NGOs will lose foreign funding licences for ‘anti-development’ actions, forced conversions: Centre
Such actions may also be taken if the organisations are involved in ‘inciting protests with malicious intention’, the government said.
Non-governmental organisations that are involved in “anti-developmental activities” or forced religious conversions will have their foreign funding licences cancelled, the Union government has said.
Among other possible reasons for cancelling non-profit organisations’ foreign funding permits are concerns about activities such as “inciting protests with malicious intention, linkage with terrorist organisation/anti-national organisations, etc”.
The Union home ministry, in a notice on November 8, said it had received representations from some organisations that they had not been given clear reasons for why their licences under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act were cancelled, or were not renewed.
Through the notice, signed by the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act division’s director K Sanjayan, the government disseminated an illustrative list of reasons behind such actions.
It is mandatory for non-profit organisations to have licences under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act to receive foreign funds.
The home ministry said that licences under the Act can be revoked if the organisation or any of its office-bearers are found to have linkages with “radical organisations”.
Other possible reasons are pending criminal cases or convictions of office-bearers of the organisations, the concealing of key information, or the registered address being incorrect.
Foreign funding licences can also be revoked if the organisation has not carried out any “reasonable activity” for the welfare of society in the past two to three years, or has used funds for purposes that are different from its stated objectives.
In 2020, the Centre amended the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act to extend tighter control over how non-profit organisations use foreign funds. Since then, several NGOs have alleged that the government has been using the law to target organisations they do not agree with.
Among organisations whose licences under the Act were cancelled or not renewed were non-profits working on human rights such as Oxfam India and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, and think tanks such as Centre for Policy Research.
