Public charitable trusts have the potential to make India's development more inclusive as they relate to…

Question

Public charitable trusts have the potential to make India's development more inclusive as they relate to certain vital public issues. Comment.

Ghissu Editorial · Accepted Answer

Public charitable trusts can make development more inclusive by delivering health, nutrition, learning and livelihood services to groups the market ignores and the state reaches late. Tata Memorial's subsidised cancer care and Akshaya Patra's mid-day meals for over 20 lakh children show this, though opacity and skewed reach limit it.

**Introduction**

Charities fall in Entry 28 of the Concurrent List, and the Income Tax Act, 2025 now regulates trusts, societies and Section 8 companies under one regime. Public charitable trusts serve the public at large, so they can reach groups that markets ignore and the state reaches late.

**How Public Trusts Make Development Inclusive**

SKETCH: flow | Trust to Inclusion
- Pooled private wealth
- Tax-exempt public trust
- Free or subsidised service
- Excluded groups reached

1. **Health at the margin**: Tata Memorial Hospital, endowed by the Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, treats many cancer patients free or at subsidised rates, and Aravind Eye Hospitals cross-subsidise free cataract surgery for the poor.
2. **Nutrition and schooling**: The Akshaya Patra Foundation cooks PM POSHAN mid-day meals for over 20 lakh children a day, drawing poor children to school.
3. **Evidence and advocacy**: Pratham's ASER survey pushed policy towards foundational literacy, later embedded in NIPUN Bharat (2021).

**Limits That Keep the Potential Unrealised**

1. **Opacity and misuse**: Abuse of tax exemptions led the Finance Act, 2020 to impose re-registration every five years and PAN-linked donor reporting in Form 10BD.
2. **Skewed geography**: Trusts and CSR money cluster in Maharashtra, Karnataka and the metros, while aspirational districts receive little.
3. **Shrinking foreign funding**: Over 20,000 FCRA registrations have been cancelled since 2015, and the 2020 amendment barred sub-granting to grassroots partners.
4. **Not a substitute**: Trusts answer to trustees, not beneficiaries, and cannot replace public provisioning owed under Articles 21A and 47.

**Conclusion**

Public charitable trusts make development more inclusive when they act as trustees of wealth for society. Transparent accounts, wider geographic reach and a facilitating state can turn charity into a durable partner for Antyodaya and SDG 10.

Public charitable trusts have the potential to make India's development more inclusive as they relate to certain vital public issues. Comment.

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