Over the past nine years, of the 407 non-government organisations (NGOs) that got the Centre’s nod to receive foreign funds for religious purposes, 194 showed they ran Christian programmes, according to data available with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
However, there are several NGOs that have not listed religion as at least one of their purposes, but are perceived to be working in that space. For instance, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) is registered as a social organisation in Maharashtra and a religious one in Delhi. Its affiliate, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, is an educational and social organisation. Seva Bharati, the NGO affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is a social, cultural, and educational organisation in different States. The Madrasa Ejazul Olum Duho Suho Education & Charitable Trust in Bihar is an educational and social institution.
Registration under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA), 2010, is mandatory to receive donations from outside of India. For this, the NGO or association must have a definite cultural, economic, educational, religious, or social programme, and can register under multiple categories. While the Act aims at regulating both the “acceptance and utilisation of foreign contribution or foreign hospitality” by individuals, associations, and companies, it can also prohibit organisations from taking in these funds for “any activities detrimental to the national interest…”.
In 2023, the four FCRA registrations cancelled on grounds of violation are all Christian organisations: Shekina Prophetic Mission Trust (Tamil Nadu), Holy Berachah Ministries (Karnataka), Kashmir Evangelical Fellowship, Bethel Charitable Trust (both Jammu and Kashmir). The last two were stripped of FCRA registration amid allegations of religious conversion and building churches in the Jammu region with the funds.
According to MHA data, 3,217 associations were granted fresh registration under the FCRA from 2014 to October 1 this year. A break-up of the categories shows that 194 NGOs were registered under “religious-Christian”, 139 under “religious-Hindu”, 25 under Muslims, 29 Buddhist, 10 Sikh, and 29 Others. Most NGOs were registered with multiple programmes including religious. In 2023, out of 69 fresh registrations granted under the religious category, 26 were to a Christian programme and 27 to a Hindu agenda. Of these, three each were registered only under Christian and Hindu programmes.
The number of total applications was not available, but the Ministry’s annual report of 2020-21 showed that nearly 50% registration requests were denied that year. From April 1 to December 31, 2020, the Ministry granted registration to 127 but declined registration to 607 NGOs. Similarly, from April 1 to December 31, 2022, while 51 NGOs were granted FCRA registration, 153 NGOs were declined the registration.
As on September 29, there were 16,686 NGOs with active FCRA registration in India. The Ministry informed the Lok Sabha in March this year that in the past five years it has cancelled the registration of 1,827 NGOs.
Civil society groups have said that FCRA provisions were being used to stifle the non-profit sector. In July, a group of former civil servants called the Civil Constitutional Group wrote to Union Home Minister Amit Shah saying, “It seems as though, using the FCRA, the Government of India seeks to deter civil society organisations from seeking funding from foreign sources, although such access to foreign funds, through other legally sanctioned means, is freely available to the private sector, digital and print media and political parties.”
A senior functionary associated with a leading non-profit said, on condition of anonymity, that it has become more difficult for donors and NGOs that do not have the blessings of the government to survive. “Civil society is the target,” the functionary said.
On Friday, Mr. Shah said that the FCRA nod was one of the several steps taken by the Narendra Modi government for the welfare of the Sikh community. In 2020, had MHA granted FCRA registration to the Gurudwara Harmandir Sahib or the Golden Temple in Amritsar, enabling it to receive foreign donations.
Earlier this month, MHA brought out a fresh set of rules asking NGOs to declare movable and immovable assets created out of foreign contributions. The 2020 amendments to the Act included a complete ban on domestic transfer of foreign funds, reduction of administrative expense limit from 50% to 20%, opening of a designated FCRA account with the State Bank of India (SBI) branch in Delhi, and recording of Aadhaar number of all key functionaries.
On October 27, 2022, Mr. Shah said at the State Home Ministers’ Conference in Faridabad that some NGOs were involved in anti-national activities, religious conversion, political opposition to development projects, or propaganda against policies of the government. He said the amendments to FCRA in 2020 successfully prevented the misuse of foreign funding and effective monitoring had become possible.
