Budget Coordination Committee (BCC)

The Auroville Visitors Centre is Auroville’s reception and information disseminating centre for the often thousands of tourists and visitors coming to Auroville daily.

Torkil Dantzer joined Auroville in 2010. In 2011 he created the woodworking unit Prakrit after Cyclone Thane to create value from the fallen trees.

The Budget Coordination Committee of the AVFO (BCC) is continuing its programme of stringent maintenance cuts with an estimated 170 Aurovilians now affected.

In a note to the community, the Auroville School Board shared that schools’ financial situation has become more difficult since July of 2024.

The Auroville Dog Shelter, home to nearly 300 rescued dogs, urgently needs financial support. Despite being a municipal service, it receives only Rs. 50,000 per month from the Budget Coordination Committee, far short of the Rs. 3 lakh needed for basic expenses like food, wages, vital medicines and vaccinations.

On April 9th the Working Committee of the Residents’ Assembly (RA-WCom) sent an email to the Budget Coordination Committee (BCC) demanding that the BCC restore access to the budgets and Financial Service accounts of the working groups and services that have been selected or appointed by the Residents’ Assembly (RA), and to ensure that the maintenances of the RA members and Services are restored through the Auroville City Services Budget.

At the end of February 2024, a number of Aurovilians were notified by the AVFO BCC that their maintenance would be cut, starting 1st March. This follows earlier suggestions to some residents that their work would be “realigned”. 175 residents have already had their maintenances removed, and it is expected that the further maintenance cuts will affect hundreds of Aurovilians who depend on a City Services maintenance for their livelihood in Auroville.

On 19 January 2024, five of the six Aurovilian members of the Auroville Safety & Security Team (AVSST) received an email from the Budget Coordination Group (BCC) informing them that "BCC & FAMC are unable to support maintenance on your current positions.

The GB appointed Funds and Assets Management Committee (GB-FAMC) has cancelled all city services contribution waivers approved of by former BCCs or FAMCs for individuals, services and units before March 2023.

The RA-WCom informed the community that the Funds and Assets Management Committee (GB-FAMC) and the Budget Coordination Committee (GB-BCC) appointed by the Office of the Secretary have recently sent a mail to several residents that their maintenance would be stopped the same day, as the maintenance had not been allocated under an approved City Service budget.

On 18th November, a meeting was organised by Community Connect for the four working groups that work with the AVF – the WC, the FAMC, the ATDC and an alternative RAS – to make presentations and answer questions from community members.

Now residents applying for a visa letter of recommendation (LOR) will not have their request sent to the Foundation Office until they receive a ‘no dues certificate’ from the AVFO ‘BCC’.

On 11th September, the Forest Group wrote to the FO FAMC and FO BCC requesting that they fulfil financial obligations to fifty forest workers, some of whom have worked in Auroville forests for over forty years.

The Funds and Assets Management Committee appointed by the Secretary of the Auroville Foundation (FO-FAMC) and its subgroup the Budget Coordination Committee (FO-BCC) have cut all Aurovilian maintenances and all workers’ salaries of the Forest Group, and over 75% of the maintenances of Aurovilians working for farms.

The FO BCC reports that the overall costs for home care, including the care of Aurovilians (above the age of 60 years) at care homes and their residences, as well as the transport costs for hospital treatments, have increased by 44% at the end of the year.

On August 15th, the new Solar Kitchen management team celebrated one year in office. Auroville Today asked executives Harishini, Vanitha, Shakthi and Manimaran about their experience.

On a recent Thursday morning, there were sharing by a number of Auroville farmers related to new and on-going initiatives on the lands they steward, along with the many immediate challenges they face.

In January and February, Auroville’s Budget Coordination Committee (BCC) conducted a series of public meetings with the community. One purpose was to clarify the budgetary allocations; another, to help the BCC understand to what extent those allocations serve the needs of the community.

The Budget Coordination Group (BCC) has announced that self-supporting units, services and guesthouses can apply for economic relief grants to cover their fixed costs such as salaries, rent, electricity, internet and accounting charges.

Although relationships between Iran and India have been close for centuries, less than ten Iranians have joined Auroville. Is this because of Iran's conservative theocratic regime?

A year ago, in May 2020, the Budget Coordination Committee (BCC) and the Funds and Assets Management Committee (FAMC) jointly created “Temporary Emergency Maintenances” for those Aurovilians working in activities, units or services who were no longer able to receive a maintenance from their unit or service due to the Covid-19 emergency, and were in need.

Before I had a child, I used to think that Auroville was an optimal place to raise children. There are forests to frolic in, fresh air, clean food, a kaleidoscope of colorful personalities and passions, activities from horseback riding to Awareness Through the Body, and, of course, the delicate and beautiful subtle atmosphere here.

How has the pandemic impacted our economy? How to make it more equitable and resilient in the future? These are just two of the questions explored in a recent discussion between people from different sectors of the community.

The COVID Task Force, along with the Working Committee, has been the group that has been coordinating Auroville’s response to the lockdown. What has their work involved?

Recently, Suryamayi Clarence-Smith, who was born and brought up in Auroville, completed a Ph.D in International Development in the University of Sussex, the world-ranking institution in the field.

Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a model for providing all citizens with a guaranteed cash allocation, regardless of their income, resources or employment status.

The Solar Kitchen opened in December 1997 and since then has been operating uninterruptedly under different managers. The first were Jaya and Shyama, who were joined shortly after by Andrea.

Recently, a group of Aurovilians concerned about the direction of our economy discussed alternatives. Anandi is part of the management team of Pour Tous Distribution Centre, Jocelyn is on the Santé team, Nicole is a member of the BCC and management of the Visitors Center, Isha coordinates the Auroville Board of Services, and Manohar is the webmaster of the Auroville website.

The Budget Coordination Committee has informed that it no longer has enough resources to cover the present level of expenses and still maintain a buffer in case of emergencies.

Hemant Lamba, a member of the Working Committee, has for many years been concerned about transforming our housing situation, particularly to meet the needs of youth.

Aurevan, Suryamayi and Kavitha are part of an enthusiastic team working on developing apprenticeship and internship programmes for Auroville youth.

In a few weeks, the new farewell facility will officially open. Suzie, who is a long-term member of the Farewell Group, describes their work, the importance of the new facility, and her own evolving relationship to death.

“For us, the human being comes first,” reads the website of Linea. “We offer a friendly environment where people can walk in, have a consultation, be well-treated and get detailed aftercare.

Sigrid is a qualified classical homeopath and regression therapist who has been giving consultations in Auroville for the past 18 years. Here she gives her view of the present health and healing scene in the community.

Over the past two months, Aurovilians have been invited to participate in a new experiment called The Joy of Learning. What is the idea behind it?

The Budget Coordination Committee (BCC) has agreed that Varuna, Auroville, an Auroville unit that operates two wind generators owned by the Auroville Foundation, will cover the electricity bills of all grid-connected residents receiving a City-Services maintenance and those who pay the full monthly contribution of Rs. 2,850 to the Central Fund.

The BCC has asked community feedback on the police patrolling in Auroville in view of the high costs of security. For the financial year 2013-14, the Auroville Security Budget was Rs.