Madhya Pradesh is the first state to set up ‘Time Bank’

Madhya Pradesh’s Happiness Department decided to set up a ‘Time bank’ in the country where one can offer service to earn credit hours and get repaid in the same way. ‘Time bank’ is a reciprocal service exchange which uses units of time as a currency. This earned hour could be used later to learn a new skill, without the need to pay any paper money.

The Kamal Nath government issued the order to set up ‘time bank’ on Friday

“It will bring people willing to help, and those in need of help on a single platform. The one offering help will get credit hours in the ‘time bank account’, while the one taking help will offer assistance to any other person in need in the bank’s network. It is not necessary that a person has to help the same person from whom he got help,” said Additional Chief Secretary Manoj Shrivastava. 

People who will become a member can offer voluntary service such as- looking after an elderly person, gardening or teaching underprivileged children and then get paid in kind for the credit hours he or she has earned. The services offered are boundless, ranging from school and college lessons and music to hospital service and driving. 

Time banks will be opened in every district and there is no limit on the number of time banks that can be set up. District collectors and the administrators of Rajya Anand Sansthan will help people form these banks. 

Initially, the 50,000 volunteers registered with the department through local networks will form community-level banks and list skills they could impart or services that they could offer. Later, an experienced volunteer will induct new members and keep a record of all the transactions. This will be like a ‘modern barter system’. 

Madhya Pradesh will be the first state to have a ‘Time bank’, just like it is the first state in the country to create a Happiness Department in 2016.

The idea of ‘Time bank’ was first conceived in 1827. But the concept gained popularity with the setting up of the first Time Bank in Japan in 1973. Presently, there are more than 500 such communities across 32 countries, having Time banks.

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