Author and source: Harsh Jaitli
Greetings from VANI!
During the last few months the issue of foreign funding has become a bone of contention between the Indian government and Voluntary Development Organisations (VDOs). Off and on the government comes out with a watch list and accuses VDOs and donors for funding the anti-national agenda. A number of FCRA registrations are either being frozen or cancelled. The traditional media also presents this issue with great sensation.
This has also created lots of confusion in the minds of general public. The statistics and figures of foreign money received by Indian VDOs are also full of confusion. It does not project the reality at the ground, where overall aid for development is reducing. The VDOs who receive foreign funds have their own logic of receiving foreign funding. On one hand strict scrutiny is advocated for foreign development aid, and on the other, Foreign Direct Investment is allowed without any check !
As per the government records more than 40,000 organisations have FCRA registration and only 20,000 have reported the same. The FCRA annual report also claims that more than 10,000 crores are being received as foreign funds every year. Serious allegations like conversions and funding anti-national development work, are levied on VDOs by various government officials and media reports.
Being the national apex body of VDOs, VANI believes that the reality on the ground is very different from this. Funding for development is reducing, and no financial support is available for ensuring entitlements of the marginalised, within the Indian constitution. Peaceful agitations are termed as anti-national or political activities. But unfortunately, we don’t have concrete data to substantiate our claim. Majority of the organisations facing problems are not VANI members, so they neither approach us, nor do we have exact information. Till now VANI has been arguing with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), on legal grounds and based on data we get from our members.
Recently, MHA has cancelled the registration of almost 4000 organisations, with a plea that they are dormant accounts with no activity. They argue that notices were served to these organsiations, and they received no response. However, the initial findings of VANI makes us believe that a number of notices were send to old addresses, even when the organisations concerned had updated the FCRA Department, with their new addresses. This also includes many organisations who have been regularly reporting to MHA, but even their registrations have been cancelled. As said earlier most of these organisations are not VANI members so we don’t have access to them. Therefore your input is very important on this subject.
Please inform us, in case your organisation, or any of your partner organisations are listed. You can access the list on the FCRA website as well as on VANI website.
If answer is yes, please send us the details.
I hope considering the seriousness of the situation, you will respond to this request on an urgent basis.
For more info, please visit this page.
Access the full list of organisations whose FCRA registrations have been cancelled here.
You can contact VANI here.
(The author, Harsh Jaitli, is the Chief Executive Officer of Voluntary Action Network India (VANI), New Delhi)