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Tuesday, Aug 26, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

The cost of social work

Sruthi Krishnan

Charitable organisations face tough choices as there’s less money to go around

Photo: R. Ragu

Bleak scenario A visually disabled group performing in Valluvar Kottam. Travel expenses are killing them.

“We are faced with disturbing questions,” says Munnusami Raviraj, Director of Kalanjiyam Trust, an organisation which works to improve the quality of education in rural schools.

Consider his predicament: a project for providing four schools with 25 steel tables each was budgeted at Rs. 90,000, at Rs. 900 per table. The price per table has now increased to Rs. 1,100. So, what is to be done? Reduce the number of tables, or number of schools or compromise on quality?

Organisations and collectives working towards charitable causes have to sort out this difficult equation.

On the one hand, their income is determined by donations; these amounts are fixed. On the other hand the escalating costs, both on administration and on projects, leaves no room for manoeuvre.

Cost of administration

“It used to cost Rs. 15 for a meal. Now it is Rs. 20,” says K. Natarajan, director of Long Life, an orchestra of visually disabled persons. The rise in transport costs has had a debilitating effect on his mobile orchestra. “Transport used to cost Rs. 300 a day. Now it costs Rs. 500,” he says.

This is echoed by other organisations. “Our travel expenses are killing us,” says Vidya Reddy of Tulir, a centre for prevention and healing of child sexual abuse. “We end up spending almost Rs. 500 a day, for which we have no budget.”

The other dramatic increase in administrative costs is due to rentals.

“Three months ago, our rent was suddenly hiked from Rs. 15,000 to Rs. 40,000. We were forced to move,” says P. Kousalya, President of Positive Women’s Network, a group formed by women who are HIV positive to advocate for their rights. “We need to use money from our savings to run operations,” she says.

“When inflation is high, expectations are high. It used to cost Rs. 750 for someone to teach children for four hours. Now, no one is ready for anything below Rs. 2,500,” says Elijah Mathew, Chairman, the new LEED trust, an organisation working for children from economically backward groups.

Cost of projects

“The cost of kerosene, vegetables, rice… everything has gone up,” says Ms. Damodaran, talking about the expenses of running 145 crèches for children from low-income groups. She is from Indian Council for Child Welfare, Tamil Nadu, an organisation involved in projects for children aided by the government.

“The money provided per child for a meal is painfully inadequate,” she says, “We cannot do extra feeding for a day without additional funds.”

For groups like Positive Women’s Network, formed by people to advocate their own rights, the livelihood of individual members has a direct impact on functioning of the organisation.

“Many women live on a widow’s pension,” says Ms. Kousalya. “For them, even day-to-day existence is tough; for those who are ill, it becomes all the more difficult to sustain,” she says.

“We conduct programmes to raise the self-esteem of transgendered persons. But, many members don’t come because they need to work harder to make a living. They don’t have time to spare,” says Ponni, who is involved in a programme for transgendered persons under an organisation called The Comforter.

The purses of people who contribute to charitable causes have also shrunk, thanks to inflation.

“The disposable income is less. Donors give much lesser than before,” says Usha Sridhar from Interface, which links donors to organisations. “The gap between what organisations want and what donors are willing to give is widening,” she says.

“The major funding comes from the United States, but with the rupee appreciation it works out to less. The economic situation worldwide also affects us. We see donors postponing what they promised, and sometimes they jettison it entirely,” says Chandrasekhar from Tamil Nadu Foundation, a donor agency.

But, it’s not all doom and gloom. “People realise these are difficult times. So, more of them come forward with donations now,” says Rajan Sekri, who runs a one-man team working towards providing unclaimed bodies with a dignified funereal. He says, “Some feel instead of investing money in the market, they can donate it. The returns are ‘higher.’ When they do a good deed, they help themselves too.”

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