New guidelines from the central government categorically ban NGOs from using donations from abroad for proselytizing or church planting — directly affecting the support international mission organizations sent to local partners.
On June 29, both Barnabas Aid and International Christian Concern (ICC) independently reported the same measure: new guidelines from India's central government now categorically ban NGOs from using donations from abroad for proselytizing activities or church planting.
According to ICC, the most direct impact falls on the funding that international mission organizations maintained with local partners in India — churches, workers, and discipleship networks that, in many cases, depended on exactly this kind of support to sustain themselves. The guideline doesn't block all international cooperation, but it redraws, more restrictively, what can and can't be funded with money from outside the country.
Restrictions on foreign funds have existed in India for years, through the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) — but reinforcements like this one tend to narrow the legal space for international organizations to support local Christian work even further. That doesn't mean every kind of overseas financial support is affected — each case depends on its specific legal framing — but it is a sign that this regulatory squeeze keeps advancing: a month later, on July 30, India's Parliament was already debating even broader amendments to the same law (see the next story in this series).
Pray for wisdom for organizations sustaining Christian work in India amid increasingly restrictive rules, for discernment on how to keep supporting local partners legally and safely, and for provision for workers who depended on this support.
Religious FreedomIndia's Parliament is debating changes to the FCRA that would expand the government's power to seize or freeze the assets of NGOs, community hospitals, and Christian ministries.
Religious PersecutionCommunity groups organized protests in Narayanpur, Chhattisgarh, alleging forced conversions in villages and demanding an investigation — Christian families were intimidated and pressured to leave.
