Now, 25 years later, we are
called NGOs. And we have different kinds of NGOs -action groups, development
agencies, campaign groups, support groups, advocacy groups etc. There is
also a large cake of funding to which we can help ourselves. We are also
a sector.
As older organisations get institutionalised
and bigger, we become set in our ways and our maintenance bills mount.
It is not easy to maintain an organisation these days. A constant flow
of funds is required, the sheer size of which makes us take steps to ensure
a more secure line of funding.
Added to this, there is the problem
of legitimacy. All of us are basically self-appointed. That is what we
mean when we say we are 'voluntary'. And now that so much money is involved,
who will police us? There is a crisis of accountability. And instead of
once again relying on ourselves and letting our work and actions speak
for themselves, we seek external certificates!
And from the time that the government
became a big funder in 1985, curious changes have taken place in NGO dynamics.
There was an attempt to work out a code of conduct. Many opposed it at
that stage. Now some of these very opponents are part of the effort of
trying to define what a voluntary agency is. They are working for a separate
Voluntary Agencies Act. There is also a simultaneous move for developing
a model Voluntary Agencies Act at an international level -promoted by the
World Bank.
There may be several factors why such
a step might help smoothen the . work of the voluntary sector. But there
is nothing substantial in the new proposals that might help to curb the
current proliferation of bogus NGOs.
Once again there are moves and countermoves
to 'police' this sector, the most pernicious among them being the attempt
by some of the regular writers in the national press to define the voluntary
sector in their own self-image!
How is it that the very organisations,
who fought so hard to establish an identity for themselves in the late
seventies and early eighties in the face of the old social work establishment,
are now seeking to close the concept of what is voluntary? Can anew generation
of NGOs not come up to challenge some of these concepts?
We should particularly watch
out for the guys who claim that they do not take a salary , or who criticise
seminar hoppers. Check out how many
international meetings they have attended and how many
international organisations and formations
they are part of! Check out what scholarships or stipends they
get in their own names -maybe for lectures,
papers, books. Check out what their families can put aside for
them -either a house or deposits or shares,
ensuring them security .Are only such people entitled to take
up 'voluntary' work?
However, all of us have the right to
canvass for any kind of system. Besides, most of them mean well and are
doing good work. I am also confident that the sector is now diverse enough
to be able to resist or thwart attempts to kill it. What I object to is
the acceptance of one type of organisations as the 'true' voluntary organisations
-one type of salary structure as the sole embodiment of voluntary virtues
and one type of organisational structure as the only democratic and truly
accountable system.
There are innumerable examples of where
so-called collective functioning has been tyranical to a minority or some
individuals. For example, the less vocal or service staff in these collective
processes are often unclear about their basic rights like leave entitlement
or security of tenure.
What I feel is that we, as organisations,
are going through some kind of mid- life crisis. We are also becoming more
conservative. We tend to tell youngsters not to do the very things that
we did when we were young, on the grounds that we 'know'.
And in mid-life, we have to take care
of our establishments -everything that we worked so hard to establish.
Each organi-sation will have to find its own equili-brium, its own system
of accountability , its own checks and balances, and its own source of
sustenance. And just as it is our responsibility to check our organisations
and ourselves, it is for the funders to come up with effective ways by
which to ensure that their funds are used well. Unfortunately, in the past,
funders have fought shy of demanding accountability from the recipients.
It is important that they get their policies straight and systems organised.
Two months ago, a senior government
bureaucrat known to be favourable to NGOs said very clearly that it would
be useful if some kind of certification system were to be put in place.
He was in favour of a system run and managed by the NGOs themselves -or
by some kind of district level Government/NGO joint committees. This is
what happens when funders do not have confidence in their own staff or
system: they would prefer some kind of external agency to mediate.
Unfortunately, it is likely that the
new body will imbibe exactly the same ethos as its parent organisation,
in this case the funders. NGOs serving on committees that have corrupt
officials will be in much the same position as an upright, honest IAS officer
finds himself in today. Worse still, the NGO concerned would also get corrupted!
To sum up, there is no easy solution
to the problems created by the availability of such large funding and the
rapid proliferation of NGOs. One is bound to come across some bad eggs.
The point is: are we willing, in our attempt to keep these bad eggs out,
to acquiesce to a system that is even more repressive and limiting than
the one we have at present? As we pass through mid-life, are we just going
to ensure that only our kind of organisations continue their domination
of the funding system or are we going to be open enough to allow newer
and newer forms of voluntarism to take root?
At the last JVA (Jan Van Vikas Andolan)
meeting in Dharwad, five 'R's for today's organisations were outlined:
1. Rebuilding local communities
.
2. Restoring control of local resources
to the local community
.
3. Regeneration of the environment
.
4. Re-embedding values of equity,
justice and ecology within the psyche of the
community
.
5. Re-imagining our visions and tasks
in the community
It is probably time for us to re-examine
our organsiations from this point of view. Maybe a new generation of NGOs
will look at these issues from afresh perspective.
