How India has ramped up its crackdown on NGOs

The Indian government has a history of cracking down on the country’s nonprofit sector — and this year it has started to put more hurdles in place.

Two separate letters issued at the end of last year by government ministries called for an end to fundraising campaigns run by Save the Children India and Sightsavers India, both U.K.-headquartered nonprofits with a long history of working in India, on the basis that government programs to tackle these issues already existed. The two NGOs’ advertisements have since been removed from the public domain.

Previous Indian governments had cracked down on NGOs’ ability to receive money from abroad. But this is the first high-profile government attempt to limit fundraising within India.