CSR Initiatives to Clean the National River of India, River Ganga

Today marks the end of Ganga Utsav 2020, the festival which celebrates the glory of the historically and religiously important river Ganga. On November 4^th 2008, Ganga was declared as the national river of India.

Ganga Utsav

Ganga Utsav is celebrated each year by National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG). The three-day festival aims to promote stakeholder engagement and ensure public participation. It celebrates mystical and cultural river Ganga through storytelling, folklores, dialogues with eminent personalities, quizzes, displaying traditional art forms, dance and music performance by renowned artists, photo galleries and exhibitions and much more.

The river, because of years of neglect and anthropogenic activities around its shore has become polluted in the plain regions. The government of India has initiated various movements and projects to clean it and to revive its glory. India Inc. too has not stayed behind and initiated projects to clean the river under its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Let us look at some of these projects.

CSR initiatives to Clean River Ganga

Say YES to Clean Ganga Campaign by YES Bank

YES Bank collaborated with the National Mission for Clean Ganga and launched the Say YES to Clean Ganga campaign in 2018. As part of the campaign YES Bank aims to work towards:

– Abating pollution and conserving & rejuvenating river Ganga

– Mobilizing community engagement on Ganga Rejuvenation objectives through YES BANK’s flagship YES COMMUNITY initiative

– Transforming YES BANK branches into Clean Ganga information hubs and spreading awareness about Clean Ganga through YES BANK ATMs across India

– Creating a platform through the ‘Say YES to Clean Ganga: Dialogue Series’ for multi-dimensional and multi-stakeholder discussions on Ganga rejuvenation

Aviral – Reducing Plastic Waste in the Ganga project

Alliance to End Plastic Waste (the Alliance) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), launched the Aviral – Reducing Plastic Waste in the Ganga pilot project. This CSR initiative aims to reduce the amount of plastic waste entering the environment in the northern Indian cities of Haridwar and Rishikesh.

Aviral seeks to pilot an approach to address waste management challenges. In particular, it will focus on strengthening an integrated plastic waste management system. Following the two-year pilot in the two cities, the partnership aims to scale this initiative across partnering cities in India.

Apart from these initiatives, it has been reported that the New Indian Express is undertaking the development of Shankaracharya Samadhi at Kedarnath in Uttarakhand, while the Hinduja Group is taking up ghat development work in Haridwar and Rishikesh. Bajaj electricals is undertaking plantations at Varanasi, Fatehpur, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Pratapgarh, Ballia and Mau in Uttar Pradesh. Amer Maritime will take up ghat development in Kanpur, HCL has plans for the holistic development of ghats in Varanasi, bioremediation, tree plantation community development and Ganga Gram development. Reliance Industries has plans for ghat development at Varanasi, Allahabad, Delhi, Haridwar, Kedarpuri and Rishikesh. These projects are at various procedural stages.

River Ganga is the longest river of the country flowing over 2510 kilometres of mountains, valleys and plains. It is not only considered to be the most sacred river by the Hindus but is also a cause of livelihood for many Indians. It is therefore very important to rejuvenate the river that is synonymous to India and its culture.