Role of NGOs in India

A non-governmental organisation is known as an NGO. It is an organisation that does different types of activities with the aim to benefit society at large. NGOs are mainly focused on underprivileged families. Due to the poverty and unemployment in India, the role of NGOs in India is very huge. 

NGOs work independently for the development of society. There are different types of NGOs in India which are always ready and working to help people.

Recently, the Parliament of India has proposed some amendments to the foreign currency regulation Act 2010. These amendments in the Act talks about transparency in the working of NGOs. 

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are involved in a wide range of activities for the benefit of people. 

Role of NGOs in India

There are thousands of fields in which the NGOs are currently working in India. NGOs are collecting donations from the people and using this money to provide necessities to needy people. Let’s discuss the role of NGOs in different fields.

Role of NGO in education

No one can understand the importance of education more than an illiterate. In the present time, education has become an integral part of our life. Due to the lack of education, hundreds of children are working in drug trafficking and child labour and some are even pushed into prostitution. More than 70 years have passed since independence but still, India is struggling to achieve a literacy rate of over 90%. The central and state government is taking the necessary steps to provide free education for every child. But still, there are more steps that have to be taken to achieve the goal. 

The government alone cannot bring all the children into schools and colleges. People are forgetting about the importance of girls education because they think that girls should not be educated because one day they will get married in another house. 

Awareness programs

Non-governmental organisations are playing a major role in removing such thinking. The government cannot go into every house to tell them about the benefit of education in our life but the NGOs can do this with the help of their teams. NGOs started awareness programs in which they tell people about the importance of education and the benefits of having educated women in the family. The NGO aware the parents and elders of the importance of sending children to schools and colleges. 

Providing free education

Some of the NGOs help the children by providing them education free of cost. Some of these children belong to very poor families which send their children to work in industries. NGO help those children to leave the work ok and put them in schools so that they can get an education. These NGOs provide necessities to their parents so that they can survive even if their children are not working.

Focusing on quality education

The NGOs are focusing on providing quality education to the children. Child education NGOs train the school teachers to make a child-friendly environment in schools and help them to improve their teaching methods. 

The NGO provides libraries, grounds, free coaching classes, to schools. And also provides awareness related to the importance of physical education. 

Awareness related to unity in diversity

The NGO aware people and students about the unity in diversity even in schools. It helps a student to work in a team to achieve goals. The unity in diversity helps a person to know about the different people from different religions, colours and cultures. 

Learning centres

There are many schools in India where a student can start his journey of education. But in a case where a child is not able to go to school, the NGOs provide learning centres in which the team of NGOs takes the free classes of Street children and children who are working as child labour. 

Role of NGOs in women’s empowerment

The role of NGOs in women empowerment is unforgettable. It’s been a long time since the NGOs are fighting against the Sati, dowry, cruelty, marital rape, women education, female foeticide etc. The steps taken by the NGOs for the safety of women have brought important changes in the life of women. There are various programs in which the engineers are working for women’s empowerment.

Self-employment

Poverty is the main cause in India which is stopping the growth of the nation. In India, there are approximately 50% women. But there are few which are working and generating money. The rest of the women are housewives and take care of their houses and family. Although this is the biggest task of a woman’s life to take care of her family, no one provides the money for that. The NGOs encourage women for self-employment. The NGOs has started many programs for self-employment such as:

Providing training for skill development

The NGOs are providing training programs for skill development so that the women can also earn money by doing work even from their houses. The stitching of clothes, handmade crafts etc. are being taught practically. 

Fairtrade practices

NGOs are helping women for fair trade. They help them to cut down the middle man so that the women can make more profit for their work. 

Providing free loan

Some of the NGOs are providing free interest loans to women so that they can start their businesses. With the help of these loans, the women are being encouraged to start their personal businesses and earn profit. 

Adding women into the team

The intelligent and educated women of the nation can play an important role in the growth of the nation. With this motive, many NGOs are adding women into their team so that they can help NGOs to provide awareness in every house. Some of the NGOs are even paying for such women. 

Importance of education for girls

NGOs are helping child girls by telling their parents about the importance of education for girls. They organise awareness programs in which the parents of girl children are invited to tell them about the benefits of girl child education. 

The NGOs are playing an important role in women empowerment in India. But still, there are many women who are not empowered to make decisions in their life. The government should take necessary steps to secure these women by providing education and empowering these women, especially in rural areas. 

Role of NGOs in promoting gender equality

In India, it is considered that the NGOs being small scale and flexible, are more successful in reaching poor people and telling them about the development programs. At present, approximately 30,000 NGOs are working in India. These NGOs play different roles in promoting gender equality. 

Meaning of gender inequality

Gender inequality means that males and females are not equal. In our daily life, we experience a lot of things where we discriminate male and female from each other related to many things. In simple words, where unequal treatment is given to any of the genders, it is called gender inequality. 

NGOs provide awareness

In the present time, the main cause of gender inequality is a lack of awareness regarding the different opportunities. NGOs provide awareness between males, females and others so they can be aware of the opportunities to level them with other genders. 

The measure example of gender inequality in India is that parents send their boy child to school but stop girl child to go to school. The reason is that the parents think that the school for girls is not safe or the schools are far away from their houses. They don’t know that

• The government can provide schools in their local areas and the girls from these areas can go safely to school. 
• The government is also providing a cycle for girls so that they can go to school if the school is far from their houses. 
• The midday meal is provided in the school

The people are not aware of these opportunities. The NGO plays the role by telling about such opportunities which are being provided by the government. Awareness is a thing that can teach people about gender equality. 

By providing jobs

The non-governmental organisations have tied up with companies in which they can provide jobs for males and females. They can provide a suitable job for males, females or another gender according to their needs and locality. 

Promoting girls education in a society

The NGO promotes girls’ education in every society. They tell people about the importance of girl child education. With the help of their awareness programs, the NGO is right to draw more and more girls to school so that they can take education. 

These types of NGOs also talk with the parents to tell them about the importance of education in life. 

Keep checking new laws

Our parliament frames new laws from time to time for the citizens of India. The NGOs keep checking this love that if they are discriminating on the basis of gender or not. If they find any discrimination, the NGOs take Strick action against these laws by filing public interest litigations (PIL). 

NGOs help to apply the laws

Sometimes it happens that the laws made by the parliament, which are made to stop gender inequality, are enforceable but no one uses such laws. The NGOs play an important role in applying such laws by providing awareness between people and societies. 

NGO providing legal aid

If there is any discrimination is done between boys and girls or any other gender by any person, the NGOs can take legal action towards the person. Also in many cases like domestic violence etc., the NGOs can provide free legal aid services. Also in some cases, the NGO can also provide advocates for dealing in the litigation or to give legal advice.

By collecting funds

NGOs collect funds by organising various campaigns. The first elected by the NGOs are directly utilised for the welfare of girls and boys so that they can get a good education. 

Role of NGOs in disaster management

There are lots of NGOs which are working in different fields for the safety and awareness of societies. But there are many NGOs which work during disasters. There are many services that are provided by the NGO during the disaster. These services are following:

Emergency shelter

During the time of the disaster, the NGOs can provide emergency Shelters for the people who have lost their houses due to the disaster.

Search and rescue programs

During the disaster, many people lost their relatives and family members. The NGOs help them to search for such people and rescue them. 

Food and other facilities

During the disaster, the food facilities were provided by the NGOs for the people who lost their houses and were hungry due to the disaster. 

Emergency services

The disaster comes with lots of emergency problems. These NGOs provide emergency healthcare services during the time of disaster. They help injured people by providing first aid and if the case is serious, they also provide ambulance services.

Home repair

After the disaster, many NGOs help people to repair their houses which have been broken due to the disaster.

Psychological counselling

The person who left his family in the disaster can be mentally disturbed. The NGOs can also provide free psychological counselling for these people so that they can recover their mental health. 

The NGOs also assist government agencies during the time of disaster. They may also provide services that are not being offered by government agencies. 

Negative points of NGOs during the disaster

Everyone wants to help during the time of disaster but there are many situations in which there can be some confusion between NGOs and government agencies. 

• The NGOs may not decide to work with government agencies
• NGOs are not contacted by the government to help people
• No one can really say that the NGOs will co-operate or not. 

Role of NGOs in environmental awareness

The environment is the base of our life. Environmental awareness is important in our life to live in a clean environment. 

Protection of environmental resources

The NGOs protect the environmental resources. The prohibited people from making unnecessary use of environmental resources. 

Various programs on the environment

The non-governmental organisations are aware of the people for environmental protection. These NGOs give ideas about sustainable development. 

By creating informational materials

The NGOs create informational material like booklets, articles and videos for the fairness of environmental protection.

Monitoring the resources

There are many NGOs that continuously keep checking the resources. They check whether these resources are usable or not. 

Many of the NGOs conduct sampling from rivers, wells and Government water supply to ensure that the people are drinking good water. 

Complaint about misconduct

During the checking of natural resources, the NGOs also give information to state boards if there is any misconduct being done by people like smuggling of woods, fish-killing etc. 

List of NGOs related to environmental awareness

• Centre for science and environment. New Delhi
• Centre for environmental education
• Madras environmental society. Chennai
• Centre of Himalayan environment and development
• Rajasthan environment preservation society

Role of NGOs in human rights

It is the responsibility of the state government to protect human rights. But sometimes it happens that the human rights given to the people are violated by people who are working as authorities. 

When human rights are violated by any authority, the NGOs play the role to protect them. 

• The NGOs keep pressure on the state government for the enforcement of human rights according to international human rights. 
• NGOs identify the gap in human rights and asked the government to fill this gap
• NGOs help the government to make new human rights and standards
• These NGOs also help directly or indirectly if there is any case of human right
• NGOs support the victims of human rights to claim their rights
• NGOs also provide such victims medical facilities, psychological counselling and financial aid. 
• These NGOs also promote knowledge about human rights and respect for human rights. 

Role of NGOs in development

There are many other fields in which NGOs are playing a major role in the development. These fields are:

• Educational children
• Youth development
• Animal protection
• Development of infrastructure
• Technical training
• Providing different services
• Helping disabled people

Conclusion

There are various roles of NGOs in India which are being done by NGOs. The NGOs work for the assistance of the Government of India to provide all the facilities given by the government and help many people by providing the facilities which are not even given by the government. 

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