INDIA, February 3, 2015 (By Rajiv Malik, for HPI and Hinduism Today magazine): a large number of NGO’s representatives, social activists and intellectuals participated in a one-day conference on the subject- “Towards a Rational Government Policy for NGO’s,” organized by Indic Studies Network, Centre For The Study of Developing Societies [CSDS] at Delhi’s prestigious India International Centre on Saturday, January 31st, 2015.
There was a near consensus that all the NGO’s in India must complete the requisite formalities as laid down for them by law and that they must work transparently and put all the details of their accounts on their websites for public perusal and scrutiny. Government on its side must have a clear cut and rational policy so that those working within the framework of law can function in a smooth manner. There is a need to clearly define what constitutes “anti-national” so that there is no harassment of select NGO’s due to lack of clarity on this account.
Though there was a heated discussion on whether or not NGO’s should accept donations from international agencies, in view of their having to serve the interest of these agencies, in many cases, no clear consensus could be arrived on this as there were many who were in favor of foreign aid as getting aid from the government in India was pretty cumbersome and time consuming. There was also a feeling that if the foreign donations were spent on good projects and were helpful to various communities, they should be welcomed.
Expressing her views, Madhu Purnima Kishwar, Professor, CSDS and founder of Manushi magazine and Manushi Forum For Women’s Rights and Democratic Reforms, strongly opposed the dependence of Indian NGO’s on foreign money, said, ” Right from the very inception of Manushi in 1978 we decided not to be tied to the apron strings of international donors and even to our government for that matter. It was very tough and some said a very foolhardy decision as we started Manushi with a mere 800 rupees of our own contribution. Even this sum was a princely sum keeping in view that my own monthly salary in those days was around 600 rupees. We also took an unusual decision to not accept any commercial advertisements and depend just on the subscriptions and support of our readers.”
According to Madhu, “Since Manushi was set up to bring social and political reforms in India I felt that the resources to do our work should be raised from within India and from resources generated from Indians. To go with a begging bowl to the international donors for fixing up the ills of our society was against my pride as an Indian. For Manushi, I received some generous offers from Ford Foundation but decided not to accept them. My own view was that our activism was rootless if it did not get financial and moral support from those in the society for the welfare of whom we intended to work. This will also make us accountable for the very people on whose behalf we act. While we decided not to accept aid from foreign agencies, we accepted and were lucky to get a stream of highly qualified and dedicated volunteers to work for us from all over the world. They came at their own cost and even did not expect a modest honorarium from us. However I do not expect other NGO’s and every one to choose this rather tough and uphill path which I chose for Manushi. However I am open to receive a modest sum from the non resident Indians.”
Madhu maintained, “Unfortunately the Forign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA-http://mha1.nic.in/fcra.htm) has been used for long as a vicious instrument for arm twisting of NGO’s and both of NDA and UPA have been acting against some select NGO’s in a ham-handed manner.
Prof Vaidyanathan of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, reeled off some very interesting figures on the number of NGO’s in India and pointed out that the number of NGO’s per capita was higher than the number of police personnel.” For every 535 Indians there was an NGO but there was a police man only for 940 Indians”, he said and went on to say, “only ten percent of the total around 22 lakh NGO’s filed income tax returns.” Prof Vaidyanathan said that India was not expected to learn the importance of donation from the west as giving was an essential part of our culture.”
John Dayal, former senior journalist and representative of All-India Christian Association in his remarks said that though he may not agree with the philosophy of RSS but he saluted them for being the biggest NGO of the world.
Rajiv Malhotra of Infinity Foundation said, “In the USA there is a large number of NGO’s and other institutions which study what is happening in India and keep an eye on the various socio-political and religious developments. Many of them are misrepresenting the data and the facts they collect from various sources, pursuing their own vested interests and agenda. I would suggest that the Indian NGO’s must also set up their branches in USA to understand how they are monitoring India and set right some of the misgivings and falsehood that is spread against India.”
Expressing his views Dr. J.K. Bajaj said, “Hindu Temples are also one of the biggest chain of NGO’s in the world and they truly function thus, meeting the socio-cultural and religious aspirations of the Indian masses. It is gross injustice to give the control of thousands of Hindu temples to the government officials and bureaucrats who do not utilize the full potential of the kind of socio-religious work that could be done by the temples for the welfare of the community. Hindu temples should be freed from the clutches of government and allowed to function independently as NGO’s.”
Bajaj concluded by stating, “We need no lecturing from the west and their animal right activists on how to humanely treat the animals. Anyone who has seen how Hindus treat and worship the cows can understand how reverentially we not only treat just the animals but the whole universe and connect to it.”