Is timebanking the currency of the future?

By Anand Kulkarni

While much focus in recent times has been on cryptocurrency and the associated blockchain technologies, there is another form of currency that has great potential and is finding some takers but is still not at the forefront of discussion—timebanking.

Timebanking is gaining favour in places as diverse as rural Switzerland and mainstream US, but what exactly is it? Timebanking is the idea that people volunteer time for a service, which is recorded and deposited in an account and can be used to obtain services when the volunteer requires. So, for instance, one hour of voluntary work earns someone one hour of some type of service. This alternate form of currency has been put into action in St Gallen, Switzerland, where volunteers who look after elderly people can use up their ‘saved time’ for their own care in later life.

There are many possible avenues where timebanking can be used, including pet care, rehabilitation and care of the homeless, waste collection and locality clean-up programmes, and local infrastructure projects.

Many advantages

The value of timebanking lies in facilitating access to critical services, fostering community support networks and relationships, empowering citizens, promoting local area development, and potentially reducing administrative and financial pressures on individuals and governments.

Timebanking has inbuilt flexibility in terms of credit being earned for both small scale and larger volunteering activities. It also goes some way in addressing inequality in the economy and in society since one person’s donated time is worth the same as another’s, unlike in the ‘real economy’.

Importantly, it rewards volunteering in a tangible and practical way.

Applicability in India

In India, there is considerable unpaid time spent on household duties, family businesses and caring for others as part of extended family arrangements, although these are variations of the original idea. Perhaps such unpaid activities can be converted into time credits that can be redeemed for services?

Time-based approaches could also prove useful, at least as adjuncts or complements, in the larger scheme of a Universal Basic Income (UBI). For instance, one could envisage a scenario of cash payments supplemented by time credits to provide extra services and “purchasing power”.

One of the criticisms of a UBI is that it will involve a payment even if one does not engage in any productive activity. A time-based approach obviates this criticism. People are rewarded for performing a social service. Timebanking could even be extended to the market sector, where one uses time credits earned through voluntary activities to obtain consumer articles.

Further, timebanking could be important in providing support for India’s significant and growing elderly population, lessening the burden on the individual’s and family finances.

Importantly, timebanking could be an important undertaking for India’s youth, facilitating saving for their later years through the accumulation of time credits, and getting them involved in social service. It could even be part of their formal education.

A further benefit could be the strengthening of social capital in villages, towns and cities where people are increasingly disconnected from each other’s lives.

The advantage of timebanking is that people delivering services will provide these exactly how another wants and needs them; governments can often be detached from the on ground realities in terms of citizens needs.

Challenges

The implementation of timebanking will present some challenges. There are real costs in monetary terms, including software development, setting up accounts and implementing exchanges. Nevertheless, with the Aadhaar card, and the strong push to encourage banking across India, these challenges are not insurmountable.

Other challenges include the management and governance of the programme.

But the biggest issue is that of trust—ensuring that people accurately and fully record actual time spent on volunteering and civic functions.

Anand Kulkarni is Associate Director of Planning and Performance at Victoria University, Australia.