Establishing an Enabling Environment for the Voluntary Sector

♤ The government through the National Policy for VOs aims to provide a set of laws, policies, rules and regulations relating to VOs categorically safeguard their autonomy, while simultaneously ensuring their accountability.

♤ The independence of VOs will allow them to explore alternative paradigms of development to challenge social, economic and political forces that may work against public interest and to find new ways to combat poverty, deprivation and other social problems.

♤ It shall also enable VOs to legitimately mobilize necessary financial resources from India and abroad (tax exemptions, regulation through FCRA). At the same time, the Government will consider tightening administrative and penal procedures to ensure that these incentives are not misused by paper charities for private financial gain.

♤ The Government will encourage all relevant Central and State Government agencies will introduce time bound procedures for dealing with the VOs. These would cover registration, income tax clearances, financial assistance, etc. There would be formal systems for registering complaints and for redressing grievances of VOs.