FCRA certificate renewed, Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity to keep receiving foreign donation

The Centre has restored the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act or FCRA registration of Missionaries of Charity.

Nearly two weeks after the Union government refused to renew the registration, the charity set up by Nobel laureate Mother Teresa will now be able to receive foreign donations and the new FCRA certificate will be valid till the end of 2026.

In a statement issued on December 25 last year, the Ministry of Home Affairs had refused to renew the FCRA registration to the charity after it had received some “adverse inputs”.

The refusal to renew the FCRA registration, which is needed by the NGOs to receive foreign funding, had become a political flashpoint, with several Opposition leaders expressing shock and dismay at the move.

The charity was set up in 1950 by Mother Teresa, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 “for bringing help to suffering humanity” but has been accused of religious conversions by the right-wing Hindu groups.

In the recently concluded Winter Session of Parliament, a BJP Lok Sabha member had accused the NGO of indulging in religious conversions and illegally sending children for adoption abroad.