Cancer control NGO targets school kids……Anahita Mukherji
MUMBAI: The next time your enthusiastic children return home with donation forms distributed by an NGO at school, you may want to check their credentials.
A week back, hundreds of students from a South Mumbai school received forms from the Cancer Control Mission, an organization that claimed 20 years` experience battling the disease. The forms, which asked students to collect money for a nationwide campaign, promised gold and silver medals to those who raised large sums for the organization.
When one of the leaflets, distributed by the NGO, landed in the hands of Jehangir Gai, a consumer activist and a parent of the school, he telephoned the organization to check its registration number under the Bombay Public Trust Act. “The person on the line said that the organization was only registered under the Society`s Act. Under the law, only a registered trust can collect donations,” said Gai.
Under Section 41C of the Bombay Public Trust Act, “any person (not being a public trust registered under this act) collecting money, subscription, donation or other property for religious or charitable purpose shall forthwith inform the charity commissioner in writing of such collection and the purpose for which such collection is made”.
Incidentally, Gai was unable to contact the organization on the number mentioned on the leaflet, but got it on the website, which varied by a digit.
The website claims the organization has been in the field for two decades, but the registration number on the forms mentions the year 2009.
The Cancer Control Mission website does not mention who is running the organization but carries an address in Mira Road, which TOI found out, housed a printing press. The landlord who owns the shop from which the printing press operates said he had no idea about the NGO. Despite repeated phone calls and an SMS to the NGO, TOI was unable to get its version.
“We have no idea where the funds are going. For all you know, the money could be used to fund terror,” Gai said.