NAGPUR: Organizations working under the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) usually have to do without funding from the governmental agencies at the beginning of a financial year. This year, however, it has been around six months but these organizations are still working without funds due to reasons like reorganization of National AIDS Control Programme (NACP), change in government at the centre and merger of NACO with National Rural Health Mission among others.
Most of the NGOs work for targeted interventions that focus on vulnerable population groups like drug users, male-to-female transgenders, men who have sex with men (MSM), female sex workers (FSWs) and people living with HIV (PLHIV). The NGOs depend on NACO for funding their projects that help in spreading awareness and restraining the rate of HIV infection. Officials from the state unit of NACO, Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society (MSACS), say that the funds would reach the NGOs within this month.
"The project duration is between April and March. Funds are usually released at the end of June or the beginning of July, with expenses for the previous months getting reimbursed. Staff members are usually aware that they would not be paid and sometimes NGO directors take loans to manage the project. Reportedly, some of them have raised money by breaking their personal fixed deposits or paying from their own pocket," said an activist associated with one of the NGOs.
Another activist said that her organization had some savings from last year. "Usually, we are supposed to return any unused funds to NACO in March. This year, however, they allowed us to keep this money and utilize it. But not all organizations were given this liberty. Now, most of them are facing severe financial crunch because of which their staff too is leaving them," she said.
Giving reasons for the delay in getting funds, Pune-based activist Bindu Madhav Khire said, "The third phase of NACP got over in April, and the new phase started. This called for several changes and revisions in the structure, manpower, budgeting and other aspects of all the projects. Funding for the projects was majorly coming from international agencies until then. Now, the ratio of funds from them has reduced as the number of AIDS patients and new infections in the country has come down drastically," he said, adding, "Amid all these changes, the country also saw a change in the government which delayed the official documentation process."
Sources say funds NACO has released funds to all the state AIDS control societies in August. MSACS joint director for targeted intervention Avsharan Kaur confirmed this and said the process of fund allocation to different organizations has already been set in motion. "All the organizations would be provided proper funding by mid-September," she said.
Reasons for delay
* Phase III of National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) and beginning of NACP-4 in the new financial year. This meant a lot of restructuring and revisions in the way the projects were running
* Drying up of funds from global agencies as incidences of new HIV infections in India were coming down. From now on, the central government would be required to spend a greater amount on National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) projects
* Merger of NACO with National Rural Health Mission. The justification behind the move was that this will reduce bureaucracy
* Change of government at the centre
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/NGOs-working-for-AIDS-control-facing-funds-crunch/articleshow/41974438.cms
Most of the NGOs work for targeted interventions that focus on vulnerable population groups like drug users, male-to-female transgenders, men who have sex with men (MSM), female sex workers (FSWs) and people living with HIV (PLHIV). The NGOs depend on NACO for funding their projects that help in spreading awareness and restraining the rate of HIV infection. Officials from the state unit of NACO, Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society (MSACS), say that the funds would reach the NGOs within this month.
"The project duration is between April and March. Funds are usually released at the end of June or the beginning of July, with expenses for the previous months getting reimbursed. Staff members are usually aware that they would not be paid and sometimes NGO directors take loans to manage the project. Reportedly, some of them have raised money by breaking their personal fixed deposits or paying from their own pocket," said an activist associated with one of the NGOs.
Another activist said that her organization had some savings from last year. "Usually, we are supposed to return any unused funds to NACO in March. This year, however, they allowed us to keep this money and utilize it. But not all organizations were given this liberty. Now, most of them are facing severe financial crunch because of which their staff too is leaving them," she said.
Giving reasons for the delay in getting funds, Pune-based activist Bindu Madhav Khire said, "The third phase of NACP got over in April, and the new phase started. This called for several changes and revisions in the structure, manpower, budgeting and other aspects of all the projects. Funding for the projects was majorly coming from international agencies until then. Now, the ratio of funds from them has reduced as the number of AIDS patients and new infections in the country has come down drastically," he said, adding, "Amid all these changes, the country also saw a change in the government which delayed the official documentation process."
Sources say funds NACO has released funds to all the state AIDS control societies in August. MSACS joint director for targeted intervention Avsharan Kaur confirmed this and said the process of fund allocation to different organizations has already been set in motion. "All the organizations would be provided proper funding by mid-September," she said.
Reasons for delay
* Phase III of National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) and beginning of NACP-4 in the new financial year. This meant a lot of restructuring and revisions in the way the projects were running
* Drying up of funds from global agencies as incidences of new HIV infections in India were coming down. From now on, the central government would be required to spend a greater amount on National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) projects
* Merger of NACO with National Rural Health Mission. The justification behind the move was that this will reduce bureaucracy
* Change of government at the centre
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/NGOs-working-for-AIDS-control-facing-funds-crunch/articleshow/41974438.cms
