Some NGOs work on an 'agenda': Satyarthi

New Delhi, Nov 13: Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi has said some NGOs in the country work on an "agenda" and have been even used for conversions in India.

He lamented that some international agencies funding NGOs have used them for serving their own agenda, including carrying out conversions and promoting Naxal violence.

"There are many kinds of people. Those in the corporate world and politics have also started NGOs to meet their ends. They have been used even for carrying out conversions. NGOs are becoming a money-minting machine in the name of poverty.

They all have their own agendas," he told 'Panchjanya' in an interview. He also cited the example in Delhi where investigations by police reveal that some organisations funded by Child Welfare Board lured poor children from across the country into Child Homes run by them for conversions. "No one should be lured to convert with money or other benefits.

I am against such conversions," he told the publication run by RSS sympathisers. Satyarthi also accused such organisations of dividing the NGO community and creating a rift between them in the country by luring some with donations and foreign travels.

"There are some organisations which somehow promote Naxalism. It is not good for the country's internal security. Such organisations working in the name of social welfare are being funded by such agencies who claim to be working in this direction but their purpose is something else.

It is my experience that such agencies lure NGOs with money, donations and foreign travels and try to divide the NGOs in the country," he said. The Nobel laureate lamented that in the last two decades some people have started NGOs with the objective of making it a profitable venture to uplift their careers and make money instead of serving humanity.

"When people started getting foreign donations and government funding, then people set up such organisations to gain. Now even 'socialites' and 'fashionable civil society' have come up.

I have seen such people who have made a business out of social reform and social welfare. "In the last two decades, a section of NGOs have found a way to make a career for themselves instead of initiating social reform.

People think NGOs are a means to make money and make their careers. I have seen those donating to such NGOs also have their own agenda," he told the publication.

Satyarthi said many social organisations have raised issues and there is no harm in doing so, but when foreign agencies funding such NGOs dictate terms to raised such issues it is not good and wondered how the change will come.

He said he only came to know of such instances after they raised the issues and later found that they were funded by such agencies which had vested interests.

Kailash Satyarthi won the Nobel Peace Prize 2014, for working towards freeing children from being employed in labour work through his 'Bachpan Bachao Aandolan'. He had shared the award with Pakistan's Malala Yousafzai.

PTI