In the wake of the Supreme Court order seeking action against unscrupulous NGOs, the Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry has initiated a first step to crack the whip. It is conducting imp-act evaluation study of Centr-ally Sponsored Scheme, Deen Dayal Disabled Rehabilit-ation Scheme (DDRS) wherein over 500 NGOs are provided financial aid to execute welfare activities for disabled people, rehabilitation of leprosy cured and projects for human resources development among others across the country.
The survey of the scheme, which was initially launched as ‘Scheme to promote voluntary action for persons with disabilities’ way back in 1999, aims to assess and analyse it if it has been successful in delivering the desired benefits to the society in general and the targeted beneficiaries in particular in education, employment and social security, said a senior official from the Ministry. The survey will also examine the existing procedure of service delivery of the scheme and if further correction needed to make it better.
The projects that will be studied include special schools for mentally retarded/hearing impaired and visually impaired persons, pre-school and early intervention and training, projects for cerebral palsied children, sheltered workshops, projects for low vision persons, district disability rehabilitation centres, rehabilitation of leprosy cured persons,
“Currently, over 560 NGOs are getting donation under the scheme. Of these, around 80 NGOs located at both rural and urban areas shall be taken up randomly for the study. Efforts shall be made to cover all the States/UTs to have a wider picture,” the official added.
The DDRS Scheme provides financial assistance to the voluntary sector for projects providing education, vocational training and rehabilitation of persons with orthopedic, speech, visual and mental disabilities. The DDRS Scheme consists of 18 model projects under which 600 to 650 NGOs running projects are given grant-in-aid, the official added.
In the category, more than 450 special schools (246 schools working for mentally retarded people, 91 schools for hearing impaired and 52 schools for visually impaired) have been funded during 2015-16. Funds were also doled out to the seven projects under the category for leprosy cured persons, 14 for half way home, 17 projects for community based rehabilitation, six projects running day care centres and four teacher training centres.
Sources said that post evaluation study, the poor performing NGOs might be deregistered as has been suggested by the SC in January this year.
The Supreme Court had ordered the Centre and State Governments to scrutinise the accounts of lakhs of NGOs
and voluntary organisations, which together received thousands of crores of rupees of public funds, and take civil and criminal action against all organisations misusing the grants.