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This article provides information about the Relationship between NGOs and Government – Explained !
The relationship between NGOs and the government has been rather very complex in recent years. While on the one hand there have been more and more recognition and encouragement for the NGOs’ activism by the government, there have been severe criticisms of the government agencies by the NGOs for their rigid bureaucratic and traditional outlook.
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The government has also been trying to make the NGOs accountable to its, and to the law of the land, to ensure transparency in financial dealings, etc. The NGOs are also trying to make government officials, accountable to the people, to ensure impartial functioning of state organs at the grassroots level. However, notwithstanding the contradictory position, there have been several areas of cooperation between the government and NGOs.
NGOs are mostly working on the legalised issues and on a small scale. The state policies on area development, desert development, tribal development, women’s development etc., which are addressed at a local level need a vast body of local inputs and resources. The experience and the expertise of the localised NGOs usually come to help in a big way for the successful implementation of these polices.
Again the NGOs also formulate innovative projects on these issues receiving expert help from government agencies. According to an estimate, there are over 30,000 NGOs in India. The Indian state was initially indifferent if not hostile to NGOs’ activism. The situation has changed since the Eighth Five-Year Plan 1992-1997, and now the government openly encourages the participation of NGOs in development sphere.
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However, NGOs’ relationship with the state has widely been dichotomous in nature. Though many of them supplement government plans and programmes, they are also simultaneously critical of government policies. Again, while on the one hand they have been defined in terms of negation of the state, on the other they have remained widely dependent on the state for funds. Policies of the NGOs are also at times guided and framed by state policies.
In recent decades there has been a process of internationalisation of NGOs’ activism. While working on local and national issues, the NGOs have started getting serious attention and recognition from international agencies. At the international level, many NGOs also take part in the transnational campaign against various social evils like drug addiction, poverty, illiteracy, HIV/AIDS, child abuse, women’s rights, environment protection, disarmament, violation of human rights, etc. NGOs also educate people in influencing government policies on several international issues. In the process of undertaking all these initiatives, NGOs have been part of global networking.
Over the years there has been a phenomenal growth of the transaction NGOs, with more working at the global level with larger issues. One of the reasons for such growth has been the crisis in the State caused by massive state deficits, financial crisis and economic restructuring. As the state functioning is going to be restructured along the lines of the corporate market model, and it is also withdrawing from the social sector, NGOs are emerging as important stakeholders and providers of services to the marginalised people.
In the developing countries many NGOs function by receiving funds from foreign agencies. There has also been a tendency to ignore the law of the land by these NGOs. Here serious questions are raised not only by academicians and policy planners but also by the common people on their accountability and mode of spending.