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Business Ethics & Philanthropy Use unspent CSR funds towards child-centric drought relief measures: Kailash Satyarthi
Use unspent CSR funds towards child-centric drought relief measures: Kailash Satyarthi
Use unspent CSR funds towards child-centric drought relief measures: Kailash Satyarthi With 16.3 crore children being affected due to drought in ten states, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare drought a national emergency and make children a top priority in relief and rehabilitation work.
He also asked to use Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds towards measures for children. Bachpan Bachao Andolan, an NGO led by Satyarthi, has found that the practice of ‘devdasi’, dedication of young girls to gods and goddesses, is catching up fast in drought affected states like Telangana, Maharashtra, and Karnataka. Also, there are many cases of child marriage, child labour, and kidnapping of children.
He urged PM to ensure that no child is forced into any of such practices or is forced to leave school. “More than half of the total child marriage and child labour in India are from the 10 drought affected states and is speculated to aggravate further due to severe drought conditions,” he told.
Satyarthi has written to Modi, urging him to declare drought a national emergency immediately. He also asked the prime minister to direct unspent amount in CSR funds, especially in public sector undertakings, towards child-centric drought relief measures. “Around Rs 10,000 crore in CSR funds remains unspent in corporate sector and Rs 3,600 crore in public sector undertakings,” he said.
The activist also requested the parliamentarians to hold a special session on drought. “Till now no dedicated session on drought has taken place. The government should call the experts in the country in fields like water, geography to understand the situation and devise solutions. There should be child centric approach for protection of children in these circumstances,” he said. He claimed that almost Rs 10,000 crore was lying unspent in the CSR funds, out of which Rs 3,600 crore were from public sector undertakings. “According to a report, child labour has gone up by 24 per cent in Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh due to drought.
In Yadgir district in Maharashtra, 10 child marriages were stopped recently. Owing to this drought and ongoing water crisis, children are becoming increasingly vulnerable. There is no proper assessment or monitoring and no preventive measures are being taken,” he said and put the figures of children affected by drought in last some years at 16.3 crore, 40 per cent of the total number of children. Meanwhile, a Parliamentary panel suggested that the central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) should spend money under the CSR obligations on development of the remote backward areas of the country.
The committee is also of the view that as provided by the Companies Act 2013, it is an obligation of a company to be concerned with the well-being of its local populace and environment, the resources of which are being directly utilised by them. “…the committee also holds the view that CPSEs should take into account the development of remote backward areas of the country,” said the panel, in its report presented in Parliament. “These are areas where the pace of industrial development has been slow due to their geographic location,” it added.
The Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry, headed by K C Tyagi, reviewing the provisions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) under the Companies Act, 2013 recommended that NGOs through which CSR programmes are run should furnish their utilisation certificates on time.
“While neighbourhood community and local area with reference to company’s work have first claim on CSR projects, Schedule VII should also provide for development by individual company or jointly with other companies, in backward areas like North-East, Andaman & Nicobar islands and Lakshadweep, which do not have much industrialisation and are in need of development,” the panel said.
The committee suggested that the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) should issue guidelines as to how can the CPSEs extend their CSR oversight to entire supply chain network to ensure that vendors comply with principles of CSR as per DPE guidelines. “DPE should also allow CPSEs to join in the central and state government’s schemes like Mid-day meals, Sarva Siksha Abhiyan as per Schedule VII,” it recommended. (With Inputs from Deccan Herald and The Times of India)
