India has one NGO for every 600 people, the Central Bureau of Investigation announced last week. But given India's large population, this mammoth figure of two million non-profit organisations is not as large as it seems.
The United States, for instance, has around 1.5 million non-profits for a population of 313 million people. This gives it a per capita rate of around 209 NGOs per person – three times that of India.
The CBI made its estimate of the number of Indian non-profits last week in response to a Supreme Court order issued in September 2013. The court, while hearing a public interest litigation against the alleged misuse of funds by Anna Hazare’s NGO Hind Swaraj Trust, and wanted to know the total number of non-profits registered with India’s Registrar of Societies, and how many of these file their tax returns regularly.
But for a population of 1.2 billion, one NGO for every 600 people is really not much.
In these two charts published in Quartz, Annalisa Merelli explores how different nations compare with each other in terms of the total number of non-profits and the number of NGOs per person:
The differences between India and other developed countries is stark, but experts prefer not to make much of the numbers. “The bigger issue is of effectiveness, of how well problems are addressed on the ground,” said Aparajita Agrawal, director of the Sankalp forum at social advisory firm Intellecap. “One non-profit for 600 people is not a bad figure, but we need to figure out how to make them more effective and transparent.”
FAQs
While it's difficult to count how many NGOs exist today, 2021 data from The U.S. Department of State estimates there are 1.5 million NGOs working in the US alone.
How many NGOs are registered in India? ›
NGOs in India 2023: Did you know that India is home to approximately 1.87 lakh non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as per the NGO DARPAN, an initiative of NITI Aayog, India has a total of 1.87 lakh registered non-governmental organizations (NGOs)?
Which is the big NGO of India? ›
There are several famous NGOs in India, such as Give India, Smile Foundation, Goonj, Helpage India, and more. You can check the complete list of top NGOs in India in the above article.
What is the largest NGO in USA? ›
What is the NGO capital of the world? ›
The Philippines, it's said, is the “NGO capital of the world.” This refers not just to the dizzying alphabet soup of groups, organizations, alliances, coalitions that spring up every few months or so, or when a public interest issue hits public consciousness, but also to the great pioneering energy and enthusiasm with ...
Which type of NGO is best in India? ›
List of Top 10 NGOs in India
- Team Everest.
- CRY (Child Rights and You)
- Smile Foundation.
- GiveIndia Foundation.
- HelpAge India.
- Akshaya Patra Foundation.
- Goonj.
- Project Nanhi Kali.
NGOs are not-for-profit bodies which means they do not have any commercial interest. NGOs are run on donations made by individuals, corporate, and institutions. They engage in fundraising activities to raise money for carrying out the work they do.
What is the law for NGO in India? ›
Societies Registration Act, 1860 is a Central Act for registering not-for-profit organisations. Almost all the states in India have adopted (with modifications, if any) the Central Act for creating state-level authorities for registering various types of not-for-profit entities.
What are the USA NGOs in India? ›
The most active organizations in our network are Agastya USA, Akanksha Education Fund, Akshaya Patra Foundation USA, American India Foundation (AIF), Antara International, Arogya World, Avanti Fellows, Children's Hope India, Community Pure Water, CRY America, Foundation for Excellence (FFE), Give, Indiaspora, Lotus ...
What is the US based NGO working in India? ›
Founded over two decades ago, in the aftermath of the devastating Gujarat earthquake, as a humanitarian initiative by Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ji and Bill Clinton, American India Foundation Trust (AIF) has impacted the lives of 16.51 million of India's poor across 35 States and Union Territories of India.
NGOs can act as implementers, catalysts, and partners to provide essential goods and services to those in need. They work to mobilize resources, both financial and human, to ensure that aid is delivered in a timely and effective manner.
How many NGOs are there globally? ›
Because the registration of NGOs is different from country to country, it is very difficult to get a handle on how many NGOs and INGOs are active around the world. One recent estimate suggested there are at least 75,000 International NGOs, and on a country-by-country level NGOs can run in the millions.
Which African country has the most NGOs? ›
South Africa. South Africa has the most highly developed non-governmental sector in the whole continent, with apparently more than 50,000 NGOs in total. Although we did not try to estimate how many of these might be described as human rights organizations, the answer would probably be more than a hundred.
How many NGOs are there in the UK? ›
GlobalGiving Atlas makes it easy to access the database of 221,852 nonprofits in the United Kingdom. Use our standardized API or JSON or CSV files to download all NGO data for the United Kingdom—plus many more countries and region!
What is the largest environmental NGO? ›
WWF is the world's largest conservation organization. It has over five million supporters worldwide, working in more than 100 countries.
