KOLKATA: The debt crisis in Europe and slowdown in the US have created ripples in the remotest of Indian towns and villages, with NGOs feeling the pinch due to cutbacks of 20-40 percent by Western donors.
Many small NGOs are facing a viability problem with their coffers drying up. Some have had to shut down their projects.
According to Child In Need Institute (CINI), a Kolkata-headquartered NGO which runs projects in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, funds from foreign countries to organisations like it in India have been cut by 20 percent and upwards.
“Foreign funding to NGOs has been reduced dramatically. It has become very tough for us. Many small organisations operating in the poorest areas of the country are facing acute viability problems,” CINI’s additional director Rajib Halder told IANS.
Halder said funds from Europe to the institute, which is a recipient of international development organisations like Unicef, CARE, Save the Children and Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) have been trimmed down by about 20 percent compared to last year.
“European countries are saying that unemployment there is rising alarmingly; so why do we fund India instead of supporting our own NGOs?” he said.
He, however, said CINI has emphasised on domestic funding following the reduction of foreign funds which started from 2008-09.
The institution, which had got a grant of $40,000 (Rs.20 lakh) from the World Bank in 2009, also receives support from central and state governments.
The problem is acute for many relatively small NGOs, for which government funds are very irregular.
Delhi-based Prayas, mainly engaged in imparting free education to poor children and working women, is going through a tough time following the slowdown.
Tapati Bhowmick, senior programme coordinator of Sanlaap, which works in the area of women’s rights alleged that government funds for the organisation’s different projects were irregular. “Ultimately, it is poor children who are being affected,” said a worried Bhowmick.
“The government should come forward to support us. Why do we have to depend on foreign funds?” she added. (IANS)