The Indian government "has been steadily shutting NGOs or freezing access to their bank accounts," according to Aarti Betigeri of THE AGE. One "unusual and unprecedented Australian inclusion on that list: AFL India."
The Australian Football League's efforts to push into the Indian market "have been held back by the crackdown on activist groups as it is officially registered as a society -- as is the case with sporting organisations -- and so falls under the same financial reporting rules as NGOs." As a result, A$40,000 ($29,300) "in much-needed funding is frozen in the organisation's Indian bank account."AFL India Founder & Secretary General Sudip Chakraborty:
"It's been more than a year since we applied, and the funds have been sitting in the account since October."
The delay "has meant that Chakraborty, his father and other members of the organisation's leadership group have been forced to turn to personal loans to cover the running costs and complete existing projects." There are five full-time staff "who haven't been paid for more than six months due to the funding crisis." While there is no reason for AFL India "to be considered suspicious, the fact that it's a new organisation means it needs to take prior permission to access foreign funds, a laborious process that takes months for each transaction" (THE AGE, 8/6).
