Mysuru or Mysore, also known as the cultural capital of Karnataka is the third largest and second most populated city in the state. The city is famous for its silk and is also a thriving sandalwood and incense centre. The city has always enchanted tourists and visitors with its magnificent palaces, beautiful gardens and rich cultural heritage. The tourism potential of the city makes its social and aesthetic development important, making it deserving for CSR investments.
Mysuru was the third-largest recipient district of CSR funds in FY 2021-22 in the state of Karnataka. The district received a total of Rs. 50.2 Cr. in CSR funds from 125 companies in the given financial year. The top three contributors in the district include Infosys Limited (9.77 Cr.), Mindtree Limited (4.49 Cr.), and M K Agrotech Private Limited (4.31 Cr.). The top three areas of focus of the CSR projects in FY 2021-22 in Mysuru were Environment, Health and Education.
Top CSR projects in Mysore
Lake Rejuvenation by Infosys
The Hebbal Lake in Mysuru is spread over an area of 40 acres in the Hebbal Industrial Area and was once known as an important source of potable water. Over the years, the area around this once beautiful lake became heavily urbanised leading to untreated sewage being discarded in the lake and its surroundings.
Infosys as a part of its CSR activities joined hands with the Mysore administration – KIADB and MUDA to rejuvenate the lake and restore its past glory.
The project involved desilting and beautification, including creating a walking path and planting trees around it so that the community got involved and saw first-hand the effects of taking care of the lake. A sewage treatment plant (STP) is being constructed near the lake with a capacity to treat 8 million litres of sewage per day so that the lake and the surroundings are free of untreated sewage. They are using advanced membrane bioreactor technology in the treatment plant to ensure that only the highest quality of treated water is let out into the lake.
Infosys has seen that automation goes a long way in reducing human error and hence have implemented this technology in the STP to ensure high-quality treatment without much manual intervention.
This ongoing lake rejuvenation and conservation project aims to set a benchmark for similar projects that can be adopted by administrative bodies across the country. By involving the community, the company has made them the stakeholders ensuring the project continues under the leadership of the people from the Hebbal Lake area.
Safar by Asian Paints
Safar is a healthcare initiative directed towards improving health awareness and correcting lifestyle habits of truckers. They also get medical care facilities for that is both consultative and curative in nature. The project uses mass communication techniques like nukkad natak (street plays), games, interpersonal communication sessions and films to spread awareness on various health issues like ergonomic illnesses, skin diseases and gastritis, among others targeting truck drivers. The initiative is running across seven manufacturing locations in Kasna, Rohtak, Visakhapatnam, Mysuru, Patancheru, Khandala and Sriperumbudur. During the year, Safar covered the treatment of over 32,000 truckers.
Mission Against Malnutrition – JSW Group
There are several NGOs and Government initiated projects fighting malnutrition, but JSW’s Mission Against Malnutrition (MAM) CSR project blends action-research, evidence-based advocacy and administrative capabilities of bringing together multiple partners for a common cause: fighting child malnutrition among disadvantaged families. It is among the top CSR-funded nutrition programmes in India.
After a series of consultations with Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) at Mysuru, other experts in the field, and importantly studying the ground situation thoroughly between September 2013 and June 2014, JSW Foundation (the CSR wing of the company) identified micronutrient deficiency in the diet of the enrolled undernourished children. Therefore, it was planned that an additional dose of micronutrients in small doses can be added in the children’s diet. The CSR team finally zeroed in on Spirulina fortified sugar (SFS) as a solution and developed a simple, cost-effective, easy to replicate and scale up the plan.
Spirulina is a natural food well known for its nutritional qualities worldwide. It was basically chosen because while it can provide several important micronutrients required by children’s healthy growth and development, it can also be easily cultivated and processed locally by the local communities.
Mission Against Malnutrition brought together the Department of Women & Child Development, Government of Karnataka, CSRs like JSW Foundation and Supraja Foundation, NGOs like Spirulina Foundation, Bhoruka Charitable Trust, Pranati, Charitable Trust For Integrated Development, reputed research institutes like CFTRI, Mysuru, IHMR-Bengaluru, Vijayanagara Institute of Medical Sciences (VIIMS)-Ballari, Department of Social Studies, VSK University and management agency like IID, Bengaluru on board.
With 30,716 malnourished children (between the age group of 6 months to 6 years) and another 15,000 anaemic pregnant women, lactating mothers and adolescent girls being supplemented with Spirulina during a pilot Mission phase of three years, this was the single largest ‘mission’ against malnutrition conducted globally. A dramatic reduction in the levels of malnutrition was observed; up to a 42% reduction in the number of malnourished children during 2014-16 and a 45.3% reduction in 2016-17 trials.
