NGO

A non-governmental organization (NGO) is a non-profit group that functions independently of any government. Civil Society, when organized in structure and specialized in function, takes the form of NGOs.

• The Central Statistical Institute of India announced in 2009 that there were 3.3 million NGOs registered in India, or one NGO for every 400 Indian citizens. In 2020, GuideStar India (GSI) had more than 10,000 verified NGOs and more than 1,600 certified NGOs on its portal. There are also 100,873 NGOs registered on the ‘NGO Darpan’ Portal of Niti Aayog.

According to a survey conducted by Society for Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA):

• 73.4% of NGOs have one or no paid staff, although across the country, more than 19 million persons work as volunteers or paid staff at an NGO.
• 26.5% of NGOs are engaged in religious activities
• 21.3% work in the area of community and/or social service.
• About one in five NGOs works in education
• 17.9% are active in the fields of sports and culture
• 6.6% work in the health sector.

Significance of NGOs

• Socio-cultural Advancement: It contributes to the social, cultural and economic advancement of the people of India. It helps in poverty alleviation, skill promotion, entrepreneurship development, and empowerment of women, population stabilization, combating HIV/AIDS and elementary education.
• Social Mobilization: It provides innovative solutions to poverty, deprivation, discrimination and exclusion, through means such as awareness raising, social mobilization, service delivery, training, research, and advocacy.
• Link between People and Government: It serves as an effective non-political link between the people and the Government, lending voice to the poor and needy.
• Building Community Participation: It strengthens community participation and offers alternative perspectives; committed expertise and an understanding of the local opportunities and constraints.
• Strengthens Governance: It fills gaps in the government’s welfare systems and analyzes the efficacy and reach of various government projects to provide guidance to the government for policy change.
• Sustainable Development: The issues like environmental protection, forest and water resource management, sustainable development and zero population growth are some of the major concerns of the environmental NGOs.
• Political Empowerment: It is due to the efforts of NGOs that RTI has become reality in India.

Challenges faced by NGOs

• Dearth of Funds: Most of the NGOs in India are suffering due to inadequate funds.
• Misuse of Funds: There have been serious charges of misuse and misappropriation of funds received as grant-in-aid form the government, foreign donors and their own resources.
• Inadequate Trained Personnel: Lack of professionally trained personnel is one of the major challenges faced by NGOs in India.
• Regional Disparity: NGOs are more concentrated in urban areas as compared to rural areas.
• Declining Volunteerism among Youth: The basic characteristic of NGO is volunteerism. The extent of volunteerism is declining day by day and turning it into professionalization.
• Poor Planning and Development Approach: Many NGOs lack a cohesive and strategic plan and do not have a development approach. Thus they are unable to work to their maximum potential for development of a community.
• Absence of Networking: NGOs are crippled by absence of an organized networking. This results in duplicated efforts, time inefficiencies and lack of effective communication with government agencies.
• Excessive Government Control:Government regulates the flow of foreign grants to non-government organisations (NGOs) and makes greater administrative demands on them, increasing their cost of compliance. Over the last few years, the government has taken action against several international organisations including Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Compassion International, and Open Society Foundation.
• Monopolization of Leadership: There is a growing tendency towards monopolization and interlocking of leadership at the top level of voluntary action groups and organizations.

Possibilities and Prospects

NGOs can act as a panacea for a number of complex problems faced by the country that require adaptive and multi-sectoral solutions. The following measures can help to improve the working of NGOs:

• The rules and regulations related to funding of NGOs should be liberalized by government and efforts should be made to increase availability and accessibility of finances to NGOs.
• The Government should support and encourage organizations that train aspirants to enter the voluntary sector, as well as those already working in the sector.
• The Government should encourage involvement of volunteers in public services, such as, at family welfare centers, primary health centers, hospitals, schools, vocational training centers, sanitation campaigns, etc.
• The Government should encourage and recognize innovative & pioneering work.