World Vision India’s FCRA license suspended- all you need to know about the Christian NGO

The Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) has suspended the FCRA license of notorious Christian NGO World Vision. Even though it is a religious organisation, it took pains to hide its original identity and claimed to be working for the welfare of children and women. The NGO had received funds for ‘religious’ purposes which contradicts their actual purposes declared in their application to the MHA.

Legal Rights Protection Forum had written to the MHA in 2019, highlighting the violations of Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 2010, seeking it to cancel the license of World Vision India. Reportedly World Vision worked along with Oxfam India, another Christian FCRA NGO, in spearheading a smear campaign against the Bharatiya government 9n it’s response to Covid-19 crisis all the while getting the government’s aid for the same.

The government, perhaps unknowingly, had tied up with World Vision at various level and provided monetary aids as well. For example, Cherian Thomas who served as the head of World Vision India was appointed as an adviser to National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA) which comes under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs. Later NIUA partnered with World Vision India to study the effect of Covid-19 on the lives of slum dwellers in various states.

World Vision’s main contribution is to the Right To Education (RTE) cause through which it has been strengthening the monopoly of Christian schools on th3 education system and destroying Hindu philanthropists’ presence. Many state governments have given them access to school children through RTE initiatives.

It is disturbing considering World Vision targets children of impressionable age falling in the 10/14 window(targeting children between 10-14 ages for conversion). World Vision India had a revealing profile in 2016, which appears to have been deleted after this expose in Opindia. Its website said, “World Vision India is a Christian grassroots humanitarian organisation”.

Even though World Vision India has hidden its real motives, World Vision International, its parent organisation and major donor says otherwise. The latter’s website has page for ‘Statement of Faith’ in which it declares that they believe “the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God”. The Opindia exposé has more such details of the NGOs blatant Christian nature.

• “Our faith in Jesus is central to who we are” [https://www.worldvision.org/our-work/faith-in-action]
• “We believe the Bible to be the inspired, the only infallible, authoritative Word of God.” [https://www.worldvision.org/statement-of-faith]
• “We believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.“
• “We believe that for the salvation of lost and sinful man, regeneration of the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.”
• “World Vision works in partnership with local churches” [http://www.wvi.org/faqs]
• “Educational activities based on Christian values may occasionally be included in World Vision projects” [http://www.wvi.org/faqs]
• “Our commitment is that when World Vision leaves communities, there will be thriving, engaged churches for sustained spiritual and physical transformation.” [https://www.worldvision.org/our-work/faith-in-action#1470869887604-2b2a7064-3ed2]

World Vision’s website also asks people to donate $12 dollars to distribute Bible to children to help  “Share the story of Jesus and the glory of God’s work”. The exposé had revealed how World Vision, with the help of government (caught unawares), wanted to track activities of children both online and offline in the name of ensuring their safety and rights. 

In 2018, academic Iain Buchanan who wrote the book The Armies Of God: A Study In Militant Christianity, in an interview to DNA said that the USA uses World Vision and other major evangelical NGOs for foreign policy objectives. He said that World Vision is an extended form of the US state department.

Middle East Forum, a US think tank had exposed World Vision’s terror links in 2019. World Vision funded the Sudan-based Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA), a US designated charity linked to Osama Bin Laden with grants from USAID, but also from the United Nations. MEF revealed that “in 2014, World Vision had subcontracted charitable work in the hotly-contested Blue Nile region of Sudan to ISRA, which was designed as a terrorist entity in 2004 for giving millions of dollars to Osama Bin Laden and raising funds for Hamas suicide bombings in 2003”.

It shows how World Vision India could have been sabotaging development works and security of Bharat by working for the US state department and colluding with terrorist elements. Such an organisation was given the responsibility of responding to disasters and educating children and women on their rights as an agent of the central and state governments.

In 2018, World Vision India had gathered personal details of Tamils on the pretext of digitising their documents like Aadhaar, PAN, Birth certificate, Caste Certificate, etc.

It is a relief that such a notorious NGO’s FCRA licence, on which it depends the most for its operations, has been suspended. But it remains to be seen whether it was due to technical issues in filing application for renewal or the FCRA wing uncovering its true nature.