NGOs Used as 'Front for Illicit Activity'

A Justice Ministry official on Monday said controversial spot checks on nongovernmental organizations were needed because many operated as "fronts" for illicit activity.

Anna Kotova, deputy head of the ministry's NGO affairs department, said "a huge number of NGOs" operated outside the law, although she did not give any concrete statistics.

She gave the example of a veterans' association in Russia's western exclave of Kaliningrad that engaged in commercial activity and had a turnover of billions of rubles but, she said, did not pay taxes.

Kotova added that the organization's activities had been uncovered during a spot check carried out by the ministry in conjunction with the tax authorities.

Since March, NGOs across Russia have been subject to random inspections or spot checks that observers have linked to a law introduced in November obliging NGOs that engage in "political activity" and receive foreign funding to register as "foreign agents."

Last week, international advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement saying Russian authorities were using the law to "curtail a broad range of work by independent organizations."

The New York-based group said that "at least 62 groups have received warnings or orders to register as foreign agents" or had faced legal action since the inspection campaign started in March.

Of the seven groups already taken to court, five have been ordered to pay fines and register and another 15 organizations may face administrative charges if they fail to register, HRW said in the statement.

Although the Russian government maintains that the law is designed to prevent foreign interference in the nation's political life, NGOs involved in activities that do not seem expressly political, such as public health and wildlife conservation, have already been held to account under it.

On June 26, the Justice Ministry suspended the activity of independent election monitor Golos, prohibiting it from holding public events and advising it that its bank accounts would be frozen.

However, Golos deputy executive director Grigory Melkonyants said these measures would not interrupt the organization's activities. He said Golos would formally dissolve, and a new election monitoring association would be created.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said last month that, if needed, the "foreign agent" law could be adjusted.

Mikhail Fedotov, head of the Kremlin human rights council, proposed in April that the law be scrapped and that NGO activity be regulated under the Civil Code.

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India cracks down on foreign funding of NGOs

Activists accuse government of stifling their right to dissent

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• Rama Lakshmi for the Washington Post
• Guardian Weekly, Tuesday 11 June 2013 14.01 BST

Food not thought … the Indian government wants NGOs to use foreign funding for development work, not criticising national policy. Photograph: Amit Dave/Reuters

Amid an intensifying crackdown on non-governmental groups that receive foreign funding, Indian activists are accusing the government of stifling their right to dissent in the world's largest democracy.

India has tightened the rules on non-governmental organisations over the past two years, following protests that delayed several important industrial projects. About a dozen NGOs that the government said engaged in activities that harm the public interest have seen their permission to receive foreign donations revoked, as have nearly 4,000 small NGOs for what officials said was inadequate compliance with reporting requirements.

The government stepped up its campaign recently, suspending the permission that Indian Social Action Forum (Insaf), a network of more than 700 NGOs across India, had to receive foreign funds. Groups in the network campaign for indigenous peoples' rights over their mineral-rich land and against nuclear energy, human rights violations and religious fundamentalism; nearly 90% of the network's funding comes from overseas.

"The government's action is aimed at curbing our democratic right to dissent and disagree," said Anil Chaudhary, who heads an NGO that trains activists and is part of the Insaf network. "We dared to challenge the government's new foreign donation rules in the court. We opposed nuclear energy, we campaigned against genetically modified food. We have spoiled the sleep of our prime minister."

In its letter to Insaf, the home ministry said the group's bank accounts were frozen and foreign funding approval suspended because it was likely to "prejudicially affect the public interest".

A government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said the government is not against criticism. But when an NGO used foreign donations to criticise Indian policies, "things get complicated, and you never know what the plot is", the official said, adding that NGOs should use foreign donations to do development work instead.

The US is the top donor nation to Indian NGOs, followed by Britain and Germany, according to figures compiled by the Indian government, with Indian NGOs receiving funds from both the US government and private US institutions. In the year ending in March 2011, the most recent period for which data is available, about 22,000 NGOs received a total of more than $2bn from abroad, of which $650m came from the US.

Asked about the Indian government's moves against foreign-funded NGOs, a US state department spokesman said the department was not aware of any US government involvement in the cases. The spokesman said such civil society groups around the world "are among the essential building blocks of any healthy democracy".

The situation in India is not unlike the problems that similar groups face in Russia, where a law passed last year requires foreign-funded NGOs that engage in loosely defined political activities to register as "foreign agents".

Trouble for many non-profit activist groups in India began more than a year ago when prime minister Manmohan Singh blamed groups from the US for fomenting anti-nuclear protests that have stalled the commissioning of India's biggest reactor, a Russian-backed project in Koodankulam in power-starved Tamil Nadu state.

US officials, including Peter Burleigh, the American ambassador at the time, quickly moved to assure Indian officials that the US government supports India's civil nuclear power programme. And Victoria Nuland, then the state department spokeswoman, said the US does not provide support for non-profit groups to protest nuclear power plants. "Our NGO support goes for development, and it goes for democracy programmes," Nuland said.

Although Singh was widely criticised for his fears, the government froze the accounts of several NGOs in southern India within weeks.

"All our work has come to a stop," said Henri Tiphagne, head of a human rights group called People's Watch. "I had visited [the] Koodankulam protest site once. Is that a banned territory?"

But the government's action appears to have had its desired effect. "NGOs are too scared to visit Koodankulam or associate with us now," said anti-nuclear activist SP Udayakumar.

Meenakshi Ganguly, south Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said many NGOs were afraid to speak up about the suspension of their foreign funding approval, which is "being used to intimidate organisations and activists".

Analysts say the government's way of dealing with dissent is a throwback to an earlier era. But Indian authorities have been particularly squeamish about criticism of late. As citizens have protested corruption and sexual assaults on women and demanded greater accountability from public officials, authorities have often reacted clumsily – beating up peaceful protesters and cracking down on satirical cartoons, Facebook posts and Twitter accounts.

Officials say NGOs are free to use Indian money for their protests. But activists say Indian money is hard to find, with many Indians preferring to donate to charities.

A recent report by Bain & Co said that about two-thirds of Indian donors surveyed said that NGOs have room to improve the impact they are making in the lives of beneficiaries. It said that a quarter of donors are holding back on increased donations until they perceive evidence that their donations are having an effect.

"They give blankets to the homeless, sponsor poor children or support cow shelters," said Wilfred Dcosta, co-ordinator of Insaf. "They do not want to support causes where you question the state, demand environmental justice or fight for the land rights of tribal people pitted against mighty mining companies."

Insaf, whose acronym means "justice" in Urdu, has seen its portion of foreign funding increase significantly during the past 15 years. Now it receives funds from many international groups, including the American Jewish World Service and Global Greengrants Fund in the US, and groups in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

The top American donors to Indian NGOs include Colorado-based Compassion International, Washington DC-based Population Services International and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

"It is not a question about money, it is a fight for our right to dissent," said Chaudhary. "I don't need dollars to block a road."

This article appeared in Guardian Weekly, which incorporates material from the Washington Post

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Two 'man-eater' leopards shot in Himachal, NGO raises doubts

Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh government Monday said two leopards were shot dead in Mandi district this month as they were responsible for killing three people but a wildlife NGO expressed doubts about the dead male cats being actually man-eaters. 

"Three people, including a woman, were killed and two others got injuries in five leopard attacks on humans in Seraj area, forcing the wildlife authorities to declare both leopards as man-eaters July 25," Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri told the assembly in a written reply. 

To check the attack of leopards on villagers, 15 cameras and five cage traps were laid at various places in the area. Three teams of wildlife officials monitored the situation, he said. 

To hunt the man-eater leopards, the government hired the services of Shafath Ali Khan of Hyderabad and Ashish Dasgupta, a member of the Himachal Wildlife Advisory Board. 

Both the leopards were shot dead by the former - first Aug 11 and the second Aug 21. 

But NGO Nature Watch has expressed doubts about the killing of the man-eaters. 

In a statement to the media, the Shimla-based group said the state wildlife wing has handled the issue casually and unprofessionally to soothe public outcry and killed wrong leopards while hunting for the man-eater. 

"We condemn the mishandling of the entire operation to hunt the man-eater. Even the government's role in hiring the services of hunter Shafath Ali Khan, a man with dubious credentials, and the resultant killing of unidentified leopards, including a cub, just to soothe public outcry is questionable," said its national convener Rajeshwar Negi. 

He said the granting of permit by the forest authorities to kill the leopard, protected under Schedule 1 of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, without first attempting and exhausting all attempts to capture, tranquilize and translocate it is a clear violation of Section 11 (A) of the act. 

"Such permit can only be issued after being satisfied that such animal is dangerous to human life, which could not have been the case with regard to the leopards killed including a cub," he said. 

According to the last census conducted by the wildlife wing in 2004, there were 761 leopards in the state. 

The leopard menace is more acute in Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Mandi and Kangra districts and parts of Kullu, Shimla, Sirmaur and Solan districts. 

IANS 

First Published: Monday, August 26, 2013, 22:01

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Ghoos phoos

The most populist of populist schemes.

The monsoon is coming to its tail end all over the country. But it's still raining. Raining populist schemes, that is. It is the season most favoured by Indian politicians when they get into pre-election mode: it is the season of competitive populism.

Hard on the heels of the food security Bill, which aims to provide hugely subsidised foodgrains to two-thirds of the country's population, has come the land acquisition Bill, which protects the interests of farmers, particularly those who have small holdings, but which will substantially increase the cost of setting up industries.

In a rare show of solidarity, political parties across the board have expressed general approval of both pieces of legislation. If power is said to corrupt, and absolute power is said to corrupt absolutely, it seems that populism seduces, and absolute populism seduces absolutely.

Spoilsports such as economists and market analysts have warned that India can ill afford such costly schemes, particularly at a time when the country's economy is in terrible shape. But with their eyes firmly set on the 2014 polls, no one in the political arena is in any frame of mind to listen to such killjoys and party-poopers. However, in their scramble to out-populist each other, our netas have so far failed to identify what arguably might be the most populist scheme of all: a bribe security Bill.

Perhaps even greater than the problem of hunger, or of the forcible seizure of land from farmers, is the problem of rampant bribery and corruption. Indeed, it could be said that all of India`s many problems — including the problems of hunger and land seizure — are due to the twin-headed serpent of bribery and corruption.

As the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi once admitted, out of every rupee spent on welfare schemes to help the aam admi, barely 17 paise reached the intended recipients, the rest got eaten up by corrupt officials and middlemen. Subsequent guesstimates made by commentators suggest that Rajiv Gandhi was an optimist, and that the money that actually reaches the targeted beneficiaries is in fact much lower, and could be as low as between 5 paise and 7 paise a rupee.

Using such figures, it could be argued that welfare schemes such as the food security Bill actually help to promote bribery by providing more scope and resources for such corrupt practices. Indeed, the more laws there are — for everything from welfare, to taxation, to traffic control — the greater the opportunity for corruption.

A website called 'I Paid A Bribe' run by a Bangalore-based NGO, shows that the common citizens of Delhi paid bribes totalling 4.3 crore in three years, with individual handouts ranging from 10 to 1 lakh. And these are just the people who posted their comments on the site. There are many more, in Delhi and all over the country, who have stoically accepted bribery as a daily necessity of life, from paying `hafta` to a policeman, to paying 'capitation fees' for admission to a college, to greasing palms in order to get a government contract.

All political parties should get together to pass a bribe security Bill by which they will together pledge to subsidise bribery by lowering the cost of bribes across the board. This 'subsidy' could be inversely linked to inflation: if inflation is 9%, bribes — for everyone from the cop on the street to the mantriji — should be reduced by that amount.

Such a ghoos would certainly lay the golden eggs of electoral victory.

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Social workers' caseload concerns often fall on deaf ears, survey shows

A study of 650 social workers suggests the majority will speak out when they are worried about their caseloads, but many feel their managers are unable or unwilling do anything about it.

Credit: Daniel Sicolo/Rex Features

Kirsty McGregor 

Tuesday 03 September 2013 14:16

Around two-thirds of social workers who have raised concerns about unmanageable caseloads said their managers failed to properly address the issue.

More than half (56%) of the 650 social workers responding to Liquid Personnel’s survey felt their caseload was unmanageable. Almost nine out of 10 of those (88%) had raised these concerns with their managers.

However, 64% of those respondents said their concerns had been dealt with “quite poorly” or “very poorly”.  Often the manager recognised their concerns, but was unable to take decisive action due to constraints from senior management, lack of resources or strict targets. 

“We are told they know we are overworked but extra staff can't be funded,” said one respondent.

Others said: “You're informed that everyone is in the same position or that others have more cases than you and are not complaining.”

“I was told I needed to be more organised; it felt like a personal failing and has made me reluctant to raise this again.”

Liquid Personnel’s managing director, Jonathan Coxon, said it was at least encouraging that so many social workers had spoken out about their caseload concerns.

“It’s clear that unmanageable caseloads are endemic in social work and have been for some time. Social workers need to speak out if they cannot cope with their workload and make sure their concerns are clearly documented.

“There is a stigma attached to admitting ‘I can’t cope with this level of work’, but it’s important for your own wellbeing and that of service users.”

Bridget Robb, chief executive of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW), said: “There is a clear need for managers to be more supportive, but they too can face top-down pressures from policies imposed on them by central and local government.

“Part of the solution lies in employers having clear caseload management policies in place, and encouraging managers and social workers to work together on creative ways of addressing workload challenges.

“Managers and social workers must ask whether they are practising safely and where employers fail to act on concerns raised, frontline professionals should contact their representative organisations, such as BASW, for further advice and support.”

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Cope with Cancer

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                                                    With the current situation causing undue suffering to poor women, children and tribals, some social welfare organisations are planning to file a public interest litigation (PIL) in the High Court so that services related to women and child welfare are exempted from the strike and the court ensures that development works aren't hampered.

N Prakasa Rao, founder, Bala Vikas Foundation, who runs National Child Labour School, said, "We are planning to file a PIL in the high court because children's right to education has been violated for almost a month. There's not even 10% attendance in schools and poor children are deprived of mid-day meals too in Zilla Parishad and municipal schools."

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Protesters force social workers to join stir, work comes to standstill

VISAKHAPATNAM: For them it hardly makes a difference if they are living in a united or bifurcated Andhra Pradesh. Some of them are either too young or ignorant to understand the socio-economic and political implications of a bifurcated state, while others are from sidelined or marginalised communities struggling for day-to-day existence.

But these poor tribal, rural and street children, women, aged and ailing people all have been dragged into the current bifurcation imbroglio willy-nilly and are being forced to bear the brunt of Samaikyandhra agitation because social works by government and non-governmental organisations have come to a standstill.

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