With its new revamped website, the Central government has launched a digital interface that provides genuine NGO applicants seamless services of FCRA with adequate ease and facilitation. This announcement by the Union Home Ministry captures the two sides of the government’s policy towards NGOs — easing of procedures and processes for the genuine ones, while being suspicious of and hostile towards NGOs which are perceived by it as not genuine. The seeking of foreign funds by Non-Governmental Organisations has been a contentious issue. The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act was enacted during the Emergency and later expanded in the 2010 version of the Act, which explicitly prohibits foreign funds for any activities detrimental to national interest.
The government views service delivery NGOs as necessary and partners in development, while being deeply suspicious of activist/overtly political NGOs which take recourse to policy advocacy, lobbying, mass mobilisation and strident campaigning to usher in change in government policies or play the role of a watchdog. In recent years, successive governments have been trying to rein in NGOs working in areas such as human rights and environment which are seen as a threat to national security and economic development respectively. The present government, which perceives itself as the target of concerted attacks by political NGOs, has been monitoring and initiating action against erring ones.
If registration of over 4,100 NGOs was cancelled in 2012, the figure has gone up to over 10,100 in March, 2015. While the government’s move to streamline and simplify the compliance of FCRA rules has to be welcomed, it should reconsider its approach towards ‘activist-NGOs’. It is well within its rights to demand compliance of rules by NGOs, but it should also allow the latter to play the role of a watchdog. Regulating NGOs is not only acceptable but also desirable, but stifling the voices of NGOs which are critical of it is not.
Source: http://www.newindianexpress.com/editorials/Regulate-NGOs-Dont-Stifle-Their-Voice/2015/12/16/article3179566.ece
The government views service delivery NGOs as necessary and partners in development, while being deeply suspicious of activist/overtly political NGOs which take recourse to policy advocacy, lobbying, mass mobilisation and strident campaigning to usher in change in government policies or play the role of a watchdog. In recent years, successive governments have been trying to rein in NGOs working in areas such as human rights and environment which are seen as a threat to national security and economic development respectively. The present government, which perceives itself as the target of concerted attacks by political NGOs, has been monitoring and initiating action against erring ones.
If registration of over 4,100 NGOs was cancelled in 2012, the figure has gone up to over 10,100 in March, 2015. While the government’s move to streamline and simplify the compliance of FCRA rules has to be welcomed, it should reconsider its approach towards ‘activist-NGOs’. It is well within its rights to demand compliance of rules by NGOs, but it should also allow the latter to play the role of a watchdog. Regulating NGOs is not only acceptable but also desirable, but stifling the voices of NGOs which are critical of it is not.
Source: http://www.newindianexpress.com/editorials/Regulate-NGOs-Dont-Stifle-Their-Voice/2015/12/16/article3179566.ece
