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There seems to be a consensus on 3 points:
1-
That everyone who has chosen and been accepted to stay in Auroville
provided – with obvious exceptions – they contribute to the collective
a minimum of 5 hours of daily work, ought to be given a minimum
Maintenance. One study group has even evaluated this minimum
Maintenance at Rs 1,500/- a month.
2-
That the issuing of this Maintenance ought to be independent of the
context of one’s daily work.
3-
That every effort ought to be made to reduce the circulation of cash
and to increase and develop the capacities of all the collective services
so that eventually every person’s needs will be provided for in kind.
Where the work of Matrimandir is concerned, a first small step towards Point 2 was
finally taken when, at the end of last year, a representative meeting of Economy
Task Group, Central Fund, FAMC and the productive Units agreed by consensus to
the inclusion of a monthly budget for both the physical maintenance of the
completed parts and the Personal Maintenance of an average number of volunteer
Aurovilians.
One recommendation was however that our team at Matrimandir would continue to
monitor the list of the Aurovilians actually working there regularly, according to the
two categories already established: “half-time” meaning 5 hours a day, 6 days a
week, and “full-time” meaning a minimum of 7 hours a day for 6 days a week and a
commitment to one’s responsibilities.
This decision was important in another respect: it was the first time that the
collective body of Auroville was able to formally take charge of at least one aspect
of Matrimandir from its collective resources.
Recently the Economy Task Group had to acknowledge the necessity of raising the
general level of the Maintenance of the Aurovilians working in Services, SAIIER,
Forest and Matrimandir particularly. These “units” had so far been unable or
unwilling to do so, but a large donation, specified for Personal Maintenance, had
just been made directly to the Central Fund, allowing for this improvement.
In consultation with the Economy Task Group our team agreed that the level could
be raised, which meant an augmented budget for recurring expenditures, and that
this raise ought to be done “in kind”, that is, I the form of services, material goods,
rather than “in cash”.
This decision was felt to be in support of Points 1 and 3.
We did not know at the time that the Financial Service was not yet equipped,
accounting wise, to function with the simultaneous disbursement of “cash” and
“kind”; We had assumed that this tiny step forward could easily be implemented,
and had agreed on May 1
st
as the starting line.
The raise we had considered as appropriate in the present context was as follows:
for “half-time”, from Rs 1,000/- to 1,200/- in kind; for “full-time”, from Rs 1,400/-
to Rs 2,000/- in kind.
This is exclusive of the individual contribution to Central Fund, of a minimum of Rs
300/-.