The Hindu : Bangladesh moves to regulate NGOs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 14, 2004

International

International

Bangladesh moves to regulate NGOs

By Haroon Habib

DHAKA, FEB. 13. The Bangladesh Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia's Government is determined to regulate the country's Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), by amending the relevant law of 1978 under which these bodies, mostly funded from abroad, operate.

After the alliance Government came to power two and half years ago, it blacklisted a number of leading NGOs but favoured a few of them.

But, for the first time, NGOs, irrespective of their relations with the Government, have taken a swipe at the ruling BNP-Jamaat-e-Islami coalition for its move to amend the law. They described the Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, 2004, now awaiting passage in Parliament, as "unconstitutional and inappropriate". Both the Federation of NGOs in Bangladesh (FNB) formed recently by perceived pro-Government NGOs, and the Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB), known to be pro-Opposition, termed the proposed bill "a blueprint" to regulate them.

The two organisations said the move would turn the private voluntary organisations into "another set of Government departments". The FNB, in a resolution, said the 1978 law was intended to ensure proper utilisation of foreign donations received by the NGOs. The ADAB alleged that the amendment would give the Government total control over the NGOs and make them "toe the line of the four-party alliance". "We feel that the proposed amendment is simply monstrous and, if enforced, will severely restrict the space for NGOs' operation and make all their pro-people programmes collapse", the ADAB statement said. It alleged that the Government's real intention was not to ensure transparency in the working of the NGOs but to virtually take them over to carry out its own political agenda. The statement described as illogical the provision for taking action against an NGO if an individual of the organisation is involved in irregularities.

Aroma Dutt, executive director of a blacklisted NGO, PRIP Trust, said, "No NGO is involved in politics. If an NGO talks about class struggle or poverty alleviation and that is perceived as politics, it will be sad.

The move is aimed against destroying a few selected NGOs". She said the Jamaat-e-Islami, a ruling coalition partner, "does not want women's empowerment. The Government has targeted those NGOs that work for them."

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