The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday, February 3, cancelled the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) registration of Tamil Nadu Social Service Society (TNSOSS), a Chirstian social service organisation, on account of alleged violation of the norms. TASOSS is the official organisation of the Tamil Nadu Catholic Bishops Conference for justice, peace, and development.

The FCRA registration deems an organisation or an entity eligible for receiving foreign donations. The cancellation of TNSOSS’s registration comes days after World Vision India (WVI), another Christian organisation based out of Tamil Nadu, lost its FCRA registration.

The cancellation of FCRA registration for TNSOSS has come on account of the organisation violating FCRA rules, the Ministry’s orders said. On January 20, the WVI, an NGO based in the United States (US) that works towards children’s issues, also lost its registration on account of violation of rules. Prior to WVI, the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), a public policy think tank based in New Delhi, also lost its FCRA registration.

According to a report published by The Hindu, there are 17,019 Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) that are actively operating in India, that have valid FCRA registrations. However, since 2011, more than 20,000 NGOs’ registrations have been cancelled by the union ministry citing violations. 

Earlier, on January 1, 2022, the FCRA registration of 6,000 (approx) NGOs stood cancelled either because the Ministry of Home Affairs refused to renew the applications or because the NGOs failed to apply.