The Schrodinger’s cat of Andhra’s volunteer system

The boisterous Sankranti festivities in the street seemed to mock the silence that filled Telugu Ganimini Meena Kumari’s dimly lit single-room house in Chakali Veedhi at the One Town area of Kurnool town in Andhra Pradesh. Shaik Abubakar Siddiq, president of Andhra Pradesh Nirudyoga JAC, filed a petition in the High Court, accusing the previous YSRCP-rules government of “deceiving unemployed youth in the state by absorbing them as volunteers and using them as YSRCP workers.” “Under the guise of government service, the volunteers were used for YSRCP activities,” he says in the public interest litigation filed before the election. But on November 20, Minister Veeranjaneya Swamy said that the government could do little since the voluntary system did not exist”Lanka Govinda RajuluState convenor, Andhra Pradesh Volunteers’ Association According to Gowtami’s family members, she borrowed ₹50,000 from a private finance company to pay the monthly instalments for the Development of Women and Children in Rural Areas scheme’s self-help group, as she had not been getting her honorarium for the last six months. The current NDA-ruled government’s “wavering” on the issue of payment delay and the reinstatement of those who resigned has become a cause of worry for the volunteers. Alternative employment Calling for more roundtables and workshops to gather a broader spectrum of public opinion on the issue, S. Ganapathi Rao, a political science lecturer from Vijayawada, says, “If reinstatement is not viable, it should offer skill development programmes or alternative employment options for the volunteers.” Meanwhile, Minister Veeranjaneya Swamy reiterated the government’s stand: the tenure of the village and ward volunteers was over by August 2023, and the then YSRCP government did not renew it.