Civil society’s response to COVID-19 in India has provided significant relief to the distressed and marginalised and should be supported rather than quashed by the government. NGOs and non-profit organisations (NPOs) have come together to provide food to the disadvantaged. Although the civil society response has proven effective, challenges and dilemmas grow as space for civil society shrinks.
The government’s response has perversely been to pass the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Amendment (FCRA) Act, which has potentially adverse effects on NGOs and charitable institutions. The government has also taken stern measures against civil society actors, arresting human rights activists and student leaders, and suppressing civil liberties activists.
While a theoretically effective tool for containing the fast spread of COVID-19, India's lockdown aggravated existing problems such as economic inequality, poverty and other societal ills. Lockdown worsened the country's already dismal hunger situation. One survey observed that NGOs in 13 Indian states outperformed state governments in terms of free meals. Most were provided to migrant labourers who experienced devastating loss of income during lockdown.
Challenges persist due to weak linkages among low-income people, communities, social organisations and state governments. Researchers at IIM Ahmedabad reported inadequate access to the public distribution system (PDS), including a shortage of essentials, late arrival of supplies, poor quality and discrimination faced by families from marginalised communities.
NGO and NPO efforts — central to providing food relief to senior citizens, trans-people, sex workers and other people with special needs — were driven by the ill-preparedness of the PDS. They have also been providing personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, facilitating cash transfers and promoting awareness about the virus, in addition to arranging transportation services for stranded migrant labourers. But NGOs and NPOs are finding it difficult to cope with the complex social and economic dimensions of the crisis.
Ashoka University's Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy found that a third of surveyed NPOs were using funding from existing programs to execute COVID-19 relief work. Many organisations have considered shutting down operations in the absence of funds. Organisations that are dependent on corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding are facing greater difficulties because corporate funding is being redirected towards immediate relief work and the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM CARES) fund. Predicted reductions in financial profits are likely to further reduce CSR contributions.
The FCRA Act could have a huge negative impact on already struggling civil society organisations and NGOs. The timing of the FCRA legislation especially is under question given the remarkable role played by civil society in combatting the pandemic's effects. It will make the functioning of NGOs more challenging as the Act does not allow for the redistribution of an organisation's funds to other organisations, even if the latter remain FCRA compliant. It also reduces permitted spending on administrative expenses. The Act further empowers the Ministry of Home Affairs to suspend the FCRA certificate of an organisation for more than 180 days.
Grants cannot be made to organisations that involve public servants, though the PM CARES fund is exempt from the provisions of the FCRA Act as it is headed by the Prime Minister. According to the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), the legislation does not comply with "India's international legal obligations and constitutional provisions to respect and protect the rights to freedom of association, expression, and freedom of assembly". The Commission also stressed that it's "provisions would impose arbitrary and extraordinary obstacles on the capacity of human rights defenders and other civil society actors to carry out their important work".
Apart from the FCRA bill, there has been an increase in politically motivated cases brought by Indian authorities under severe sedition and terrorism laws against critics of the government. Dozens of civil society activists have already been jailed during the lockdown period and continue to be arrested. Civil society embodies the concerns of the poor, the disadvantaged and the vulnerable. It is a crucial link between the individual and the state, and individuals come together in this space. The associations hold with them the capacity to challenge any abusive power of the state.
India's civil society organisations have been recognised for ongoing and exemplary pandemic work. But they are looked upon suspiciously by the government. Advocating for the rights of people has a legitimate place in a democratic society and the work done by NGOs — especially for marginalised groups in society — needs to be protected and facilitated.
The repression and shrinking of space for civil society can be seen even more clearly in the ceasing of operations by the Indian wing of Amnesty International. The termination of its operations is a commentary on the plight of democracy in the country which requires serious attention.
This article was first published in East Asia Forum on 30 October 2020.
(Photo credit: Gwydion M. Williams)