Reading the tweets about the FCRA bill. Any government has a vested interest is stifling civil society but startling how much hatred and mistrust people have for those of us who choose to work in the larger interest.

Just six months ago, this government left the people of India to their fate and it was this civil society that stepped into the breach, turning compassion into practical help. For months.

How many of those volunteers drove around in imported cars and branded clothes? I saw none. I saw heart, courage and generosity.
And a government that couldn't care less. Notwithstanding the name of their private fund.

Prejudice blinds the public to how most Indian NGOs work--poky offices, poorly paid staff and barely enough financial security to know if they will last another year.
Agreed: 80%, even 100% of money should go to the work. But.

Tell me: WHO is going to do the work? A ghost who doesn't eat or fall sick? An idea that has no family to take care of? And will they just wander around the streets in packs, discussing, doing?
Get real, SOMEONE has to do the work SOMEWHERE.

Salaries: anathema.
Overheads: wasteful.
Benefits, insurance: scandalous, this is service!

This is how we feel about those who spend their lives, bringing healthcare to forgotten districts and water to parched villages.

So let's not even talk about human rights defenders. Utterly useless people unless you want to fill jails.
Arre, mind your business, make money, spend more, be happy!

Why should anyone spend money on, earn salaries for talking about other people's rights?

We learn early in Political Science classes that rights exist in the context of the state. That is, we need to explicate, defend our rights because it is the predisposition of the state to infringe on them.
But never mind, we'll just roll over and play dead.

Civil society, NGOs, those extravagant villains with foreign money, stand between the average and the tendency of governments to be predatory and elites to be selfish. NGOs act, speak out and stand up when no one else will. Whether you trust us or not.

All I can say, is what generations of parents, aunties and uncles have as we chose non-profit lives: More fool us.