By Robin David
Economic Times IndiaJuly 10, 2002
There may be a flip side to the string of disasters that Gujarat has experienced in the last few years at least as far as the NGO movement in the state is concerned. After remaining heavily dependent on foreign funding, many NGOs have started scouting for financial support from within the country. Something they had not done earlier simply because they assumed that the resources were scant. As many are finding out, money is available in India. Among them are Action Aid and their Aman Samuday programme which collected about Rs 30 lakh by making a national appeal for the riot victims of Gujarat. And more is continuing to flow in from different parts of the country. NGO collective Citizen's Initiative (CI) by itself has collected about Rs 4 lakh in individual contributions, a couple of them as high as Rs 50,000.
"I wouldn't say local NGOs have stopped depending on foreign funds, but there has been a conscious attempt in the last two years to collect funds locally," says Savio Carvalho of Oxfam at Ahmedabad. "In fact, the enormous potential of the middle class has gone largely untapped, especially when you consider that salaries have gone up and there are many people with good intentions."
Despite the NGOs looking inwards for finds, there has been no let up for foreign support either. According to the home ministry website, receipt of foreign contribution during 2000-2001 were worth Rs 4535.23 crore, registering a 15.56 per cent increase over the previous year.
But local funds have their benefits. It allows them to deal with sensitive issues more confidently. As Bhavna Ramrakhiani of CI puts it, "We are less likely to be accused of the 'foreign hand' with local funds while taking on rehabilitation of the riot victims for instance." The Rs 30 lakh will be used for rehabilitating riot victims, providing psychological help to the traumatised, support of the disabled and fighting for the rights of the victims. Many foreign donors had stayed away from NGOs in the aftermath of the communal riots, not wanting to make a political statement by supporting them.
There are those who believe that local funding brings in more transparency and accountability. "I prefer a situation in which a large number of people make small contributions to a fund, instead of a large contribution from only a handful of people," says professor Anil Gupta of IIM, Ahmedabad. His NGO Srishti recently received Rs 65 lakh from the Mumbai-based Sadbhav Trust to start a laboratory to test indigenous innovative technologies. "In a sense you make the system more humane," he adds. "You will also have to be more transparent when there are so many people involved."
Director of the Agha Khan Rural Support Programme, Ahmedabad Apurva Oza, however, would like to see the philanthropy for development-related causes as well, not just for disasters. "Donations have remained crisis-based," he says. "The maximum money has come into the state for the earthquake and the drought. There is not much awareness on the basic issues of development. People are more interested in donating for old age or the blind or similar issues which can evoke sympathy easily."
But the NGOs have tasted blood so to say and many are saying they plan to tap the middle class's growing desire to help a cause. As Ramrakhiani puts it, "We at the Ahmedabad Community Foundation aim at encouraging philanthropy and voluntarism. We will try to encourage more people to become volunteers in development work. If not, will ask them to donate for the cause of development."
More Information on NGOs and Funding
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