Government-NGO Partnership with Special Reference to the National Policy on the Voluntary Sector, 2007 in the Union Territory of Chandigarh, India

To promote interface and partnership with the voluntary sector, the Government of India had taken initiatives in the past decade to strengthen this partnership like the National Policy on Voluntary Sector (NPVS), 2007 and NGO-Government Partnership Scheme. In light of these initiatives, this study was undertaken to empirically study the effectiveness of the NPVS, 2007 and the Government-NGO Partnership Scheme in Chandigarh where 12 NGO heads (who had taken grants from the government departments in Chandigarh in the past two years) and 15 officials from the government departments were interviewed about the nature of collaboration between the NGOs and government and the way forward. Based on the responses from the respondents, the study recommended that training sessions of NGO personnel and government officials be undertaken, funding process, rules and regulations of partnership should be simplified and there should be immediate and effective implementation of the objectives laid down the NPVS, 2007.