The social service sector (especially the NGO sector) of our country is in real bad shape. There are many NGOs who are doing nothing more than sheer business. The plight of disadvantaged people, including children, living within many Charitable Institutions in India is really pitiable. Human right violations, setting up of bogus projects and programmes, misappropriation of funds, forging of documents, distortion of facts, exploitation, deception, cheating, torturing, and several such crimes and anti-national activities are taking place today on a growing scale within the social service sector.

 

Most such crimes taking place within some such crooked and corrupt NGOs lie hidden from the public eye because of several reasons. The reasons include the deception these NGOs play by putting up an outwardly humanitarian face to their activities; the inability and helplessness of the disadvantaged inmates and beneficiaries of these institutions to fight against their purported guardians; the public’s ignorance about the real happenings within the sector, its association with these NGOs being mostly at a superficial level; the hand-in-glove nature of relationship the functionaries of these NGOs enjoy with their auditors and certain other governmental authorities; and, the unwillingness on the part of even the Media to find out the truth and voice against such NGOs there being some sensitive issues involved.

 

Standard Accounting Practices, a Common Code of Conduct, Inclusive Management Bodies, Transparent Fund Management Systems, Grievance Redressal Mechanisms, etc., need to be in place to ensure that NGOs do their jobs with enough honesty, transparency and accountability. A lot of issues in this regard need to be seriously addressed and solutions sought out & implemented at various levels. At the Governmental level, actions that can be taken include strict enforcement of existing machinery to monitor and regulate NGOs, legal reforms including revamping of existing laws regarding governance of NGOs (Trusts, Societies, etc) and corruption-free implementation of various social service schemes. Separate laws need to be enacted for different types of non-governmental organizations, especially for those that conduct charitable and humanitarian activities.

 

Therefore the Government is hereby being requested to kindly set up a Commission to study in detail the various issues involved, including corruption, in the social service sector (especially the NGO sector) and make recommendations for necessary reforms.

 

Most often, the disadvantaged persons who get exploited and tortured by corrupt and cruel NGOs remain helpless and voiceless due to lack of support from outside. Therefore, an intervention as this has become quite imperative mainly to safeguard the interests of millions of disadvantaged people dependent on this sector. The more the number of people who support this cause, the Government will so much the more be compelled to take up the matter seriously. So I request you to kindly sign this petition and express your solidarity with the cause.