Civil Society

Civil society organisation

Civil society is a wide array of organisations and community groups, NGOs, faith-based associations, professional associations, and foundations. This definition is given by the World Bank.

Difference between civil society organisation and NGO

Legal forms of NGOs in India

In India, NGOs mainly come under three segments.

• Society
  • Society has to register under the Society Registration Act, 1860.
• Trust
  • Private trusts are registered under the Central Government of India Trust Act, 1882, and public ones are registered under the state legislature concerned.
• Charitable companies
  • These are set up according to Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013, for charitable companies.
  • The compliance requirements are high, as loans and advances are easily available to them compared to a trust or a society.
  • They even have to pay income tax under the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Roles of NGOs

NGOs are useful where the state is unwilling to work and when there is a gap left to be filled by NGOs. They work where the state resources are inadequate, useful in fighting social schemes. Right to shelter has become a vocal demand because of these NGOs only, such as Yuva.

They have participated in development operations (for example, 2004 tsunami). They have been able to uplift and provide vocational training also at certain places. They protect tribal rights, as it was witnessed in the Vedanta case (in this case, a mining-related issue in Maninaga Hill led to the suppression of tribal rights, as a result of which they won the victory.)

Advocacy for and with the poor. In some cases, NGOs become spokespersons or advocates for the poor, and they attempt to influence policy and programmes on their behalf.

Advantages of NGOs

• Ability to change and experiment freely, flexible in adapting to the local situation.
• Enjoy good rapport with the people.
• Ability to recruit both expert and highly motivated staff.

Challenges faced by NGOs

• Asymmetry of power
  • Some NGOs have acquired the character of multinational companies because of their large-scale funding and foreign investment. On the other hand, a large chunk of NGOs lack even operational funding.
• Cycling of funds
  • NGOs become a safe haven to channelize black money and tax evasion. Such NGOs are causing loss to the exchequer by helping others to evade taxes.
• NGOs for namesake
  • It is estimated that only 1.5% of NGOs actually undertake development work.
• Political activism
  • Some NGOs are involved in political activism with foreign funds, and a large proportion of NGOs have actively taken part in political campaigns, including working as proxies for some organisations and some political parties.
• Obnoxious agenda
  • Claiming involvement in a human resources initiative, these NGOs are allegedly front organisations of foreign-supported extremists and a sanctionist group. A large part of these funds is also used for religious conversion, which is forbidden under FCRA.
• Absence of strategic planning
  • Many NGOs suffer from a lack of cohesive strategic planning that would facilitate success in their activities and mission, and this renders them unable to effectively raise and capitalise on financial support.
• Poor governance and networking
  • A lack of effective governance is common in NGOs. Many have a deficit of understanding why they must have a board and how to set up one. A founder may be too focused on running the NGO for their own purpose; however, governance is foundational to transparency.
• Lack of volunteerism and social work
  • Among youth, due to less attractive career opportunities and pay scales, even parents are also discouraging their children from social activism.

Some data on NGOs

• Recently, for the past few years, various NGOs have been linked to terror funding cases, and various NGOs are now under the NIA radar.
• Recently, it has been seen that foreign funding and support for extremist groups linked to a political party were also seen and observed, which resulted in large-scale exposure to terror outfits, especially in southern India.
• Only about 10% of 22 lakh NGOs file their annual income and expenditure statement, as reported by CBI.
• IB report stated that the working of NGOs in the name of protest has led to a loss of 2-3% of GDP.

Suggestion to improve the working of NGOs

• Capacity building/capacity enhancement
  • Capacity building and training can help to provide crucial new skills. An NGO, then, can be more radically trained and cultivated in the necessary skills within the organisation to address the challenges going forward.
• On-demand addition of expert
  • The ability to reach out for needed advice and guideline guidance whenever required during a project or to optimise NGO operations is extremely available.
  • Access to quality experts will inspire confidence in donors and contribute to the project's success. NGOs can become more streamlined and effective.
• Use of information and communication technology
  • Relevant social media platform websites must be there for NGOs.
• Timely filing of income tax and expenditure
  • This will help in improving NGOs in the eyes of the government.
  • NGO also needs to ensure that laws, rules, and regulations should be followed in letter and spirit.
• Democratisation of leadership
  • It is important that collective decision-making should be done. Leadership should be democratic, and there must be there.
• Ruler penetration is must
  • As we have seen that most of the NGOs are urban-concentrated. Approximately 65% of India's population is rural, therefore it is believed it should have been reformed.
• Funding
  • Funding should be transparent and needs to be checked by an independent auditor.
  • In this regard, a new FCRA amendment 2026 has been broadened. The ban on accepting foreign funds from a specific company to any person or entity involved in news or media. Penalty: reduces the maximum prison sentence from 5 years to 1 year for a general violation. However, assets are recovered in the case of an NGO's FCRA registration get lapses, denied, or cancelled.