Opinion
Changing contours of NGOs’ engagements with governments for educational change Rahul Mukhopadhyay Plural histories of engagements between NGOs and the State
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he relationship between the government and non-government organizations (NGOs) have taken on different forms across both time and space in the global South, though with some similar patterns among erstwhile colonized countries in South Asia. In India, the primary driver of post-independence planned economic development was the government. However, there was a significant presence of a large number of voluntary organizations. Many of these were driven by Gandhian principles of Swaraj – self-reliance through democratic decentralization. Examples of such organizations include Vidya Bhawan, Seva Mandir, SEWA, BAIF, etc. Government funds were channelized to these NGOs for “reaching the unreached” sections of the population, and for filling in gaps that the emergent postIndependent State found difficult to fulfil in areas of social welfare and development. The dominant position of the government, in its relationship with NGOs, was called into question during the 1970s. In this period, the government’s economic and social development policies failed to address issues of recurring natural calamities and widespread poverty. During this time, two broad approaches emerged from among civil society organizations (CSOs) to engage with the government, approaches that continued well into the 1980s and early 1990s. The first approach, a more organizational welfarist one (e.g., Eklavya, Bodh
Shiksha Samiti, Agragamee), focused on complementing or supplementing the role of the government in delivering public services such as education, health, and provisions of rural livelihoods. This was envisaged to be undertaken through more efficient grassroots-based delivery systems and contextualized adaptations of the government’s mainstream models of service delivery. Examples of these in the domain of education include, alternative or non-formal education centres, curricular modifications, and localized teacher support. The second approach was a more social movement oriented one. Examples of these included Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti, Kashtakari Sangathana, and The Timbaktu Collective. This approach focused on empowerment of people and public-service deliverers at the bottom-most rung of the bureaucratic hierarchy. Examples of this in the space of education included total literacy movement, work with village education committees, and work with community-based teachers. These two approaches were not specific to education, and cut across different issues of social development. They can be seen as creating a dichotomy between what can be within the realm of economic and social development, in collaboration with the state, and what can take on a more political stance with a critique of the state and its policies and often not working in conjunction with government structures and institutions. In education, National Policy on Education (1986), and the changing political-economic
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