Charity International shut down operations after operating for 48 years in the country
A Colorado-based Christian charity that provides meals, medical care and tuition payments will discontinue operations in India after 48 years of doing work in the country.
According to a report in The New York Times, Charity International shut down operations after it was suspected of engaging in religious conversion.
More than 11,000 nongovernmental organisations have lost their licences to accept foreign funds since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took office in 2014.
In February this year, the Centre shut down the health wing of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on a critical national health mission, and possible conflict of interest issues arising from the foundation’s “ties” with pharmaceutical companies is one of the reasons.
According to The Times report, Charity denied the centre’s allegation that it was funding religious conversion. They claim that they found themselves in “murky back-channel negotiations with an RSS representative.
However, an official from India’s Ministry of External Affairs denied that the RSS representative had any role in the government’s actions, calling the discussion “totally extraneous to the law enforcement action.”
A Home Ministry official suggested that Compassion International re-register its Indian partners as religious entities, a step that the charity’s legal team discouraged, saying it would lead to further paralysis.
The report also adds that 15,000 of the 145,000 Indian children regularly receiving services through Compassion International have been severed from the programs. The sponsors will be contacted individually and asked to transfer their sponsorships from Indian children to children from other countries.
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