Chennai: The government’s crackdown on foreign funding of non-profit organisation has resulted in a massive 40 per cent decline in fund flows from external sources for social uplift in the four years to 2017-18, finds an industry report.
Over 13,000 non-government organisations have been acted against by the Union Home Ministry by cancelling their licences, according to a report by a foreign consultancy Bain & Co. The report has also found that as many as 4,800 NGOs lost their licenses in 2017 alone.
“Foreign contributions declined by about 40 per cent. This comes amid a government crackdown on NGOs for violation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) of 2010,” says the report.
Several of these NGOs which lost licences are engaged in rights-based advocacy, and the crackdown has led to an outcry from civil society organisations who termed it as an abuse of legal procedures.
The government had cut short the term of Nachiket Mor from the RBI’s central board last year.
Mor is the country director of Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the RSS-affiliated Swadeshi Jagran Manch had lobbied for his removal as RBI oversees funding for NGOs coming from overseas. There were also many other big names from the world of charities being targeted.
Ford Foundation, and Amnesty International among others being the most notable names. The Bain report says compliance with the rules can result in increase in the social sector wallet size.