WORLD SOCIAL WORK DAY

World Social Work Day 2017  (WSWD) is on the 21st of March. This year's theme ‘Promoting Community and Environmental Sustainability’ relates to the third pillar of the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development.

FAREWELL FABS!

From the first day of the college when we took admission and entered the College​, we have been guided by our seniors about this precious part of our life in the college.

It is our seniors who made us able to get adjusted in the completely different environment, our new college meant our new home. Of course, college and hostel becomes new home to all the students as we see only our family in our homes, however in the college we have to face many difficulties, variety of pains, etc which taught us to live without parents and family members. In such an unusual environment we learn to adjust and live happily just because of our seniors. It was our seniors who made us feel that we are like free birds and can do anything what we want in the life.

I still remember our fresher's​ party very well which our seniors had celebrated by organizing lots of cultural activities and mischievous tasks. After the fresher's​ party they started treating us like their friends and helped us a lot. Whenever we needed​ anything, we could approach to our seniors at once and get what we needed. They helped us on and off campus, and in making arrangements for any event in the college.

   We learnt many important things in the college life only because of our seniors. They taught us how healthy interaction with everyone in the college plays a significant role in the curriculum. It also helps us to get rid of the homesickness and adjust in the totally new environment of college. Strengthening bond with seniors in the college has inculcated the sense of responsibility and craftsmanship among us. They set a benchmark for us with each of their activities. Our seniors were really very encouraging, supporting, care taking and truly behaved to us like friendly guardians in this college. I again want to say to our seniors that our heartily wishes are always with you all for your successful future.

Thank you all.

As always said amongst ourselves, "They came as Individuals, they are parting as RAJAGIRIANS!".

HAPPY HOLI TO ALL XPLORICANS!

LEADING THE WAY...

Written by Adrija Roychowdhury, The Indian Express

On December 21, 2012, the streets surrounding Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi was teeming with thousands of people out in anger against the brutal rape of a 23-year-old girl. The savagery involved in the incident had appalled the country. The protests in Delhi soon found an echo all over the country. Never before had an entire country anywhere in the world come out in vehement protest against the inability of the government to provide adequate security to women. The incident was soon followed with some significant changes in laws regarding rape cases in India. The Delhi gang rape case and the protests against it went on to become a landmark moment in the history of the feminist movement in India.

While the protests against the Delhi gang rape went on to acquire international stature, it was definitely not the first instance when women or women related issues became the face of a social movement in India. The feminist movement in India has come a long way since its inception in the nineteenth century when the mother figure was upheld as the epitome of strength, protection and endurance and used for the sake of achieving both gender equality and nationalist goals. By the twentieth century, the feminist discourse in the country evolved to widen the concept of equality, including within it issues related to a woman’s right over her body, her control over her life and the legality of crimes related to women. Overtime, on various instances women have risen in unison not just for gender related issues, but also spearheaded some significant socio-economic movements in the country.

On International Women’s Day, here is a tribute to few moments in contemporary Indian history when women have come out on the streets to hold mass protests demanding their rights.

The Chipko movement

In the absence of men, it was the women of the village who took it upon themselves to step out of their homes and face the industrialists head on. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Concerned with the preservation of ecological balance, the Chipko movement in the state of Uttarakhand (then Uttar Pradesh) started in the early 1970s. The protests were against the government’s policy of handing out contracts to industrial giants to utilise forest produce for making profits. The movement had started off under the leadership of the Dashauli Gram Swarajya Sangh (DGSS). However, despite repeated protests the forest department went ahead and auctioned out about 2500 trees of the Reni forest. While the DGSS planned out a demonstration against the auction, the local government conspired to keep all male activists away from the region.

In the absence of men, it was the women of the village who took it upon themselves to step out of their homes and face the industrialists head on. Gaura Devi, a middled aged Bhotia woman was the one to spot the men of the company who came to fell the trees. She immediately mobilised about 30 women to lead the movement. Challenging the men to first shoot her down before touching the trees she forced them to retreat. Soon after the state government investigated the case and withdrew the company from the Reni forests. This incident sparked off similar movements in other parts of the sub-Himalayan region such as in Gopeshwar (1975), Bhynder valley (1978) and Dongri Paintoli (1980).

While the Chipko movement was primarily a protest demanding ecological protection, the involvement of women in the forefront gave it an added impetus of women asking for a stronger representation in decision making.

Jagmati Sangwan’s movement against khap panchayats

Headed by reformer Jagmati Sangwan, close of 1000 women were part of the protest, many among them were married to the men who supported the panchayat ruling.

In 1995, a young boy in Jind district of Haryana had married a girl from his village against the orders of the khap panchayat. As a punishment, the panchayat members ruled the rape of the boy’s 12-year-old sister. What ensued was a bitter struggle between the men and women of the village, the men being supportive of the ruling of the panchayat and the women vehemently protesting against it. Headed by reformer Jagmati Sangwan, close of 1000 women were part of the protest, many among them were married to the men who supported the panchayat ruling.

This was one of the first mass movements organised by Sangwan. Over the years she went on to spearhead a strong women’s movement in Haryana, mobilising close to 50,000 women to join the Janwadi Mahila Samiti. She along with her supporters led passionate campaigns against female foeticide and honour killing in the state. Her biggest target were the Khap panchayats, who she believes operate along the notion of women being the honour of the family.

Naked protest of Manipur’s mothers

On July 11, 2004 a 32-year-old woman named Thangjam Manorama was picked up by members of the Assam Rifles (a paramilitary force unit in India) in Manipur on allegations of her being part of the banned People’s Liberation Army. Next morning, she was found raped and murdered with bullets pumped into her vagina.

Five days after the murder, 30 women came out on the streets of Imphal in protest against the army atrocity against Manorama. Stark naked, they walked down to the Kangla fort in Imphal where the Assam Rifles was stationed, carrying a board that read ‘Indian Army rape us.’ “We are all Manorama’s mothers,” screamed the women. The shocking protest eventually resulted in the Assam Rifles vacating the Kangla fort.

Anti-liquor movement in Andhra Pradesh

In the early 1990s, women in rural Andhra Pradesh took it upon themselves to fight against liquor dependency among their men and the subsequent verbal, physical and emotional abuse that followed. They had just one simple demand: “no drinking or selling liquor”. Led by a woman called Sandhya, the movement began as a dharna at the collectorate followed by the demand to stop sale of liquor in the village.

When liquor packets reached the sale counters, women rushed there and destroyed them. They later marched to the chief minister with a letter written in blood stating “we do not need liquor that drains our blood”. When the CM refused to ban liquor, they decided to sleep across his door, preventing him from leaving the house. Once they realised the futility of pleading for official intervention, they decided to reform their men on the home front. Soon enough, they declared that any man found drinking would have his head shaven and anyone selling liquor would be marched through the village on a donkey.

The women led struggle ultimately led to a statewide ban on liquor in 1995. Remarking on the uniqueness of the movement, political scientist Kancha Ilaiah wrote that “the methods that they use are neither Gandhian nor Marxian but uniquely their own.”

Gulabi Gang

Calling themselves the Gulabi Gang (pink gang), the group did not just limit their activities to a fight against gendered social evils, but rather battled against several other wrongdoings such as hoarding, bribery, caste discrimination and several others. EXPRESS PHOTO BY PURUSHOTTAM SHARMA.170909

In 2002, Suman Singh Chauhan of Badausa in Uttar Pradesh’s Banda was faced with an incident wherein her friend had been beaten up by her alcoholic husband. She gathered some of her friends and neighbours and rushed to her friend’s house and thrashed her husband publicly. This incident sparked off the origin of a group of women vigilantes in Badausa who took it upon themselves to correct social evils.

Calling themselves the Gulabi Gang (pink gang), the group did not just limit their activities to a fight against gendered social evils, but rather battled against several other wrongdoings such as hoarding, bribery, caste discrimination and several others. Wearing pink sarees and carrying bamboo sticks, they frequently resorted to violence in order to make their voices heard.

Badausa is listed among the 200 poorest districts in India and engulfed in problems of illiteracy, caste and gender violence. Most of the women in the gang belong to the Dalit community. Speaking to BBC, the current self proclaimed leader of the gang, Sampat Pal Devi is reported to have said: “Nobody comes to our help in these parts. The officials and the police are corrupt and anti-poor. So sometimes we have to take the law in our hands. At other times, we prefer to shame the wrongdoers.”

 http://indianexpress.com/article/research/international-womens-day-2017-five-mass-movements-spearheaded-by-women-in-india-4559761/

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The International Women’s Day is observed on March 8th every year. The event is believed to have begun in 1908 when about 15,000 US women organised a march in the New York City. The agenda behind this march was the demand for equal voting rights, shorter working hours and better way(Women were/are not paid as much as their male counterparts). However, the first International Women’s day was celebrated on 19th Match in 1911 and first women’s day was observed in Germany in 1914. In 1977, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution and since then March 8th is celebrated as the International Women’s Day.

Now, that we have gotten around the history, let us have the understanding of the necessity to celebrate a particular day for half the population of the world. Considering we live in the part of a world, where movies can be banned due to being ‘lady oriented’ should be enough to answer the question. But every once in a while, somebody comes along, breaking the barriers of patriarchy, rising high enough for the world to look up and kneel before them. Such women need to be celebrated.

Following are the examples of 5 such Indian women who have inspired generations and continue to do so:

Kalpana Chawla

Kalpana Chawla easily makes to the top of the list. Born in Karnal, Punjab on March 17, 1962, Chawla’s first mission began on November 19, 1997, as part of the six-astronaut crew that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight STS-87. Chawla was the first Indian-born woman and the second Indian person to fly in space. In the year 2000, Chawla was named for her second flight as a part of the crew STS-107. On January 16, 2003, Chawla finally returned to space aboard Space Shuttle Columbia. The shuttle, unfortunately, disintegrated on his way back home in Texas, killing the entire crew. Unfortunate though it was, Kalpana Chawla became a stuff of legends, of tales and folklores. She became a beacon of hope and inspiration for those who chose to believe.

Indra Nooyi

(Reuters)

Yes, interesting choice for the second spot. But in a world dominated by business’men’, Nooyi has emerged a corporate world leader as the Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo, the second-largest food and beverage business in the world by net revenue. In 2014, she was ranked 13 on the list of Forbes World’s 100 most powerful women and 82nd most powerful woman on the Fortune list in 2016.

M C Mary Kom

(Reuters)

Not Priyanka Chopra from some village in the North East. If you didn’t know that, you should just stop reading this. Born on November 4, 1982, Mary Kom is an Olympics boxer hailing from the Kom-Kuki tribe in Manipur. She is a five-time World Amateur Boxing champion, and the only woman boxer to have won a medal in each one of the six world championships. Mary Kom, struggled through the rise in ranks. And hailing from the most ignored part of the country didn’t help. Kom did not let marriage and troubles that follow motherhood come in the path of her success and is reportedly training for thew 2020 Olympics.

Arundhati Roy

(Reuters)

Born on November 24, 1961, Arundhati Roy is an Indian author best known for the novel “The God of Small Things”, which won her the Man Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997. The novel became the biggest-selling book by a nonexpatriate Indian author. Roy is also a known political activist and has been involved in numerous humanitarian causes. She, in fact, has had a sedition case filed against her. Now, I am not saying that is the wisest thing to follow here but the woman has been standing up for her beliefs and her rights against much stronger forces.

Sushmita Sen

(Reuters)

Born into a Bengali family in Hyderabad, Sushmita Sen, rose to stardom with the title of the Miss Universe in 1994. Although her venture into Bollywood wasn’t as successful as the runner-up (Aishwarya Rai), Sen is still considered to be one fine actor. The actress has been working on the independent scene for over a decade now. In an industry and a country where taboos become the oxygen we breathe, Sen has adopted and successfully raised two girls with her relationship status being single. So, everyone out there who thinks motherhood is what a woman should want, here is a woman, successful in the own right, raising two girls without the requirement of a father.

http://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/international-womens-day-2016-top-5-inspirational-indian-women-you-should-know-about/578654/ 

 Nari Shakti Puraskaar

Calling them 'unsung heroes', the Union women and child development (WCD) ministry has shortlisted 33 women, who will be awarded Nari Shakti Puraskaar on the occasion of International Women's day by President Pranab Mukherjee.

Among the awardees is the state of Rajasthan for its 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' campaign that took its sex ratio from 929 in December 2016 to 942 through a statewide awareness campaign. The 'Annaprashan' and 'Goad Bharai' programmes organised regularly for pregnant women at anganwadi centres in all districts of Rajasthan also helped it make the cut.

The ministry will also award three women scientists - Subha Varier, B Codanayaguy and Anatta Sonney - who have contributed to the launch of 104 satellites by ISRO on February 15.

Varier contributed in finalising the configuration of Satish Dhawan Space Centre and SHAR, Shriharikota range, for real time display. Codanayaguy from Puducherry has been with ISRO for over 30 years now and was responsible for the control system of all the solid motors of the PSLV C37 launch vehicle. Annata has helped ISRO design and develop orbit determination systems.

THE AWARDEES

Asia's first woman to drive a diesel train at the age of 20 - Mumtaz Kazi - will also receive the award. "I draw my inspiration from my father and had an inclination to drive a train since I was young. I had applied for this job back in 1988 and joined Indian Railways in 1991," 46-year-old Kazi told Mail Today.

Motorcyclist Pallavi Fauzdar, who has mobilised her passion to raise awareness about malnutrition in children and female foeticide, will also be honoured. Fauzdar has conquered eight mountain passes above 5,000 metres altitude in a single trip, covering 3,500 kms of rough terrain in Himachal, Leh, Ladakh and Kashmir.

Anoyara Khatun of West Bengal, who has saved 50 minors from child marriage and 85 girls from getting trafficked, also caught the eye of the WCD ministry. Khatun will also be awarded for helping 200 girls pursue education.

India's first female graphic novelist, Amruta Patil, will also be awarded for her work in memento mori, sexuality, myth and sustainable living through graphics.

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/international-womens-day-unsung-sheroes-nari-shakti-puraskaar-women-and-child-development-ministry/1/899313.html

MOVING PAST THE OBSTACLES...

In the run up to International Women’s Day on 8 March 2017, Firstpost profiled little-known women in South India who have fought against all odds in their local communities to bring forth change and transformation. While these women stand out as shining examples of the power of determination, there are also many women who languish in fear, battling misogyny and extreme harassment. This series looked not just at the trials and tribulations faced by women in all walks of life — whether Kerala women trafficked to the Gulf or heroines who are harassed and molested — it also showed how in small pockets of south India, individual women are triumphing against caste, patriarchy and discrimination to help not just themselves but entire communities, generations and villages.

In Tamil Nadu:

1. Fighting against the caste scourge, now an entrepreneur

The last of six children in a lower income Dalit family in Kumbakonam, Kalavathy always knew she wanted to do something different with her life. At a time when many Dalit women in the state are struggling for basic rights, she has made a mark by starting her own garment unit, employing over 80 people. She continues to battle odds, since orders dwindle when her caste identity is known. Kalavathy says she has to work extra hard in order to be as good as her non-Dalit peers.

Read Kalavathy's story here.

2. Water Warrior

The Vadamoor village near the Veeranam tank had been facing an acute water problem, with people being forced to walk several kilometres just to get drinking water. All this changed thanks to one woman, Ranganayaki. A widow with two physically challenged children, she was forced to take up agriculture when her husband died. After struggling with a water shortage and poor irrigation, she was responsible for clearing the Raja canal and removing encroachment, which helped not only bring water to her village, but also helped improve the agriculture in the area.

3. Rich and famous but dogged by misogyny, harassment

The recent horrific incident involving a South Indian actress has sent shock waves across the industry. Support for her streamed in from all over the country. Yet, before it could be dismissed as an one-off instance, actor Varalaxmi in Chennai came out with allegations against a TV channel chief, of harassment. In the past too, there were plenty of instances where actresses had to put up with situations that their male co-stars would never find themselves in. In 2007 actor Padmapriya was slapped on the sets of Mirugam by director Saamy, which earned him a year-long ban from making films. Celebrities like Priya Mani, Shriya Saran, Shweta Menon and Hansika, have reportedly been groped in public at different occasions. Many films have been panned for their degrading portrayal of woman on screen. Heroines often get only a tenth of the screen time that a hero gets in masala entertainers. Songs with regressive lyrics are also common in Tamil. While all this is on screen and evident, even behind the scenes actresses have to deal with abuse and harassment frequently.

We highlight the issue here.

In Andhra Pradesh:

4. The self help woman of Kurnool

B Vijayabharati championed the setting up of community radio, literacy and women's empowerment campaigns in the drought and acute poverty-ridden region of Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh. A school teacher in Nellore, she championed the anti-poverty programs of UNICEF and launched self help groups in Kurnool district which have produced thousands of women entrepreneurs. She was invited by Harvard University to narrate her experiences.

For more on Vijayabharati's work, click here.

5. Battling misogyny without a godfather

RK Roja, actor-turned-politician has now become a strident voice against AP CM and Telugu Desam Party supremo Chandrababu Naidu. Now, with AP’s ruling party training all their guns and venom on her, Roja has come into her own — seen as a threat by some of the most powerful politicians in the south, banned entry into the Assembly for her entire tenure and being banned by the ruling party from participating in the Women’s Parliamentarians Congress held at Vijayawada. Yet, Roja battles on.

To find out why her rivals fear Roja's acerbic rhetoric, read on.

6. The People’s Officer

Hailing from West Bengal, Smita Sabharwal is a 2001 batch IAS officer of the Telangana cadre and is known as the People’s Officer for her extraordinary work in Chittoor, Warangal, Vizag and Karimnagar. Sabharwal has played a key role in several health initiatives, especially her scheme to monitor government doctors via Skype to ensure that healthcare delivery in rural areas is reformed. Sabharwal was also the brain behind the ‘Fund your city’ scheme which pooled public resources to build parks, foot over bridges etc in Warangal. She is the first woman officer in the Chief Minister’s office in Telangana.

Sabharwal's achievements are chronicled here.

In Kerala:

7. Fighting for women's right to pee

P Viji set up “Penkoot” (Malayalam for “Crowd of Women”) in 2009-10 when she realised that women did not drink water despite the sweltering heat because they did not have a place to urinate. These were women working in anganwadis, textile shops and teachers in unaided schools. Three years later, she went on to set up a trade union called the “Unorganised women employees union’’ or the Asangahda Mekhala Thoyilalli union (AMTU). What started off as raising issues relating to working conditions went on to demanding and fetching better wages as well. That’s why, perhaps, 85 per cent of the members of her union are women. They total over 6,000 now. The 46-year-old is now considered the inspiration behind the women who led the Munnar struggle to bring the largest tea company down to its knees and get 20 per cent bonus, when the regular trade unions were able to get a meagre 8.33 per cent a couple of weeks earlier.

 Read about P Viji's movement here.

8. Trafficked, duped and deserted

A Kerala woman was duped by an agent in India and sent to the UAE for work. She was then sold from there to Saudi Arabia. A similar case is that of a woman from Andhra Pradesh who was duped by an agent and sent to Bahrain. As work conditions were not good and her health was deteriorating, she had to come back, that too only after the intervention of social workers in Bahrain. As she was a widow, her two girl children were taken by the agent to work as housemaids in India. Because she returned breaking the contract, the agent threatened to send the daughters to Bahrain. The woman was not also allowed to see the daughters after return. Last Friday, activists, lawyers and police rescued the girls from the agent’s house in India. There are many cases like this, of victims of trafficking — and their tales of woe continue even after they return home.

We highlight the plight of these women here.

9. Helping those with brittle bones

Latha Nair is your average retired government employee in Kerala but over the last decade-and-a-half she has been a 'mother' trying to salvage the pain of more than 100 human beings of all ages from 3 to 60 who suffer from the incurable degenerative disease called Osteogenisis Imperfecta (better known as Brittle Bone Disease).

In 2001, she started the Amrithavarshini Charitable Society with her savings. The organisation now has close to 100 members across the state and elsewhere. What started as an attempt to take care of the medical needs of the patients who are mostly resigned to wheel chairs or beds, is now also about finding employment and education opportunities depending upon to the extent their bodies can move. But importantly, the aim of the society is also palliative in nature as most patients suffer from extreme pain due to bones breaking at the slightest pressure. Latha is now on a mission to build a home for OI patients as increasingly parents of such people are worried what would happen to their children once they pass away. A home for OI patients would be the first of its kind in the country.

Read about Latha Nair's work here.

In Karnataka:

10. From waste to wealth

Nalini Shekar is the founder of Hasiru Dala, Kannada for the “Green Party”. She set it up in Bengaluru in 2010 soon after she returned from the US. Before leaving for the US, she was involved in working with the waste pickers in Pune where she was working as a teacher. She believes that the waste pickers are entrepreneurs who create jobs. Indeed, she believes, that without the waste pickers, the recycling industry would collapse and the Brahut Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (Corporation of Bengaluru) would have spent approximately Rs 84 crores just to pick up waste. Her biggest achievement, thus far, has been that the waste pickers of Hasiru Dala carry ID cards which are signed by the Commissioner of the BBMP. This is to prevent their harassment by the police.

Nalini Shekar's efforts are reported here.

 http://www.firstpost.com/living/international-womens-day-2017-these-women-in-south-india-are-models-of-inspiration-3321636.html

HAPPY WOMEN'S DAY

International Women's Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

International Women's Day (IWD) has been observed since in the early 1900's - a time of great expansion and turbulence in the industrialized world that saw booming population growth and the rise of radical ideologies. International Women's Day is a collective day of global celebration and a call for gender parity. No one government, NGO, charity, corporation, academic institution, women's network or media hub is solely responsible for International Women's Day. Many organizations declare an annual IWD theme that supports their specific agenda or cause, and some of these are adopted more widely with relevance than others. This year's theme is 

  BeBoldforChange

"The story of women's struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights," says world-renowned feminist, journalist and social and political activist Gloria Steinem. Thus International Women's Day is all about unity, celebration, reflection, advocacy and action - whatever that looks like globally at a local level. But one thing is for sure, International Women's Day has been occurring for well over a century - and continue's to grow from strength to strength.

WORLD NGO DAY

World NGO Day is observed annually on 27 February. It was officially recognised and declared on 17 April 2010 by 12 countries of the IX Baltic Sea NGO Forum to the 8th Summit of the Baltic Sea States in Vilnius, Lithuania. The World NGO Day was internationally marked and recognised on 27 February 2014 in Helsinki, Finland by Helen Clark, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Former Prime Minister of New Zealand who congratulated with the World NGO Day and highlighted the importance of NGO sector for the UN through her speech. Andris Piebalgs, the European Commissioner for Development (European Commission) sent his regards and said “It’s only right that, on just one of those days, the world should celebrate NGOs and thank them for the tremendous work that they do.”

The World NGO Day initiative was founded in 2009 by university student Marcis Liors Skadmanis (at age 24); who first thought of the initial idea during his Masters in International Law and NGO Legislation. His desire to see a better future for all globally and his passion for finding new solutions for global development is what drove him to establish this initiative (International day) - while believing that innovation is the key for a more sustainable future.

The World NGO Day - intended to be a symbol of bringing together the world’s NGOs to build a stronger future for all - would aim to raise awareness of the many organisations working for good around the globe. A dedicated day - an important annual marking point - for all NGOs to commemorate and celebrate their achievements, ensuring that also small grassroots organisations gain the recognition they deserve. To inspire people to become more actively involved within NGOs, and encourage more collaboration between NGOs.  

 

The World NGO Day is for everyone, celebrating Non Governmental Organisations and the important endowment to society of the various people behind each one of them.

• A day for NGOs around the globe to share knowledge and experiences with one another.
• An opportunity for education, enabling individuals worldwide to understand more clearly what NGOs are doing for society locally, nationally and internationally.
• An international symbol that displays the efforts and achievements of all NGOs from all sectors.
• An opportunity to inspire people to consider a career within the third sector.
• An opportunity for individuals to learn more about the people behind NGOs.
• An opportunity for NGOs to discuss the issues that affect their work, and form partnerships that can resolve mutual problem.

What are Non-Governmental Organizations

A non-governmental organization (NGO) is basically a legally constituted organization which is operated by legal persons who act independently from any government. In those cases where the NGOs are funded partially or completely by governments, the NGO barred the government representatives from any membership in the organization in order to sustain its non-governmental status. The term is used for those organizations which have wider social target with political aspects. However, any NGO cannot be blatantly political organizations. The term “non-governmental organization” has no agreed legal definition and these are termed as “civil society organizations” in many jurisdictions.

Across the world, the number of internationally operating NGOs is around 40,000. The number of national NGO in countries is even higher with around 1-2 million NGOs in India and 277,000 NGOs in Russia. The remodelling processes of the welfare state have led to the rapid development of the non-governmental sector in western countries. With increasing globalization, the intensity of such processes has increased further. In the 20th century, the Globalization makes the people understand the importance of NGOs.

There are many problems which could not be solved effectively within a country. The international bodies at a global level including international organizations like World Trade Organization were considered to be too centred to favour the interests of capitalist firms. The growth and rise of NGO is seen as an attempt to offset this trend, where NGO emphasize the core issue related to human cause like sustainable development, developmental aid and other humanitarian issues. One such remarkable example of organization for raising the cause of people is World Social Forum. This organisation is an opponent convention to the World Economic Forum. In some cases, it represents the popular movements of the poor and other ways, it is regarded as an aristocratic form of politics. 

The NGOs can be classified into various types on the basis of different factors like orientation or level of cooperation.

NGO type by orientation can be grouped into Charitable orientation; Service orientation; Participatory orientation; and Empowering orientation.

NGO type by level of co-operation can be grouped into Community- Based Organisation; City Wide Organisation; National NGOs; and International NGOs;

The Non-governmental organizations forms a heterogeneous group and it has a long list of organization working in different areas with varied scope of work. The alternative terms used in addition to “NGO” include private voluntary organizations, civil society, independent sector, self-help organizations, grassroots organizations, volunteer sector, transnational social movement organizations, and non-state actors (NSA’s).

Some of the Famous terms used for NGO are mentioned below.

BINGO – It is a short term used for business-friendly international NGO

CITS – It is a type of NGO that basically devoted in helping the scientific community by motivating the young talent towards R & D.

CSO – It is short term for civil society organization

DONGO – It refers to the Donor Organized NGO

ENGO – It is an abbreviated form of environmental NGO like Global 2000;

GONGO – It refers to the government-operated NGOs

INGO – It is an abbreviated form of international NGO like Oxfam

QUANGO – It refers to the quasi-autonomous NGO like an ISO non-governmental organizations, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

TANGO – It refers to the technical assistance NGO

GSO – it stands for the Grassroots Support Organization

MANGO – It refers to the market advocacy NGO

CHARDS – It is a short form for Community Health and Rural Development Society

As per the World Bank Typology, the NGOs can be classified into Operational and Advocacy NGOs.

Operational NGO – The main purpose of operational NGO is to design and implement the development-related projects. The scope of the Operational NGOs can be national, international or even community-based.

Advocacy NGO – The main purpose of an Advocacy NGO is to promote a specific cause. It makes efforts to raise awareness and knowledge by doing various activities like lobbying, press work and activist events.