ICC Note:
On March 15, Compassion International, a US-based ministry that sponsors children living in poverty around the world, will close its doors in India. The shutdown will leave over 145,000 children living in extreme poverty without the support they have been normally receiving through Compassion International. In a recent interview with Christianity Today, Compassion International’s CEO explained the frustration he experienced as he and his ministry tried over a year to keep their operations going. In spite of all these efforts, the Indian government still shut the ministry down because of its commitment to their Christian faith. 
03/02/2017 India (Christianity Today) – In two weeks, Compassion International will be out of India.
The child development ministry confirmed today that after 48 years, its final day of operation will be March 15.
That means shutting the doors of 589 Indian-staffed development centers caring for more than 145,000 children, more than any other of the 25 countries where it works.
“I feel frustrated,” president and CEO Santiago “Jimmy” Mellado told CT.
That’s because Compassion has worked every angle to try to stay open in India since last February, when India’s Ministry of Home Affairs put it on a list of organizations needing prior approval before transferring funds into the country. Then the government refused to grant such approval.
The government’s move can be traced back to 2011, when it changed its Foreign Contribution Regulation Act so that it could regulate NGOs it disagrees with philosophically, Mellado said. The move was seen by many as another step toward Hindu nationalism since 2014.
Since then, attacks on Christians and Muslims have increased. India is now No. 15 on Open Doors’ list of countries where it’s hardest to be a Christian, up from No. 31 in 2013.
“In the middle of all this, we were pouring significant resources into local evangelical Christian churches,” Mellado said. “You can see where we would hit the radar screen.”
Compassion channels about $45 million into the country every year, more than any other charity. And unlike World Vision, which also helps children in India but breaks up its funding across different humanitarian entities, Compassion’s donations all went to local churches through two offices, making the amount stand out.
Increasingly desperate to be able to continue providing food, clothing, health care, and education for the children, Compassion leaders pulled out all the stops.
They talked to Indian lawyers and accountants. They testified before the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee. They asked then-Secretary of State John Kerry to mention them to his counterpart in India. (He did.) They asked sponsors to write their members of Congress. (More than 35,000 did.) They asked everybody they knew in positions of power both in the US and India for help.
“All along, both Compassion and its local offices remained committed to addressing the concerns raised by the government, but to no avail,” Mellado said.
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