I had raised certain questions on the above mention topic on different yahoo groups that I am a member and following were the shocking answers and experience
that members narrated.
1. — Anshumala <anshumala@yahoo.com> wrote:
I work with an NGO and so would be in a better position to answer these questions.
1. How far our NGO’s are doing good job. Which r good or bad NGO’s
in this category.
I believe 90% of NGO’s today are nothing more than contractors giving services to projects. There are 10% that take up challenges of filling up vast gaps in the system, serious social issues or questioning policy seriously. It is only these 10% that employ
what is called as voluntarism, and willing contributions from the community, and can be called as voluntary organizations in the true sense. Some, very, very few are actually social, large scale mass movements that are related to aspirations of a large no. of people ( like the well known Narmada Bachao Andolan).
Among the ‘contractor’ kinds, some 20% show much better functioning than govt./private organizations in terms of service delivery because of 1) Flexibilty in functioning 2) High worker motivation 3) Closeness with the community
2. Do NGO’s get government funding? What is this fund? Is it for this fund that some bogus NGO’s exist in society?
Yes, today large sums of money are routed to NGO’s, particularly in community projects, because it is often a prerequisite for the implementation of projects, often by funders. Funders believe this will lead to 1) Better implementation/utilization 2) Community involvement which govt is unable to do 3) Shut up the sincere organizations from criticizing
projects.
Though the money given to NGO’s is still a very small part of the money spent by the govt. system. Still, it is large enough to feed a large no.of NGO’s and thousands are created just to utilize that money. In some states like Uttaranchal and Orissa the no. of NGO’sis somewhere close to 20,000. Often,according to the rules of the societies registration act, a group of 11 people, even from one family or friends, would get together to create an NGO for a
specific project. NGO’s are often owned by powerfulpeople indirectly like politicians and
bureaucrats, many times their wives/relatives. This helps in getting the funding easily.
It is in countries like Bangla Desh, where NGO’s are becoming alternate state, and most of them are foreign funded. Foreign funding releases NGO’s from the clutches of their own govt., gives them heavy finances in poor countries, allows them to criticize their own govt. freely, but makes them slaves of the funders’ agenda. Their answerability to their own
society becomes minimal, which is dangerous. Some of such NGO’s may actually help in giving important information to funders or giving them informations/materials for foreign patents over indigenous knowhow ( e.g. gene banks)
3. I know there r government nominated members in board of directors of Ngo’s. How independent are Ngo’s in their working. Is government control good or bad?
They are pretty independent. The nominees hardly have time to interfere with NGO’s functioning, and hardly affects them. It is more of a formality.
4. In such case can a NGO have guts to go against government decision and policies?
Obviously a govt. funded NGO cannot speak against the govt. Only self funded mass movements can. The best such example in the country is KSSP ( Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad). If you all interested, I can elaborate on their role in Kerala. They have been awarded the Right Livelihood Award by the Noble Prize Committee.
The foreign funded ones become slaves of international funders. In fact, there is an
international politicsof ‘purchasing’NGO’sto shut them up from speaking against WTO ( like they did outside many WTO conferences, particularly in Seattle), and becoming a headache for them.
The good thing about civil society organizations is they are reflective of societies’ own will to do things the state is not doing, beyond the political/system constraints. Where they have become a sizeable force they have done great things. But they can be no substitute for routine good,responsible functioning of the society. They are stop gap arrangements and are needed simply because other systems are not functioning. The bad thing is their least accountability. Their accountability is nowhere compared to a govt. body or even elected representatives ( however corrupt, the elected representatives face the people after 5 years)
anshumala
2. “kesava.pillai@gmail.com” wrote Perhaps 90% of the NGO-s are channels through which
ovt. funds are diverted to private individuals, in the name of Rural development,
ree plantation, Environment and Ecology..etc.etc.I had an opportunity to visit a site, where an NGO had claimed transfer of technology, demonstrations of improved techniques, the
villagers increased purchasing power and so on, based on a three column report in INDIAN EXPRESS and asked by Secretary Industries to give a report on this.
I visited the village and perhaps there was no activity there for over 50 years or more, dilapidated and demolished structures and no villagers staying nearby!!!
And a Ph.D. who claimed to have achieved these, entered my cabin and
started abusing me for giving the report to Govt. and when I challenged him to show the location where the activity took place, he was just a silent man changing the topics and using
unacceptable language!!
Many NGO-s take the products from remote locations like Kutch/ Rajasthan borders using NGO-s Govt. funds, paying a pittance to the craftsmen and sell these at Taj and Oberoi Exhibitions at Bombay earning huge profits- and usually such NGO-s are run
by high society women, wives of businessmen and politicians!!
It is high time Govt. reviews working of all NGO-s and stop funding such of those who are practising fraud on Society GPKPillai
3. in reply mr. “kesava pillai” wrote on ‘Map India’ Dear Jawaharji,
Rajiv Gandhi had stated openly that only 10% or less of the funds provided by Govt. under special schemes for the poor and backward, reach the beneficiaries.
Several poverty alleviation programmes, rural development programmes, Special Component Plan programmes. Tribal Development plans ..etc.etc. are very fertile avenues for the bureaucrats and lower staff as well as Politcal appointees to milk them out on schemes
only on paper. I was a part of the wheel and earned the wrath of Senior colleagues at
Secretary levels for my candid notings on the ineffectiveness of programmes and need to have dedicated personnel to run them.
I’ll tell you an instance where an MLA wanted his brother to be given 5 lakhs as scheduled caste to run his business. The file came to me for opinion and as I had known this individual who had swindled bank and Govt. of lakhs of Rs. without implementing the projected
programmes, I noted that Govt. could exercise caution to give such “loans”. The Secretary disagrred with my notings as CM had asked him to give the money!! Then “why fire the gun from my shoulder?” I asked. For several years the senior colleague was antagonised
towards me!!
It is a stark fact that most of the NGO-s are fake and funnel the money to selfish intersts. See functions of CAPART at Delhi headed by Lallu’s second in command and the notorious IAS
officer casting aspersions on Election ommissioners!! One could see how many crores
get channelised to NGO-s thru” CAPART and it is real tragedy that India is going down the drains this manner
GPK