The UN Economic and Social Council(UN ECOSOC) has granted consultative status to a notorious anti-Hindu organisation, International Dalit Solidarity Network (IDSN). The UK, USA and some European countries reportedly flexed their muscles to make ECOSOC grant the status after 15 years of rejecting IDSN’s application for the same

Member countries of the United Nations(UN) voted on the decision to accredit 9 NGOs whose applications were on hold due to the NGO committee’s decision to reject them in September, 2022. One among them was International Dalit Solidarity Network whose application was kept on hold for 15 years reportedly due to ‘pressure’ from Bharat. The only way to override this decision was for individual member countries to rescue the applications from the NGO committee and force a vote in an ECOSOC plenary meeting which is exactly what happened on December 7. 24 countries including the US, UK, and European countries voted in support of granting consultative status while Bharat, China and Russia voted against it. 

International Dalit Solidarity Network is a ‘human rights’ NGO founded in 2000 to “advocate for Dalit human rights and to raise awareness of Dalit issues nationally and internationally”. It claims “internationalisation of caste discrimination as a critical human rights issue” as it’s achievement and boasts about lobbying with UN, EU and other similiar international institutions for the same. Looking at the name one might be predisposed to think that it is a Bharatiya organisation. But IDSN is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark and “works” by coordinating lobbying and advocacy activities based on “inputs from members and associates”. So all it does is lobbying with international institutions and governments based on whatever documents are put together by its members and associates.

IDSN has chapters in many European countries and is funded by church organisations and individual European countries. The organisation has run fake campaigns about caste discrimination in Bharat, UK and other countries for many years with no credible evidence to back the allegations. Readers may recall how American Hindus were/are harassed by Equality Labs on baseless caste discrimination charges. Equality Labs’ founder Thenmozhi Soundarrajan is often platformed by IDSN. 

IDSN had lobbied hard for the enactment of the caste discrimination provision in the U.K.’s Equality Act. That smear campaign created so much damage to social cohesion in Britain. However after the conclusion of its consultation on the caste law in 2018, the UK government decided not to proceed with implementing the clause on caste discrimination. Unfortunately, UK authorities seem to have neglected this shameful encounter with IDSN and decided to back its application for consultative status in ECOSCO. 

Members from Bharat

• The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights(NCDHR)– This NGO, an FCRA one, is actually registered as Swadhikar with the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is headed by one Paul Diwakar Namala and well-known for its ‘contribution’ in RTE advocacy. It received funds from eminent evangelical and Christian organisations such as Christian Aid, Misereor, Bread for the World and others.

• Navsarjan Trust– It is another FCRA NGO that used to run on church money. Founded by Martin Macwan, Navsarjan Trust (GJ/42040075) in Ahmedabad lost its FCRA registration in 2017. It claims to work on behalf of Scheduled Castes. Based on an interview of its Director, we can deduce that 85% of its total annual revenues were from foreign ‘donations’, via FCRA and its main donor is Misereor.

• People’s Watch– It is another NGO masquerading as a human rights organisation which is not even registered. There was a time when one spotted its name in media reports, especially about court proceedings, almost every week. People’s Watch is just a program unit of Centre for Promotion of Social Concerns(CPSC), an FCRA NGO whose license was cancelled in 2016. CPSC received funds from notorious international church-related organizations such as Bread for the World(BfW), Misereor, Danish church, United Church Foundation, Common Global Ministries, Catholic Organisation for Relief and Development Aid (CORDAID),and Swiss organization Enfants Du Monde. A detailed article on CPSC can be read here.

• The National Federation of Dalit Women– NFDW was founded by one Ruth Manorama. She is an associate of Paul Diwakar Namala of NCDHR mentioned above and a functionary of Human Rights Advocacy & Research Foundation (HRARF), another FCRA NGO.

Misereor, which funded all the three FCRA NGOs above, is an organization run by the Catholic Bishops of Germany. Misereor gets substantial funding from the Federal Government of Germany via a mechanism called “Church Tax”. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation & Development, Germany (BMZ) which funds church organisations like Misereor said in one of its documents, “Churches are able to mobilize sections of civil society worldwide, and can thus exert a strategic influence on political awareness building.”

Bread for the World (BfW) is another church organisation, a Protestant one, funded by the German government much like Misereor. It “considers itself part of the global Christian Community” and “seeks cooperation with churches and church agencies throughout the world and assumes our responsibility in ecumenical networks”. The essential feature of its projects, as per its website, is “close and continuous cooperation with church related organisations”. It seeks to influence political decisions of governments through lobbying.

IDSN’s international associates include the Lutheran World Federation, ICMICA/Pax Romana, World Council of Churches and Franciscans International. With such associates, it cannot be denied that IDSN could be motivated by the pursuit of proselytisation which many churches are pursuing, especially in countries such as India and Nepal. The UK, US and European governments backing it means that they too will be deemed to support the policy of aggressive Christian proselytisation that entails the labeling of indigenous practices as false religions and idolatry, and demonise them with the tag of casteism. 

Proselytisation also results in undue interference in the countries in question, and creates ill feeling in international relations. Having endorsed these activities of the IDSN, the countries which supported its application are inevitably associated with them. It isn’t surprising that Western countries would make such a decision brushing Bharat’s concerns under the carpet. But Bharat should recognise this hand twisting for what it is and give it back in kind to the countries that support IDSN.