Importance of NGO: Why Do We Need NGOs?

Non-governmental organisations have played a crucial role in assisting the government in the development of society. NGOs often are the ones who put in their resources, time and effort for a social cause or to fight against injustices. Without a doubt, the NGOs, through their services, make the communities more sustainable, secure and healthy. This helps the community to prosper. In this blog, we shall highlight the importance of NGO in our society.

Functions of NGOs in India

NGOs often are created to serve many causes. Some of them are listed below:

Poverty Alleviation

Due to various reasons such as lack of funds, lack of means or corruption, the government cannot provide its benefits to all the people who are stricken with poverty. NGOs often step in and contribute to poverty alleviation. They try to provide access to quality education, clean drinking water, housing, sanitation and healthcare. NGOs help the people and try to instil the ideas of self-reliance and capacity building. NGOs also make people aware of various beneficial government schemes and projects of which the people are usually unaware.

Importance of NGO in the Promotion of Education

Education is the most powerful tool that can enable a person and his future generations to break the shackles of poverty. NGOs offer various solutions to help people in need by conducting skill-development workshops, providing quality education to children, and facilitating sports and other extra-curricular activities. This enables the children not to fall prey to child labour and later groom themselves into capable individuals.

Protection of Environment and Wildlife:

Owing to issues like growing population, rapid development and limited natural resources have taken a toll on our environment. Environmental NGOs^[1] try to educate the masses about environmental issues and its long-lasting impacts. They also help the government to get information to implement effective environmental plans. Many times NGOs also keep the government in check by taking legal recourse to stop environmental damage which might be caused due to its projects.

Human Rights Activism:

There are gross human rights violations that take place throughout the world. Human rights protection NGOs act as a defence mechanism to tackle the issues by highlighting them and helping the victims. NGOs help towards the betterment of humankind. It extends its assistance to people whose human rights have been violated. Another importance of NGO entities is that they collect information about these victims and report it to various agencies. Through their acts, they create awareness and educate individuals about its importance.

Women’s Rights:

Women empowerment is desperately needed. In order to facilitate sustainable development and uplift women’s status economically, socially and politically, women must be empowered. Many NGOs provide skill development and training and make women aware of their legal/ property rights. They safeguard women from domestic violence and social evils as well. NGOs have changed many women’s lives drastically and helped them become independent and make crucial decisions for themselves.

Health care and Medical services:

These NGOs work to ensure that vulnerable people are able to lead a healthy and fruitful life. To achieve that, they often create health care institutions. They serve vulnerable groups such as women, the elderly and children. They even help people suffering from issues such as drug addiction and alcoholism. Many a time, they set up health camps and workshops to educate people about health and the problems around it.

Importance of NGO in our society

• Acts as Safety-valve: NGOs acts as an advocate for societal problems and needs.
• Provides unique solutions: NGOs always strive to find out unique ways to address and deal with society’s problems.

• Promotes Research: It fosters the spirit of research, community connection and creation of demonstrable models. NGOs collect such a large amount of data which institutions and governments can later use to deal with society’s problems.
• Creation of Self-help groups: NGOs have been at the forefront of the formation and development of various self-help groups, which involve agriculture groups for farmers and producers and women-centric self-help groups for uplifting women.
• Breaking social stigmas: NGOs often break social stigmas and barriers, especially in the case of India, where there have been issues with caste discrimination, problems women face with unequal wages for the same amount of work and participation of children with disabilities in school, etc.
• Development of Laws: NGOs have influenced the development of law in India. Because of their persistent efforts, many problems were dealt with, such as the right to information, anti-trafficking, conservation of forests, rehabilitation of people with disability, ending corporal punishments in schools, etc. Many of these issues have been highlighted because the NGOs raised concerns about them time and again.
• Ensuring Basic Human Needs are met: These organisations ensure that people’s basic needs are met. The importance of NGO entities can also be highlighted in the manner they ensure that people get safe drinking water, create toilets for proper sanitation, provide basic medical care and educate people about health programmes.
• Aid during Disasters: Natural calamities and disasters happen without a warning sign. But NGOs always play an active role in the rescue, relief and rehabilitation of the people. They provide them with food, medical assistance and shelter at the time of crisis.
• Improves government performance: The NGOs always try to keep the government on their toes by putting pressure on them to solve people’s problems. They even provide solutions to numerous problems and also share collected data, and improve the government’s approach to such issues.
• Sustainable Development: NGOs function to ensure that natural resources are not exploited and work to safeguard the ecosystem.

Conclusion

NGOs play a key role in our society, and the importance of NGO entities is multifaceted. They try to fill in the gaps the government cannot fill for various reasons. They often help to highlight the issues of people to the authorities. They assist in creating an environment where people can volunteer and help others in need, and lastly, it imbibes the value of problem-solving and taking up initiatives. The importance of NGOs in a society is paramount.

Read our Article:An Overview of Difference between NGOs and Trust