Amended Act stops NGOs from providing COVID care to poor

Several Non Government Organizations (NGOs) across the country are unable to work due to drying up of donations from abroad after the Centre amended the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) last year.

NGOs, which help the poor people and which could have been of great help during the current lockdown, are not able to receive donations from other countries since September 2020, when the amended Act came into force.

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VANI, an association of NGOs, has said that if the Centre wants the help of NGOs to tide over the present crisis, it must first relax or revoke the disastrous amendments made under the FCRA law.

“The NGOs can now receive foreign contribution only through the State Bank of India branch in New Delhi with effect from April 1, 2021. Most of the NGOs complied with the formalities and forwarded their applications to SBI, New Delhi, but the bank is yet to open our accounts,” said a VANI member.

There are certain NGOs whose applications are pending with the Union Home Ministry after the State Bank of India opened their accounts. “Others have received FCRA approval online, but are waiting for the letter from MHA. Without this letter, State Bank of India will not give them permission to receive funds or use the account,” complained the VANI member.

Since 2014, several NGOs’ registrations have been cancelled. The DevelopAid Foundation has analysed that out of 22,427 NGOs with active FCRA approval, 13,852 (62%) applications are pending either with the SBI or with the Home Ministry.

“NGOs have not yet been able to open their account with the SBI New Delhi branch or haven’t received the required approval from the FCRA department. These associations cannot receive foreign contributions till they get the final approval. This puts us into a situation where foreign donors are prepared to send money for medical and food relief, but we are not able to receive them,” said the member.

The data furnished by the Home Ministry in Rajya Sabha last month said NGOs in Tamil Nadu received a total of Rs 2,000 crore for three years from 2016-17 to 2018-19. This amount fell to just Rs 219 crore in 2019-20. Between 2014 and 2019, FCRA registration of more than 14,800 NGOs was cancelled across the country.

“Many genuine NGOs lost their source of foreign funds due to some black sheep within them. Some were denied FCRA registration in the name of religion. Our work during last year’s lockdown in making masks etc has now been hit,” said the member.