Global economic slowdown, terrorist attacks may hit NGOs

By Divya Sreedharan

BANGALORE, SEPT. 22. A long-term casualty of the global economic slowdown and the more recent US-led ``coalition on terrorism'' may be the country's voluntary sector, or at least a part of it.

The non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have already started discussing the possibility of a fund crunch, though most do point out that it is too early to start talking hard facts.

But consider this: There may be well over a lakh NGOs in India. In fact, ``Fingertips -- a Child Resource Directory for Bangalore'' has profiled over 400 individuals/organisations that work with children or those who take care of them.

These NGOs, especially those that get foreign aid (either official/governmental or private) will be badly hit because of the expected freeze in disbursal of funds. And some people involved in the sector admit that private funds are slowly drying up.

Mr. Anand Adkoli, former NRI and Chief Technology Officer of the city-based ``Liqwid Krystal'', co-ordinates with his NRI friends to raise funds for India Child Care Foundation. He believes the voluntary sector will ``most definitely be affected'', but says it is ``too early to get statistics.''

Though he did not think that Governmental aid will be cut in the near future, he did believe private funds would be curtailed soon. ``For India Child Care, last year we collected $45,000. This year, I am struggling to get $12,000,'' he said.

Because of this imminent danger, Mr. Murray Culshaw, who runs the Murray Culshaw Advisory Services to help the voluntary sector communicate better with the general public, feels that NGOs better start become less reliant on foreign aid.

He points out that the downturn in the economy is not restricted to the U.S. alone. ``The Indian economy is not in good shape either. Naturally, contributions from developed societies -- both official and private -- will be affected. It is going to be hard to raise resources for development''.

According to some studies, the financial picture for NGOs has not been promising for some time now. A 1997-98 report on ``The Reality of Aid -- An Independent Review of Development Co- operation'' has an article on ``Breaking New Ground in Donor Coordination in India'.

The author, Mr. Binu S.Thomas, Coordinator, Policy and Advocacy Unit, ACTIONAID India, says: ``...India is the fourth largest aid recipient in the world. But like most of its neighbours in South Asia, it has in recent years been discriminated against by official donors in terms of aid flows in relation to other low income economies.''

``India has suffered an annual 5.9 per cent real decline in aid during 1985-95. This situation can dramatically worsen if the threats to gradate India from ODA (official development assistance) -- of which it is the single largest recipient -- materialise,'' he adds

The report may be a little outdated for the present, but fund flow is still of great concern for NGOs. In fact, ACTIONAID Bangalore's Mr. Hemant Kumar believes there will be ``diversion of more funds to certain countries.''

AccountAid India, a New Delhi-based agency, points out that a ``...large portion of money flowing into India is for religious charity. This is likely to increase, as the world gets polarised along religious lines. This has already been happening in small ways, as stories of attacks on Christians and missionaries in India have found their way into the international Press.''

There is also the view that this correlation between stories of persecution and flow of aid may be the motive for many imaginative stories being planted in the media.

At the same time, the organisation adds, ``... that aid is not an economic impulse and it rarely behaves the way it is expected to. When the USSR broke up, many people expected funds to move into East Europe and Russia. However, international aid does not grow in a vacuum and it needs channels to flow into. The USSR did not have any private voluntary agencies who could absorb the funds, so funds to India remained unaffected''.

* * *

Funds in voluntary sector

Foreign funds and material: Multilateral aid (World Bank, United Nations etc.) to Government/voluntary sector, bilateral aid to Government, Bilateral/private aid to voluntary sector.

Domestic funds and material: Religious giving, direct giving on the streets and donations to organised charity.

Daily giving in India comes to about Rs. 40 crores (Rs 14,000 crore annually). This may appear a little high at first glance but then the annual income of Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board is Rs. 75 crore and that of Tirupathi Devasthanam Board is estimated at between Rs. 500 crores to Rs 1000 crore.

Organised charity on the western model is not rooted into the Indian psyche and therefore does not touch a chord with the bulk of Indian families. Also a significant portion of this charity may be merely paper charity, generated by liberal tax benefits.

Donation of materials by Indians may be significant, it is not tracked or recorded anywhere.

Source: AccountAid India.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : Communal violence, a blot on Hubli
Next     : Rescued lion dies at Bannerghatta park