Not-for-profits: shying from the mirror?
Published at The Citizen here . Thanks are due to Aishwarya Adhikari and Gayeti Singh at The Citizen and Priya Singh for comments on the draft. The unedited version below. ‘ Only 10% of 31 lakh NGOs in the country submitted mandatory reports to the authorities ’ and ‘ The Central Government has cancelled foreign funding registration of select NGOs for alleged violation of law ’. On the one hand press has highlighted these issues pertaining to not-for-profits and on the other they are today being questioned and critiqued, like seldom before. It is not uncommon to come across references like ‘ are getting less dynamic and more bureaucratic’ and ‘ have lost the plot ’ for not-for-profits; sub-optimal output or not delivering as promised too is an oft-heard complaint. For this discussion I look beyond both these issues – state and mediocrity. Mediocrity , ‘ our greatest bane ’ , is as much an issue here as it elsewhere in our society while state’s interaction with