Do we really need a better RTI act for NGO governance ?

The unfair distribution in the funding received by the NGO is also an evidence of illegitimate activities performed in the name of Social Upliftment. Seven Indian states with high human index ( with 32.5% of total population) received 61.81% of total foreign funds granted. On the contrary eight bottom performer/developing states (comprising 54.73% of total population) received only 32.03% of total foreign funds. Thus the development seems to be directly proportional to the foreign funds received and indicates that the most poor people are less capable of fetching higher foreign funds.

Irregularities don't end here. Handful of NGOs ( as compared to the national total of above 33 lakhs ) successful in receiving foreign funds release the same to NGO working at village, block or district level. As the grass-root NGO don't receive this fund directly from government or foreign agency are not bound to furnish any information asked via RTI regarding usage of funds and utility of their programmes. This may be perceived as a loophole in RTI act or a protective mechanism adopted by Mighty NGOs to technically save them from inappropriate utilisation of funds. Also, several agencies and activist take keen interest in the handling of MPLADS ( Member of Parliament Local Area Development Schemes) that may involve a maximum Rs 5 crores annually, then why are we not interested to keep a check on NGO as they spent more than 19 crores of fund per Parliamentary seat every year from foreign sources and several times of it from local sources ?

The concern rises with tremendous growth in the number of registered NGO in past 10 years. The total number of registered companies in the country as on 31/03/2006 was 732,169 while there are more than 33 lakh of NGOs in country now. If equally distributed, more than 5 NGO will serve every village and if fully functional, will eradicate most of the challenges before our society. Most of us know  the ground realities of social work happening at nano level.

Delhi alone has more than 70000 registered NGO ( this figure does not include the number of trusts registered in delhi ). The need to bring all the NGO under the RTI act will strengthen the democracy. An effective RTI act will endow the right for social audit, keep a check on welfare activities of NGO and will control the misuse of public funds. Planning commission also supported the demand to make RTI effective for all NGO irrespective of the source of donation ( whether government or public). In coming days the demand for the same will proliferate and we hope to welcome a more strengthened RTI act.

(Data per Census of India 2011 and other government sources )
By Lav Vashishtha, for AAM AADMI Movement