page_title: India Development and Relief Fund
section_title: Controversy
hierarchical_section_title: India Development and Relief Fund / Controversy
caption_attribution_description: English: IDRF is supporting water harvesting program in impoverished and backward hilly areas, where rainfall is inadequate &amp; erratic. Rain roof-water structures, earthen check-dams, diverted existing spring water into wells/tanks to harvest rainwater has been done. So far 4,000 people have benefitted but there is still a dire need to cover thousands more facing acute water shortage.
context_page_description: India Development and Relief Fund is a Maryland, USA-based 501 tax exempt, non-profit organization that supports impoverished people in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. IDRF's main goal has always been- to put power and not charity in the hands of those in need. It has always striven to break the cycle of poverty by empowering the marginalized people with skills, services and infrastructure in sustainable development. IDRF's programs span all over India from Jammu and Kashmir to Tamil Nadu, and from Gujarat to Arunachal Pradesh, Nepal and more recently Sri Lanka. Since its inception in 1988, IDRF has disbursed $34 million in grants to various developmental programs pertaining to areas like: education, health, women's empowerment, eco-friendly development, good governance, and disaster relief/rehabilitation.
context_section_description: In 2002 a coalition of professionals, students, workers, artists and intellectuals in the US organized "The Campaign to Stop Funding Hate".
  A report authored by members of this organization focused on IDRF, which it said "has systematically funded Hindutva operations in India ... is not a secular and non-sectarian organization as it claims to be, but is, on the contrary, a major conduit of funds for Hindutva organizations in India.
  According to the report, IDRF was channeling funds to organizations involved in spreading hate against religious minorities and promoting communal violence.
  The report, published by Sabrang Communications and the South Asia Citizens Web, was titled The Foreign Exchange of Hate: IDRF and the American Funding of Hindutva.
  It investigated how funding raised by IDRF in the USA was being distributed in India. It accused that most of the money went to Sangh Parivar organizations.
  Sabrang Communications, which prepared this report against IDRF, was itself alleged to have stolen huge sums of money away from victims of the 2002 Gujarat violence and its owner, Teesta Setalvad is being prosecuted for embezzlement of funds on complaints filed with the police by the very "victims" for whom the funds were collected by Teesta Setalvad from donors in USA and other countries and her appeal is being heard by the Supreme Court of India.
  The report said 70% of money was used for "hinduisation/tribal/education" work, mainly to spreading Hindutva beliefs among tribals.
  When IDRF filed a tax document in 1989 with the United States Internal Revenue Service, it identified nine organisations as a sample of those it would fund, all of which were associated with  the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
  Some of the groups funded by IDRF had been associated with attacks on Muslims and Christians and with forced conversion of tribals to Hinduism.Angana Chatterji, an anthropology professor helped write the report and said, "We're not saying IDRF is directly involved in communal violence, we're saying that IDRF supports a movement that provokes communal violence".
  The US State and Justice departments added IDRF to the list of organizations being investigated for illicit donations and money laundering.  However, the Office of Management and Budget approved IDRF for the 2012 and 2013 Combined Federal Campaign, the US federal government's workplace giving campaign.
  Soon after the report was issued, in November 2002, IDRF dismissed the allegations as "pure concoction, untruthful and self contradicting".
  In March 2003, in response to the allegations, a team of six Indian-American academicians conducted a thorough investigation and concluded that IDRF was not, in fact, supporting violence or furthering any hateful ideology at all. This team, Ramesh Nagaraj Rao, Narayan Komerath, Beloo Mehra, Chitra Raman, Sugrutha Ramaswami, and Nagendra Rao, called themselves "Friends of India," and issued a report called A Factual Response to the Hate Attack on the India Development and Relief Fund (IDRF). Dr. Vinod and Sarla Prakash met the then Indian Home Minister Mr. Lal Krishna Advani and furnished him detailed information about IDRF's grants to various NGOs in India. Few months later, IDRF was informed by his office that there was no evidence of violation of law against it. They published a hard copy of the report,  IDRF: Let the Facts Speak in 2003.
caption: IDRF offers a platform to empower the marginalized people with skills, services, and infrastructure in partnership with NGOs in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Our programs are implemented by reliable, local NGOs that have established track-records and are approved to receive funds from the USA. IDRF has always served people regardless of religion, caste or creed.
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