Skip to main content

Govt apathy, funds crisis? 36% NGOs drop Covid relief, 54% plan to: IIM-A survey

 
A high-profile Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) survey of civil society organizations (CSOs) has complained that government indifference despite the “felt need” to continue with the relief work to the poorer sections society amidst Covid-19 crisis was a major reason why more than 36% of CSOs were forced to stop doing the work, while another 54% said they had plans to stop it in a month’s time.
Carried out by a group of researchers led by IIM-A faculty Prof Ankur Sarin, the survey report, "Voluntary Sector Response to Food Scarcity during Covid-19" cites “lack of resources” as the biggest challenge driving these organisations and individuals to stop their ongoing efforts, underlining, “This emerges against a backdrop of rising numbers of people relying on food relief activities of these CSOs. Almost 70% of respondents claimed that the number of people they have been serving increased over time.”
The surveyed CSOs work in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Delhi (NCR), Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal. Among those involved in preparing the report included Prof Reetika Khera, well-known development economist. The survey period was between May 1 and 14.
The report says, on probing further into the reasons for suspending operations, only around 3% reported that they “did not feel” the need to continue, while 84% cited lack of funds as one of the reasons for their decision to stop their operations. It notes, “Most of them have relied on individual/public contributions and their own funds. However, they are unable to continue to shell out similar amounts.”
The report quotes a Samajik Shaikshanik Vikas Kendra (Bihar) activist as stating there were complications in “getting the permission” to mobilise funds, forcing the CSO to represented to Niti Aayog. The CSO plea says the foreign funded NGOs (i.e. Foreign Contribution Regulation Act-registered) should be “permitted" for hassle free movement to mobilise funds as well as supporting the people in this pandemic Covid-19.
According to the report, “Funding has been received by less than 4% of respondents while 8% have received raw materials free of cost from the government. Around 4% of CSOs have managed to obtain some supplies from the Food Corporation of India (FCI) and other government-affiliated bodies.” It comments, “Given that a majority of them have reported that the lack of funds/supplies is their biggest bottleneck, these figures are low.”
IIM-A survey says, funding has been received by less than 4% of CSOs; 8% have received raw materials free of cost from government
The report says, the dominant form of support that the government has lent to CSOs has been the arrangement of travel passes during curfew periods (around 44%). Other forms included transportation (11%), distribution (21%) and identification of beneficiaries (20%). Around 11% of respondents that stopped distribution reported that they had been stopped by the police and other authorities due to curfew orders.
The report, which is based on a survey of 113 CSOs and their representatives, says that a major reason why CSOs began with their initiative to help the poorer sections – 76% of whom were daily wage workers – was because of the “issues of access, availability and quality facing public distribution system (PDS) and other government efforts.”
The report says, “Organisations and individuals reported that the PDS provisions proved to be insufficient. Almost half the respondents reported that only some people have had access to their ration entitlements. About 20% stated that there have been large shortages of essentials and instances where supplies came in too late. More than 14% of respondents also emphasised on the poor quality of commodities available at ration shops.”
Comments the report, “With the implementation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in 2013, there was a need for all states to formulate their own eligibility criteria for granting ration cards and undertake identification exercises. However, till date, these eligibility criteria are not transparent and remain unclear.” In fact, “outdated data” led to “large exclusion errors” whereby people who are eligible and in need of subsidised food grains are excluded – which economists Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera estimate to be around 100 million.
“While the government has proposed to implement its One Nation One Ration Card across the country by March 2021, states may not be prepared to implement this immediately without a digitised beneficiary database and provisions for identity verification”, the report asserts, adding, “Stranded migrant workers can take advantage of this scheme only if their applications for ration cards are processed (and approved) promptly and urgently.”
The report quotes Udayan Care, an NGO as stating: “Huge issue to get government ration. We got rice from Food Corporation of India (FCI) and the quality was inhuman for consumption.”, while another NGO, Nirantar Trust said,"The PDS distributors were putting wrong quantities on the ration cards of tribal families and on complaining, SDM also didn't sound very promising of taking any action against them." 
The report says, while 56% of the surveyed respondents had prior history of working with the households that they were serving, 65% followed a door-to-door delivery system to get provisions to people in need, indicating they had last-mile access to people and households at a much finer level, which may be difficult for other government bodies to obtain. Around 24% of respondents followed a distribution model where people gather at a central location.

Comments

TRENDING

World Hijab Day? Ex-Muslim women observe Feb 1 as No Hijab Day, insist: 'Put it on a Man'

I didn't know that there could ever be a thing as World Hijab Day until I received an email alert from Maryam Namazie of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain (CEMB), stating that several ex-Muslim women's groups had observed the same day—February 1—as No Hijab Day! According to Namazie, the day "was created on February 1 as a direct response to World Hijab Day" to "illuminate the coercive and oppressive realities of the hijab as a pillar of sex apartheid and a war on women."

Google powered AI refuses to correct grammar of a 'balanced' piece on Trump sending chained immigrants to India!

This is a continuation of my blog on how, while the start-up-developed AI app DeepSeek is being criticized for consistently rejecting content related to China or Maoism, there appears to be no mention in Western media about why another app, developed by the powerful Google, Gemini, remains silent on Indian political issues.  

How the middle classes are returning to the BJP fold, be it Delhi or Gujarat: Mahakumbh, Sitharaman's budget

Whatever reasons may be offered for the Aam Aadmi Party's defeat in Delhi—whether it was the BJP's promises of more freebies than AAP, the shedding of ultra-nationalist slogans, or the successful demolition of Arvind Kejriwal's "Mr. Clean" image—my recent interaction with a group of middle-class individuals highlighted a notable trend. Those who had just begun to sit on the fence were now once again returning to the BJP fold.

Trump’s research cuts 'may mean' advantage China: But will India leverage global brain drain to its advantage?

When I heard from a couple of NRI professionals—currently on work visas and engaged in research projects at American universities—that one of President Donald Trump's major policy thrusts was to cut federal funding to the country's top educational institutions, I was instantly reminded of what Prof. Kaushik Basu had said while delivering a lecture in Ahmedabad.

Gujarat a police state? How top High Court advocate stunned a senior-most journalist

Rajdeep Sardesai, Anand Yagnik This is a continuation of my earlier blog on well-known journalist Rajdeep Sardesai's lecture in memory of the late Achyut Yagnik at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA). I was a little surprised when I received the intimation about the venue for the lecture.

Why burn Manusmriti? Why not preserve it to demonstrate, display historicity of casteism?

In a significant Facebook post, Rana Singh, former associate professor of English at Patna University, has revealed something that few seem to know. Titled "The Shudras in Manusmriti", Singh says,  because Manusmriti is discussed so often, he thought of reading it himself. “This book likely dates back to the 2nd or 3rd century BCE, and the presence of contradictory statements suggests that it is not the work of a single author,” he says in his Facebook post in Hindi, written in 2022 and recently reshared.

5% poor in India? Union govt claim debunked, '26.4% of population below poverty line'

A recent paper, referring to the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23 of the Government of India (GoI), has debunked the official claim that poverty has substantially declined. Titled "Poverty in India: The Rangarajan Method and the 2022–23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey", the paper —authored by scholars CA Sethu, LT Abhinav Surya, and CA Ruthu—states that "more than a quarter of India’s population falls below the poverty line."

Talking of increased corporate control over news, Rajdeep Sardesai 'evades' alternative media

When I received an intimation that well-known journalist Rajdeep Sardesai was to speak at the Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) on February 2, my instant reaction was: I know what he is going to say—his views are quite well known; he wouldn’t be saying anything new. Yet, I decided to go and listen to him to catch his mood at a time when the media, as he (and I) knew it, is changing fast due to the availability of new technological tools that were not accessible even a decade ago.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

  The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.  I don't know who owns this site, for there is nothing on it in the About Us link. It merely says, the Nashik Corporation  site   "is an educational and news website of the municipal corporation. Today, education and payment of tax are completely online." It goes on to add, "So we provide some of the latest information about Property Tax, Water Tax, Marriage Certificate, Caste Certificate, etc. So all taxpayer can get all information of their municipal in a single place.some facts about legal and financial issues that different city corporations face, but I was least interested in them."  Surely, this didn't intere...