This article discusses the relation that exists between NGOs and various social issues including poverty, illiteracy, environment, etc. Also this article talks about the malfunctioning of NGOS and various scams over them. What made me choose this topic is the increasing number of cases against NGOs and continuous degradation of their status and work.
Non- government organizations or NGOs are the organizations that work independent of any government and whose purpose is to address the social or political issue. Talking particularly about the NGOs working in slums, they are the organizations working for their betterment, by providing them the basic necessities and making them aware about their basic rights, education, etc but there may be a possibility that they work in a way which not let slum people get out of their place. Not only with the slums, but this might be the case with other issues also. Every day hundreds and thousands of poor people can be seen at the footpaths, near and around railway tracks, outside Mcdonald’s, KFC, etc and what strikes the most is, that where these NGOs are actually working in reality. There are undoubtedly many NGOs who claim for the improvement of conditions of poor and needy people but the profit-making priorities of the NGOs these days, compels the condition to be the same as it is.
Data has revealed that there is one NGO per 600 people in our country with 1.2 billion population. India brought about the number of opportunities for NGOs where CBI has estimated that 20 lakhs of NGOs are working in states and union territories. There are many studies which depict the picture of NGOs as a profit-making institution. One of the studies conducted, named ‘NGO: a silent scam’ by Purnima S.Tripathi. What she has found is that it is the very common practice among NGOs that they do not declare the purpose, motive or use of the grants that are sanctioned to them. Researches have revealed that crores of rupees are granted to them by the central and the state government, but in most of the cases, 97% of the NGOs have not presented their utilization certificates showing the motive for which the grants were given. Neither NGOs showed to government nor the government ever asked.
One of the major issues is the lack of transparency in NGOs. The blacklisted NGOs even change their names for the greed of grants. There are almost 15% of the money went as a bribe which they recover from the grants provided to them by a government. No actions were being taken in the cases of irregularities of NGOs by the government. NGOs have become a kind of profit-making business nowadays.
Another research study on this issue is done by Francois Gautier, who in his work ‘The big scam of NGOs’, has talked about the difference in the lifestyle of the NGO owners of the earlier times and the present day time. It has been discussed that the focus of the NGOs is mostly towards the women empowerment and village empowerment particularly in India but there is also the need to focus on the issues related with environment. Although his main focus was the involvement in the corruption by NGOs he has also talked about some NGOs who work genuinely for the sake of people where he has given the instance of “The young India Group”, who aware the people about their rights.
‘In the name of NGOs, a flourishing racket’ by Joginder Singh reveals that NGOs nowadays have become a business where people running NGOs ignore their motive or the aim for which they raise money. It has also been talked that how people collect fund for social service and invest that money as personal expenses. There are many instances which have cited the same picture. The supreme court has also directed to close the unregistered NGOs running children’s home as they had become child trafficking hubs.
There has also been a reduction in foreign funding of NGOs as the corruption regarding foreign funds has been increasing at a high pace. ‘Drastic reduction in foreign funding to NGOs: Govt to RS’ by Neeraj Chauhan said that the foreign funding to NGOs has been decreased by more than half. There has been lack of proper conduct of NGOs and they were freely operating without any restrictions or oversight for years, hence, the government felt the need to remake the whole procedure again to stop the misuse of funds.
The status of NGOs has been degraded and is still degrading in India. There has been a challenging situation to NGOs as they are losing their trust from the common people of the country and not only that but also from the foreign funders. Increasing number of cases regarding the corruption in foreign funds has made NGOs lose their trust from foreign funders because it sowed the seed of doubt in the minds of those who genuinely donated their funds in Indian NGOs. Ultimately, lack of fund would hinder the work of truly going NGOs and this will later create a vicious circle. In this regard, the central government has also banned foreign funding to the NGOs who are irregular, corrupted and not registered with the government. Also, the government needs to take a look at those NGOs as well, who are working on a lower level in society and are small in size. This is significant, in order to make sure that they are not misusing and cheating the innocent people for the greed of money. There have been cases presented where small NGOs were found running rackets by fooling people at the name of social service.
This is not said that all the NGOs across India are fraud and profit-making institutions, but the number of NGOs running for the greed of grants and making of profit is much higher in number than the NGOs who work genuinely and fulfill their purpose for which they have been established.
REFERENCE
NGOs: A silent scam – Frontline
https://www.frontline.in/the-nation/ngos-a-silent-scam/article4372559
.ece
THE BIG SCAM OF NGO’ S | FRANCOIS GAUTIER
In the name of NGOs, a flourishing racket – The Pioneer
https://www.dailypioneer.com/2016/…/in-the-name-of-ngos-a-flourishi ng-racket.html
NGO: Drastic reduction in foreign funding to NGOs: Govt to RS | India …
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com › India News
Rishika Prajapati, Studying BA(Hons.) Sociology at Delhi University.
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