Approach

• Introduce what do you understand by Civil society and NGO.
• Discuss if Civil Society and Non-Governmental Organisations present an alternative model of public service delivery to benefit the common citizen.
• Discuss the challenges of this alternative model.

Introduction

Civil society refers to the communities and groups that function outside of government to provide support and advocacy for certain people and/or issues in society. A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) is a non-profit group organised on community, national and international levels to serve a social or political goal such as humanitarian causes or the environment.

Body

Role of Civil societies and NGOs as an alternative model of public service delivery:

• Civil society and NGOs can provide a ready pool of volunteers and resources that the
  government can tap into.
• Issues of inclusion-exclusion errors can be addressed through grass-root verification by the volunteers.
• Skill enhancement and livelihood support schemes like National Rural Livelihood Mission can be made more effective through involvement of civil society and NGOs.
• The last-mile delivery of public services can be addressed. For example, during the COVID-19 lockdown, several voluntary groups distributed food, ration, and vegetables for the homeless and the migrants.
• Civil society and NGOs can play the role of effectively communicating the needs of people to the government. For example, the PM Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan was launched in response to Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan’s petitioning to distribute food grains to everyone.

Civil societies and NGOs can have a positive influence on the state and the market. But there are various challenges such as:

• Ad-hocism and lack of continuity in the delivery process.
• The issue of misappropriation of funds is highlighted every now and then. There are issues where civil society or an NGO is accused of using foreign funds for provoking protests and stall governmental projects.
• There have also been reports of NGOs lobbying parliamentarians and using the media to manipulate issues in their favour.
• The ‘big brother attitude’ of the government officials and their mindset of construing NGOs simply as contractors fulfilling staffing requirements.

Conclusion

Civil society and NGOs can be made an integral part of the development process but, given the prevalent situation, they cannot completely substitute the administrative channels for the delivery of public service delivery. Nevertheless, civil society/NGOs and the administrative channels need to coordinate to carry out the public service delivery efficiently and effectively.