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 (Washermen’s Street) at the One Town area of Kurnool town in Andhra Pradesh.

“I feel feeble because I am anaemic,” the 37-year-old woman says, sitting on the edge of a wooden cot. Her voice was barely above a whisper. “And this (spinal) disc problem…” she pauses, clutching her lower back as a wince escapes her lips. “I may not have long,” she says as her voice cracks, even as her two children, Gayathri (8) and Lokesh (7), sit close by, unable to grasp the gravity of her words. She eats only one meal a day. “Not because I want to, but how else can I feed them?” she asks, turning her face away lest her children might see the tears welling up her eyes.

Meena Kumari is among the more than 2.6 lakh youth who were appointed as village and ward volunteers by the previous Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) government led by Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy as the Chief Minister in 2019. Each volunteer was entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that the 40 to 50 households allocated to them benefit from the schemes and services offered by the government. The volunteers were paid a monthly honorarium of ₹5,000.

After the death of her husband, Pothuraju Shiva, in January 2019, Meena Kumari supported her family with the ₹3,000 widow pension and the honorarium she received for her volunteer work, in addition to the small financial help from her brother.

However, a new government was formed in June 2024 with the National Democratic Alliance, led by Telugu Desam Party national president N. Chandrababu Naidu as the Chief Minister, and the payment of the honoraria for the volunteers was stopped.

“I don’t know how to manage anymore,” says Meena Kumari, who holds B.Sc. Microbiology and B.Ed. degrees. “Even though the honorarium was small, it kept us afloat. Now it’s gone, and I’m struggling to feed my family,” she adds.

Caught in political crossfire

During his tenure as the Chief Minister, Jagan Mohan Reddy showcased the volunteer system as a successful model of decentralisation of administration, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. He claimed that the system provided employment to rural youth and helped deliver government schemes directly to the beneficiaries.

At a meeting with the village and ward volunteers before the 2024 elections, the YSRCP president hailed them as his government’s brand ambassadors and asked them to become his party’s star campaigners and bring it back to power. He also directed them to “educate” the masses that a vote for the opposition parties would mean the end of his government’s welfare schemes.

On the other hand, TDP’s senior leaders have expressed their opposition to the volunteer system on several occasions, alleging that the move was politically motivated and aligned with the interests of the YSRCP. They argued that the volunteer system consolidates the YSRCP’s political influence, particularly at the grassroots, by giving posts to YSRCP workers and supporters.

Village and ward volunteers staging a ‘kneel down protest‘ to draw the government’s attention to their issues in Andhra Pradesh.
| Photo Credit:
G.N. Rao

Deputy Chief Minister and Jana Sena Party president K. Pawan Kalyan, during his election campaign, made serious allegations against the volunteers, saying that they were connected to women trafficking networks and were behind the many missing women cases in the state. The NDA partner also raised doubts that the surveillance and data gathered by some of the volunteers were falling into the hands of anti-social elements.

Unkept promises

However, as elections approached, Chandrababu Naidu announced at a public meeting in April 2024 that he was not entirely opposed to the volunteer system. He said that it needed significant reforms. In addition to promising to continue the volunteer system, the TDP chief also promised to increase their pay to ₹10,000 from ₹5,000 per month.

The volunteers say that this assurance from the Chief Minister candidate durinng his poll campaign encouraged many of them to hold on to the posts despite the meagre ₹5,000 honorarium.

However, after the formation of the new government, the volunteers started complaining about their travails when payment of their honorarium stopped in June 2024. They have been staging protests, demanding their reinstatement and payment of the ‘arrears’ of the last six months.

“Most of the volunteers held on to their posts, hoping their services would be regularised. Youth in the state are languishing in unemployment, and the YSRCP government took advantage of this situation and absorbed the youth. It was a part of the party’s own agenda,” says S. Gangadha, a 32-year MBA graduate who discontinued as a village volunteer for Ulavapadu in Kandukuru constituency of Nellore district after one year.

Shaik Abubakar Siddiq, president of Andhra Pradesh Nirudyoga JAC (Unemployed Joint Action Committee), 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 (PIL) filed before the election.

Siddiq opposes the reinstatement of volunteers and says the court should recover the ₹700 crore that the State spent over the last five years towards payment of their honoraria from Jagan Mohan Reddy. “Some volunteers even resigned at the behest of Jagan Mohan Reddy, proving their loyalty to him rather than the people of the state,” he says.

However, Lanka Govinda Rajulu, the state convenor of the Andhra Pradesh Volunteers’ Association, which leads the protests by the volunteers, discounts this argument. “We agree that some of the volunteers submitted resignations before the elections while a few others did so under pressure at the time of elections. But why punish the rest of them who chose to continue? Some of them did so even by resisting the pressure exerted on them by the then ruling party?” he asks.

The volunteers intensified their protest following the tragic death by suicide on January 9 by their 24-year-old colleague Baipa Gowtami at Prakashraopalem of Nallajarla mandal in East Godavari district.

“In the State Assembly session held in July 2024, the government acknowledged that the voluntary system existed and that the issue of their pay hike was being looked into. 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 (DWCRA) scheme’s self-help group, as she had not been getting her honorarium for the last six months.

Gowtami was harassed relentlessly by the finance company for repayment of the loan. Feeling trapped and hopeless, she resorted to the extreme step, the family members claim.

The victim’s mother-in-law says Gowtami had started evading the private finance agents. “Whenever she saw them approaching our house, she would quickly hide under the cot and instruct anyone present to tell them she wasn’t home,” says the elderly woman. Gowtami’s husband is a farm coolie, and the couple has two young children.

‘System exists or not?’

Govinda Rajulu says the government is not sincere about addressing the volunteers’ problems. “In response to the A.P. Volunteers’ Association’s announcement on August 3, 2024, about a series of protests they planned in the state, the Minister for Village Volunteers Dola Bala Veeranjaneyulu Swamy said the delay in payment of honorarium was due to the absence of a related G.O. (Government Order),” he recounts.

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.

“In the State Assembly session held in July 2024, the government acknowledged that the voluntary system existed and that the issue of their pay hike was being looked into. But on November 20, Minister Veeranjaneya Swamy said that the government could do little since the voluntary system did not exist,” recounts Govinda Rajulu.

Govinda Rajulu also criticised Human Resource Development Minister Nara Lokesh’s recent claim that the voluntary system was not legally tenable because the YSRCP government had not renewed the related G.O.

“Why did Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu promise a hike if it is legally not tenable? He and his Cabinet Ministers are citing a lame excuse that there is no G.O. pertaining to the continuation of the volunteer system. How long does it take for an elected government to formulate one, given the cause of the welfare of over 2.5 lakh families in the state?” Govinda Rajulu questions.

A volunteer handing over pension to a senior citizen at Patamata in Vijayawada.

A volunteer handing over pension to a senior citizen at Patamata in Vijayawada.
| Photo Credit:
K.V.S. Giri

Gali Shainy, 35, a volunteer from Chittinagar, in Vijayawada, says ruefully, “We are being targeted for no fault of ours.” She said she chose the volunteer role because it offered flexible timings.

Ward volunteer Puppala Naresh from Gunadala 1st Division says the fraternity was assured by M. Siva Prasad, the Director of the Department of Grama Volunteers/Ward Volunteers and Village Secretariats/Ward Secretariats, that their posts were secure. “He said volunteers would be engaged in school monitoring exercise, and we saw no harm in it,” Naresh recalls.

“In an unusual situation, the volunteers were paid honorarium though their term was not renewed. The government can do little in this regard because they don’t exist officially”Dola Bala Veeranjaneyulu SwamyMinister for Village Volunteers

After completing the ‘fitter’ course, a two-year technical course that teaches how to fit parts of machines and other equipment, at ITI Vijayawada, Naresh moved to Hyderabad in 2008 to work in an air compressor manufacturing company. He, however, had to return home in 2018 after he was diagnosed with cancer of the B-cells, a type of blood cancer, and the doctor’s advice not to take stress.

“My father brought me back here, and I joined as a ward volunteer,” he says, pointing out that at 36, finding a new job would be challenging.

Meanwhile, Communist Party of India state secretary, K. Ramakrishna, took up the cause of the volunteers and met the Chief Minister in this regard. “He (Chandrababu Naidu) does not seem to be in favour of continuing the volunteer system. But we will not stop seeking justice for them,” Ramakrishna says.

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 (government) 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. “In an unusual situation, the volunteers were paid honorarium though their term was not renewed. The government can do little in this regard because they don’t exist officially,” he said.

However, the volunteers stress that they can still be an asset to the government by bringing its schemes to the beneficiaries’ doorsteps.

“Through our service, we have fostered a deep and meaningful connection with the people we have been serving, particularly the senior citizens. Some are so moved by our continued presence that they still break down in tears when they see us, asking us to come back” Ganta MamathaWard volunteer, Durga Agraharam

“Through our service, we have fostered a deep and meaningful connection with the people we have been serving, particularly the senior citizens. Some are so moved by our continued presence that they still break down in tears when they see us, asking us to come back,” says 35-year-old Ganta Mamatha, who joined as a volunteer in Durga Agraharam in Vijayawada in 2022.

She is an English literature graduate and alumnus of Maris Stella College, Vijayawada. She continues to hope that the government will reinstate the volunteers and not leave them chasing the Schrodinger’s cat of Andhra Pradesh’s volunteer system.

(Edited by Anupama. M)



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