The crowd-funding platform Bitgiving has closed the campaign account of Rashtriya Dalit Adhikar Manch (RDAM), the organisation at the forefront of the recent wave of Dalit protests in Gujarat, shortly after the Gujarat police lodged an FIR against Jignesh Mewani and 250 others.
Mr Mewani, as one of the leaders of the RDAM, had submitted his personal details, including bank statements and PAN card number, to Bitgiving as part of the approval process for raising funds through the online crowdfunding platform. “We had submitted all the documents on September 22, and they approved our campaign after four days. The campaign went live on September 28. In half a day, we had managed to raise Rs50,000. Our target was Rs12 lakh. But the next day, I got an email from BitGiving terminating our account,” Mr. Mewani.said.
An email from BitGiving’s head of campaigns, Ms Prarthana Gupta to Mr Mewani, which the latter shared on social media, stated, “Keeping recent events in mind and the latest FIR that has been filed against you, we will need to close your campaign as this is something that is against our guidelines.”
Mr Mewani said, “Even Amnesty has an FIR against it in India. They and other NGOs can raise lakhs of rupees on the Bitgiving platform. But there is no space for a Dalit movement even here. It is shameful how deeply casteism is entrenched even in so-called social enterprises in India.”
A BitGiving spokesperson, when contacted, said, “We do not allow religious or political campaigns on BitGiving,” and cited guidelines posted on the platform’s website which stated that a campaign could be rejected if it is for “political or religious purposes”.
Mr Mewani countered, “Any social campaign always has a political purpose. We picked BitGiving over other crowd-funding platforms because it specifically claims to support fund-raising for social causes. Our campaign for physical possession of land allotted to Dalits in Gujarat is a socio-political campaign, in the same sense that Amnesty’s is. Bitgiving’s claim that they closed it because ours is a political campaign is nonsense. Even our campaign photo was of me getting arrested. Can BitGiving explain why they first approved the campaign, and then changed their mind in 24 hours?”
One factor, according to RDAM activists, could have been the FIR lodged on September 27 . The FIR is under various sections of the IPC pertaining to unlawful assembly and obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions, including Sections 143, 146, 186, 188, 294-b, 333, 341 and 427 of the IPC.
BitGiving , however, clarified in a statement that the decision to terminate Mr Mewani’s campaign “was not taken due to any external interference or pressure.”
According to its website, BitGiving charges a commission of 6 per cent to 10 per cent on the funds raised on its platform. Mr Mewani said, “If we had managed to collect Rs12 lakh, their charge would have been Rs1.2 lakh. They are like any other corporation. It must answer whether its guidelines require the Dalit movement to remain penniless and crippled.”
But why use BitGiving at all? Why not a bank account to raise funds? “There are two reasons we chose a crowd-sourcing platform,” Mr Mewani said. “First, it ensures complete transparency in terms of how much funds have come in and where it has gone. Secondly, all our supporters can track the funds. Raising funds through a bank account leaves one vulnerable to mischievous allegations of fund misuse, etc.”
BitGiving confirmed that it has already refunded all the money raised on its platform by RDAM to the respective contributors.
