The Government of India earlier last week quite abruptly announced that the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act licences belonging to more than 6,000 organizations and the NGOs to receive foreign funds was no longer valid prompting a controversy over the government’s motives in trying to suffocate the NGOs, many of whom are doing stellar work in the social field.
The licence that is mandatory for any organization in India to receive funds from abroad can lapse if the organization doesn’t apply for renewal or it can even be cancelled if the government believes there are ‘irregularities’ being conducted by the organization.
In the recent cycle besides the much publicized cancellation of the licence of the Missionaries of Charity, 5789 organizations saw their licence suspended which included more famous organizations like Oxfam India, Common Cause, Jamia Millia Islamia, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), Kolkata-based Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute and the India Islamic Cultural Centre (IICC).
Others include the Indian Institute of Public Administration (IIPA), National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH), Delhi College of Engineering, Goa Football Association, Press Institute of India, The Lepra India Trust and Indian Institute of Management (Calcutta), Medical Council of India, Emmanuel Hospital Association, which runs over a dozen hospitals across India, Tuberculosis Association of India.
Coming at a time when several of India’s social sectors and hunger index and poverty rankings have been falling consistently, such moves will only serve to further widen the gap between help that is available and the people who need it the most.
Most of these organizations have been working in the field of social welfare, legal advocacy, human rights and similar causes. In the past Amnesty International too faced similar hounding from the government over its activities in India that were seen to be embarrassing to the government.
In the absence of the licence organizations will have to rely on donations from within the country to carry on their work with funds from abroad.
The manner in which the government has been hounding organizations that have been doing good work often in areas where the government’s own agencies cannot reach, reeks of malice.
Rather than encouraging such organizations -- whose work does not cost the government a single penny -- the government appears to be acting only out of small minded malice and pettiness while simultaneously quickly renewing the licences of those NGOs who are favourable to it.
For the rest the government can come up with whatever excuse it wants to if it wants to deny a licence including national security, audit irregularities, working against the interests of India, etc.
The need of the hour therefore is to have a transparent mechanism by which licences are granted and renewed and not a system that relies on the whims and fancies of the government in power.
The government needs to quickly realise that in a bid to protect its image it is only harming its own citizenry the very people whose welfare it is claiming to improve.
