NGOs, SHGs, charities, institutional & non-institutional actors

Story hook

It is 1992 in Tilonia, Rajasthan. Bunker Roy's Barefoot College trains illiterate rural grandmothers to be solar engineers. By 2010, the model has spread to 80 countries; the UN invites it to Sao Paulo, Geneva, Cape Town. Tilonia is just one entry in a sprawling Indian NGO ecosystem — **estimated 3.3 million NGOs (CBI 2014 affidavit to SC) — one NGO per 400 Indians.

That ecosystem includes giants — SEWA (Self Employed Women's Association, 1972) founded by Ela Bhatt; PRADAN working in tribal Jharkhand; Pratham with ASER, the country's most trusted education survey; CRY, HelpAge India, Smile Foundation, Akshaya Patra (Mid-Day Meal), Tata Trusts; Aga Khan Foundation, Ramakrishna Mission, Bharat Sevashram Sangha. And millions of grassroots SHGs under DAY-NRLM — 89 lakh SHGs covering 9.6 crore women.

It also faces friction. FCRA 2010 amended 2020 tightened foreign funding rules — 20,693 NGOs had their FCRA registration cancelled or expired by 2024. The Greenpeace (2015) → Compassion International (2017) → Oxfam India (2022) sequence of clamps reset the donor landscape. CSR mandate under Companies Act 2013 Section 135 (1 April 2014) made India the first country to legally mandate CSR, channelling ~₹26,000 cr/year to the third sector.

For UPSC, this unit threads civil society's role + the regulatory state's response + the SHG-led grassroots ecosystem.

Why this matters for UPSC

• Prelims: 1-2 questions per year on FCRA, Societies Act, CSR rules, SHG numbers.
• Mains GS-II: NGO regulation + SHG-led empowerment + civil society stems (2014, 2017, 2020, 2022).
• Interview: Restrictions on foreign funding, NGO accountability.