Selected by leading Indian newspaper to be published soon!
Azim Premji once very rightly said “Philanthropy has to be spontaneous, it cannot be forced”, but in contrast to this, the Indian Government presented the Company Act 2013, which enforced the companies having net worth of INR 500 Cr. or more; or turnover of INR 1000 Cr. or more; or net profit of INR 5 Cr. or more to give away 2% of their net profit for social or charity work.
This was indeed a very constructive and fruitful move by the Government as the economy along with the educational and healthcare sector of the country have developed to a great extent but it has also created a short-sightedness type of situation for the business houses. Over 60% of CSR funded projects target either the healthcare or the educational sector which has basically resulted in the clustering of CSR funds in these two areas only, leaving other equally or more crucial areas either barely touched or untouched. While these both are unquestionably important areas for the development and sustainability of a country, other intensely important areas like Slum Development, Control-Abolition & Rehabilitation of Drug addicts, Human Trafficking and Environmental Sustainability are hardly given any proportion of the total funds.
According to NGOBOX and CSRBOX, maximum CSR funds in FY 14-15 to FY 18-19 were spent in Maharashtra, which was about 15.59% i.e. 7473 Cr. However, after all these funds, why does Maharashtra still have one of the world’s largest slum Dharavi? All because of the dominant focus in the healthcare and education sector has left the area of “slum development” undeveloped.
In a National Survey conducted by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, for the year 2000-2001 (report published in 2004), it was estimated that about 732 lakh persons in India were users of alcohol and drugs. Of this 87 lakh used Cannabis, 20 lakh used opiates and 625 lakh were users of Alcohol. According to a 2017 report by NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse), Abuse of tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs is costly to our Nation, exacting more than $740 billion annually in costs related to crime, lost work productivity, and health care.
An issue of this scale which has such detrimental effects to not only the society but also to the nation, and that cannot be solved by a few ‘drug-free’ campaigns and drug prohibition actions, it requires the State’s intervention which is where the business houses can come in and support the Government in tackling this problem with their CSR funds. The government had constituted a fund called “National Fund for Control of Drug Abuse” to meet the expenditure incurred in connection with combating illicit traffic in Narcotic Drugs; Rehabilitating Addicts, and Educating Public against Drug Abuse, etc. The corporate can come forward to invest their CSR funds in these established areas to help the Government in tackling these extremely critical social evils which lead to a surmounting loss of human productivity.
A study of 2018 disclosed that the number of human trafficking victims brought illegally into India from Nepal went up by 500% between 2013 and 2017. An average of 12,000 girls and women are trafficked from Nepal into India every year, according to Maiti Nepal, an NGO from Nepal fighting human trafficking. Here we’ve just taken into account a single country i.e. Nepal and it already sounds like hell, wonder what will be the total number of victims being trafficked within India from all over the world!
Based on a report published by the Government of India, there are approximately 10 million sex workers in India out of which 1,00,000 belong to Mumbai alone which is Asia’s largest sex industry center. CSR funds can be spent on establishing many more AHTU’s (Anti-Human Trafficking Units), anti-trafficking NGOs and other methods of tackling this problem for once and for all rather than just diverting most of the funds in the healthcare and education sector.
Taking into consideration India’s depleting and threatening environmental conditions, it has 22 of the top 30 most polluted cities in the world (Gurugram being at the top) and it accounts for 7 of the world’s 10 cities with the worst air pollution. What’s the point of improving the healthcare sector when all you’ll have is a toxic environment around you? World Bank estimated that air pollution costs India the equivalent of 8.5% of GDP, a huge drain of resources which can be compensated with the help of CSR funds if used in the right way. Levels of PM2.5– measuring the particularly poisonous particulate matter of 2.5 micrometers in diameter are considered too high to be healthy. Regularly measured at over 100, the US considers a safe limit to be 35, the level of PM2.5 sometimes is measured as being in the hundreds. Twice, we’ve seen the levels hit 999, the highest recordable number, meaning the actual level could be far higher. Even though the environmental sustainability sector did get a considerable amount of CSR funds, compared to the 60% of the education and healthcare sector, it’s quite trivial.
Having discussed, all these four major issues of Slum Development, Control-Abolition & Rehabilitation of Drug addicts, Human Trafficking and Environmental Sustainability, we can very well figure out where the future of CSR funds shall be concentrated. Therefore, these four social issues must be given an equal footing to the predominant education and healthcare sector in the coming future for the Indian economy to grow rapidly.
About the Author:
Master Harshit Sharan AKA Ron (DOB 22nd October 2002) is a student of XIth Standard (Commerce with Mathematics) of Scottish High International School (SHIS), Gurgaon (HR) while also associated with Indian Academy of Entrepreneurship (IAE)™ as a Coachee/Prodigy to work in the space of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and its impact on the Indian economy. He is writing several articles for print media to compile them in the form of a good read book to influence the policy makers of the country.
The author of this article has been one of the academic toppers in all classes till Xth Boards (ICSE), a National Level Football (CISCE) Player, A fitness freak with his ambition to be a World Class Economist & Data Scientist. He is also one of the Co-founders of an NGO. Email : ronharshit@gmail.com