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May 4, 2025
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‘India Steps Challenge’ – A Nationwide Initiative to Encourage Indians to Adopt a Healthier Lifestyle

By
The CSR Journal
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GOQii challenge
According to GOQii’s latest ‘India Fit Report’, more than 57% population across key cities such as Delhi, Hyderabad and Chennai are overweight. Further, lifestyle diseases have witnessed a steady rise – Diabetes has increased to 5.1% in 2018 from 3.6% in 2017, Cholesterol has increased to 12.1% in 2018 from 5.2% in 2017 and High Blood Pressure has increased to 9.4% in 2018 from 4.9% in 2017.
In another study by Stanford in 2017, Indians were found to be among the world’s laziest citizens clocking in an average of just 4, 297 steps a day. India is ranked 39 among the 46 countries surveyed.
There is a critical need to break this pandemic of physical inactivity which is leading to a steady rise in lifestyle diseases. GOQii has launched ‘India Steps Challenge’ – a 100-day nationwide challenge with an aim to encourage Indians to walk more and make India active and healthy. The challenge will begin on 22nd February.
The GOQii India Steps Challenge is open to all 29 States and 7 Union Territories of India, which will compete to be the healthiest state in the country. Fitness coaches who are a part of GOQii Play, an interactive live video platform within the GOQii app, will motivate participants to walk daily and inculcate exercise into their daily regimen.

How does it work?

  • The participant can download the GOQii app on their Android or iOS device
  • The participant can sign up for the ‘India Steps Challenge’ and choose a state they wish to represent
  • Participants can use any of GOQii’s Activity Trackers or their in-built phone sensor. The tracker has to be connected to the GOQii app to record their daily step count
  • The average step count of all the people belonging to a particular state or region will be taken into account
  • There will be a state-wise leaderboard on the app as well as on the website to keep track of every state’s performance
  • At the end of 100 days, the state with the highest daily average steps will be awarded as the ‘Most Active State’
The GOQii India Steps Challenge has 100 levels and there are prizes set at every milestone. Overall, more than 40, 000 prizes totaling to INR 5 crores will be given. The individual with the highest step count will win a cash prize of INR 5 lakhs. Other prizes include backpacks, GOQii trackers and mobile phones, among others.
GOQii Play coach and India’s ex hockey captain Sardar Singh said, “Walking has proven benefits that minimize the risk of developing lifestyle diseases (such as diabetes, cardiac issues and others) which are witnessing a steady rise in India and must be tackled in the early-stage itself. I am happy to support this initiative which will surely inspire many Indians to stay fit.”
Vishal Gondal, Founder and CEO of GOQii said, “We are thrilled to announce the GOQii India Steps Challenge, an initiative to start a shift to a healthier lifestyle. At the end of this 100-day challenge, we hope active participants will see the transformation within themselves and permanently adopt a healthier and active lifestyle, a critical need of the hour.”

Running became the latest sell for Menstrual Hygiene awareness

By
Kasmin Fernandes
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Veera Di Padothon
After formally-trained Sani Warriors and the Delhi government’s Period Fest and Pad Yatra, the realm of Menstrual Hygiene gets more peculiar. At least two ‘marathons’ believe running is an effective ‘tool’ for menstrual hygiene awareness: Veera Di Pad-O-Thon and Run4Niine.
Last Sunday, over a thousand runners traversed 1-6 kms for the Pad–O–Thon in Mumbai. It  was flagged off by Dr. Bharati Lavekar, MLA, Versova who also happens to be the founder of TEE Foundation. The foundation joined hands with IndusInd Bank for the 2nd edition of ‘Veera Di Pad-O-Thon’, positioned as a marathon dedicated to create awareness about sanitary hygiene.
The theme for this year’s Pad-O-Thon was ‘Run for the Women We Love’ and aims to facilitate distribution of sanitary napkins to over 3,500 female students adopted by the foundation across 52 municipality schools. The funds raised through the Pad-O-Thon will be utilised in the installation of sanitary pad vending machines.
Meanwhile, Bollywood star and India’s ‘Pad Man’ Akshay Kumar will join forces with the Niine Sanitary Napkins for Run4Niine, which will take place in hundreds of cities across India on the 8th March 2019 to mark International Women’s Day. With Runs taking place in Lucknow, Gurgaon, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Amritsar, Jaipur, Kolkata, Goa and several other cities across India, it’s going to be a big show.
Here’s a video of ‘Pad Man’ Akshay Kumar calling on ‘Pad Heroes’ to join him. The word coinage for the Menstrual Hygiene movement gets more and more bizarre each day. What next, Pad-Ma-Laxmi?

Of course, Niine is a brand of affordable yet premium sanitary napkins, co-founded by Amar Tulsiyan from Gorakhpur and Gaurav Bathwal and Kanpur entrepreneur Sharat Khemka. Ironically, their anti-cloth rhetoric is the opposite of what menstrual health activists in the West are championing: environmentally friendly and organic menstrual products like reusable cloth pads (which Indian women used traditionally before synthetic pads came into the market).
We leave it to you to figure the commercials involved.

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India’s top companies and the SDGs

By
Kasmin Fernandes
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Corporates and Sustainable Development Goals
Since the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals have to be implemented by 2030, it requires immense effort not only from the government but also from businesses. The Indian Government is already using SDGs as a roadmap for formulating national policies and regulations. It is incumbent upon corporations to complement these actions.
Reporting of SDGs is a three-step process:
  1. develop priority SDG targets;
  2. measure and analyse; and,
  3. report, integrate and implement change.
The reporting of SDGs in India is in its nascent stage and often companies are linking their existing programmes to SDGs. This may detract them from making the best use of the SDG programme. Companies don’t seem to make specific efforts in developing new programs to address the most relevant goal for their business. Companies are using the same process that they used to develop materiality matrix for developing their plan to incorporate SDGs into their business.
A study of 218 companies by IIM Udaipur and Futurescape indicates that the companies are gradually incorporating SDGs into their responsible business actions. Around 35% companies at the aggregate level reported that they map their goals with SDGs, but only 30% shared their mapping.
Of the 218 companies, 60 companies have mapped their responsible business actions to SDGs. Nine of the top 10 companies mapped their goals with SDGs. The leading sectors are IT, Telecom and Energy where majority companies have mapped. The laggards are Financials and Other Industrials.
On average, companies map 11 SDGs with a low of 1 to a maximum of 17. Of the companies that mapped their SDG goals, a whopping 51 (85%) were in the private sector and 53 (71%) were manufacturing companies. This clearly establishes that private companies are leading in the focus on SDG implementation.
In terms of focus, the SDG 4 (quality education), SDG 8 (decent work), SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 13 (climate action), SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation) occupy the top position. On the other hand, SDG 16 (peace, justice etc.) and SDG 14 (life below water) were mapped by less than 45% companies.
In terms of implementation, if a group looks at SDGs as a guiding light, then it becomes easier for member-companies to adopt SDGs. We observe this at the Tata Group. Dr Mukund Rajan, Chairman of the Tata Global Sustainability Council says in the report ‘Responsible Business Rankings’, “The SDG roadmap will help guide, shape, implement, monitor and report company-wide initiatives, providing the business case for staying invested in sustainable development for the long term.”
Existing programs too can be linked to SDGs. Ambuja Cement maps its water actions to SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities) and SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production).
The company constructs water harvesting structures in Kodinar, Gujarat which is a drought-prone area with a major issue of water salinity. It constructed the first check dam (in 1993) in Kodinar. Water-harvesting and groundwater recharging structures were set up to improve water availability to farmers in the area.
As a part of this initiative, Ambuja engaged extensively in awareness creation on water-efficient agriculture through micro-irrigation (12,042 acres) using sprinkler and drip irrigation. The project has had a significant impact in the region resulting in the reduction of water scarcity, helping the community and farmers, in particular, to carry out agriculture.
Some companies link their SDGs to their branding efforts. For instance, GAIL maps its Hawa Badlo (change the air) programme to SDGs 7, 11 and 15. GAIL supports the Hawa Badlo initiative which aims to motivate people to commit towards air-friendly habits like switching to CNG/electric vehicles, carpooling, and use of public transport.
Apart from being a corporate campaign, it is also a step towards inclusive action by creating awareness drive to inculcate behavioural changes in the citizens so as to replicate the same on a larger level and hence, bring a significant alteration to the air quality index. The Hawa Badlo campaign resulted in creating awareness amongst large masses across the nation.
The SDGs have the potential to provide a framework for mobilizing companies to invest in sustainable development in an ongoing and scalable way, while also pursuing their own business interests.

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TPSDI’s mobile learning centre is training and certifying 150 electricians

By
The CSR Journal
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TPSDI Skills-on-Wheels

Tata Power Skill Development Institute (TPSDI), in partnership with Pratham Education Foundation (PEF), is providing skill-gap training to neighbourhood electricians and certifying them through Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) program in Raigad and Palghar districts. Under this partnership, PEF mobilizes trainees from impoverished rural and urban areas, while TPSDI trains them through its mobile learning centre, Skills-on-Wheels, which travels to various locations in these districts.

The institute has committed to training 150 trainees in the first phase of this initiative and has already certified 109 so far at Usarli village near Panvel. Its training complements participants’ skills with safety practices and best practices in domestic wiring enhancing the employability of the trainees.

Skills-on-Wheels is designed to provide easy access to market-driven and employment-oriented skilling in the areas of domestic wiring and solar. Commenting on this initiative, Mr Praveer Sinha, CEO & Managing Director, Tata Power said, “Through Skills-on-Wheels, the institute extends its footprint and impact beyond its training hubs and enables easy access to market-driven and employment-oriented skills training to people who don’t have the means to go through formal training. TPSDI’s outreach through its mobile learning centres enables such people to be productive and enhance their livelihood. We are extremely happy with what skills-on-wheels centre is achieving in Raigad and Palghar, empowering people with skills for life.”

Tata Power established the Tata Power Skill Development Institute (TPSDI) as a not-for-profit integrated technical training institute of the Tata Power Company which works with the dual motive of bridging the skill gap in the Indian power sector and empowering youth and others with employable skills in the power, allied, and other sectors. TPSDI today offers over 75 courses across Electrical, Mechanical, Instrumentation, Renewables, Safety, Allied sectors, etc. and has in a short span of nearly four years, trained over 40,000 people in skills needed by the industry. It has five training hubs across India and two mobile learning centres.

Canada: Union in support of arrested Bangladeshi garment workers

By
The CSR Journal
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Strike by Bangladeshi garment workers
The United Steelworkers (USW), one of the largest unions in North America and Canada, has urged Bangladesh to immediately release all garment workers and union members arrested on alleged ‘trumped-up charges’ due to protest demonstrations against the inadequate minimum wage rise and drop charges against workers involved in demonstrations in December last year.
USW national director for Canada Ken Neumann wrote a letter in this regard to Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh High Commissioner in the country, according to a report in Bangladesh English-language daily The New Age.
It has also demanded dropping charges that remained unsettled following the protests in 2016 demanding wage hike.
‘We are deeply concerned about the repressive measures taken in the last two months against workers protesting against the wholly inadequate minimum wage increase announced in November 2018, as well as the unequal treatment of workers in different pay grades,’ Neumann, reportedly said in his letter.
For the past two months, garment workers have been taking to the streets demanding a decent living wage for their work and the protests have been tackled with violence and repression, USW said. Thousands of workers had been terminated and dozens of charges had been filed against workers and leaders.
USW also requested the country’s Supreme Court to lift the restraining order and ensure that the Accord on Building and Fire Safety in Bangladesh can continue its operations for the duration of the three-year transition agreement or until the designated oversight committee determines that the Remediation and Coordination Cell is capable of taking over its tasks.

Source: Fibre2Fashion.com

CSR: Agriculture and Water Pollution

By
Hency Thacker
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Agriculture and Water Pollution

“Some of the major issues of the world can be tackled by inclusive farming,” said Manoj Solanki, Farmer at ‘Chintan Farms’, Shri Ram Krushna Trust.

Agriculture is connected to every aspect of life. This is because it is in the centre of nature’s life and the food cycle. Too much unnatural interference in it disturbs this cycle leading to problems in the ecosystem.

Chemical fertilisers are pesticides are extremely popular in the agriculture industry today. The farmers who are in direct contact with them, have started to see the poisonous effects of them in their health, soil and environment. On top of that, these substances are making the farmers poorer than ever. Punjab, the agriculture capital of India has suffered the most because of these chemicals.

The TDS level and pH in water determines its usability for various purposes. By using water with higher TDS for agriculture, the plant will not grow very healthily. Water with higher TDS can damage a seed in its germination period, reducing the germination rate of seeds and reducing the yield. The increased amount of TDS can be caused because of the presence of salty substances in the water. Urea, the most popular chemical fertiliser is 46% Nitrogen and 54% salt. By using that, on the soil, we contribute to an increasing level of TDS in water.

pH determines if the water is alkaline or acidic. Too high or too low pH level in the water can deprive the plants of the nutrients available in the soil. High pH confines the mineral nutrients such as iron, zinc and manganese to the soil and does not let plants to consume them. A low pH can destroy them altogether, making it unavailable for plants altogether. Use of pesticides and chemical fertilisers can disturb the natural pH scale of water.

When this contaminated water is used for agriculture, it drains down contaminating the whole of the groundwater as well. It then enters in the life cycle, causing more and more destruction.

This article is part of a series on Organic and Inclusive Agriculture practices.

Thank you for reading the story until the very end. We appreciate the time you have given us. In addition, your thoughts and inputs will genuinely make a difference to us. Please do drop in a line and help us do better.

Regards,
The CSR Journal Team

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CSR by airports in India: Stuck in the air

By
The CSR Journal
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Bangalore airport
Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru
The civil aviation industry in India has been one of the fastest growing industries in the country in recent years. India is currently the world’s third largest domestic civil aviation market and expected to become the largest in the next 10 to 15 years.
The number of passengers carried by domestic airlines during 2017 was 117.1 million, registering a growth of 17.31 per cent compared to 2016. During FY16, international passenger traffic increased by 7.72 per cent. All of these figures are expected to steadily rise in the next decades.
Airports in India are managed and maintained by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) under the ministry of civil aviation. The biggest ones are typically operated under a public-private partnership model (PPP) and come under the ambit of the CSR Act of 2013. We take a look at the CSR and sustainability initiatives of a few of the country’s well-known airports.

Delhi Airport

Better known as Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), Delhi Airport is run and managed by the GMR Group. Its CSR work closely follows that of GMR Varalakshmi Foundation (GMRVF), the CSR arm of the GMR Group which seeks to develop social infrastructure and improve the quality of life of communities around the locations where the group has a presence. The foundation focuses on education, health, hygiene and sanitation, community development, and empowerment and livelihoods.
Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) began its CSR activities in 2006 under the aegis of GMRVF, with similar interests in education, health and livelihood. It currently works in Mehram Nagar (a community near the airport) and Savda Ghevra (community resettled from airport encroachments), apart from running a residential vocational training centre.
For education, it runs three Bala Badis (child-care centres) at Savda Ghevra and one in Mehram Nagar covering over 120 children. Recreational activities and food are provided in these centres. It provides support to government schools in the form of teaching, learning materials and school kits. It has also set up a children’s creativity centre, a library, and a programme specifically targeted at young girls who have dropped out of schools.
In FY17, DIAL supported GMRVF in improving quality of education for more than 4,900 children in Badrinath (Uttarakhand), Srikakulam (Andhra Pradesh), Shahdol (Madhya Pradesh), and Bengaluru through providing computer education in 22 government schools, para-teachers in 48 schools, and remedial and tuition classes for slow learners. On health, a full-fledged dispensary has been set up in Savda, with health camps organised in both areas.
Livelihood being a major point of focus for the foundation, DIAL had started the Centre for Empowerment and Livelihoods Delhi (CEL-D) in September 2009 to train young people from poor and marginalised communities in vocational skills. This includes training in electrical, refrigeration and air conditioning work, computers, air-cargo handling, cleaning maintenance and facility support, health therapy, apparel designing, etc.
Most of these programmes are delivered in partnership with companies like Schneider Electric, Voltas and CELEBI. The training centres are residential and have state-of-the-art facilities equipped with classrooms, workshops, kitchens, dormitories, libraries and seminar halls. So far, nearly 4,000 youth have been trained in different trades, with a settlement rate of more than 90 per cent. DIAL also worked with GMRVF in 2016–17 to impart employability training to more than 5,800 youth and women, with a settlement rate of 75 per cent, through 11 vocational training centres in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka.
DIAL runs a stitching and tailoring centre that are marketed through the so-called Empower Shop located at the car parking, opposite Terminal 3 of IGIA. Another noteworthy initiative is the community-based rehabilitation programme that is helping around 200 differently-abled people in Savda Ghevra through Samarth, a resource centre providing institutional services like special education, after-school learning support, and basic physiotherapeutic care.
On environment, DIAL focuses on natural resource conservation and pollution prevention as part of its overall environment sustainable management strategy. All aspects and impacts due to its services and operations are assessed by the framework of ISO 14001:2004 Environment Management Systems (EMS). Environmental factors such as noise, air quality, water and waste management, green building, etc., are addressed through multiple projects and process improvements. For instance, DIAL has installed a 7.84 MW solar power plant at IGIA and is the first airport in India to do so within its premises.
In FY17, Delhi Airport achieved the twin distinctions of being the first in Asia-Pacific region to achieve carbon-neutral accreditation and the first in the world to adopt the green building monitoring platform system ARC. IGIA Terminal 3 has been awarded LEED GOLD rating from Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), making it one of the largest green buildings in the world.

Mumbai Airport

Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd’s (MIAL) CSR policy document spells out the following areas for its CSR activities: training to promote nationally recognised sports, healthcare, education, protection of art and culture, gender equality and empowering women, environmental sustainability, and slum development. These are taken up directly or through GVK foundation, GVK Airport Foundation, or GVK EMRI (Emergency Management and Research Institute), in and around the areas where the company, subsidiaries and associates operate, though this isn’t a hard-and-fast rule. The organisation has a list of economic, social and environmental targets that are listed in its annual report, which is in accordance with the Comprehensive option of the GRI G4 Guidelines.
To realise its sustainability goals, MIAL has set up greenhouse gases (GHG) accounting and management, a GHG policy and energy policy, and implementation of an energy management system. Implementation of noise and ambient air quality monitoring system, recycling of food waste and water, and operating as a silent airport are some of the other green initiatives.
All of this paid dividends when, in 2017, Mumbai Airport received the Level 3+ carbon-neutrality certification by Airports Council International (ACI), the global authority of international airports. This is the highest level of environmental achievement available to airports in the areas of GHG management. In 2016, it was the first Brownfield (which means projects and sites that are modified or upgraded) airport to receive the GreenCo Gold rating, helped in part by one of India’s largest airport gardens at Terminal 2.
By 2016, the airport achieved a 9 per cent reduction in direct energy consumption as compared to 2012–14; 48 per cent reduction in water consumption per million; 39 per cent decrease in direct emissions per million persons (pax); and 21 per cent increase in the amount of non-hazardous waste recycled (all figures, except the first, are benchmarked against 2013–14 numbers).
A 1,060 kWp solar power plant has been installed at T1, with further expansion in the works. The total GHG emissions (Scope 1 and Scope 2) during FY15 and FY16 were 109,516 tCO2e and 109,006 tCO2e, respectively – a slight decrease, which means there’s potential to reduce it further. While there have been improvements in waste disposal and water treatment, these can be expanded as well.
In 2015–16, MIAL spent Rs 3.98 million on community initiatives. The main areas of CSR work are: education, vocational skills, environment sustainability, and health. In education, the flagship programme is SHILP (Supplementary Holistic and Interactive Learning Program) to help primary school students from underprivileged sections of the society. The pilot project covered 1 school with 50 participants. Going ahead, it will be extended to 4 schools, covering 200 students.
The other initiative is being done in partnership with Aseema Charitable Trust to impart quality education in MCGM (Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai) schools at primary and middle level. The programme also focuses on the overall personality development and health of the child.
For vocational skills, MIAL has collaborated with DEEDS Public Charitable Trust to support vocational training programmes that include tailoring courses and basic English literacy classes for students in deaf schools in Mumbai. There’s no data on the number of students who have benefited. The other project is helping young people participate in Jagriti Yatra, which is a 15-day-long national train journey across the length and breadth of India. This was started in 2013 and since then MIAL has supported 12 such youngsters.
Environment programmes include LED lamp distribution in the tribal community of Sanjay Gandhi National Park and tree-planting drives. Health interventions are HIV awareness sessions, blood testing and donation camps, eye checkup camps for taxi drivers, and immunisation drives. Compared to its many sustainability achievements and corresponding data, CSR doesn’t seem to be a priority for MIAL.

Bangalore Airport

Bangalore International Airport Limited’s (BIAL) CSR activities are in the areas of rural development, watershed management, education, healthcare, sports, and protecting cultural heritage. It runs a sustained engagement model with 18 non-profits and other organisations from the surrounding areas of the airport.
On education, it has constructed and renovated five panchayat government schools around the airport. It has also constructed 13 blocks of toilets as part of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Road safety weeks and health camps are organised for the airport taxi drivers, while blood-donation camps and tree-planting drives have also been taken up. Hasiru Habbais the initiative to celebrate the benefits of conserving the environment and is co-supported by a group of local NGOs. The company spent Rs 5.52 crore on CSR in 2016–17, that being 2 per cent of its profits.
As part of its sustainability initiatives, multiple solar power projects were commissioned during FY17 – for example, the 503kW rooftop solar power installation on six buildings and 2.5MW ground-mounted solar power installation. Energy conservation measures such as air conditioning improvement works and water conservation have been taken up though details are sparse.
While there are policy documents on almost every environmental aspect, progress reports or even basic data is missing. The international airport has received the LEED Gold rating from Indian Green Building Council for energy-efficient, eco-friendly, and sustainable terminal building design.

Hyderabad Airport

The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad is operated and managed by the GMR Group. The CSR activities for GHIAL (GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited) are conducted through GMRVF. As expected, the areas of intervention are the same as the Foundation’s, taken up in 5 villages around the airport, while other extension services are spread in more than 20 villages.
GHIAL has adopted seven government schools to assist on infrastructure requirements (such as setting up IBM Kidsmart centres) and improve the level of learning through teacher support, training, etc. It has also adopted all government anganwadis (pre-schools) in the neighbouring villages to work with 300 younger students every year and has set up community libraries. The GMR Chinmaya Vidyalaya, an English-medium CBSE school run by the airport, has a Gifted Children scheme for meritorious students from poor families in neighbouring villages. Overall, more than 12,000 students have been positively impacted through these programmes.
On healthcare, mobile medical units, free clinics, medical and eye camps, and health checkups are provided regularly. A noteworthy initiative is the supplementary nutrition centres set up for pregnant and lactating women in two villages, offering daily food supplements to cover deficiencies in calories, iron, folic acid, etc., along with health-awareness sessions. More than 1,000 women have benefited to date and hopefully the project will be expanded in terms of both reach and scope.
Like DIAL, Hyderabad Airport also runs residential vocational training centres for young people from underprivileged backgrounds. It has trained more than 2,800 candidates with a job placement rate of 80 per cent. Being a greenfield airport with plenty of requirements for entry-level technicians and other staff, more than 800 candidates were placed in suitable jobs at the airport as electricians, AC technicians, computer operators, parking attendants, etc.
The EMPOWER (Enabling Marketing of Products of Women Entrepreneurs) initiative is targeted at women wherein tailoring and stitching training sessions are conducted, post which some participants are provided specialised training for making jute products, uniform stitching, bag making, chocolate making, etc. Marketing support is also given through two shops at Hyderabad and Delhi airports.
In FY17, GHIAL commissioned a 5MW solar power plant to meet 15 to 20 per cent of the airport’s energy requirements. It had managed to reduce 3,405.85 tCO2e of its Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions in 2016, compared to the previous year. The airport has achieved energy savings of 3.97million kWh in the last four years and reduced its carbon footprint by about 3,331 tons per annum. The rainwater net recharge is estimated at 1.729 million cubic metres per annum.
It was awarded the Carbon Neutral Level 3+ certification by the Airports Council – the first airport in its category within the Asia-Pacific region to achieve this status, and the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA) Chairman’s ‘Order of Merit’ for its focus on environmental sustainability and for being the first airport in Asia-Pacific in its category to become carbon-neutral.
Some of the other green measures taken are conversion of all light sources within the buildings, roads and airport infrastructure into energy-efficient LED lighting, upgrading conventional split AC units to inverter units, reduction of aircraft noise and emission levels through best practices like single-engine taxi, etc.
Other steps like ‘effective implementation of the reduce-reuse-recycle principle in overall water usage, efficient rainwater harvesting and groundwater recharging, and efficient solid-waste management processes’ are mentioned but the details have been omitted.

Cochin Airport

As per the CSR policy outlined in its official document, the CSR focus areas are to be in education, water and irrigation, health, social empowerment, and environment. However, in FY17, it spent its entire CSR fund of Rs 400 lakh on the Suchitwa Mission, which is a Kerala state government project on sanitation and solid and liquid waste management.
Cochin airport touts itself as the world’s first airport to be fully powered by solar energy since 2015. Eight solar installations for a total capacity of 23.2 MWp have been completed, apparently saving 14,500 Mt of CO2 in 2016–17. Energy-efficient motors, chillers and lighting have helped reduce its carbon emissions further. In the same year, it spent Rs 30 lakh towards capital expenditure on energy-conservation measures. However, compared to the previous year, the amount of electricity purchased saw an increase.

Source: Cause Because

Clean Ganga: Holy river, unholy practices

By
The CSR Journal
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Clean Ganga
The Clean Ganga or Namami Gange programme is, as the name suggests, a massive, central government-led initiative for the holiest of all holy rivers in India. One of the flagship programmes of the BJP government (even if it’s a continuation of previous efforts), this ‘integrated conservation mission’ was approved in June 2014 with a budget outlay of Rs 20,000 crore.
The stated objectives of this programme are:
1. to ensure effective abatement of pollution and rejuvenation of the river Ganga by adopting a river-basin approach to promote inter-sectoral coordination for comprehensive planning and management, and
2. to maintain minimum ecological flows in the river Ganga with the aim of ensuring water quality and environmentally sustainable development.
The long-winded statements essentially mean that pollution reduction and rejuvenation of the river are the twin goals. Till July 2016, an estimated Rs 2,958 crores ($460 million) was spent in various efforts to clean up the river. The Vision Ganga report explains the mission, challenges and plan for this programme.
History and current structure
The Ganga Action Plan was first launched on 14 January 1986 by the late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, with the main objectives of pollution abatement and improvement of water quality. After reviewing its effectiveness, the Mission Clean Ganga project was announced on 31 December 2009, with the stated aim that by 2020 no municipal sewage and industrial waste would be released in the river without treatment. Subsequently, the Rs 7,000-crore National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA), chaired by the then prime minister, was established. In 2011, the World Bank sanctioned $1 billion towards the NGRBA and in 2012, the environment ministry commissioned a consortium of seven IITs to prepare a comprehensive River Basin Management Plan.
In 2014, the BJP government approved the Namami Gange programme, the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) was formed in 2016, and the NGRBA was duly dissolved. The National Council for Rejuvenation, Protection and Management of River Ganga (or National Ganga Council), constituted in 2016, is the supreme council that leads this mission and is chaired by the Prime Minister. The five-tier structure has an empowered task force (ETF) under the chairmanship of the union minister of water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation, the NMCG, and then state- and district-level committees. Eight states are covered under this programme, with the NMCG acting as the implementation arm.
NMCG has a two-tier management structure and comprises of a governing council and an executive committee. The latter has been authorised to give approvals for all proposals to make the 1,674 gram panchayats located by the river open defecation-free by 2022, at a cost of Rs 1,700 crore (central share).

Current status

NMCG has divided its implementation activities into three categories: entry-level activities that have immediate visible impact, medium-term activities to be implemented within a five- year time frame, and long-term projects to be implemented within 10 years.
The main activities taken up by the Namami Gange programme are:
  1. Sewerage-treatment capacity: 63 sewerage management projects are under implementation currently and 12 new projects have been launched.
  2. River-front development: 28 river-front development projects and 33 entry-level projects for construction, modernisation and renovation of 182 ghats and 118 crematoria have been initiated.
  3. River-surface cleaning: Collection of floating solid waste and its disposal are going on at 11 locations.
  4. Biodiversity conservation: Several such projects have been launched, such as fish and fishery conservation, Ganges river dolphin conservation education programme, five biodiversity centres, etc.
  5. Afforestation: Forestry interventions have been initiated for a period of 5 years (2016–2021) at a cost of Rs 2,300 crore.
  6. Industrial-effluent monitoring: Real-time effluent monitoring stations (EMS) have been installed in 572 out of 760 grossly polluting industries (GPIs).
  7. Ganga Gram: 1,674 gram panchayats situated on the river bank in five states (Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal) have been identified and Rs 578 crore released to ministry of drinking water and sanitation (MoDWS) for construction of toilets in these locations. 853,397 toilets have been constructed out of the targeted 1,527,105 units. (Data as of June 2018 from the NMCG portal)
The Ganga river basin plan, which spells out the long-term vision, involves the adoption of 65 villages by 13 IITs to be developed as model villages. UNDP is the executing agency for the rural sanitation programme and will develop Jharkhand as a model state at an estimated cost of Rs 127 crore.
The Union Cabinet gave its approval for setting up of the Clean Ganga Fund in September 2014 with the objective of using this fund for cleaning of the Ganga and various allied activities under the Namami Gange programme, including setting up waste-treatment plants, conservation of biotic diversity of the river, development of public amenities, ghat redevelopment, and R&D. This fund, managed by a trust headed by the finance minister, was set up to attract private, voluntary contributions from Indian residents and NRIs/PIOs. Similar to the Swachh Bharat Kosh, domestic donations to the fund are eligible for tax benefits. In 2014, the CSR Act was amended to include this programme in the list of permissible CSR activities.
The Clean Ganga website openly solicits participation from individuals, corporates and institutions in the Namami Gange programme by adopting ghats, piloting new technologies, conducting research, and creating awareness. Corporations also have the option of simply going to the NMCG website and selecting their desired CSR projects such as cleaning/construction of ghats, bio-remediation, developing model villages, awareness campaigns, river-surface cleaning, construction/modification of crematoria, solid-waste management, and tree planting. They may also devise their own project activities that can contribute towards the programme subject to NMCG approval. Detailed project proposals will be required.

How bad is the situation?

The main issues plaguing the Ganga are solid waste, untreated sewage, industrial waste, and rampant underground water withdrawals. NMCG’s own estimates suggest that more than three-quarters of the sewage generated in the towns and cities of the country’s northern plains flow untreated into the Ganges, all of which come out to about 4,800 million litres of sewage from 118 towns and cities every single day.
While industrial pollution accounts for about 20 per cent of the volume discharged into the river, its toxic and non-biodegradable nature has a disproportionately negative effect. The remaining 80 per cent of pollutants is from municipal sewage. Tanneries are also a major source of pollution – Kanpur alone had 402 registered tanneries in 2016. All of those discharge more than two-thirds of their waste into the river.
Then there are the bathing ghats, especially in Varanasi, which are some of the most polluted pockets of the Ganges. The faecal coliform count (a measure of water potability and suitability for consumption, it indicates that the water has been contaminated with the faecal material of humans or other animals) at Assi, the point where the Ganga enters Varanasi, is 60,000 but by the time it leaves the city, it goes up to 1.5 million. The two cremation grounds, Harish Chandra and Manikarnika ghats, dump 33,000 bodies, 300 tonnes of half-burnt bodies, and 16,000 tonnes of ash annually into the river.

How worse can it get?

Despite the fanfare surrounding the programme and incentives, a 2017 CAG report was quite scathing in its assessment of the implementation, with special mention of the fact that less than a quarter of the funds earmarked for the project were spent in the previous two financial years. Out of the Rs 6,705 crore earmarked, NMCG spent only Rs 1,665.41 crore. Funds amounting to Rs 2,133.76 crore were lying with NMCG, Rs 422.13 crore with state programme management groups, and Rs 59.28 crore with executing agencies at the end of the financial year ending 2017. During the same period, the overall shortage of manpower ranged from 44 to 65 per cent—ironical in a country with high unemployment.
The report pointed out that lack of an action plan (despite the multiple studies, reports, and the IIT- authored river basin plan) led to non-utilisation of any amount from the Rs 198.14 crore in the Clean Ganga Fund, despite the many call to action to civil society by the government. Around the time of the report coming out, Nitin Gadkari, the minister for road transport and highways, shipping, water resources, river development and Ganga rejuvenation, claimed that ‘we have a very good plan for Ganga and 20 tributaries of Ganga.’
Alarmingly, the auditor found multiple cases of excess construction of toilets and allotments of funds to same beneficiaries. Out of 46 sewage-treatment plants (STPs) and interception and diversion projects, there were delays in 26 projects costing Rs 2,710.14 crore. Monitoring the progress of cleaning work has been infrequent and cursory at best, with even the governing body, high-level task force and empowered task force failing to meet as per required frequency.
The findings should have been expected though – in February 2017, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) chided the government for wasting public money and ruled that ‘not a single drop of the Ganga has been cleaned so far.’
Plenty of other problems in implementation have been identified. Only 14 out of the 456 highly polluting tanneries in Uttar Pradesh (most of them in Kanpur) have been shut down. Of 182 ghats to be modernised, work has started in only 50, and of the 118 crematoria, 15 were being renovated as of 2017. Lack of coordination between the centre and state governments has been blamed for poor implementation, with even basic data like the number of major drains discharging pollutants being disputed. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) estimated the number at 30, but the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board claimed a much higher number of 150.
This has resulted in the government being forced to change its target year for a clean Ganga to 2019, with Gadkari claiming that results (conveniently) won’t show until the end of the current government’s tenure. Uma Bharati had boldly stated during her tenure as water minister that the river would be clean by 2018. Earlier that year, Uttarakhand chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had claimed that the Ganga would be clean till Haridwar by 2020. PM Modi himself is said to have intervened in this sorry state of affairs, perhaps after finally waking up to the fact that cleaning up the Ganga was one of the major promises of his 2014 campaign. After all, he fought the elections and won from Varanasi.
Even then, the government has sought to freely disseminate misleading data about the progress of the work. For instance, while presenting the 2018–19 budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley claimed that 47 projects had been completed under the Namami Gange programme. But NMCG’s own November 2017 newsletter showed that only 18 projects had been completed out of the 95 sanctioned. Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana and Delhi earned the dubious distinction of not a having single project completed.
Despite assurances by government officials, numbers don’t lie. Till March of 2018, about a fifth of the Rs 20,000 crore allotted for the programme was used – this is around the same proportion of the sanctioned money utilised the same time in the previous year. Of the Rs 20,601 crore approved for 193 projects, only Rs 4,254 crore has actually been utilised, with 24 of 64 entry-level schemes implemented. Currently, the capacity for sewage treatment is 4,000 MLD but only 1,000 MLD is functional. The total amount of sewage that goes into the river is 12,000 MLD from 11 states.

Clean Ganga: A pipe dream?

One can’t help but think: is cleaning the Ganga even possible? The Ganga is the longest river within India and while considered to be the holiest of all rivers, its treatment has been anything but pure (it is one of the 10 most polluted rivers in the world). The amount of sewage that goes into it is mindboggling and if the current status of the sewage-treatment plants is anything to go by, it will need a Herculean effort on the part of the centre and the state governments to bring down the pollution levels by a significant amount.
Industrial pollution will need to be clamped down on and tanneries will have to install new systems to prevent unwanted discharges. All of these require new technology and techniques that have not yet been employed in the country, at least not on a large scale. Then there are the ghat and crematoria where hygienic standards will have to be enforced.
Cleaning a river also means maintaining it in that state; there’s no point achieving some semblance of success only to let it slide back into its former, polluted condition. Today, multiple dams and barrages strewn across the length of the river trap and divert the water while effluents and toxic substances continue to make their way to the river as it flows. Till Varanasi, there are 12 dams and reservoirs on its route, taking a heavy toll on the river. In fact, a 2010 study by the Ganga Lab and River Ecosystem Environment Management and Training Centre at BHU found that after the diversion at Narora, the river is totally bereft of the much-vaunted Ganga jal and only comprises surface water, drainage, and flow from other tributaries. Rejuvenation of the river will require these aspects to be taken into consideration.
And then the big question mark over the ability and commitment of the powers that be to actually do the needful to bring this gargantuan project to fruition. Coordinating among so many entities, states and stakeholders isn’t easy but right now there’s little to suggest that they are up to this task. It is fairly obvious that such a mammoth programme necessarily needs the buy-in and commitment from the various state governments if it is to be deemed even partially successful. Whether the appetite to make that happen exists is questionable.
While one is yet to see a comprehensive road map towards achieving a clean Ganga, shifting of goalposts and target dates have been frequent with the current government’s many officials committing the cardinal sin of over-promising and under-delivering. The CAG and NGT verdicts don’t inspire much confidence and with the 2019 elections looming ahead, one can expect more talk and little action. In the meantime, cleaning up the river seems destined to remain a dream.
Rejuvenating the Ganga (and the country’s many rivers) is a noble, essential task and deserves the nation’s attention and investment. Unfortunately, like with most of the government’s ambitious infrastructure programmes, this one too seems to be sliding down the slippery slope of poor planning, shoddy implementation, and inefficient management. And that is not fair to the nation, its people, and its precious resources. One hopes that a turnaround is round the corner but history and facts suggest that we shouldn’t get our hopes up.

Source: Cause Because

CSR: The Nature’s Ecosystem in Agriculture

By
Hency Thacker
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Agriculture

Agriculture was the highest contributor to India’s GDP for the longest time. In India, agriculture was viewed as the most prestigious profession followed by trading/business and service, before the British Raj according to the historical texts. With the majority of people practising agriculture, there was no need of importing food products in the country.

British rule brought in a plethora of changes. The countrymen were educated and trained to serve the company. They were given an office and a change of attire to encourage them to give up farming to do desk jobs. This, in turn, generated a need for importing food products and allowed them to do business with India. However, their entry changed the dynamics of agriculture in the country.

India was exposed to Chemical farming around 1964. Increased cultivation and lesser requirement of vigilance attracted the farmers of India to adopt chemical farming, which in long run caused them more harm than good.

“Every organism has a purpose to fulfil in an agriculture ecosystem. Only about 10% of living beings are vegetarian in the whole world. The other 90% are non-vegetarian organisms whose food is these vegetarian organisms. Apart from this, there are 40 varieties of birds that also eat these organisms. They can take care of these vegetarian organisms. There is no need to spray any pesticides if we allow the nature to maintain its ecosystem,” said Dr Dinesh Patel, a cardiologist and a farmer at Sardar Patel Farm, in Gujarat.

Sardar Patel Farm is home to about 600 peacocks and many other birds and animals. It is managed by 20 families who live on the farm, supervised by the Doctor and his family. The farm is spread in about 125 acres, where everything including fruits, vegetables, grains and pulses are cultivated organically.

“We have never used any chemical fertilisers or pesticides on our soil. There are pest attacks, sure. But plants have an extremely strong immune system. It can take care of itself if we ensure we are providing a healthy diet to them. The microbes, termites and earthworms convert the biomass in the soil into a lovely compost in the soil, increasing humus in the soil. This makes the soil healthy and nutritious for plants to grow in good health. After all, healthy plants would mean healthy food and healthy food would mean healthy you.” concluded Dr Patel.

This article is part of a series on Organic and Inclusive Agriculture practices.

Thank you for reading the story until the very end. We appreciate the time you have given us. In addition, your thoughts and inputs will genuinely make a difference to us. Please do drop in a line and help us do better.

Regards,
The CSR Journal Team

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CSR programmes successfully addressing mobilisation

By
Kasmin Fernandes
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Disha Skill Sakhis
Disha 'Skill Sakhis' creates employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women in India
Mobilisation entails not only getting people to enrol, but also ensuring that the right people, in terms of ability, interests and expectations, participate in programmes. For both companies and NGOs, an inability to mobilise properly results in a failure to meet targets and, more importantly, excludes potential beneficiaries who would be in need of jobs.

Don Bosco Tech Society

With 412 skill development centres spread over 29 states, Don Bosco Tech Society is one of the largest skill training organisations in India. It imparts a combination of vocational and soft skills through its centres and typically trains 45,000 youth every year.
Recognising the challenges of mobilisation and retention for vocational skill training, DB Tech uses a village saturation model. Operating in some of the most under-developed and conflict-prone regions of India, DB Tech essentially focuses all its mobilisation efforts in one village, creating acceptance and enrolling all eligible youth in the community, before moving to a different location.
The advantage of “saturating” a village through mobilisation is that a large section of the village community—parents, spouses, friends of all the trainees—automatically become invested in the programme; thereby ensuring trainees regularly attend classes, complete the course and value the employment opportunities they obtain.

Disha ‘Skill Sakhis’

Disha is a three-year partnership programme between the India Development Foundation, UNDP and Xyntéo, and supported by the IKEA Foundation, to positively impact the lives of one million women in India through training, entrepreneurial skill development and employment.
As part of its operations in the state of Maharashtra, Disha has created a cadre of “Skill Sakhis” or skill champions to effectively mobilise girls and women from local communities and slums. Skill Sakhis are generally members of local self help groups who get trained and paid by Disha for raising awareness regarding vocational skills and opportunities among girls and women in their own communities.

A Skill Sakhi, as the name suggests, becomes a friend and a mentor to many of these girls, creating a career roadmap for them, offering information on various skills, connecting them to relevant courses and also negotiating family dynamics in some cases. Hailing from the same community and having mostly experienced similar circumstances as many of the potential trainees, a Sakhi is able to communicate with the girls in their language with empathy.

Castrol India ‘Eklavya’

Castrol India’s training programme, “Eklavya” focuses on upskilling two-wheeler mechanics. Given that mechanics often operate as self-employed, unorganised entities, Castrol initially found it difficult to reach out to an adequate number of trainees for “Eklavya”. It thus reached out to local trade unions and mechanics’ associations to create an element of trust and credibility within the participants regarding the programme’s benefits.

It received support from 75-80% of the associations and unions, leading to a large number of mechanics registering for its upskilling programme. The training programme was held mostly in the afternoons or evenings, which allowed mechanics to minimise the losses incurred from keeping their garages shut during training hours, thus, increasing their acceptance of the programme.
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