Mauritius often prides itself on its social, political and economic stability. And in many ways, that pride is justified. But beneath the surface familiar pressures are quietly building.

Loneliness is rising especially among the elderly and burnout is becoming common even among the young. Environmental stresses, whether from waste to lagoon degradation, is increasingly visible. Many families feel stretched, timepoor, and disconnected.

We usually respond to these challenges with policies, programmes and campaigns. All these are necessary but perhaps we are missing something more basic: how we organise our time as a society. Our modern life rewards productivity above everything else. We tend to value time most when it can be measured in hours worked, targets met and growth achieved. Care whether for our fellow humans, ourselves or our environment by contrast, is treated as secondary, something we do if we have time left over.

But care is not optional. It is the invisible infrastructure that holds societies together.

Living on a small island makes this imbalance harder to ignore. Environmental damage is not abstract and is visible at our beaches and in our lagoons. Social isolation is not theoretical as it affects our neighbours, parents, and grandparents. When care weakens, the effects are felt quickly and personally.

So what if part of our challenge is not a lack of goodwill, but a lack of protected time?

Consider a modest idea: Civic Time. One protected day each month for every adult, dedicated to activities that directly support people, communities, or the natural environment and outside of markets, profit and performance metrics. Not volunteering as we usually understand it, not charity and not a résumé building exercise. Simply a civic duty.

Environmental or human wellbeing

On that day, people might help restore coastal areas, support the elderly, mentor young people, participate in community clean-ups, or simply spend time with those who are isolated. The requirement would be simple: the activity must directly benefit human or environmental wellbeing. The state protects the time, communities organise the care, and everyone participates within simple, shared boundaries, the core principle being no one should be financially worse off for fulfilling a civic duty.

At first glance, this may sound unrealistic. But societies already mandate time when something is considered essential. We mandate schooling because education matters and recognise public holidays because shared rituals and experiences matter. Yet care, despite being foundational to social cohesion, is largely left to families, volunteers, and informal networks. Over time this creates strain, inequality and quiet exhaustion.

Critics would rightly raise concerns. Would this become unpaid labour, burden those already stretched or interfere with work? All these concerns are legitimate and that is why universality is fundamental. When everyone participates across income levels, professions and positions of power, care stops being something quietly delegated and becomes a shared responsibility. Safeguards would be essential ensuring that such civic time complements rather than replaces professional services. The safeguards are simple: civic time cannot replace paid work, it is strictly limited to one day a month, shared by everyone, and it can never be used as an excuse to cut services.

This idea is not a silver bullet. It will not solve climate change, inequality, or social fragmentation on its own. But it addresses something deeper and that is the erosion of lived civic experience and connection.

People rarely change their values because they are persuaded by statistics. They change because of personal and shared, repeated and tangible experiences. Environmental responsibility feels different when you help restore a damaged ecosystem. Social inequality looks different when you mentor a child struggling at school. Life feels different when you spend time with someone who is otherwise invisible.

From a practical standpoint, the cost is modest. One day a month represents roughly five percent of annual working time, a limited commitment when set against the scale of time already lost globally, where the World Health Organisation estimates that depression and anxiety alone account for billions of lost working days each year. Seen in this context, the potential return in resilience and social trust is significant. This is not a fiscal programme requiring large public expenditure, but a time-allocation policy that asks society to use a small share of its collective time more deliberately. Perhaps most importantly, it sends a clear signal that care is not merely a private virtue, but a public good.

Mauritius has long benefited from strong community ties and a shared sense of belonging with a shared language across communities and the celebration of festivals across faiths. Preserving that fabric in a changing world may require more than policies alone. It may require deliberately and collectively creating a space for people to care for one another and for the island we all share.

Progress does not always mean moving faster. Sometimes it means pausing, together, to remember what holds us united and resilient in the first place.

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About the author

V. Kothari is the licensee and curator of non-profit ideas TEDxPlaines-Wilhems in Mauritius since 2012. She is a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi with a MSc in Mathematics and University of Oxford, Pembroke College with a MSc in Computation with Distinction. She is a Chevening and Foreign and Commonwealth Office UK Scholar. After graduating she worked for the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford University building Risk Engine predictive models for estimating complications associated with type 2 diabetics based on the UK Prospective Diabetics Study (UKPDS). She has published papers in Clinical Science and Stroke with more than 2000 citations. She has worked at the UK National Health Service (NHS) optimising resource and financial management before coming to Mauritius and promoting innovation and the sharing of ideas. She is the grand-daughter of Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan, late Prof. D.S.Kothari, an eminent Indian physicist and gets her drive from his selfless teachings.