No Go NGO

Author: Editorial
Publication: The Times of India
Date: November 7, 2000

`Have visa, will travel' has today become synonymous with the Third World NGO.  Indeed, poverty brokering has become a major growth industry.  The modern day NGO glides between the abject deprivation of his own home country to the gilded conference halls of western capitals guilt-tripping with practised ease the remorseful aid-giver.  Though this is not to suggest that all NGOs are riding to success on the back of poverty and misery, there have been more than a few wormy apples who have given the fraternity a bad name.  In this context, the Delhi high court's directive to the Union government not to release any more grants to NGOs until they produce a certificate of utilisation of previous grants is an encouraging signal.  With over Rs 7,500 crore in grants to NGOs yet to be accounted for, the court is justified in its concern.  It is precisely because the government has failed to protect a citizen's right to basic needs that the NGO has stepped in.  But when an NGO itself becomes unaccountable, it must be asked what justification it has to claim to be an interlocutor for the disadvantaged.  Given the intricacies involved in actually getting access to funding, a number of NGOs have been set up by ex-government officials or their families.  Most of these are NGO only in name, their real purpose is to exploit the jet-setting lifestyle and perks that come with the territory.  True, many NGOs in India work in conditions of extreme adversity to bring succour to the underprivileged.  Who can forget the example of Sanjoy Ghose who paid with his life for attempting to better conditions for the poor in Assam?

But equally we have instances of NGOs functioning under the guidelines of foreign funders at the risk of offending local sensibilities.  In a recent instance, an NGO booklet on AIDS used language that was so sexually explicit that the matter went to court.  This gave politicians with an eye to the main chance an opportunity to cast themselves in the role of preservers of local culture and heap calumny on all NGOs working in the area.  A while ago, a collective of NGOs took out advertisements exhorting people to vote against the BJP.  While every NGO is within its rights to espouse a particular political ideology, it becomes counterproductive when this begins to colour and influence the main task at hand - that of giving a voice to the voiceless.  In not submitting accounts, the defaulting NGOs cannot be unaware that they are violating the law.  All NGOs, including those registered under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976 are required to file annual expenditure statements.  In fact, NGOs have long been lobbying against the Act, terming it undemocratic and violative of human rights.  The government, in its turn, has responded by saying that the Act, in its present form, is far too lax and if anything needs to be made more stringent.  Ideally, NGOs and government ought to work in partnership, but unfortunately, in India the relationship between the two tends to be adversarial.  By proving that they are functioning in an accountable and transparent manner as the court has sought, NGOs stand to gain public approval and confidence, making it all the more difficult for predatory politicians to encroach on their preserve.
 

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