https://thewire.in/rights/who-loses-when-fcra-licences-get-cancelled
When 70 Indian start-ups laid off 17,000 employees (including 2,500 people at EdTech firm Byju’s) in the first six months of 2023, much newsprint and digital ink was devoted to analysing what it meant for the companies, their employees, the start-up ecosystem and the economy.
Compare this to the more than 100 nonprofits that have lost their FCRA in a seven-month period. Approximately 4,000 people at CARE, one of the larger global nonprofits operating in India, were reportedly rendered unemployed versus the 2,500 people at Byju’s.
And yet, there is no conversation on what this means for the economy – nonprofits contribute to 2% of the country’s GDP; on the viability of the nonprofits themselves; on the debilitating impact on their staff, most of whom are employed in the smaller towns and villages; and, above all, on the millions of vulnerable families that are now deprived of the critical services these organisations provide them.
Different kinds of work have come to a halt due to the FCRA cancellations. Efforts around child protection, immunisation, prevention of neonatal deaths, provision of health and nutrition facilities in schools and anganwadis, creating material for teacher training for early childhood learning, engaging with parents on their children’s schooling, providing skilling and livelihood opportunities for the young, enabling access to government entitlements – all of these have stopped in the regions where these nonprofits were operating. An estimated 4,000 to 8 lakh people per organisation no longer have access to the services provided by these nonprofits whose FCRA licences have been cancelled.
by Rajika Seth and Smarinita Shetty
16/08/2023