Author: Anupreeta Das
Publication: Outlook
Date: September 22, 2003
Introduction: The hills are alive
with the buzz of self-seeking NGOs, many existing only in name
Lush forests are not the only bounty
that Uttaranchal got in its kitty after it became a state in November 2000.
It also got close to 45,000 NGOs- mind-boggling for a state so tiny, with
a population of only 84.7 lakh. Records from the offices of the chief commissioner
of income tax and the registrar of societies confirm this huge NGO presence.
What has also come as a surprise to the authorities is the unusually high
density of NGOs in a state with 13 districts. That's nearly 4,000 NGOs
per district!
When Uttaranchal's IT commissioner
Ashwini Luthra initiated a survey of NGOs in May, he did not expect to
chance upon a fraud that runs into crores of rupees. "When the IT department
started collecting data, we found that many NGOs did not actually exist
or were non-functional," says Luthra. "Yet, money is being pumped into
trusts, educational societies, NGOs and ashrams all over Uttaranchal."
While the IT office lists a total
44,824 groups, the office of the registrar puts the figure at 41,826.
No wonder then that Uttaranchal's
NGO community is rife with allegations of corruption and diversion of funds.
Amidst the profusion, one can find registered NGOs such as the Mahila Vikas
Sansthan and Priyadarshini Himalayan Seva Institute that don't exist at
their addresses, educational
societies that have run up huge
accounting discrepancies, and blacklisted NGOs that are ostensibly unaware
of their disrepute.
Take, for instance, the Bal Evam
Mahila Kalyan Sansthan in Dehradun's Nehru Nagar. This NGO has been blacklisted
by the Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB) for "non-refund of loans and
non-submission of accounts", but its founder-director Parmanand Agarwal
denies it outright. "In the past, we have run a tailoring centre, training
sessions for making incense sticks and health relief camps with funds from
CAPART. Who says we have been blacklisted?" asks Agarwal. He took voluntary
retirement from the army to pursue his "mission", which is to provide "literacy,
health and employment for the people of Uttaranchal". His tiny one-room
office, which sits atop his residence, houses the meagre tools of his mission:
a computer, a typewriter, two desks, government pamphlets and a telephone.
Since 2001, Agarwal's NGO has been
running a tele- counselling centre for HIV/AIDS under a Rs 2.74 lakh grant
from the National AIDS Control Organisation. "People call every few minutes
asking about HIV/ AIDS," he informs us and opens a register to show calls
recorded at two-minute and three- minute intervals. However, in the one
hour we sat in his office, there was not a single call. Agarwal insists
it is because it's "lunch break", presumably for callers too. Neither he
nor his colleague Dinesh Chand seem to know much about HIV/ AIDS. "Hum
pamphlet se padh ke batate hain (We read out answers to queries from the
pamphlets)," explains Chand.
Faced with reports and allegations
of such misconduct, Dehradun's district magistrate ordered a survey of
registered NGOs and societies in June last year. Dehradun district is home
to 7,469 NGOs, the largest concentration in the state. The initial results
of the survey show that of 223 organisations checked so far, 139 NGOs and
societies are fraudulent or registered only on paper. "It is quite evident
that barely 10 per cent of the NGOs in Dehradun district are functional.
The rest just sit there, waiting for funds to come by," says chief development
officer P.S. Jangpangi. He says the situation in the rest of Uttaranchal
is "even worse".
Examination of bank accounts has
yielded irregularities in the funds of many NGOs. The Van Karamchari Welfare
Society, for instance, could not identify the source of Rs 4.6 lakh in
its bank account when questioned by officials of the District Programmes
Office (DPO).Setting up schools appears to be another racket. In October
last year, a survey of educational societies by the IT department showed
unaccounted funds to the "tune of several crores", says an IT official.
However, Devender Mann, chairman of the Doon International School Education
Society (not to be confused with the renowned Doon School), which is one
of the schools surveyed, dismisses it as "baseless". "We are a no profit,
no loss society. All the money we earn from students is spent on improving
school facilities," he says.
Furthermore, a rough estimate by
the registrar's office shows that nearly 10,000 NGOs and societies have
been registered since Uttaranchal was created. "After schools, NGOs are
the sunrise industry," says Geetanjali, a social worker with the development
NGO Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra (RLEK).
"Many paratroopers, lured by the
funds on offer for a newborn state, have come in and set up NGOs," alleges
RLEK chairman Avdhesh Kaushal. Uttaranchal is one of the few states that
enjoys special status with regard to central government development funds.
Besides, several international aid agencies too have pitched their tents
here. "There is money to be had, respect to be earned and very little work
to be done. No wonder, starting an NGO is a very attractive option," says
Kadambari Gosain, who helps her husband S.S. Gosain run the Kunwari Human
Development Institute in Dehradun.
The Gosains, however, have run into
financial difficulties and now run private vocational training courses
even though their institute is registered as a 'no profit, no loss' one.
"We are poor and honest. Why don't you talk to all those relatives of government
officials who have also started their own NGOs?" asks Gosain.
There is much speculation among
the NGO community about the wives of Uttaranchal's bureaucrats running
NGOs to line their pockets. But in the absence of any proof, the suspicion
is mostly based on observation and hearsay. "These NGOs never participate
in workshops and meetings, so we don't know what they do. They say they
have no sources of funds but they bring out glossy calendars and stationery
every year," says J.M. Singh of NGO Mamta Samajik Kendra, which works on
health- related issues in the Chakrata region.
The government policy itself may
be a reason for the mushrooming of NGOs. Says Sushil Sharma of Aarohi,
which has been working in the Nainital-Almora region for 15 years, "Top
government officials have been mindlessly promoting development through
the creation of women's self-help groups, which are registered as societies."
At present, registered mahila and yuva mandals, which are intended as grassroots
empowerment groups for women and the youth under a CSWB scheme, number
20,401. Meanwhile, Singh argues that development NGOs should be registered
separately from religious, cultural and educational societies in order
to bring the number down to "manageable" levels.
Uttaranchal is not the only state
in the country with such a large number of registered NGOs and societies-Maharashtra
has approximately 50,000.But the number is suspect because of the state's
size. According to Sanjay Bapat of the website www.indianngos.com, which
maintains a database of NGOs in India, of the 20 lakh registered NGOs and
societies in the country, only 30,000 or so are actually doing developmental
work. How many of these are in Uttaranchal is anybody's guess.