Nearly 6,000 NGOs lose FCRA registration

The FCRA (Foreign Contribution Regulation Act) licences of more than 6,000 NGOs and other organisations expired, the Home Ministry stated on the morning of Saturday, 1 January. FCRA licences - needed to receive funding from abroad - of over 12,000 NGOs and other organisations have expired, the Home Ministry said. According to MHA data, six thousand organisations including Oxfam India, Common Cause, Jamia Milia Islamia, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), Kolkata-based Satajit Ray Film and Television Institute and the India Islamic Cultural Centre (IICC) have been taken off the list of registered organisations under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) with effect from January 1,2022.

There were 22,797 FCRA registered organisations in the country, which has now come down to 16,829 after removal of 5,968 organisations (including 5,789 which didn’t apply + 179 rejected for violation) as on December 31, 2021. As on January 1, the FCRA registration of total 16,829 organisations were “alive or active”, which means they are eligible to receive funds from abroad and use them for specified purposes. The Centre amended the FCRA in 2020 allowing conducting an enquiry before a renewal and giving organisations of surrendering the licence if an organisation doesn’t want it.