West Bengal government, several corporate houses, and UNICEF have decided to collaborate for the development of children in the state. The aim is to address the issues which affect growth and development of children.

The collaboration will focus on avenues for CSR donations towards child health, child nutrition, adolescent and youths, climate resilient systems focusing on communities vulnerable to natural disasters, education, skill development and social protection of marginalised groups of children.

In a corporate roundtable titled ‘Matching Grants to Needs’, organised by UNICEF in collaboration with West Bengal government, members of industry chambers — ASSOCHAM, BCCI, Bharat Chambers, FICCI, MCCI and Eastern Region of CII — along with officials of state government and UNICEF expressed their desire to invest in children to secure their futures and the environment they live in using expertise of the UN body working for the children, the funds allocated for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the industrial houses and facilitation of the state government.

West Bengal urges companies to register on WB CSR Portal

The state government has a CSR council and launched a ‘CSR Portal’ to help corporates invest their CSR funds into various development projects that the West Bengal government identifies across the state.

West Bengal minister of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare and Industries, Commerce and Enterprises Shashi Panja has expressed hope that the collaboration would facilitate the CSR donation by corporates and expertise of UNICEF to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She urged corporate leaders to donate CSR funds into the state for the cause.

“A portfolio of the projects based on the needs of the children which the corporates can take up to utilise their CSR funds, has been put up in the CSR Portal. This is an attempt to help match the needs of the society with your CSR funds,” she said.

She also said that corporates always looked for innovative solutions and UNICEF works globally on issues of children. “As a result, this tripartite initiative is going to deliver on the children’s issues,” she said, adding that the initiative prioritises the needs and the corporates to find a project that interests them.

State government officials urged the leaders of the industries to get their companies registered with the ‘CSR Portal’. “Projects worth Rs 450 crore have already been put up in the portal and 37 industrial houses have registered with it. The portal offers projects that suit the interests of the corporates,” Sanghamitra Ghosh, principal secretary of Women and Child Development and Social Welfare said at the programme.

We are stronger together: UNICEF India

UNICEF India representative Cynthia McCaffrey said, “We are stronger together – bringing knowledge, expertise and the drive to increase capacity and convene professionals and civil society organisations to enable support to meet the needs of communities.”

McCaffrey met Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee earlier this week and thanked her for taking up various social development schemes that helped children grow. The corporate body representatives shared with the Minister and UNICEF officials the various social development schemes they have taken up in the state through CSR.

“UNICEF being a partner of West Bengal government, we hope that this dialogue will help to transform our expertise which corporates can use to plan their investments for the development of children,” UNICEF West Bengal chief Monjur Hossain stated.

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