CIVIL SOCIETY AND IT'S ROLE

What is a civil society?

Civil society is communion or a collective group of people who have common interests, ideologies, and their collaboration is for attainment of the goals they believe in.

They can be of versatile nature of groups like family, religion, social activists, professionals or people of certain profession like trade unions, even social media communities, judicial activists, political groups. When these groups are well organised they are refereed to as Civil Society Organisations. These organisations exclude Government and its institutions, and for profit organisations, thus the synonymous phrase Non Governmental Organisation (NGO). These organisations can be at local(ex: Self Help Groups), national, and international level(ex: Reporters Without Borders)

Understanding Civil Society.

Civil society in its nascent form can be understood by comparing how early humans formed into a tribe of small group living in small hamlet, this association to form a tribe is to achieve the goal of surviving. It was later that humans evolved were able to form governments that run on certain rules,procedures and protocols. So civil societies are formed when people who believe in a cause come together willing to take collective action. This action may be to protect their rights or rights of the disadvantaged or  environment or to promote health, education, economic interests or to promote awareness among people about certain issues.

Is there a need for Civil Society?

Humans have established institutions to govern themselves like in democracies or being governed by autocracy like in middle eastern countries. These institutions by themselves are not enough to  cater for the specific needs of the people as a group or nation or world as a whole. The policies, laws may not be suitable for all as there is no one size fits all solutions available with governments. These civil societies may be categorized broadly into 4 orientations

Charitable Orientation         : mostly towards helping poor to meet their needs.

Service Orientation                : people receive services like education, health, etc.

Participatory Orientation    : mostly involves self help groups where people not only receive benefits but also contribute to attain these benefits

Empowering Orientation     :help people understand social, political and economic factors affecting their lives, and to strengthen their awareness of their own potential power to control their lives.

Role of Civil Society.

Civil society plays important role in development and is expected to take the responsibility of socio economic political development such as seeking transformation of an authoritarian rule into democratic and further strengthening existing democracy. Help improving equity, and living conditions of the poor. Let us see how civil societies help in governance.

They help in shaping public policy and decision making: 

this may be done by mobilizing people or by representing the interests of marginalized people like poor and socially disadvantages people, farmers,  disabled people, urban slum dwellers, etc.

Transparency and information: 

asking for information on implementation of policies, scrutinizing the propriety of government spending, etc.

Social change through social activism:

promoting awareness among the people about the need for social change, like women's safety in public and office spaces, fighting against social evils like untouchability, dowry , etc.

Supplementing government efforts:

helping govt in implementing schemes. Akshaya Patra role in providing food in mid day meal program of govt Sarva Siksha Abhiyaan is a classic example. Another example is Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation helping government in tackling diseases through providing medicines and logistics.

Working for social justice: 

this is where civil societies come in aid for the vulnerable sects of the society and try to defend their rights. Like the rights of the Tribal people whose lands come into constant conflict with the quest for resources.

Environmental Activism:

one of the most active and contributing action of civil society is protecting the environment. These range from International to local groups.

Civil society activists act as check against government excess, protects the moral conscience of the society. They question the indifference shown to the plight of common man. They try to protect the rights of individuals which are infringed by authorities, corporate's and  majoritarian dominance.

Challenges faced by Civil Society .

These are internal and external.

Internal challenges.

The Civil society organisations receive funding for carrying out their operations. This may leave them vulnerable to promote narrow goals of promoters rather than broader goals. This challenge of power imbalances within throws up fundamental question of whose voices are heard, how resources are accessed, distributed and who is speaking for whom. This brings into the question of legitimacy of the organisation and related issues of  transparency, representation and accountability. (To understand better lets suppose there is nuclear power project approved by the government in collaboration with a country, but there may be a competing  vested interest which may artificially promote protests by funding the protests in lieu of delaying the project.)

External Challenges.

The civil societies need to be registered and they are regulated under the laws of the land especially on receiving foreign funds. Authorities also under the suspicion of influence of foreign countries may cause roadblocks for them to carry out their operations, like instigating laws such as treason on such organisations.

Conclusion.

Strong democracy needs strong and active civil society, they contribute to the political, social and economic development. Yet their legitimacy can't be taken for granted and at the same time their operations should not be hindered by pro vigilance and suspicion by authorities. The civil society needs to evolve themselves and self regulate themselves and innovate to contribute to the society more efficiently.

 

Recent Issues

The crackdown on civil society 
the Hindu editorial

 

A few more trivial Facts.

CSO in India are regulated under Societies Registration Act, 1860  regulated by states adopted central act.

As Section 8 Companies Act 2013 as non profit organisation.

Can also be registered as Trust.

Funding is regulated under Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), 2011. Intelligence Bureau, in a report accused "foreign-funded" NGOs of "serving as tools for foreign policy interests of western governments" by sponsoring agitations against nuclear and coal-fired power plants and anti-GMO agitation across the country. The NGOs, are said to be working through a network of local organisations to negatively impact GDP growth by 2–3%.

It alleged that Greenpeace was leading a "massive effort to take down India's coal-fired power plant and coal mining activity" by using foreign funds to "create protest movements under 'Coal Network' umbrella at prominent coal block and coal-fired power plant locations in India".^[3] The Intelligence Bureau said the foreign NGOs and their Indian arms were serving as tools to advance Western foreign policy interests.^[4] "Greenpeace aims to fundamentally change the dynamics of India's energy mix by disrupting and weakening the relationship between key players," the IB report said.