Many people less unaware of what NGOs are, what their function is, who controls them and wherefrom do they get funding. There are thousands of NGOs or Non-Government Organizations in our country. They are not run by the Government. They are founded, and controlled by individual bodies. All NGOs have to seek formal permission of the Registrar of Non-Profitable Societies before they actually become functional. Registration of an NGO is not so simple, they have to produce many documents including statutes and by-laws, the structure, the source of income and statement of expenditure etc. In short, there are elaborate rules that an NGO must follow before it is granted formal permission to begin its activities. Apart from all this, in case an NGO receives funding from abroad, they have to seek the permission of the Finance Ministry.
Here it is proper to define what was the necessity of creating NGOs. Democracies have come to the conclusion that despite elected representatives of the people in the assemblies or the parliament who take up issues of their constituencies some areas of concern are not represented by the elected representatives because these may be beyond their jurisdiction or reach. Who would then represent them and what are their specific problems? It was this question that gave rise to the concept of Non Government Organizations who are expected to touch upon those neglected, or forgotten or sidelined areas since these are of much importance to the society. This was the beginning of the new concept of NGOs who were given the authority of formally raising issues of public interest with the Government. They were expected to provide the concerned Governments with detailed data about the issues raised.
Since the NGOs were considered to be supplementing the functions of the Government departments, the Governments considered it in fitness of things to provide reasonable financial assistance to thee NGOs once they submitted a specific project aimed at allaying the problems of the people and reducing their plight. The draft projects which they submit for financial assistance are examined by an expert committee constituted by the Government. The opinion of the expert committee usually plays a decisive role in accepting or rejecting the proposal for financial support. Now there are many genuine NGOs that are constituted in accordance with the laws and procedures stipulated in their statute and have viable projects and are submitting periodic reports on the progress of the projects in hand. But at the same time there are other NGOs who are fake and fraudulent with fictitious records. They draft projects which might appear to be very exciting on the face of it and the Government might be duped into according sanction to financial support in their favour. The Ministry of Social Welfare generally becomes their funding source mostly either owing to an error of judgment or connivance with the NGOs. Also, many NGOs receive foreign funding which is misused and even used for anti-state and anti-national purposes. Such NGOs ultimately become a threat to national security. We have a number of examples of NGOs in this category who have been playing very dirty role. Besides conducting anti-social and anti-national activities, their office bearers and members have been held responsible for embezzlement of money they have received as donation from undeclared sources. In our country, ever since the rise of terrorism in different parts, a large number of anti-India organizations in foreign countries have been using these NGOs to carry forward their clandestine agenda in our country.
These clandestine activities of some of the NGOs came to the notice of the Government. In many cases agencies were directed by the Government to conduct enquiry into the antecedents and working of suspected NGOs. Consequently, on receiving dependable reports about anti-social and anti-national activities conducted by various NGOs, the Government has been taking the decision of deregistering them or not renewing their registration after the stipulated tenure of five years. It is in this background that the Government of India in a recent order denied renewal of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration to 25 NGOs after they were allegedly found to be involved in anti-national activities, and also derecognised more than 11,000 organisations for failing to apply for renewal in time.
We in J&K have very bitter experience of some of the NGOs in more than one way. Some of these have labelled themselves as human rights activists and others have profiled themselves as indulging in humanist activities. Unfortunately, many of them have been found to be working for the militants or providing them the source of funding. Therefore, we highly appreciate the decision of the Government of India in both cases of not renewing FCRA and derecognizing more than 11000 NGOs for technical reasons. The NDA Government has pledged to uproot corruption in whatever form it is and this decision is in line with that commitment.
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