Thought of starting a charity? What would it be?

poipleshadow

I've had quite a few people recently with the plan of starting charities in India... Has anyone else thought about this?

Just Curious, and what charity woud it be?

Nick-H

Let's make a new thread!

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As if by Magic: Here it is!

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Nick-H

I wonder!

Is there any area that is not already well-covered by charities/NGOs? But how does one recognise the real ones, as against the ones that are there solely to provide their proprietors with property, car and income paid for by government grants. Running a charity can be good 'business' in India

Do the official procedures make it such a dreadful hassle as to make it almost impossible? In a previous post, Poipleshadow wonders if, if he knew what was to come, he would ever have started!

How would members cope with volunteers in their charity (assuming that it called for any) --- how would they separate those who see it as a cheap holiday? Would they consider it ethical to make a 'profit' by charging those volunteers more than a nominal sum to cover expenses? Again, many existing Indian charities are more like businesses than charities.

...just thoughts!

dzibead

Mine would be an NGO focused on providing people with a clean, safe and adequate supply of water. If I had my life to live over again, I'd have studied some science subject as preparation for this (was interested in science as a kid, but thought I wasn't good enough at math - no one told me I didn't have to be all that good to manage) instead of English literature and then law. Oh, well ...

New-South-Welshman

Nick H is such a thread stealer! Poor poipleshadow .

I would start a charity that had to do with better education facilities for poor kids who can't go to schools. It would give them a better chance to get into university or a college, and give them a tangent from life on the streets.

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steven_ber

Good questions Nick.

Just to add....

Is there a way to find out if a charity is fully legal and registered in India?

Is there a charity watchdog?

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capt_mahajan

99 out of a 100 charities in India are feeding either

-wallets, and if the wallet is being filled with dollars, they are in the bigger leagues.
-egoes
-tax deductions
-perks.. cars, accomodation, communication costs, foreign travel etc


or a combination of the above

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iwanttogoback

both dzi's and new-south-welshmen's ideas are great: clean water to help ensure survival; education to provide you with more options.

i know it's been done, but i think providing adequate sanitation is another essential, up there with clean water as an essential component of a healthy life.

Nick-H

Sad note from the Capt there, but, unfortunately one that I have heard from a number of people in positions to know.

I know of an eminent surgeon and head of an Indian medical school who wrote to Bill Gates telling him that, whilst he truly appreciated the large sum of money Mr G had contributed towards inoculations, please would he consider, in the future, that the same sum of money spent on clean water and sanitation would have a greater positive effect on India's health. So, I reckon Dzibead is on the right tracks there.

dzibead

I think to be legit they have to be registered under either the Indian Societies Registration Act, 1860 (Act XXI of 1860) or under an equivalent societies registration act of a State Government or must be a registered public trust, so a legitimate NGO should be able to provide evidence of the appropriate registration.

Here's the text of the Indian Societies Registration Act:
http://punjablaws.gov.pk/laws/1.html

And here's at least one NGO watch-dog organization:
http://credall.org.in/credibility.htm

I view these as inextricably intertwined and would consider adequate sanitation as part and parcel of my fantasy clean water NGO.

I guess cleaning up shit and building water infrastructure just doesn't give people quite the same warm and fuzzy feeling that giving shots or otherwise caring for cute, appealing, and/or pathetic children does.

Triple post. My bad.

steven_ber

Thanks for the info dzibead.

Regarding charities and the people charities are trying to help......

A village in Maharashtra gains access to clean water, who'd control the water supply? (Locally I mean)

The same village, a Dalit child is given a good education by a charity, will he/she ever be allowed to be anything more than 'an educated Dalit'?

From my understanding, the higher caste members of the community seem to control everything, take what isn't theirs, and 'allow' the Dalits to do things that don't threaten the control, dominance and stature of the higher caste members of the community.

To a certain extent, this would undermine any attempts by charities to give help in the area.

I hope I'm wrong, but the more I read about village life the more convinced I become, the Khairlanji crimes a couple of years ago were just an extreme example of this.

Nick-H

... that was just a few months ago, Steven: end of last year, maybe?

I have to confess that, when I saw the idea for the thread, that we would get some posts about how people imagined or wished they could do some sort of good in India.

I use the word imagined purposely, because the perceptions of a visitor are not necessarily those of the local, or necessarily the real needs. On the other hand we have many members who have worked in India to bring real help to people, in medical fields, in women's issues, in education, in the provision of homes --- and probably many more.

It is also interesting to see which needs interest which people. We are not angels with unlimited resource, nobody can do, or even think about, everything --- some people will chose the elderly, some the young; some will chose cows, some dogs.

Setting up a properly constituted and regulated charity in India, raising money for it, and then making sure that that money goes where it was intended is an enormous and daunting task, requiring very much more than a simple desire to do good. Read Rob's posts (poipleshadow), and see his website, for starters on dealing with officialdom.

We can do what's wrong with tha charity scene in India? and we can also do the not-so-nice stuff that lurks behind the smiles of many an Indian family or community.

But I'd like to hear more from people, regardless of whether it is an actual intention, or a wouldn't-it-be-nice --- what they would like to do.

mary10

Here's my two cents on this subject for anyone thinking of starting a charity: If you enjoy living in constant tension, fear, risk your life from the many conflicts that will come to you from your well-intended efforts (and perhaps end in jail even if you've done nothing wrong), and live on air since hardly anyone will be willing to donate any monies to the charity - do go ahead and start a charity in India!

I don't understand why people don't want to go and help the many trillion existing charities in India? Many charities try so hard but are already struggling and can't afford much and don't have enough volunteers to do what they would like to do. Why have one more struggling charity that cant do much? And, there is really nothing worse than a foreigner with no years of experience in India, coming to start a charity... This kind of charity don't arise from real pity, but is a gloating pity that seeks attention. It may sound harsh but I'm trying to save you years of nightmares here. Let's face the truth: unless you live for YEARS in India, you know nothing of the psychology of the people, the subtle and unspoken messages, the culture and the situations and can cause more problems than solutions with what you do.

I'll give two examples: a friend of mine would never listen to anyones advice. He always said he had a lot of compassion. But he advertised it all the time to get attention. We always told him the best contribution he could do in India was to not interfere. Did he listen? Of course not. Instead he accused us to be cold and selfish while he was the rebirth of Florence Nightingale. He befriended a poor farmer who worked very hard on his patch of land every day. But like all other farmers in the region, he had difficulties getting water to his plot, his animals needed medical care, his crop needed special attention when infested with bugs and so on, so on. Our dull-minded friend went full-hearted into all these issues and started by buying the farmer a water pump.... And that was the end of the peace in that distant village. Other farmers got jealous realizing he would get more than them and perhaps increase his "wealth" quicker. They started tantalizing his family and scare suitors to his daughter off, ruining his crops and even poison his cattle and tried to burn down his house! Nothing was ever the same.

Another friend of mine, who I felt was the most intelligent and capable to actually start a charity of all foreigners I met, ended up in jail. Not because he did anything wrong. The distant region where he educated poor children without any restriction to cast or creed became convinced that he must want to do this, because he was "selling children for foreign adoption". Although not a single child was missing (evidence is not always important in the Indian legal system!) or had been "sold" anywhere, they were simply convinced it must be so and he was jailed. Try and get justice after that and it will take a lifetime.

So, Indians do know what the problems are in their own community and don't need our interferance. Indian people struggling to set their society straight are the true heroes of the country, not the plastic Bollywood stars everyone worships. If anyone express their wish to start a charity, and they really do want to help the people, just ask them to join an existing charity. Help them with labor and funding, sometimes with planning. And ask them not to push it if the charity has objections to their ideas - because the charity may have a valid reason for objecting to your suggestions without telling you straight.

dzibead

Good observations, mary10.

Prashant.M

Not sure if your question was rhetorical. Please ignore this if it was.

They can join the state or central government as employees as there are reservations for them. I don't know what opportunities they would have in the village itself.

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