NGOs play a crucial role in improving the lives of people who have been affected by natural disasters or are facing other challenges. NGOs can act as implementers, catalysts, and partners to provide essential goods and services to those in need. In India, there are NGOs working for quality education, healthcare, nutrition, animal welfare, environmental conservation, for the marginalised sections of the society and in remote and backward areas, sometimes in collaboration with the government, sometimes with corporates through CSR or through independent donations.
The nonprofit sector of our country serves as the infrastructure for corporate social responsibility. NGOs, or non-governmental organisations, are important players in this area, putting CSR strategies into practice and carrying out a variety of humanitarian programmes. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ (MCA) CSR regulations give specific weight to an NGO’s position as a partner in corporate citizenship implementation.
On World NGO Day, The CSR Journal takes a look into few of the top NGOs operating in India for various causes.
Top 10 NGOs in India
Prerana
Established in 1986, Prerana works to end intergenerational prostitution and to protect women and children from the threats of human trafficking by defending their rights and dignity, providing a safe environment, supporting their education and health and leading major advocacy efforts. Prerana strives to ensure optimum protection of children. They also address issues of child sexual abuse along with anti-human trafficking. Since its establishment, Prerana’s pioneering efforts have been instrumental in supporting victims through the entire cycle from prevention to repatriation.
Their major programmes include Anti-Trafficking Center, Sanmaan, Educational Support Programme, Institutional Placement Programme (IPP), Naunihaal – Children’s Home for girls and Night Care Centres.
Prerana has collaborated with corporates like Goldman Sachs Pvt. Ltd., Mastek Ltd., The Oberoi Group of Hotels, The Taj Group of Hotels, The Western Union Foundation, Larsen and Tubro Ltd., and Johnson & Johnson Ltd.
Teach For India
Teach For India was founded in 2008. Inspired by Teach For America’s journey, this non-profit runs with the belief that all children must attain an excellent education. Today, Teach For India is a movement of 900 Fellows teaching 33,000 children and 4,500+ Alumni who are collectively reaching 50 million children across India.
Teach For India is a part of the Teach For All Network, a growing group of independent organisations working on expanding educational opportunities in their nations. The 60 countries in the network share a common vision of an excellent education for all children.
Teach For India’s Flagship programme is the two-year Teach For India Fellowship. Under this programme, committed volunteers are placed in low-income or government schools where they work relentlessly to transform the lives of students. Teach for India supports them as they find careers within and beyond the education sector. After the Fellowship, these Fellows have lifelong access to Teach For India’s Alumni movement.
Bal Raksha Bharat
Bal Raksha Bharat (also known as Save the Children) is India’s leading independent child rights NGO. It works in over 16 Indian states and has impacted lives of more than 14 million Indian children since 2004.
Its projects are implemented in the remotest corners of India and urban areas focusing on quality education and healthcare, protection from harm and abuse and life-saving aid during emergencies to children. There are programmes focusing on Education (Project Bachpan, From Brick Kiln to School), Health & Nutrition (Shubh Aarambh 2.0, Project Kaushal), Poverty Inclusion, Resilience, Child Protection (Marriage – No Child’s Play, Work – No Child’s Business) and Humanitarian pogrammes.
A major aspect of Bal Raksha Bharat’s work is to engage with and empower the most marginalised communities of India. The non-profit also engages with the Government to drive policy change in the best interest of children. Globally, Bal Raksha Bharat is present in more than 80 countries and works to improve the situation of children living there.
Akshay Patra Foundation
Akshaya Patra is one of India’s leading not-for-profit organisations and the implementing partner for the Government of India’s flagship PM POSHAN Abhiyan. Its programmes are based on the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model in collaboration with various governments, corporates, philanthropic donors, and well-wishers. Akshaya Patra strives to ensure children’s access to nutrition by providing them hot, hygienic and safe mid-day meals in government and aided schools every day. The programme positively impacts children’s education by improving their enrolment, attendance, retention, and concentration.
With a vision that no child in India should be deprived of education because of hunger, the non-profit organisation works towards implementing the Mid-Day Meal Programme (PM-POSHAN) in about 19,039 schools (government and government-aided) across the country. With a reach spanning over 72 locations across 16 States and 2 Union Territories, Akshaya Patra Foundation strives towards feeding the primary and upper-primary children with a minimum of 450 and 700 calories respectively on a daily basis. It has achieved the milestone of feeding about 2.1 million children every day.
Akshaya Patra Foundation apart from feeding children from socio-economically challenged sections, also feeds lactating mothers, provides food assistance during times of disasters and is working to combat malnutrition from India. It is currently working with a goal to bring in 3 million children under its wings and provide them with nutritious meals under the mid-day meal programme by 2025 through collaborations and charity/CSR donations.
Wildlife Trust of India
Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), a non-profit conservation organisation, committed to urgent action that works towards the protection of India’s wildlife. Its mission is to conserve nature, especially endangered species and threatened habitats, in partnership with communities and governments.
Established in November 1998 with only three staff members, WTI currently has a team of over 100 full-time professionals and consultants, in addition to volunteers from all walks of life who operate diverse conservation projects across India. In 20 years, WTI has grown to be one of India’s premier wildlife NGOs.
The principal concerns of WTI include crisis management and provision of quick, efficient aid to individuals, species or habitats that require it the most. In its 21 years of operations, WTI has saved more than 42,000 animal lives, trained and equipped 20,000 frontline forest staff and covered them under India’s pioneering supplementary accident assurance scheme that also covers Covid-19, assisted the govt. in creating 7 Protected Areas, sensitised 25 lakh children to conservation, protected almost 1200 sq km of natural habitat including mangroves and coral reefs, assisted enforcement agencies in almost 240 seizures.
Sankara Eye Foundation India
Formed in 1977 by Dr R.V.Ramani, Sankara Eye Foundation, India is a social enterprise with 47 years of presence, providing cost effective or free of cost community eye health services to the underprivileged across India. It is a unit of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Medical Trust.
Sankara is a group of hospitals with world class facilities and robust Infrastructure and catering to the rural & the urban population across 10 states of India. Currently there are 13 Medical Centres in 10 states serving 1000 patients every day. Sankara’s Community Outreach Model is a unique, replicable & sustainable model which has transformed over ten million lives since inception.
In 1990, Dr. R.V. Ramani launched Gift of Vision – High quality, cost effective, readily available eye care at the doorsteps of Rural India. With the support of Rotary International and Rotary Coimbatore Central, through a Health, Hunger and Humanity Grant for the first time in India the “Gift of Vision” programme was initiated. The Model aims at providing World Class eye care totally free of cost to 80% of the population and through paid services for 20% which in turn subsidises the total cost of treatment.
OSCAR Foundation
OSCAR Foundation is a community based Sports for Development organisation that uses the power of football to encourage children to stay in school and equip them with skills to make them resilient and future ready. There vision is a world where all children and youth have an equal opportunity to succeed. Through its Football, Education and Young Leader programmes, the non-profit has empowered 14,000 children and youth in low-income communities in India since 2010.
Their flagship Football and Life Skills Programme uses a life skills curriculum which is integrated into fun football activities to promote physical fitness and socio-emotional development of children between the ages of 7 and 18. To further support the needs of communities, OSCAR Foundation also has projects like Community Centre, Young Leaders, Enabling Change and Football Excellence.
Helpage India
HelpAge India was established in New Delhi in 1978. This organisation mostly focuses on elderly care and assists them in raising their standard of living. The goal of HelpAge India is to stop elder abuse, give pensions to seniors, and manage their health care.
They perform all responsibilities that they can to help the elderly who are in need and work to give them a respectable and healthy life that makes them happier and enables them to live happily ever after without feeling guilty or unsatisfied. Elders who feel rejected by their families and the community they have been a part of for years might benefit greatly from the words and deeds of HelpAge India.
Oxfam India
Oxfam India is a movement of people working to end discrimination and create a free and just society. The organisation works to ensure that Adivasis, Dalits, Muslims, and women and girls have safe-violence-free lives with freedom to speak their minds, equal opportunities to realise their rights, and a discrimination-free future.
The NGO conducts research to find lasting solutions to end rising inequalities and exclusion of marginalised communities from getting decent jobs, quality free education and healthcare. It campaigns with the public to demand policy changes from governments to create a just and inclusive country as envisioned in the Indian Constitution. It also mobilises support to save, protect and rebuild the lives of the poorest of poor affected by crisis and humanitarian disasters.
Make A Difference (MAD)
Make A Difference (MAD) is a millennial-driven, non-profit organization working to transform outcomes for children in need of care and protection. Its vision is that all children that grow up in care in India are able to realize equitable outcomes on par with the middle class. It is working to ensure that all children in shelters across India are able to realize equitable outcomes within the next 25 years, by mobilizing the community, empowering the child, enabling the sector, and changing the ecosystem. This non-profit is building new holistic, integrated, and long-term developmental methodologies for working with children in an age-transitional way, catering to ages 10 to 28.
As of today Make a Difference works with approximately 3500 children in partnership with 60 shelters across 23 cities in India, through an operating model that is almost entirely volunteer-driven. Popular programmes include Foundation Skills (for children aged 10-13 years), ED Support (for 14-16 years), Transition readiness (16-18 years) and Aftercare Programme (for 18 and above).
