This post is about an organization that claims to do good work, but it has many not believable facts making me write strongly against it. I have no personal anguish against the real dalits nor the real Christian missionaries, but this article portrays my anguish against the fakies in this world of deception! People who feel offended by any real religion/caste discussions are advised not to read the article.
Quoted from the DFN website
"The Dalit Freedom Network partners with the Dalits in their quest for religious freedom, social justice, and human rights by mobilizing human, informational, and financial resources.
We at the Dalit Freedom Network value the contributions of others who have gone before us, and through those efforts made the world a better place. Therefore, we seek to carry forward the legacy of William Wilberforce who worked for the abolition of slavery and the reformation of society; the legacy of William Carey who worked for the abolition of Sati, the practice of burning widows on the funeral pyre of their husbands; the legacy of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Mahatma Phule who pioneered the movement for the abolition of caste and the Dalit quest for freedom and dignity; the legacy of Mother Teresa who showed God’s love in word and deed to the sick and dying; and to follow the command of Jesus Christ who called us to be ‘the salt of the earth’ and ‘the light of the world’."
Sounds good?
DFN claims to do the "good things" for the dalits and its intention is to abolish the caste system. Of course it is a benevolent idea to help the downtrodden, but, a few questions arise in my mind, for I have been a skeptic of such "social z or NGOs" who claim to do good work.
The only proof of authenticity is the ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability), which is (quoted from the ECFA website) "an accreditation agency dedicated to helping Christian ministries earn the public’s trust".
Why aren't there any other affiliations, memberships, approvals appearing on the website???
Why should the NGO show only the ECFA membership seal and not bother about any Indian certification agencies?? ECFA guarantees that the money is used for good purpose (according to their rules and regulations).
Quoted from their best practices website, the very first 'Standard' says "Every member organization shall subscribe to a written statement of faith clearly affirming its commitment to the evangelical Christian faith ".
So, by their own standards, it seems like ECFA and members of ECFA are committed to Christian Evangelism!
Caste system, Dalits, SC/ST are all the 'tags' that are used by the political parties to garner votes from the most gullible vote bank, because of which I strongly feel that DFN is in India to mislead the people.
The donors may assume that the donations go to the actual dalit projects (its good if this really happens), but there is a clause clearly stating that "if" for any reason the funds collected are in excess, it will be used for other projects.
A full scale critique would require a complete (on the ground) investigation, but with the limited amount of sources of information, its not fair to blame the organisation on no grounds. This last few lines may sound contradicting when compared to the rest of the article, hence its up to the reader's intelligence/prejudices/suspicions to agree/disagree with suspicion pointed out over here.
Will update this article after further pondering :)
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