TLI Staff
New Delhi: Non-government organisations (NGOs) and civil society organisations (CSOs) have urged the government to ease rules related to CSR, tax exemption and foreign funding in order to escalate efforts to combat the surge in Coronavirus cases.
The suggestions came during a meeting of empowered group headed by Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant to address various issues pertaining to management of COVID-19.
Civil Society organizations such as AkshayaPatra, Narayan Sevasansthan, Indian Cooperative Network for Women (ICNW), Narayan SevaSansthan, Karuna Trust, Marico Innovation Foundation, Dharma Life, Swasth Foundation, Dadi dada Foundation and HelpAge India attended the virtual meeting in the shadow of second wave of Covid pandemic.
As per an official statement, some of the measures suggested by various organisations include issuing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for Home Care Services, creating awareness on vaccine hesitancy and helping the senior citizens, poor and migrants to enroll of vaccination.
The organisations asked for providing short term relaxation in guidelines pertaining to CSR, 80-G exemptions, FCRA relaxation etc.
Niti Aayog CEO Mr Kant sought support of CSOs and requested them to complement the efforts of the government at all levels – districts and panchayats.
While he appreciated and thanked the CSOs for their efforts in combating COVID-19 in India Mr Kant requested them for continued support and efforts in managing the COVID-19 infections in the second wave.
The second wave has been quite fierce with daily infections in India being the highest in the world. For almost a week now, over 3 lakh people are testing positive for the virus. India’s daily COVID-19 numbers went past 3.5-lakh mark on April 25, with 3,54,880 new cases. As many as 2,809 deaths were reported in the latest daily count.
In the light of sharp rise in cases, Empowered Group chief stressed upon the NGOs and CSOs to reach out to the people with awareness campaigns. They were also urged to supplement government efforts and provide support to urban poor families.
“He (Mr Kant) stressed upon them to reach out to the people with awareness campaigns which can be downloaded in regional languages and made available from indiafightscovid.com to dispel common myths and provide accurate information regarding COVID vaccination (anthem, radio jingles, out of home creatives,” said the official statement.