民间社会简报：印度（英）

CIVIL SOCIETY BRIEFINDIACountry ContextIndia is the largest country in South Asia. It shares borders with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the People’s Republic of China, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. It is surrounded by the Arabian Sea in the west, the Bay of Bengal in the east, and the Indian Ocean in the south. It has a land area of 3.3 million square kilometers. The capital is New Delhi.a India gained independence on 15 August 1947. It is a federal republic with a parliamentary system of government that consists of three major branches. The executive branch constitutes the President of India as the head of the state and the Prime Minister as the head of the government. The legislative branch comprises the Lok Sabha (House of The People) and Rajya Sabha (Council of States), forming the two houses of the Parliament. The judicial branch constitutes the Supreme Court of India as its apex body, followed by the high courts. The Constitution of India is the main source of the legal system in the country, which is considered the largest democracy in the world. India is extremely diverse and recognizes 22 official languages.b Civil Society OverviewDefinitions of Civil Society in IndiaCivil society in India is often considered synonymous with the terms “voluntary sector,” “voluntary organizations,” “nongovernment organizations” (NGOs), and “nonprofit organizations” (NPOs), even though it encompasses a larger group. The rise of social movements, NGOs, and voluntary organizations in the 20th century led to the conceptualization of the term “civil society.”1 It formally entered the popular discourse in the 1980s2 and 1990s. Multiple definitions are associated with civil society in India given the vast and diverse nature of the bodies that fall under its ambit.One earlier definition was from Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) in 2000, describing civil society as “the sum total of all individual and collective initiatives for common public good.”3 This was an all-encompassing definition, including formal and informal collectives along with individual actions, and it provided a narrative boundary to the term “public good.” Another definition was provided by the Voluntary Action Network India (VANI), one of the largest umbrella agencies for voluntary organizations in the country, describing them as a group of like-minded people who manage and plan activities for the betterment continued on next page Civil Society Brief: India2India is also the second-most populous country in the world, with a 2018 population of 1.3 billion,c two-thirds of which is in the age group of 15–64 years and a quarter in the age group of 0–14 years. The average life expectancy as of 2018 is 69.4 years. The urban population is nearly 34% of the total. India holds the status of a lower middle-income country as of 2019 (footnote a), and the gross domestic product growth rate was 5% in that year. Poverty levels declined from 21.6% in 2011 to 13.4% in 2015, based on the international poverty line (below $1.90 per day at 2011 purchasing power parity). However, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has aggravated the vulnerabilities of the population and increased the poverty headcount.dThe adult literacy rate has improved over the last decade, standing at 74.4% in 2018 (footnote d). India’s latest Human Development Index ranking (2020) was 131st out of 189 countries.e The country has seen a shift in its workforce: whereas in the early 1990s the agriculture sector employed nearly 63% of the working population, by 2019 it employed 42.6%. The services sector as of 2019 employed the second-largest proportion of the workforce at 32.3%, followed by industries at 25.1% (footnote a). Workers plucking chilies from the fields in Raichur district, Karnataka. As of 2019, the agriculture sector employed 42.6% of the country’s workforce.box continueda World Bank. India Database (accessed 15 July 2021).b Government of India. India at a Glance – Profile.c Asian Development Bank. Basic Statistics 2019. Manila.d World Bank. India - Overview.e United Nations Development Programme. 2020. Human Development Report 2020. New York: UNDP. of the community, which requires a formal set up for implementing those plans and activities.4 The Government of India’s Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) uses the term “nonprofit institutions” (NPIs). It also conducted the largest and most recent survey available on NPIs, a large subset of civil society, in India. It draws its definition from the United Nations Handbook on Non-Profit Institutions in the System of National Accounts, which refers to “(a) Organizations that are (b) not for profit and, by law or custom, do not distribute any surplus they may generate to those who own or control them, (c) are institutionally separate from the government, (d) are self-governing, and (e) non-compulsory.”5The laws in India define civil society primarily as the nonprofit sector, based on the category of regi