Analyse the challenges before the development and participation of civil society.

Answer: Challenges before the Civil Society:

1. Suspicious nature of state that has been arresting activists, raiding Civil Society Institutions, and curbing sources of foreign funding while imposing onerous reporting and operating conditions;
2. The rise of the right wing which questions the very legitimacy of the Civil Society Institutions (CSIs), just as the left was doing in an earlier generation;
3. The increasing marginalisation of civil society with respect to all three spheres of our lives—political, economic and social, due to resistance to criticism by the state.
4. Many CSIs are seen as corrupt, and personal fiefdoms of charismatic founders, who continue in leadership positions long after their passion for the cause has died.
5. A large number of CSIs are not accountable to any constituency other than their donors.
6. Jobs in CSIs are seen as employment of last resort, to be abandoned for a position in a company a government agency as soon as an opportunity arises. Overcoming Challenges:
7. CSIs need to increase their membership or user-ship base and become accountable to them. They also need to become more democratically governed, participatory and accountable.
8. CSIs should have boards in which a majority of directors are from among those who strive to organise or serve.
9. CSIs can evolve multiple sources of funding, primarily based on member contributions and user fees, and leverage these proportionately with grants from the government’s tax revenue and a share of the corporate social responsibility funds.
10. CSIs must accept and practice the highest standards of financial reporting and disclosure and hold themselves open to public audits, social audits, impact assessments and so on.
11. CSIs could work towards attracting the best of talent.
12. Market institutions need to be held accountable for their acts of omission and commission which have enormous social and environmental consequences, not just economic or financial.
13. Appropriate Changes should be made in the companies act to appoint members of civil society as independent directors.
    All industry associations and chambers of commerce must be registered as nonprofit CSIs. They can be used as consultative forums for non-business CSIs working on social or environmental issues of relevance to the respective industry association.

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