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Summary
Governance Class 07

THE CLASS STARTED (IN CONTINUATION) AT: (05:02 PM):

CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS: (05:03 PM):

  • Criticism Of Civil Society, & NGOs:
  • 1) Neither transparency nor accountability in the functioning of these organizations.
  • 2) There are many instances wherein they have received funds from dubious resources, & the money was spent on anti-national activities.
  • For example, in the agitations against the Kudunkolam Nuclear Power Project in Tamilnadu, it was found that most of these NGOs have received foreign funds from the Scandinavian countries to finance this agitation.
  • Funds were also received by the Green NGOs (working in the field of environment) from the US and Europe to fund agitation against big infrastructure projects e.g. Narmada Bachao Andola (NBA).
  • 3) There are religious institutions that have received funds to finance illegal conversions, & also to finance terror activities (some Christian missionaries, and Zakir Naik's Foundation respectively).
  • 4) Most of these NGOs demand transparency, & accountability in the functioning of governments, but there is neither transparency nor accountability in their own functioning.
  • 5) Methods used by the NGOs have also been questioned they restored to blackmailing tactics by going on fast unto death to get their demands met. (Anna Hazare demanding implementation of the Lok Pal).
  • 6) Some of the NGOs have also used the judiciary to create policy paralysis in the administration by filing Public Interest Litigation (PILs). These PILs have been criticized mostly as personal interest litigation or publicity interest litigations.
  • Measure Taken By the Government to Regulate the Functioning of NGOs:
  • 1) The government has the power to ban all those NGOs which are indulging in anti-national activities. Criminal cases should be filed against such NGOs.
  • 2) Recently the government of India has made amendments to the FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) to control, & regulate the activities of NGOs.
  • Amendments:
  • All the NGOs must register themselves with the State Bank of India, New Delhi branch.
  • They must open an account with this branch to receive foreign funds.
  • They are not allowed to receive foreign funds in any other bank account which helps the government monitor the spending in a more effective manner.
  • To receive foreign funds they must submit all the necessary documents to the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is the final authority to provide licenses.
  • They must renew their licenses every two years.
  • The money should be spent only for the purpose it has been received.
  • If it is found that a diversion of funds has taken place then the government can cancel their licenses, & criminal charges can be filed against it.
  • NGOs are not allowed to sub-donate the money they have received to other smaller NGOs entire money should be spent by them only.
  • Administrative expenses cannot be more than 20% of the overall donations, previously the limit was 50%, it was found out that in the name of administrative expenses, these NGOs are diverting the money for other purposes.
  • In recent times most NGOs have also faced other criticisms:
  • They are spending their time, energy, & resources only on attracting funds from international aid organizations, corporate sectors, & the government.
  • After 2014, as a party of citizen-centric governance, most of the flagship schemes of the government are implemented with the help of NGOs including the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Mid-Day Meal, ICDS, PMJAY, Swacch Bharat Abhiyan, etc.
  • These NGOs after receiving huge amounts of funds from the government have failed to ensure impartial review of the performance of these schemes.
  • In the process, they also are losing credibility among the stakeholders at the ground level. They are spending more time lobbying with these organizations than working with the people.
  • NGOs, & Civil Society Organizations are said to maintain equidistance from the State, & the Private sector. They must focus on working with the people on the ground level to regain their credibility, once their credibility is regained, automatically donations also follow.
  • At present most of these NGOs are conspicuous by their absence at the ground level and then by their presence.
  • The Second Administrative Reforms Commission in its report on Citizen Centric Governance, has suggested strengthening of Civil Society Movement in India.
  • India is yet to become a full-fledged democracy when there is no active participation of people in governance.
  • These NGOs and Civil Society Organizations are expected to bridge the gap between the citizens, and the State in this regard the 2nd ARC suggested institutionalization of the relationship between the State, and Civil Society Organizations.
  • It can be done by making it mandatory for the State to consult, Civil Society Organizations about any public policies e.g. Education Policy must reflect the inputs provided by the NGOs working in the field of education it can help to remove the distance between policies formulated at the top, and problems faced by the people at the lowest levels.
  • For example, MKSS (Mazdoor, & Kisan Shakti Sanghtan) an NGO led by Aruna Roy was instrumental in the passing of RTI.
  • Parivartan NGO is responsible for responsible governance reforms, especially in the Public Service Delivery mechanism.
  • Associations for Democratic Reforms, Lok Satta, and Jagruti are responsible for electoral reforms including Women's Reservations, reducing criminalization of politics, and transparency in electoral funding, declaration of assets by candidates contesting elections.
  • Similarly, the National Education Policy and National Health Policy are also based on critical inputs provided by NGOs.

NGOs IN POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: (06:17 PM):

  • Mid Meal Scheme is implemented by the Akshay Patra Foundation run by ISKCON.
  • All other flagship schemes of the government are implemented by the NGOs including MGNREGA, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, PM-JAY, etc.
  • Policy Evaluation:
  • Social Audit Committees are responsible for evaluating the performance of flagship schemes of the government including NREGA, and others.

REASONS WHY PUBLIC POLICIES ARE FAILURE IN INDIA: (06:40 PM):

  • 1) Public policies in India always face the conflict between welfare, & development. Welfare mostly focuses on providing immediate relief to the people in the form of subsidies, both in cash and kind. Development on the other hand focuses on empowering people in the long run. It can be achieved only when the State spends more amount of money on both physical and social infrastructure.
  • 2) Imperatives of electoral politics demand that political parties think more about immediate short-term benefits of the people rather than their long-term sustainable development.
  • 3) Anti-poverty programs since independence have mostly focused on poverty alleviation rather than on poverty removal.
  • Poverty alleviation emphasizes providing temporary relief to the people from poverty but giving them subsidies. Whereas poverty removal programs focus on the improvement of physical, & social infrastructures.
  • Since people are poor, the government has been forced to provide subsidies, and it is said that since the government is providing the subsidies the people will remain poor.
  • The vicious cycle of Poverty:
  • Poor→Subsidies→Increase in Revenue Expenditure→Less Capital Expenditure→Lack of Infra Development→No industries→More Unemployment.
  • 4) One size-fits approach: In the recent past the country has witnessed a huge amount of increase in Centrally Sponsored Schemes, these schemes mostly follow a one-size-fits-all approach i.e. same scheme is implemented all over the country irrespective of the conditions prevailing at the ground level.
  • More often than not these schemes end up as a failure e.g. under NREGA, 100 days of employment is provided in a year, it may not be required for a state like Punjab which has three crops in a year.
  • On the other hand in a state like Rajasthan, a minimum of 250 days of employment is required due to the absence of sustainable agriculture.
  • 5) Lack of Awareness among beneficiaries about the schemes implemented by the government. According to this year's Economic Survey 2023, both the Central, and state governments combined together, & implemented 580 schemes i.e. average Indian villagers must receive the benefits of 580 schemes. But the question is how many are aware of all the schemes and it mostly ends up in a very systematic corruption.
  • 6) Since independence focus of successive governments has been mostly on improving the Physical Infrastructure.
  • Between the 1950s-1990s, the entire planning process was all about the physical infrastructure in the form of irrigation projects, and Public Sector Enterprises. Critical social capital was completely ignored.
  • After 1991 India adopted a Neo-Liberal State wherein the State delegated most of its functions to the private sector, critical sectors like education, & health were completely privatized with expenditure spent by the government coming down drastically. It led to a situation wherein the rich, and middle-class sections of society only benefiting out of the development processes due to their access to quality education, and health provided by the private sector.
  • This period also witnessed a rapid increase in the population with the inability of the State to transform the demographic bulge into a demographic dividend.
  • Human Resource Development is consciously ignored by the State with more focus on welfare and subsidies.
  • 7) Developmental schemes are implemented by the bureaucracy without any accountability mechanisms.
  • Citizen participation in the implementation, as well as evaluation, is completely absent in terms of welfare and developmental administration.
  • This bureaucracy-centric administration is one of the most important reasons for the failure of public policies.

TOPICS OF THE NEXT CLASS: Citizen Charters, E-Governance, etc.