Title: NGO non-governance Author: Editor
Publication: Indian Express Dated: July 8, 2010 Intro: Civil Society organizations would do better if they were more transparent According to the first governmental survey of the terrain, India is teeming with non-governmental organisations - at 3.3 million, possibly the most in the world. They are registered under a cluster of different acts - from the Societies' Act to the Indian Trusts Act, from the Charitable and Religious Trust Act to a clutch of Wakf acts. These naturally include organisations with a whole range of diverse motives and mandates - from temple trusts to transnational aid organisations, from the touchy-feely arms of big corporates to foundations and cultural societies and activist groups. Going by the definition proposed by Peter Willetts, author of two books on NGOs, the term includes any organisation that is independent of government, not constituted as a political party, non-violent, non-profit and non-criminal. The number of NGOs has risen dramatically in the last 10 years, and yet we don't really know the size and nature of this vast "third sector". One reason for this is obviously the fact that they can go where unwieldy state mechanisms cannot or do not. Even as aspirations have proliferated, the state often plays catch-up enabler; naturally other organisations have grown and spread to fill in the cracks. Some of these are exemplars of development action, and given that a state challenged by society is the best situation for citizens, they criticise and goad as well as supplement the state's efforts. Clearer guidelines on incorporation and fund-raising would definitely help. Our legal structures make it difficult for them to invest funds, and make them dependent on a steady stream of donations; on the other hand, their financial workings are largely unmonitored and opaque. Given that government is the biggest donor to many NGOs, transparency and disclosure norms are especially important. As the vice president recently stressed, many NGOs now work with unprecedented levels of public funding because of their role in implementing giant Centrally-sponsored welfare schemes, but are not audited by the CAG. Given the enormous trust we repose in them, it is important that these private caretakers of the public good hold themselves to stringent standards of accountability.
