Tannuka Juneja
According to a new survey titled ‘Some potential implications of the second wave of COVID-19 for NGOs’ conducted by Ayesha Marfatia and Ashish Karamchandani, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are facing serious financial problems as most of the funds and grants have been diverted to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and relief efforts.
A survey by Bangalore-based NGO The/Nudge Foundation found that withdrawal of funds for healthcare and immediate COVID-19 relief put several NGOs at risk of closure and layoffs.
A major chunk of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), retail and philanthropic funds was spent on short and medium term health care and COVID-19 relief, which will impact the overall supply of funds available to NGOs.
That in turn is bound to hit non-COVID activities of such organisations such as literacy programmes, building community participation, women empowerment, sustainable development, advocacy and raising awareness, among other social welfare projects.
Biraj Patnaik of the National Foundation of India (NFI) confirmed that with decreased funding and greater government compliances, the additional burden of COVID relief has made the road ahead difficult for NGOs.
The study, which covered many NGOs, 23 experts, economists, and statisticians, revealed that “compliance requirements are becoming more onerous and for many NGOs, with Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, there are issues with sub-granting and operating the SBI accounts mandated for use by the government, and as a result, there is difficulty accessing foreign funds. This is impacting the effective use of the foreign aid coming into the country.”
