journal d'une transition

1056

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”. 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/-. This decision was felt to be in support of Points 1 and 3.