*22 May 2011* *Nandita Sengupta*
Now that the United Nations has chosen a private NGO in Delhi for its 2011 Public Service Award, will it put new heart into India's troubled NGO sector? Swanchetan Society for Mental Health works with rape survivors and victims of terror attacks and sexual assault. The UN's Department of Economic and Social Affairs, approvingly says it has increased access to justice for 'women victims of sexual atrocities.' It is the only private NGO among the 36 government departments from around the world that have received the UN award. What does it mean for Indian NGOs, which have, of late, been plagued by reports of mismanagement and falling foreign funding. Most NGOs want to scale up their activities but they face tough constraints and money is just one problem. Observers say the NGO sector seems to be battling a trust deficit, with only a handful able to demonstrate to the general public that they utilize funds properly. But the selection of Swanchetan, a relatively small NGO, for an award, may be the best advertisement for the NGO sector as a whole. It highlights the increasing role of civil society organizations in areas such as counseling that do not traditionally fall in the ambit of 'governance.' Swanchetan's Rajat Mitra says that the award shows that international bodies are looking at civil society organizations as "partners in governance." That is an important step up for the NGO community. Mitra says "the role of NGOs grows as governments in developing nations recognize that there are things that governments simply can't do. For instance, government schemes in India totally discount the needs of people who need counseling." This perceived need led the clinical psychologist to start Swanchetan in 1998. It isn't as if the sector isn't attempting to create its own benchmarks, beginning with transparency. The Chennai-based NGO CSO Partners held its third edition of the 'Outstanding Annual Report Awards 2011' earlier this year. Over 200 NGOs participated and a handful passed the test. Perhaps those who didn't were unable to afford the professional cost of a competent CA, says CSO's CEO Soumitra Ghosh. "The idea is to promote transparency within the voluntary sector, helping it improve its overall credibility. A prize for the relatively ignored exercise of annual report writing among NGOs can go a distance in creating good practices of accountability," he says. To grow their space, NGOs are also looking at being technology-efficient. Mitra says, "We are very small, but we manage to reach out also by maximizing on simplest of technologies." He recounts being approached by a Chennai-based NGO to counsel a rape survivor too traumatized to provide clues to her attacker. "We couldn't send anyone from here, so we used Skype to speak to her at length and repeatedly. It was our first long-distance counseling session and it was very difficult, with connections failing. But we realized it can be made to work. In the end, the girl did provide clues to the person who attacked her," says Mitra. His work prompted the Delhi police to issue a 'standing order' in 2002 instructing that in cases of sexual assault, psychologists from Swanchetan must be intimated within 24 hours. The team of psychologists has helped Delhi police in a large number of cases, from trafficking to assaults by priests, from assaulted children to working with victims of Delhi's serial bomb blasts. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-05-22/india/29570913_1_indian-ngos-voluntary-sector-ngo-sector -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Mental Health Advocacy (News 'N Views) India" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/MhaNewsViewsIndia?hl=en ------------- Affiliated Groups : MENTAL HEALTH ADVOCACY INDIA [email protected] Discussions on mental health law / policy / plan monitoring / human rights etc [email protected] India-specific news and views related to mental health [email protected] Information and support to carers of people with mental health issues [email protected] Mutual support and sharing of experiential knowledge, skills and social learning amongst peers
