Foreign funds to Indian NGOs are as low as Rs 300

Foreign funds for Indian NGOs may evoke strong reactions from the government, but over the years, donations from inconspicuous countries like Western Samao and Reunion Island show annual contributions as low as Rs 300.

Latest statistics from the Union Home Ministry showed that Indian NGOs received just Rs 500 from donors in Mauritania, north-west Africa, during 2013-14. In 2010-11, donors from Tonga gave Indian NGOs Rs 300.

According to the Union Home Ministry, NGOs receive funds from as many as 164 countries. 

The government has put stringent process a place to monitor fund flow, sometimes viewing many contributions with suspicion while activists question authorities’ highhandedness.

It is from not only Western Samao and Reunion Island, Tonga and Mauritania that donations came to India. Donors from lesser-known countries like Cardinal Marshal Island, Cape Verde Islands, St Vincent and Grenadines, Turks and Caicios Islands and Belize funded NGOs in India, too.

Foreign funds to the tune of Rs 15,138.50 came from St Vincent and the Grenadines in the last fiscal, while the figure for Turks and Caicios Islands was Rs 60,700.

According to the figures, donations from strife-torn Syria were Rs 4,158 in 2013-14 while Namibian donors send Rs 5,500 to India.

Indian NGOs received Rs 3.59 lakh in 2012-13 while donors from Turk and Caicios Islands send Rs 3,200 in 2011-12.

These figures in lakh are in contrast to the donations from the United States, which remains the largest donor for Indian NGOs having contributed funds to the tune of crores. 

Funding to Indian NGOs from the US was Rs 4,491.90 crore in 2013-14, Rs 3,821.19 crore in 2012-13, Rs 3,839.96 crore in 2011-12 and Rs 3,268.54 crore in 2010-11.