News:Madhya Pradesh government’s Happiness department has planned to set up a TimeBank.
Facts:
About Time Bank:
- A time bank is a reciprocity-based work trading system in which hours are the currency.
- With time banking,a person with one skill set can bank and trade hours of work for equal hours of work in another skill set instead of paying or being paid for services.
- The hours banked are always traded equally regardless of the services rendered.
- This equality is intended to foster ties in communities and by making all contributions valued equally,it will encourage equality in the communities themselves.
History of Time Bank:
- The idea of Timebank was conceived in 1827.But the concept gained popularity with the setting up of the first Time Bank in Japan in 1973.
- Later, the CEO of TimeBanks U.S.A popularized the idea of Time Dollars.
- Today,there are more than 500 such communities across 32 countries.
Additional information:
Happiness department:
- Madhya Pradesh is the first state in the country that has created the Happiness Department in 2016.
- Further,Bhutan is the first country in the world to come up with the concept of Gross National Happiness(GNH).
- Bhutan has fixed standards of living, education,good governance, health and psychological happiness among the various parameters that make its citizens happy.
World Happiness Report 2019
- The World Happiness Report 2019 published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network has ranked India at 140th place in 2019 compared with the 133rd place in 2018.
