2016 has been a tumultuous and extremely volatile year. With the world losing some of the most precious gems on earth, cruel and inhumane violence, a shocking turn of events that no one ever saw and much more, 2016 will surely go down in history.
In another surprising ruling, on Tuesday, that is the 27th of December the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) cancelled the FCRA or Foreign Contribution Regulation Act licenses of about 20,000 NGO.
The act of cancelling this license means that the selected NGOs will be barred from receiving foreign funding.
The MHA cancelled the licenses after they found these NGOs in violation of the Act and its provisions.
Yikes, not exactly the Christmas gift that NGOs were hoping for I presume.
20,000 NGOs FCRA License Cancelled
Have to say that this year has not been good to anyone, including NGOs here in India.
First the news came out of the abysmal rate of NGOs that actually file their income tax returns and now the MHA has put a lid on any foreign funding that NGOs might be receiving.
So basically, out of the humungous number of 33,000 NGOs that existed, the govt. has cancelled the licenses of 22,000 NGOs, that is more than 50% of the total NGOs in the country.
According to the govt. this decision was made to clear up the tension and confusion created by the FCRA row that occurred recently, wherein a number of NGOs had protested against being unable to get smooth funding flow. Also to streamline and make the funding process just a bit more transparent than it is now.
But How Will NGOs Help People Then?
NGOs might not be the most clean organizations as we have all seen that many use NGOs as a front to either use up their stored up black money, donate their black money into NGOs as it is tax deductible and much more.
However no one can disagree when I say that NGOs have truly done some remarkable things in the country, especially for the poor and marginalized sectors of India, to which the govt. is not able to reach in time or just does not care enough about.
So how exactly are NGOs supposed to function if they cannot get adequate funding in order to complete all their projects?
There are both positive of this ruling as with this, as not only the 22, ooo NGOs but all will have to be more meticulous with their paperwork filling, transparent funding system and an overall making sure that they cannot carry out any illegal activity. However on the other hand, this is the govt. we are talking about, so this same ruling could become a nuisance for some actually genuine NGOs that are not able to aquire funding in the country but are getting some from foreign resources.
I would like to ask what do you think of this ruling and whether the Govt. made the right one or not?
Image Credits: Google Images
Other Recommendations:
http://edtimes.in/2016/09/less-than-10-ngos-fill-in-their-income-tax-returns-so-much-for-being-the-good-guys/
http://edtimes.in/2016/07/ngos-are-the-new-public-servants-theyll-soon-declare-assets/
