8

Aug

Throttling, Threatening and Blacklisting NGOs

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New Delhi, August 8, 2023

Another 14,500 have been banned quoting FCRA violations in the last five years.

Amitabh Srivastava

The cancellation of the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) license of Save the Children by the Home Ministry has not come as a surprise at all.

Signs that the present government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been suspicious of non-government organisations (NGOs) and (community service organisations) CSOs since it came to power in 2014 were for all to see.

In 2015 9,000 NGOs had been blacklisted and their foreign funding was stopped by cancelling their FCRA licenses.

Another 14,500 have been banned quoting FCRA violations in the last five years.

But this time the grounds of cancelling the FCRA license of Save the Children which has branches in 112 countries have astounded knowledgeable persons.

According to a veteran who has been in the field for over three decades, this organization that functions as Bal Raksha Bharat’ in India is one of the most submissive NGOs among the 33 lacks registered in the country.

The NGO has been that its appeal to raise funds through donations is demeaning for children and is against the Juvenile Justice Act 2013.

This NGO works for the health, education and nutrition issues of children. Hence it makes an appeal to donors to raise funds under these heads.

In December 2022 the Ministry for Women and Child Development (MWCD) sent a warning to various state and UTs that their campaign was misleading as the government was already providing food and nutrition under its Saksham Aaganwadi and Poshan 2.0 schemes.

The Chief of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights, an RSS appointee from Madhya Pradesh Priyank Kanoongo said that Save the Children was depicting children in a deplorable state.

And carried away by his own rhetoric he went further by stating that this depiction of children in a ‘deplorable’ state was a violation of the Juvenile Justice Act 2013.

But the definition of a Child under Care and Protection under the JJ Act reads among others

  1. A child who is found without any home or settled place of abode
  2. Working in violation of labour laws, begging
  3. Living on the streets or begging
  4. Residing with an abusive guardian
  5. Being at risk of drug abuse or trafficking

Can there be any more deplorable condition of children on earth?

This is a tragedy.

Tragedy because four years ago this same government had had taken all the NGOs of India in confidence and convened a meeting at the NITI Aayog when Amitabh Kant was the CEO.

The meeting where I was personally present started on a wonderful note because Amitabh Kant admitted openly that the NGOs were reaching these corners of society where the Government could reach.

What happened in between I have no idea. But we would certainly like to know.

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