US grant on riot alert


The Telegraph 
November 10, 2017  

The US has announced a $493,827 (Rs 3.2 crore) grant for organisations that can suggest ways to "reduce religiously-motivated violence and discrimination in India".
The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor of the US state department has made separate allocations of equal amount for India and Sri Lanka for projects that promote religious freedom.

The move is unlikely to go down well with the Indian government and could add to the woes of NGOs working for communal harmony.
The India programme is seeking proposals to develop early warning systems to mitigate large-scale violence, conflict mitigation programmes between minority and majority groups, counter hateful public messages and report religious freedom violations.

NGOs based in the US and abroad, non-profits, public international organisations (private, public, or state institutions of higher education) and for-profit organisations or businesses can apply.

The state department did not respond to an email seeking the immediate reason for the grant. Veterans could not recall India having figured earlier in such a programme that had covered Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Kazakhstan.

John Dayal, a former member of the National Integration Council who has been working in the area of religious freedom, told The Telegraph that no NGO based in India would touch the programme with a barge pole. "It will be difficult for any NGO to really avail of funding of this nature. And, it will be counter-productive for any Christian organisation to even try."




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