India Inc gifts Rs 1k cr to PM’s Swachh plan

Responding to PM Narendra Modi's call, India Inc has
jumped onto the Swachh Bharat bandwagon earmarking over Rs 1,000
crore towards the clean India project, analysts' estimates show.
Major corporate houses such as L&T, DLF, Vedanta, Bharti, TCS,
Ambuja Cements, Toyota Kirloskar, Maruti, Tata Motors, Coca Cola,
Dabur, Reciktt Benckiser, Aditya Birla Group, Adani, Biocon, Infosys,
TVS and many others have joined the effort by committing budgets for
projects linked to Swachh Bharat.
These projects vary from building toilets in distant villages, running
workshops to bring in behavioral changes, waste management to water
hygiene and sanitation.
While most of these projects are funded under their corporate social
responsibility (CSR) heads, there are also some that are partly funded
through CSR or are designed as public private partnerships.
Experts say the initiative serves a dual purpose for corporates. While it
helps fulfill the 2% mandatory investment in CSR, it may also fetch
brownie points from the government.
"As soon as PM called for the campaign, the initial responses were to
take up the broom and there were a number of companies who urged
their employees in this campaign," says Santhosh Jayaram, technical
director, sustainability advisory, KPMG.
However, gradually many companies have institutionalized it by
designing specific projects and budgets to implement them.
For instance, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Bharti Foundation,
an arm of Bharti Enterprises, have both committed Rs 100 crore each
as part of their CSR initiatives to construct toilets in schools. While
TCS plans to finance hygienic sanitation facilities for girl students
across 10,000 schools in the country, Bharti has adopted Ludhiana
and is working with government to make the district open defecation
free.
Though most companies are still focused on building toilets, there are
also a few who have chosen waste management, water sanitation and
other innovative projects, says Sudhir Singh, partner,
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). DLF, for instance, has launched a
flagship waste management programme in villages surrounding
Gurgaon. Under the project, funded under CSR, the company has
created a waste treatment plant and waste collection infrastructure.
The facilities have been handed over to village panchayats, which sell
compost in the market to generate income.
"Cleanliness is the responsibility of all of us, not just the government.
DLF Foundation's contribution to Clean Haryana Campaign is an
attempt to address the issue which is becoming a major challenge for
the country," DLF Foundation CEO Rajender Singh said.
Experts working in the area of sanitation say there is still a lot that
needs to be done to turn the campaign into a success story.
"Commitments are mostly restricted to asset building exercise. To
make Swachh Bharat a success story, there is need to bring
sustainability," says Neeraj Jain, CEO, WaterAid, an international
organization working for water sanitation and hygiene.
According to Jain, the investment needs to be channelized to bring in a
holistic change. Apart from construction of toilets, bringing about
behavioral changes, technology intervention, community development
as well as monitoring mechanism are key challenges that need to be
addressed.
However, experts are hopeful that a corporate push on this agenda
might address these issues.
Reckitt Benckiser, which sells Dettol, Harpic and Lizol, has also
pledged Rs 100 crore for the cleanliness drive. The company's
programme is mainly focused on personal hygiene.
Apart from private firms, public sector companies are also nudged into
making significant investments in such projects. Most public sector
companies like Coal India, ONGC, OIL, IOC and GAIL have earmarked
funds for projects aligned with the idea of Swachch Bharat Abhiyan.
Given that companies' contributions to government's Swachh Bharat
fund do not account as CSR, which is to be undertaken in local area of
operation, spending in projects that are inclined with sanitation or
cleanliness has emerged as a preferred option among many.
"Swachh Bharat has given a good direction for corporates to align their
CSR policies with a national agenda and it was the main reason for
such a good response," Jayaram said.
Of late, corporate affairs ministry has set up a committee to look into
the monitoring aspects of CSR.