Christian ministries operating in India continue to lose government authorization to legally collect foreign donations, dealing a devastating financial blow to many organizations.
This March, Vision India, an organization that provides leadership training for Christian youth, was unable to renew its license under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA).
“A week earlier, the government conducted an enquiry and a week later it rejected the renewal,” said Vijay Mohod, director of Vision India.
The then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, inserted The FCRA was passed during the 1976 emergency period, alleging foreign interference in domestic politics. The first FCRA required organizations intending to receive foreign contributions to register with the Home Office. Subsequent iterations in 2010 and 2011 made this policy strict, requiring organizations to renew their FCRA licenses every five years, among other new clauses, and its most recent iteration, passed in 2020 and amended in 2022, is even more restrictive. One clause, for example, requires all FCRA organizations to have their accounts at a specific branch of a bank and prohibits inter-organizational grants.
In theory, these five-year licenses are renewed based on the organization’s annual reporting detailing the foreign funds received and showing that they were used appropriately for the stated and approved purposes. However, as Christian ministries have failed to renew their licenses, some leaders have questioned whether the government has an ulterior motive.
“Many organisations are dependent on foreign funding,” said Archbishop Anil Joseph Thomas Couto, general secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI). “If they do not receive funding, many of their projects have to be put on hold or completely cancelled.”
The first major organisation of any religion to lose its FCRA licence was Compassion International in 2017. At the time, the organisation was bringing in around $45 million annually to India, more than any other charity.
As CT reported in 2017, Compassion was desperate to stay in the country:
(Compassion) spoke to Indian lawyers and accountants. They testified before the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee. They asked then-Secretary of State John Kerry to mention them to his counterpart in India. (And he did.) They asked sponsors to write to their members of Congress. (More than 35,000 did.) They asked for help from everyone they knew in positions of power in both the United States and India.
“Throughout this time, both Compassion and its local offices remained committed to addressing the concerns raised by the government, but to no avail,” said the ministry’s president and CEO, Santiago “Jimmy” Mellado.
He traced the loss of the license back to 2011, when India strengthened the FCRA, giving it the power to regulate organizations it philosophically disagreed with. (Previously, an organization’s FCRA license had (It’s practically been for life.)
For many, the measure was also seen as another step Towards Hindu nationalism and authoritarianism since Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected in 2014. While the Home Ministry cites compliance issues and misuse of foreign funds, many NGOs accuse the government of taking an increasingly harsh approach to compliance that raises minor technicalities or directly targets groups for their ideological stances.
Last year, the Evangelical Fellowship of India (EFI) and the Church of North India They lost their licences. EFI, the umbrella body for evangelicals in India, was refused renewal of its licence on the stated grounds that it would “prejudicially” affect the “public interest” and “harmony among religious, racial, social, linguistic and regional groups, castes or communities”.
“Since EFI is significantly involved in interfaith, charity and prayer initiatives to build bridges in society and promote reconciliation and social harmony, it was a surprise that the government classified us in this way,” said Vijayesh Lal, EFI general secretary. “I have been told that we may have been punished for speaking out on religious freedom for Christians and others in our various reports and because we have challenged violence against Christians in the Supreme Court as well as various anti-conversion laws in various high courts, but I hope that is not the case.”
In January, the Indian government cancelled World Vision License after initially suspending it in 2022. Although the ministry, which has a presence in more than 6,000 “urban, rural and tribal communities”, has not left the country, it said it was “deeply disappointed” and still has It had to close projects and lay off staff supported by FCRA funds. The organization saying that the decision “would have a significant impact on many vulnerable people across the country in the coming years.”
“The axe seems to fall hardest on Christian organisations that may have made minor mistakes in some areas or in compliance with the law,” Archbishop Cuoto said.
Although CBCI’s license was renewed last year after being suspended, the government has denied a license to the National Biblical Catechetical and Liturgical Center (JOBsNewsLC) in Bengaluru (formerly Bangalore), and several other Catholic dioceses under CBCI in India have reported that their FCRA licenses are suspended, Couto says.
The loss of an FCRA license for another Christian organization, the Church Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), has been devastating, says Bishop Subodh C. Mondal, vice president of CASA.
“CASA’s entire work is at risk. They had to lay off about 350 employees in India,” he said. “Ninety percent of their work is affected by this. We will reapply for the FCRA.”
In many cases, the reasons given for the cancellation of FCRAs are often unclear and sometimes even illegitimate, said a leader of a well-known Christian NGO who spoke to CT on condition of anonymity.
“This raises questions about whether the current administration really intends to allow any organisation to operate and receive foreign funding in India in the future,” he said.
There does not appear to be a discernible pattern in the denials or cancellations of FCRA status, says another widely respected FCRA expert, who also requested anonymity.
“There is no clarity as to the reasons they are giving. You cannot identify what went wrong and where,” the expert said. “As it (the FCRA) is an internal security legislation, the courts have also held that the government is under no obligation to make it public (to explain or detail the objections).”
He Campaign The situation extends far beyond Christian organisations. Prominent secular human rights groups, humanitarian aid organisations and policy groups have also lost their licences. These include Oxfam India, the Centre for Policy Research, CARE India, the Social Action Programme, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Amnesty International, as well as the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and Charitable Trust headed by former Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi.
According to the Ministry of the Interior FCRA websiteAs of April 2024, approximately 16,000 NGOs and associations had active FCRA licenses. The Ministry of Home Affairs has revoked the FCRA registrations of over 20,701 NGOs or associations, but the website does not indicate how far back that number goes.
In July 2023, a group of civil servants and retired officials called the Constitutional Conduct Group sent a open letter Home Minister Amit Shah expressed concern over what he called “harassment” of NGOs through selective application of the FCRA. The letter urged the government to “stop unnecessary harassment” of organisations providing vital services, especially to the “most marginalised and disadvantaged sections” of India.
NGOs have challenged Interior Ministry decisions through appeals, but there have been few exceptions; in 2022, the government reinstalled The FCRA registration for the Missionaries of Charity founded by Mother Teresa, less than two weeks after the initial date declining to renew it, citing vague “adverse inputs.”
This isolated change of position has not served to calm the fears and general indignation of NGOs and civil society advocates, who maintain that the Campaign raises a existential threat to the democratic fabric of India and constitutionally protected rights such as freedom of association. Critics argue that the Modi government is intolerant of dissent and reluctant accept criticism of its Hindu nationalist ideology and policies.
They plead The government is using the implementation of the FCRA as a systemic tool to financially suffocate and muzzle NGOs working on issues like minority rights, human rights, transparency and alleged religious discrimination and persecution of minorities like Muslims and Christians under Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party government. There are also concerns that the implementation of the FCRA is a systemic tool to financially suffocate and muzzle NGOs working on issues like minority rights, human rights, transparency and alleged religious discrimination and persecution of minorities like Muslims and Christians under Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party government. breaking off The loss of NGOs providing critical services could have devastating consequences. impacts on poverty, hunger, gender equality and marginalized communities.
“This will definitely affect the work that most of the charity sector is doing. It has a double effect: both the beneficiary and the benefactor are affected,” said the NGO leader. “They (the charity sector) are working at the grassroots level, and those are the people who are most affected. Many people depend on NGOs for their livelihood, as it is the only vocation they have.”
Foreign policy analysts warn of risks of repression of domestic NGOs harmful India’s global reputation is making Western nations and donors more reluctant to donate aid, fearing it will be prevented from reaching legitimate organisations.
Although some Indian organizations are planning to reapply for their FCRA licenses, some, such as the Center for Policy Researchhave sued the Indian government. The think tank, which lost its license in early 2024 for alleged misappropriation of foreign funds, said the government’s decision was nonsensical and too harsh, calling it “incomprehensible and disproportionate.” (The organization’s license was due for renewal in 2021, but has since faced numerous bureaucratic hurdles.)
However, most do not opt for confrontation through appeals for fear of further repression.
“It is foolish to live in Rome and fight against the Pope,” said the FCRA expert.
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