NGOs AND THEIR ACCOUNTABILITY

NGOs and their accountability

P.N. Benjamin

Money has been flowing into the NGO sector, but very few of the charitable outfits allow public scrutiny of their accounts. So, one of the recommendations of the Veerappa Moily-chaired second Administrative Reforms Commission is to bring the NGO-sector in the purview of the proposed three-member Rashtriya Lokaukta. It has put the spotlight on the vexatious issue of the accountability of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

NGOs have long been a part of Indian life championing a slew of social issues and delivering a wide variety of services. The Central Social Welfare Board has been providing financial support to voluntary agencies for four decades. In 1986 a new government agency, the Council for Advancement of People’s Action and Rural Technology (CAPART) was established to promote NGOs even as the State stepped up funding of their activities. Huge funds began flowing in during the 1990s when NGO involvement was made mandatory by various international bodies including UN agencies as pre-condition for governments receiving funds for socio-economic programmes.

Few figures are available for how much money Indian NGOs raise within the country. But foreign funding for their activities has risen sharply from Rs 1412 crore to Rs 6,200 crore in 2005 growing at a compounded annual rate of 14 per cent every year. This mirrors the overall sharp increase in spending on ‘community’ services in the country.

There is very little financial regulation of NGOs as matters stand. The Foreign Contributions Regulation Act (FCRA), under which organisations that receive foreign funds have to report annually to the Home Ministry the sources and use of the money, is focussed on ensuring internal security. It is not concerned with wastage or misuse of funds, but with use of these funds for political, communal or other such activities.
Similarly, annual submissions to the registrar of societies or to charity commissioners are for all practical purposes mere formalities, with little scrutiny if public money is being prudently spent by charities. This is in stark contrast to what exists in the government where the Comptroller and Auditor General’s office investigates whether the physical achievements match the funds spent. The Kelkar Committee had recommended the creation of a National Charities Board to assist the government in regulating charities as is the case with the National Charities Commission in the UK.

Transparency, or rather the lack of it, has long been a problem with the NGO sector. One telling example of this is how few NGOs bother to make their annual accounts available for public scrutiny.

Besides being the pub and IT capital, Bangalore can also be called the NGO capital of India because in the past few years, there has been a mushrooming in the number of NGOs. Along with this rise comes the question of credibility of these organisations. According to a report published a couple of years ago, of the over 700 NGOs then in Bangalore “perhaps” 50 published their annual statement of accounts!

A substantial portion of the funds required for their functioning come from foreign funding agencies, as revealed by the Home Ministry recently in its annual reports. 600-odd NGOs in Bangalore City alone received nearly Rs.700 crores in 2005. Some of the major beneficiaries of foreign funding in Bangalore are: Church’s Concern for Child and Youth Care (CCCYC), Campus Crusade for Christ, Mysore Resettlement and Dev. Agency (MYRADA), Indian Society of Church of Christ, Habitat for Humanity in India, Christian Church in India, Bridge Foundation., Karnataka Jesuit Education , and Veda Vigyan Vidya Pita. Outreach Samuha, Humanistic Inst., Biblical Baptist Institutions Incorp., and Bangalore Rural Edn. & Dev. Society.

Graham Hancock’s damning 1989 expose, Lords of Poverty: The Power, Prestige, and Corruption of the International Aid Business, estimated that most of the $60 billion plus that comprised governmental, UN, and World Bank or IMF-type “aid” was siphoned off. Mostly by elites in poor nations, special interests (like agribusiness) in donor countries, but also, startlingly, the aid agencies’ own personnel budgets, which waste as much as 80 percent of the funds for lavish (first-class) air travel, salaries, and perquisites.

Unfortunately, the same appears to be true of NGOs. Despite their saintly image in the media, some have connections to dubious groups in India. Some misuse their funds, for instance to pay for trips by their “volunteers” to “lecture-tours” or wasted on extravagant overheads.

In the aftermath of the tsunami many NGOs have become merely fronts for religious conversion. Yes, everyone loves a good tsunami. There have been sordid tales about how certain “charities” refused help unless the targets of their munificence converted. More insidious are groups with deceptively appealing siren songs. Most of these organizations have become personal fiefdoms for self-glorification, or else unwitting tools in the hands of anti-nationals.

A word to the wise donor: caveat emptor, buyer beware! All NGOs are not created equal.

(Courtesy: Vijay Times, Bangalore; February 19, 2007)

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NORTH EAST COMPLEXITIES

NORTH EAST COMPLEXITIES IN PERSPECTIVE*
(Vijay Times, 4 May 2005)

By P.N.BENJAMIN

In an interview to the BBC World, the general secretary of the National Socialist Council of NagalandSCN, Thuingaleng Muviah has said: “ It’s not possible for the Nagas to come within the Indian Union or within the framework of the Indian Constitution. Nagaland was never a part of India. Sovereignty of the Naga people belongs to the Naga people alone.” He demanded the integration of all Naga areas outside the present boundaries of Nagaland with the Greater Nagaland within a reasonable time frame. “We do not want our people to live under the Assamese, Manipuris or others. Our areas were forcibly occupied. We want them back to protect and pursue our own culture, our own way of living and our traditions. How can Nagas be ruled by ‘foreigners’?”

He added that the slogan “Nagaland for Christ” did not mean that he intended to set up a theocratic state. “Because more than 95 per cent of the population is Christian naturally they have to profess that way…. Nagalim or Greater Nagaland has to be secular. If it is not secular then we will be betraying ourselves.”

Thus, the eight-year-long negotiations – 41 rounds of dialogue, to be precise, – between the Government of India and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muviah)- the biggest outfit fighting for Naga independence – have hit a major roadblock.

The Naga separatists claim that Nagas had never been part of British or post-British India. This might be true. But you cannot hark back to what used to be more than 100 years ago. The Hydaari Agreement of June 27, 1947, which the Nagas accepted, said they would be free to choose for themselves the precise pattern of administration within the Constitution of India. They went back on the undertaking when Constituent Assembly Committee incorporated the conditions of the agreement in the Sixth Schedule for safeguarding the Naga demands. There might be resentments. What should people of India make of the Nagas participating in the assembly and parliament elections and nearly 60 per cent of them turning out to vote? The government in Kohima is that of the Nagas and come through the process of polls.

Alteration in the boundaries of any state is a dangerous proposition. No political party or leader has the courage to raise the issue, much less convince a state to part with its territory. If a state were to be touched without its consent, there would be civil strife everywhere. Some boundary disputes, dating back to 1955, are still working against ethnic groups because no state wants to give up its claim on the territory that was once its own. In short, it is important for the Naga secessionists to realise that it is not possible for the Government of India to expand Nagaland at the expense of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal.

Yes, many if not most, Nagas would prefer to be independent and sovereign rather than part of India. Should we permit Nagaland to break away, the latent nationalisms in other parts of Indian states could flare up. As Yugoslavia has shown, it does not take much for a supposedly “united” federation to disintegrate into a squabbling congeries of peoples.

The reasons for the continued insurgency in Nagaland and elsewhere in the NE are not far to seek. One of them is, of course, lack of development. Then, the insurgent outfits thrive because at one level, existing international borders are porous; at another, liberally buffetted by their friends and benefactors, residing abroad, and politicians playing a double-game at home, the insurgents have had everything going for them. Add to that the combination of terror and sympathy both among the common masses, and we have fairly clear picture of the North East.

The insurgents have been recipients of foreign funds and arms in massive quantities. The Indian State can be said to have utterly failed to check the huge largesse. Half-hearted attempts in the shape of legislation cannot obviously work as a useful check, because the funds and arms have now become part of a hard-to-break-established chain. It shows the inability of successive Indian governments to grapple with the problem with a sense of urgency and commitment.

In all fairness it must be said that the role of Christian missionaries in the secessionist activities in North East India has not been above reproach. In 1970, in the Rajya Sabha, the late Mr. Joachim Alva had reminded the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi: “foreign money was poured into India’s borders and the Nagaland problem was damaged by the flow of funds from Churches abroad.”

In the guise of uplifting the backward classes, the fundamentalist Protestant missionaries have been engaged in a massive proselytisation drive for several decades now. Their main targets have been the gullible tribals in the hill regions and other backward classes in the plains of Brahmaputra valley. Although the proselytising activities themselves should be a cause for concern, a more disconcerting aspect of the missionary activity has been their tendency to influence the politics of the North-East region.

Delivering the Zakir Hussein Memorial Lecture on “Secularism &Minorities”, on 30 November 1979 in Bangalore, the late Prof. V.V.John, the noted educationist had said: “Christians have also an obligation to take note of the circumstances that a section of the Christians of tribal origin in the North-Eastern region adopted secessionist attitude. And some diehards still persist in their original stance. The non-Christian sees in this phenomenon a failure on the part of Christians to keep politics out of religion, as they in their secular moments counsel others to do.”

The missionaries have been active in the North-East because of the failure on the part of the Centre as well as the state governments to address themselves to the basic problems facing the people. If the idea is to make the Indian State and its measures popular in one of the most neglected parts of the country, step-motherly attitudes should give way to really genuine ones.

It is also true that the state governments, central and para military forces have often been guilty of mistaking repression for a remedy to endemic terrorism. Certainly one form of terror cannot be countered by resorting to another; after all, as is well known, the socio-political roots of insurgency need to be understood and eradicated if any lasting peace is to be provided to a region which has seldom had any respite from the cult of the gun.

P.N.BENJAMIN
benjaminpn@hotmail.com

BANGALORE INITIATIVE FOR RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE (BIRD)

BANGALORE INITIATIVE FOR RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE (BIRD)

 

 

AN INTER-FAITH VOYAGE

Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD

) is a little lamp, lit and kept burning, by a group of kindred souls and fellow pilgrims. Theirs is an inter-faith voyage of discovery, sailing on the winds of near-identical views on people and events signifying that whatever the darkness, however profound the sense of lostness, the light of God’s love – be it Ram, Allah or Jesus – will continue to shine, for those who have the eyes to see, a heart to love and a soul to believe. BIRD’s premise is simplicity itself -striking a match in a dark immense cavern, to dispel the surrounding gloom.

We are convinced that only through inter- religious dialogue can we defuse the recurring tension between religious groups and communities in India and elsewhere. We believe in strengthening of inter-faith dialogue in order to elevate communal harmony to the level of a practicing doctrine. In any such dialogues there is need for a full and free exchange of our differing religious experiences, in a spirit of mutual respect, appreciation and sympathy. An exchange of individual or collective experiences will lead to enrichment of each others religious life, purifying and strengthening the religious attitude of mind against irreligious and materialistic attitudes from which stem our personal, social and national problems.

BIRD came into being in 2001 as a response to the growing communal and inter-religious tensions that prevailed in the country at that time. As a first step, it organized a lecture to honour the memory of the late Rev. Dr. Stanley Samartha whom Francois Gautier, who delivered the lecture on 7th October 2001, described as “the Christian prophet of religious pluralism” on 7 October 2001. Among those who attended were a large number of activists from the Hindu mainline and so-called hard-core groups, apart from disciples of Guru Sri Sri Ravishankar, who were genuinely surprised to learn that there lived a Christian thinker like Dr. Samartha.

Immediately after the lecture, the Hindu leaders expressed their desire to enter into dialogue with Christians and the first meeting took place at the Dharmaram Vidya Shektram in the last week of October 2001. Since then there has been no turning back and we have been in constant touch with the so-called “Hindu fanatics”.

In the beginning we heard a voice – a voice of sanity. That was Mahatma Gandhi telling us: “Show a little humility and a little diffidence about the correctness of one’s conduct and a little receptiveness. He reminded us “not to seek to satisfy our thirst for ego by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred and jealousy. We should cease to be merchants of hate. We have to teach ourselves that consideration for others is nobler than muscling our way to the front”.

Our experience has proved that peace can be achieved only through talking to our perceived enemies because they are the ones supposed to be creating problems for us. Disarm them with a broad smile. Talk to them with sincerity and honesty. They are receptive to reason. That has been our experience. That has been our strategy.

BIRD’s achievements are nothing to write home about. But, who can deny that we do not hear about violent attacks on Christians in India after the publication of the report of BIRD-RSS fact-finding and peace mission to Mysore following the alleged attack on the Holy Family Church at Hinkal in 2002? BIRD has also played a minor role three years ago in the release of Ian Stillman, an invalid, British social worker, from Shimla jail.
Since its inception in 2001, BIRD has been providing a platform for addressing those issues, which are the causes for religious tension and resentment. We propose to organize more meetings and dialogues between religious and community leaders to ensure harmony between followers of different faiths. We will also conduct public lectures, seminars, workshops, conferences and meetings on topics useful to the people at large.

The road ahead of the fellow pilgrims of inter-faith dialogue and peacemakers is long, narrow and arduous. We seek your guidance and support – moral, material and financial.

For further details please contact:

P.N.BENJAMIN,

Coordinator,

Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD)

7, 4^th A Cross

HRBR II Block

Kalyan Nagar

Bangalore 560 043

INDIA

E-mail: benjaminpn@hotmail.com

RELEASE OF IAN STILLMAN – Minor role played by BIRD

BIRD IN ACTION

The minor role played by BIRD

in the release of Ian Stillman

a disabled British charity worker

A deputation consisting of representatives of the Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue

( BIRD), ACTS Ministries, Church of South India met Miss Uma Bharati, then Minister in the Central Cabinet, on 24 June 2002 and submitted a memorandum to be passed on to the Prime Minister urging his government to release Mr. IAN STILLMAN, a disabled British Charity worker who was undergoing 10-year imprisonment in Shimla jail on charges of possessing 20 kg cannabis, a charge he had refuted. Uma Bharati told the delegation that she was moved by the plight of Mr. Stillman and would do everything possible to free him from the Shimla jail. Later on BIRD was in touch with its friends in the RSS and VHP to use their influence with the Government of India to see that Stillman was released.

As a humanitarian gesture, the Government of India freed fifty-year old Mr. STILLMAN on December 7, 2002 and handed over to the British High Commission officials in Shimla.

Text of the BIRD Memorandum dated 24/06/2002

to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri A.B.Vajpayee

 

We write this appeal on behalf of Ian Stillman, a deaf British citizen, who
has been languishing in the Kanda jail near Shimla for the last two years.
He was arrested for allegedly possessing 20 kilos of cannabis and sentenced
to 10 years in jail. His appeal to the Supreme Court was dismissed on May 6.

Stillman came to India in 1972. Appalled by the plight of the deaf people in
India he decided stay back in South India and work for them. He wanted to
prove to the world that given the right training, there was nothing the deaf
persons could not do. August 2000, when Ian was on a trip to Manali for
setting up IT camps for deaf people the police arrested him under the
Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act for the aforesaid crime.

Here are the facts which we would request you to consider.  Ian got a lift
from an Israeli tourist who was going back to Manali. When the police
stopped the car the Israeli ran away. The taxi driver and his assistant were
witnesses but the court declared that they had turned hostile.   More than
200 British MPs have recently petitioned the Indian government for
Stillman’s freedom. Ian’s health is reportedly failing. The phantom pain in
his amputated leg has resurfaced and he suffers from diabetes. The doctors
have warned him that he could lose his other leg too.       As he languishes
in jail, he reads whatever he can lay his hands on and is well on his way to
writing a children’s book.

Ian Stillman longs to get back to the deaf camp he opened in Kanyakumari and
the Nambikkai, and the Foundation set up in Chennai in 1978. We appeal to
the Government of India to show mercy on Ian Stillman and free him from
prison and permit him to resume his work among the deaf persons.

We urge your timely action to set Stillman free and help him continue his
noble work.

1) P.N.BENJAMIN, Coordinator, Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD)

2) Dr. Ken R. Gnanakan, (ACTS MINISTRIES )

3) Bishop Elia Peter (Methodist Church)

4) Bishop S. Paul Raj (CSI)

5) Dr. Thomas George

BANGALORE INITIATIVE FOR RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE (BIRD)

BANGALORE INITIATIVE FOR RELIGIOUS DIALOGUE (BIRD)

Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD)

 

is a little lamp, lit and kept burning, by a group of kindred souls and fellow pilgrims. Theirs is an inter-faith voyage of discovery, sailing on the winds of near-identical views on people and events.

 

BIRD’s

premise is simplicity itself -striking a match in a dark immense cavern, to dispel the surrounding gloom

 

BIRD

seeks to promote inter-religious dialogue by providing an open forum for the exchanges between and among followers of different religious paths. While BIRD encourages creative and bold responses to the questions of pluralism confronting religious persons today, it also recognizes the plurality of perspectives concerning the methods and content of inter-religious dialogue. It represents a variety of religious view points.

 

BIRD

is convinced that healthy dialogue is a necessary tool for overcoming alienation and halting the march of hatred and misunderstanding and to diffuse the recurring tension between religious groups and communities

 

BIRD

believes that amidst the conflicting claims made on behalf of different religions there is an urgent need for a full and free exchange of our differing religious experiences, in a spirit of mutual respect, appreciation and empathy

.

 

 

BIRD

realizes that any attempt to weaken the hold of the truth of any religion upon mankind is to weaken religion itself. Therefore we strive not to weaken but to strengthen each other by mutual respect, trust and co-operation

BIRD

invites people of all faiths to share through it the richness of their various religious traditions and experiences in this adventure of spirit.

 

Inter-religious communities often spring up in response to crises and public emergencies also. There is a vital need of forming inter-faith communities in rural areas. Every person and institution, especially places of worship, should take the initiative in forming inter-religious communities in cities and rural areas.

 

.

PROPOSED PROGRAMMATIC ACTIVITIES:

 

BIRD has proposed to embark on a three-year programme with four specific programmatic components and they are:

 

Inter-faith dialogues

 

That will consider organization of inter-faith dialogues among religious leaders, institutional hierarchies, professionals, service clubs, Non-government organizations, corporate houses, students of schools and colleges

 

Forum for artists, orators and writers

 

Organisation of exhibitions, publications and debates on communal amity inviting well known artists, orators and writers and also upcoming aspirants to be able to express their opinion and thus arouse the social concern of the masses.

 

Campaign for creation of larger mass base

 

Creation of a larger mass base to be able to embark on a movement approach; where all people could be helped to thing and act alike in one accord with concern and compassion for the fellow being

 

Cadre evolution

 

To prepare motivated men and women with skills to organize and monitor peace committees in their respective residential areas and also to inculcate human values among the student community of the local schools

 

ANTICIPATED OUTCOME:

 

Enrichment of one another’s religious life

Mutual respect, understanding and tolerance

Co-operation in purifying and strengthening the religious attitude of mind

Inculcation of human values

Development of love, care and concern for fellow beings

Longing for peace and harmony

Concern over personal, social and national problems

 

An Appeal

 

BIRD

needs your support. Please send your contributions by cheque or demand draft drawn in favour of

Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue to: