NGOisation of Public Causes Harming Efforts to Address Pressing Issues
For civil society groups, it is the need of the hour to recognize the limitations of the NGO model and focus more on the formation of solidarities around structural and systemic issues for attempting meaningful and sustainable change.
On August 26, 2024, heavy rainfall began in many parts of Gujarat, including Ahmedabad and Vadodara. Within two days, the rain accelerated, and heavy water logging happened in several parts of these cities. With this, several distress calls and messages began to come to social and political workers from the most vulnerable locations, mostly by people from poor and marginalized communities. Pirana dumping site is considered only a “mountain” in Ahmedabad — the site where Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) dumped waste from the City till some years before. Behind the site, there is a vast settlement – a Muslim ghetto, known as Bombay Hotel.
On August 28, 2024, we received a phone call from one of our activist friends working with unorganized sector workers, who informed us that hundreds of families were in distress due to heavy waterlogging in some locations of the area. Due to continuous rainfall, factories were shut, leaving daily wage workers without income to meet their basic food needs and requesting rations for 2-3 days. We immediately began our efforts to mobilize resources and, with the help of a donor, distributed 100 ration kits through a local volunteer who visited door-to-door to reach the kits.
During her visit, she found many people, largely women, with severe skin issues in their legs. People with skin problems informed the volunteers that due to the “mountain of waste”, contaminated water comes down in their Basti and affects not only their skin but the overall health of their families. It was heart-wrenching to see their legs, even in the videos shared by the volunteer.
On August 29, when several parts of Ahmedabad City were struggling to survive either in the water or in the aftermath of heavy water logging, a reputed NGO organized a dissemination seminar with three rounds of panel discussions in a posh location in the City. Since we were invited and the venue was near our workplace, we also participated in the event, expecting some serious discussion about the aforementioned issue. The panels of the seminar comprised experts in the field of urban planning and governance, academicians, social workers, and some retired officials from the municipal corporation.
In his presentation, the NGO head claimed that the organization has been working in some underdeveloped geographies of Ahmedabad since 1989. The retired AMC official praised the government and AMC’s efforts to deal with the issues faced by the unorganized sector workers. The efforts he mentioned were food kitchens at Kadiyanakas, small loans to street vendors, and designated space allotments to street vendors.
[Skin disease because of contaminated water logging]
An academic head from a highly reputed educational institute kept praising Ahmedabad City by comparing it with Patna City. Paradoxically, he began his speech by saying we should not compare our country’s cities with those in developed countries, considering the vast difference in the per capita income. The moderator asked the panelists some prearranged questions, which made it “easy” to pass the examinations. The anchor then announced the lunch break without taking any questions from the audience. Experiencing this kind of “staged event,” our conscience forced us to leave it immediately after that.
We do not wish to blame any NGO for staging this kind of program, especially in the current times when most NGOs are struggling for funding and resources. Instead, we believe that the NGO model forces organizations to function in such an insensitive manner. We have a number of friends working in NGOs at different levels who are the most committed and enlightened individuals we know. There cannot be any question on their intentions and commitment. However, they also have to follow the NGO culture of fancy events and gatherings, three to five-star accommodations, corporate-style presentations, colorful IEC material, and so on, sometimes ignoring the sufferings of the people they pretend to represent. Since the funders do not allow any “controversial” conversations, critical questions and reflections are largely missed in these events and gatherings.
The area described above was not the only area affected by the recent calamity. Many others, such as Vatva, Narol, Ramol, Piplaj, and others, were similarly affected. These are the areas where the NGO discussed here, along with several other NGOs, have been working for a long period of time. However, the problems faced by the locals largely remained unchanged.
It would be unjust to say that the NGOs haven’t done anything in these areas. However, their “limitations” did not allow them to step forward and demand fast removal of the garbage, which is one of the major root causes of the dire situation. Even the petition on which the High Court of Gujarat ordered the removal of the garbage from the location was filed by an individual activist.
Earlier, the COVID-19 lockdown and pandemic exposed our fragile system of governance on several fronts. Although our government and their social allies kept praising their response, claiming it to be relatively better than other developed countries like the USA, the fragile system keeps exposing itself even in such a small-scale natural calamity. It is public-spirited common citizens and some NGOs that respond quickly in times of such calamities and prevent dire situations from becoming more critical. The role of NGOs (as passive administrators) to help people and governments is crucial and cannot be undermined.
However, we believe that the NGO model is incapable of challenging and changing the status quo or addressing the root causes. The model, by design, does not thrive to address the structural inequalities and systemic oppression that push people into dire situations, even in such small-scale natural or man-made calamities. The structural and systemic changes require public movements to play a leading role.
Has the rapid NGOisation of public causes somewhat damaged the climate that could solidify people and convert that solidarity into a movement?
This remains a question to me.
For civil society groups, it is the need of the hour to recognize the limitations of the NGO model and focus more on the formation of solidarities around structural and systemic issues for attempting meaningful and sustainable change.
[The writer, Dr Ajazuddin Shaikh, is a Research Associate at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) and a civil society activist. He works with marginalized communities on the issues associated with substance use. He wishes to thank Prof. Ankur Sarin for his important feedback on the piece and Ritu Bhatt for her help with proofreading and editing.]
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