NGO Consultant

NGO Consultant
Odisha NGO Consultancy Services

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Govt harassing us in the name of FCRA law, allege NGOs

NGOs claimed they had the support of 700 civil society organisations

Several big-ticket non-government organisations (NGOs) came together in Delhi on Friday to demand that the government should use the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) to regulate and not harass and intimidate civil society groups.

The NGOs included Voluntary Action Network of India (VANI), one of the largest umbrella organisation of NGOs working on issues of civil society, National Campaign for Dalit Rights, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), NAZ foundation and Lawyers Collective, on which the government recently imposed a ban on receiving foreign funds.

They claimed they had the support of 700 civil society organisations and a vast networks. They announced the setting up of a Support Cell for Civil Society Organisations to deal with the issues arising out of government’s application of FCRA and tax regulations.

The civil society groups noted that the funding received by NGOs had dropped to less than half between 2013-14 and 2014-15, according to the annual report of the home ministry.

They pointed out the new rules for the FCRA had been notified in December 2015, doing away with the positive list of activities that are permissible using foreign funds, leaving absolute discretion in the hands of the government to give or deny FCRA licences.

Venkatesh Nayak of CHRI said the government had proposed categories such as human rights, caste discrimination, child rights and others as areas that NGOs could work on with foreign funds. But after consultations, the government in its final notification dropped the positive list. “Enormous discretion has been placed in the hands of the government...,” he said.

Mathew Cherian of VANI said there was a case of donors being told to not provide funds to civil society groups as well as NGOs being hauled up on minor technical grounds.

Mona Mishra, who works with the HIV community, said the government move has chocked the fund pipeline.

Anand Grover, trustee of the Lawyers Collective, and Indira Jaisingh claimed the NGO would fight the case in court and that it had done nothing wrong. He said Jaisingh had worked as a public servant and not a government servant so was entitled to be paid remuneration for her work at the Lawyers Collective. Grover said while allegations had been made against him for misappropriation of funds, he had only taken reimbursement, such as those for telephones, while at work abroad for work relating to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Right to Health, which was part of assignment undertaken by the collective.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/govt-harassing-us-in-the-name-of-fcra-law-allege-ngos-116061000828_1.html