Today India is going through a very difficult time because of the spread of Covid-19. A total lockdown has impacted the economy further and as a result millions of daily wage earners, labourers and the homeless are struggling for basic survival - food, clothing and shelter.

Irrespective of faith it would not be incorrect to say that - we Indians are a religious lot. Our faith drives us to donate our collective wealth to temples, mosques, churches, gurudwaras etc. If one were to add up the total wealth of these various religious trusts, the number, is sure to be staggering.

There is no doubt that many of these trusts give back this wealth to the community by running orphanges, hospitals, schools etc but inspite of this they remain cash rich because of the sheer volume of donations they receive, in good faith, from the public. This is the collective wealth of the country given to God's work on this earth.

In times of such crisis like the one our nation faces today we turn to our faith to protect us - we pray to the almighty that our loved ones remain safe. Many religious trusts have come forward in the last few days to support the Central and State relief funds to support the governments efforts to combat the crisis we face, however much much more needs to be done.

This issue of the concentration of "public wealth" given for God's work on this Earth needs to be discussed and regulations and legislations changed / evolved in parliament/ state legislatures for greater scrutiny and more public control over this collective wealth of the nation. However immediately we ask that the Government of India and state governments through the President/ Governors promulgate an ordinance to make it mandatory for Religious Trusts throughout India to

1. Employ atleast 20% of their assets towards alleviating the suffering the millions in India, especially in these trying times. IT department has details of their "declared" income/ donations in any case. These would include spends for providing food/ shelter and clothing to the poor and displaced.
2. Employ 20% of their assets towards building world class public hospitals and medical schools in partnership with the goverment to meet current and future needs of the country and provide free treatment to everyone there.
3. Provide employment to skilled workers among the displaced millions in institutions run by the trusts. These could be existing hospitals, orphanages etc.    -    Carpenters, Cooks, Electricians, Plumbers etc among the displaced millions are valuable assets to our country they must be given employment and paid a fair wage even in these trying times. They can be employed to cook food / build shelters for the displaced and construct hospitals / medical schools as mentioned earlier.
4. Religious Trusts and Trustees who do not follow this ordinance be pulled up and held personally liable in addition to the government taking over the administration of the trust temporarily to intitiate and monitor the above.

The Companies Act 2013 already makes it mandatory for Companies of a certain threshold turnover to spend on CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). Recent notified rules also allow companies to spend CSR funds to combat Covid-19. In light of such existing provisions for companies a ordinance mandating something similar for Religious Trusts should be acceptable even to the Supreme Court of India.

We the people of India demand that our collective wealth which we have faithfully given to God all these centuries be utilised for the upliftment of the poorest of the poor in our society for that we request our government to pass such a ordinance with immediate effect.