropic contributions get channeled into economic activities and if so, does the phenomenon imply any tangible benefit to the country. A recent survey on giving undertaken by the Indian Centre for Philanthropy (ICP) highlights some interesting features of philanthropy in India. The survey, however, was limited to urban India alone, leaving altogether the vast rural population out of the survey frame. Even the urban frame was restricted to the upper strata of the society based on education and occupation (Indian Centre for Philanthropy, 2001). While PRIA surveys on Giving and Volunteering are, as mentioned in the opening paragraph of this Introduction, adjunct to orgnisational surveys of non-profit sector and are intended to explore the links between philanthropy and the sector’s economic output, some issues of contemporary philanthropy have also been sought to be answered. The present round of surveys on ‘giving and volunteering’ covered five states of the country, namely, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Delhi and Maharashtra.