Mumbai: India ranked 82nd among 128 countries for generosity over the last 10 years, as per the 10th World Giving Index (WGI). 

Up to a third of Indians helped a stranger, one in four donated money, and one in five gave their time volunteering, the report said, attributing India’s low ranking to its strong culture of unorganised and informal giving to family, community and religion. It recommended more formal mechanisms of donating to charity.

The report, published online in October 2019, was based on surveys of 1.3 million people in 128 countries over the last 9 years (2009-2018). It asked interviewees if they had helped a stranger, donated money to charity or volunteered their time in the past month. The surveys used Gallup World Poll data and were commissioned by Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), a UK charity that provides services and assistance to international charities and their donors.

India’s rank on the Index has yo-yoed vastly, the lowest being 134th in 2010 and the highest being 81st last year. This year’s report aggregated data for each country for the last 10 years. India’s overall WGI score this year was 26%.

Source: World Giving Index 2019 report

India and the World

Of the top 10 countries, seven are among the wealthiest in the world. Yet, global generosity is on the decline, stated the report, highlighting that individual giving is now lower in countries with long histories of philanthropy such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

“The top ranking countries will usually have a strong culture of giving, or are more developed,” said Meenakshi Batra, who leads CAF India, a non-profit organisation that works to enable effective giving. “Individuals have more resources to give and there is infrastructure for them to give to formal organisations.”

Source: World Giving Index 2019 report

India’s 26% WGI score was less than half of 58% scored by the United States in the top spot. China, with a score of 16%, was at the fag end of the index. The Asian giant also had the lowest score for all three measures considered–helping a stranger, donating money and volunteering.

New Zealand, on the other hand, was the only country to appear in the top 10 on all three counts.

India fails to match Asia’s pace

Five of the 10 countries to have improved their rankings the most on the giving index were in Asia. Indonesia, the country that improved its ranking the most, moved into the top 10 for donating money and volunteering. Sri Lanka achieved the highest score for volunteering in the world; at 46%, its volunteering score was more than double of India’s 19%.

The report attributed this rise in rankings to cultural factors. For example, a majority of people in Myanmar are practising Buddhists, 99% of whom are followers of the Theravada branch that mandates giving. Sri Lanka too has a high population of Theravada Buddhists.

Similarly, in Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, giving is closely tied to the religious obligation of giving, zakaat. 

The improved rankings are also an outcome of countries’ economic development. “It is not a surprise that these Asian countries have been increasing [their ranking] due to their rising economic prosperity,” said Ingrid Srinath of the Centre for Social Impact and Philanthropy at Ashoka University in Sonipat, Haryana.

India was the least generous of the seven South Asian countries in the Index, behind neighbours Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka. India’s economic growth in recent decades has been felt by fewer and fewer people, which may explain why its philanthropy is not increasing at a rate similar to that of its Asian counterparts, Srinath said.

Lower-income families are less likely to have donated or sponsored in the last 12 months (69%), than those with a household income of more than Rs 1.7 lakh (~$2,400) per month (82%), the report stated. “The study does not account for the degree of giving from an individual, only whether they are giving or not,” said Batra of CAF India.

“India also has more cleavages than other countries around it in terms of religion, class and caste,” said Srinath. “It is possible that these divides make people less inclined to commit to national philanthropic efforts.”

Under-reported giving

“In India, there is a strong culture of regularly helping and assisting each other,” said Batra. More Indians (64%) said they give money directly to people and families in need or to a church or religious organisation (64%) than to a non-profit or charitable organisation (58%), as per the India Giving Report, a country-specific report by the CAF Global Alliance, a network of organisations working in philanthropy and civil society.

Besides, India has over over 500 forms of traditional religious giving, such as Hindu daan and utsarg, Islamic zakaat, kums and sadaqa. “This form of giving may not show up on the Index because Indians consider this a family or a religious obligation,” said Batra. “For instance, it is commonplace for Indians to feed poor people outside places of worship, or serve a meal to pious and holy men. Those responding to the survey would not have counted this as giving, because they consider this to be their duty.”

Incidentally, upto 38% Indians said they would donate more if they knew how their money would be spent, and 32% would donate more if there was more transparency. “There is potential for organised non-profit organisations to provide more formal options of giving,” said Ben Russel of CAF.

Billionaires show little giving spirit

In 2017, the wealth held by India’s wealthiest 1% increased by Rs 20,913 billion ($303 billion). This was equivalent to the central government’s total budget that year, as per this report by Oxfam India.

The contribution of India’s richest to philanthropic activities has grown at a slower pace than the increase in their wealth, as reported by IndiaSpend earlier this year. Large contributions (more than Rs 10 crore) by ultra-high net worth individuals (individuals who have a net worth of more than Rs 25 crore) have decreased 4% since 2014.

India’s lowest WGI score in the last six years (22% in 2018) coincided with its reporting a record number of 121 billionaires–the third highest number of ultra-rich individuals in any country, behind China and the United States.

(Habershon, a graduate from the University of Manchester, is an intern with IndiaSpend.)

Courtesy: India Spend

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It has been reported that nearly half the population of England and Wales now considers itself to have “no religion”. This sudden rise – from 25% to 48.5% over just three years from 2011 to 2014 – seems a bit too steep to be totally credible. But then, the last survey in Scotland put the proportion of “nons” at just over half (52%). Even if we approach these figures with some scepticism, it is still sobering news for churches and other religious communities. So what explains it, and what does it mean for the future of religion in the UK?

You could account for some of this on the basis that people these days are not “joiners”: they don’t practise things in public, especially when these things take up precious time. Golf club membership is likewise in decline. Or, it could be that people are making things clearer about where they stand: they’ve found something else – whatever that might be – and religion no longer occupies that space.

Religion, it seems, comes from the Latin “re-ligere”, which has to do with “tying” and “binding”. And people don’t like to be bound: they feel they have enough ties – such as family commitments, working, paying taxes and giving to charity – without adding another one by taking up religion.

Moreover, to take the Christian Church more specifically, religious institutions have an image problem: rarely at the cutting edge of fashion, usually two paces behind. It has also had its fair share of scandals, from the clerical abuse of minors, to its long-running divisions over human sexuality.

Doing good

Yet most people would acknowledge that the church does a lot of good: the care homes it runs, the charitable work it quietly does, the donations and care packages it sends to many far-off places, and its leaders, who often sound the voice of peace and moderation at times of public and international crisis. The prayers and the piety of that religious woman next door is normally welcomed, rather than despised.

It’s just that religion doesn’t seem very useful, very aspirational, very necessary for getting on, in life, in work, in love. If anything, it complicates things. And yet, the Christian gospel (if I can reach for an example in the area I know best) combines the virtues of a reflective life with a life of actions done with other people, modelling charity amid disagreement. Faith can integrate a life, on the basis that one is known and loved by the One who gave one life and gives life to all things, who always comes amid suffering and human wickedness to call us back to himself.

I wonder how much this “religion for life” – as something which binds wounds and ties the fragmented and diverse bits of our lives together, giving them focus and enduring direction – is something that people are aware of, when they think of religion (assuming that they ever do).

No small end in sight

All this does not mean that religion needs to end small, even if it is likely that, as numbers decline, the church will increasingly be rooted in smaller communities and smaller buildings, helping to accentuate the personal aspect of church, while being a place for sacred worship and still space.

When it talks, it will still speak with a voice neither shrill nor faltering; it will seek to weigh traditional values and structures together with new insights and modern demands. For instance, the Church of Scotland ordained its first woman minister in the 1960s, just as women were first becoming business chiefs and political leaders.

It will seek to spot what in any given social trend is to be affirmed, and what is to be denied. It will ask questions, represent other viewpoints, try to be a cradle of wisdom and cool heads with warm hearts, with the confidence that comes from knowing that my career, my health, my family are not everything, even while they are valuable gifts. It won’t pontificate, but will witness clearly to the truth as it has been revealed to it, not by claiming to own it, but pointing away from itself towards it. It won’t always be hard and it won’t always be soft.

This story was first published on The Conversation.

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