Since it came to power in May 2014, the
Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has
cancelled the licenses of 15,000 foreign NGOs working among the poor and marginalized, as reported by Asia News on 12 February 2019. According to John Dayal, General Secretary of the All India Christian Council, the government"s anti-NGO bias stems from the fact that the government does not want foreign organizations and media investigating the real situation in India and publishing reports on human rights violations.
Rolf Zeegers, persecution analyst at World Watch Research emphasizes that restricting foreign influence has always been a cornerstone of Indian politics and it is not just Christian NGOs which are being blocked. He explains: "One of the ways the Indian authorities curtail the work of foreign NGOs is to accuse them of avoiding tax controls on foreign funding under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). This is what happened, for example, to US-based Compassion International, which was forced to shut down in 2017. With US$ 45 million reaching its local centers each year, it was India's largest donor and in its 48-year activity it helped some 280,000 children."
Rolf Zeegers continues: "The FCRA legislation, implemented in 2010, has very serious consequences for Christians in India. Since the majority of Christians in India come from the lower castes, or even the Dalit groups (formerly known as "˜untouchables"), a vast number of the over 65 million Christians
[1] in India are poor. With foreign aid being blocked, it means that they are forced to continue struggling on their own. Countries wanting to help the poor in India need to raise the issue of the restrictive FCRA legislation directly with the Indian government."
[1]‚ ‚ ‚
World Christian Database (WCD) estimate: Johnson T M and Zurlo G A (eds.), WCD, Leiden/Boston, Brill,‚ accessed January 2018.
