- Madhya Pradesh government’s Happiness Department has planed to set up a Time Bank that would lend currency to an hour, which could be exchanged to learn a new skill without the need for any paper money.
- How it will work: Whenever a bank member needs a service or wants to acquire a skill, say gardening or playing a guitar, she could exchange a credit, worth an hour, with another member knowing the skill.
- According to the state government, it is a new way to link untapped social capacity to unmet social needs.
- Initially, 50,000 volunteers registered with the Happiness department through local networks will form community-level banks and list skills they could impart or services they could offer. An experienced volunteer will induct new members and keep a record of all the transactions.
About Time Bank
- Time Bank concept was conceived at the Cincinnati Time Store in 1827 and it gained currency with the setting up of the first Time Bank in Japan in 1973, and later when Edgar Cahn, CEO of Time Banks USA, popularised ‘Time Dollars’.
- Currently, there are more than 500 such communities across 32 countries.
- In Madhya Pradesh, time banks will enable person-to-person, person-to-agency and agency-to-agency transactions. Members will start with zero credits, which they could gradually acquire by imparting skills. Credits can even go in negative. And in case a skill becomes popular over time benefiting only a few members, other members will be compelled to do their mite with vigour to collect more credits.
