February 11, 2021

Nirbhaya Fund underspent, 73 percent allocated to Home Ministry: Oxfam report

Gender: The Nirbhaya Fund, set up eight years ago to combat violence against women, remains largely underspent and slotted for services that don’t directly help women, said Oxfam in its recently released report.

In the report titled ‘Towards violence free lives for women’, the international charity analysed the country’s budgetary allocation over the last three years towards boosting women’s safety.

The Nirbhaya Fund was launched in 2013 with an initial contribution by the government of INR 1,000 crore. By 2019-20, the Finance Ministry had provided for an amount of INR 4357.62 crore to the fund. However, as of 2020-21 only INR 30 was allocated per woman or girl to fight gender-based violence, with more than 73 percent of the Nirbhaya Fund allocated to the Home Ministry which oversees police.

“The money has largely paid for programmes—improving emergency response services, upgrading forensic labs, or expanding units that fight cybercrime—that don’t exclusively benefit women,” Amita Pitre of Oxfam India told the BBC.

While the Home Ministry has spent most of the money given to it from the fund, other government departments have largely sat on the cash. The Ministry of Women and Child Development—which is the nodal authority for the fund—used only 20 percent of the money it had received up to 2019. It was used to set up crisis centres for rape or domestic violence survivors, shelters for women, female police volunteers, and a women’s helpline.

States on their part haven’t utilised their share of the funds either. Only five states—Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh—used up 57 percent of total allocations.

By Oxfam’s calculations, the Nirbhaya Fund is underfunded—it needs USD 1.3 billion to allow even 60 percent of women dealing with any form of violence to be able to access services.

Read this article to learn more about the status of gender-responsive budgeting in India.


May 20, 2021

Home Ministry extends validity period of FCRA registration certificates

Fundraising & Communications: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has issued a circular extending the validity of FCRA registration certificates to September 30th, 2021. This applies to all FCRA licences that have expired or will expire between September 29th, 2020 and May 31st, 2021. The decision to extend the deadline has been driven by the exigencies arising from the COVID-19 situation.

FCRA refers to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act 2010, which permits charitable organisations based in India to raise funds from foreign sources.

The order also clarified that nonprofits that have already opened an account and have the requisite permission to receive foreign aid, can henceforth receive it only in these newly-opened accounts.

The FCRA law was amended in September 2020 to include a clause that mandated that all nonprofits receiving foreign aid must necessarily open an account in State Bank of India’s New Delhi Main Branch. The government had initially set the deadline for this account opening as March 31st, 2021; it later extended it to June 30th, 2021 after several nonprofits argued in court that there had been delays because necessary approvals from MHA had not been received.

Several organisations have not been able to receive foreign funds during the crisis caused by the second wave, and this has impacted their COVID-19 relief efforts. Relaxing the foreign funding rules could significantly help organisations ramp up their operations to help individuals, supply critical healthcare equipment, and respond to communities in rural areas.

Read this article to know how amending the FCRA can have unforeseen implications.


May 20, 2021

Corporate spending on oxygen support and medical equipment now counts as CSR

Philanthropy & CSR: The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has issued a circular that allows corporate spending on health infrastructure for COVID-19 care to qualify as corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure.

This includes setting up medical oxygen generation and storage plants, manufacturing and supply of oxygen concentrators, ventilators, cylinders, and other medical equipment to counter COVID-19.  

The announcement comes at a time when all efforts are being directed towards expediting efforts to support the country’s healthcare infrastructure.

According to the circular, companies can now undertake projects and activities in collaboration with other companies using CSR funds. Additionally, they can contribute to specified research and development projects, as well as publicly funded universities and certain organisations that conduct research in science, technology, engineering, and medicine.

The government had earlier clarified that setting up makeshift hospitals and temporary COVID-19 care facilities would also be considered a CSR activity. Rajesh Verma, the Corporate Affairs Secretary, has requested businesses to consider converting vacant office buildings into COVID-19 facilities to cater to the rapidly increasing caseload.

Read this article to understand why media attention on COVID-19 deaths due to lack of oxygen in big cities has skewed donor priorities.