CSR Assignment

Covid-19 and CSR by Indian

companies

Done by:
G Suneeth
PRN: 21020344019
IDM Batch
COVID-19 has been considered a global pandemic by the World Health Organization
(WHO). The contagious disease tremendously disrupted socio-economic circumstances of the
planet.
Social-distancing played a pivotal role in mitigating the spread of this deadly infection. The
Government of India and state governments announced lockdowns throughout the country in
March 2020 in order to promote social distancing, which basically directed the public to
maintain distance both socially and physically. Extended lockdowns worsened economic
troubles. Heavy population and a lack of awareness (due to a lack of education) added to the
problems. Here comes the importance of CSR, which played a crucial role in the times of this
pandemic, when people are trying their level best to get through the challenging times.
CSR is a ‘self-regulating business model’ that implies the procedures of interaction by a
company with its stakeholders and the general public at large, creating a scenario of being
socially responsible. According to Section 135 of Companies (CSR) Rules, 2014 and
Schedule VII of Companies Act 2013:
Every company with a net worth of Rs 500 crore or more or turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or
more or net profit of Rs 5 crore or more during the immediately preceding financial year,
must have a CSR committee and spend at least 2 per cent of average net profits earned during
three immediately preceding financial years to CSR activities.
In the present era of COVID-19, the Government of India is inspiring companies to provide
social support. According to Ministry of Corporate Affairs circular, all expenditures incurred
on activities related to COVID-19 would be added as permissible avenues for CSR
expenditure.
Funds may be spent for various activities related to COVID-19, under the following items of
Schedule VII:

 Eradicating hunger
 Poverty
 Malnutrition
 promoting healthcare, including preventive healthcare
 Sanitation, including contribution to the Swachh Bharat Kosh set up by the Centre for
promoting sanitation and making available safe drinking water
 Disaster management, including relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction activities

Further, A general circular mentioned that the items in Schedule VII are broad-based and
may be interpreted liberally for the purpose of donations being made with respect to COVID
19.
This announcement from the ministry was welcomed by Corporate India. It created a win-win
situation for companies with existing CSR obligation and funds at disposal who wanted to
contribute to relief and meet statutory requirements of The Companies Act at the same time.
The response to the government’s call to support COVID-19 efforts has been overwhelming.
Crores have been donated to various government funds.
Considering the huge sum of funds at stake for the relief efforts, corporates are struggling not
just in finding a reliable implementing partner but also in figuring out a way to monitor and
track the use of the donated funds and assessing their impact. 
With the announcement by the government that any amount donated by companies in support
of the fight against COVID-19 will qualify as CSR, a majority of the companies either
contributed to the PM CARES Fund or for various other purposes that contributed to
protecting health and preventing hunger of the affected.

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL)

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is India's largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods
Company with a heritage of over 80 years in India and touches the lives of two out of three
Indians. They work to create a better future every day and helps people feel good, look good
and get more out of life with brands and services that are good for them and good for others.
With over 35 brands spanning 20 distinct categories such as soaps, detergents, shampoos,
skin care, toothpastes, deodorants, cosmetics, tea, coffee, packaged foods, ice cream, and
water purifiers, they are a part of the everyday life of millions of consumers across India.
Their portfolio include leading household brands such as Lux, Lifebuoy, Surf Excel, Rin,
Wheel, Fair & Lovely, Pond’s, Vaseline, Lakmé, Dove, Clinic Plus, Sunsilk, Pepsodent,
Closeup, Axe, Brooke Bond, Bru, Knorr, Kissan, Kwality Wall’s and Pureit. They have over
18,000 employees and aves an annual turnover of INR 31,425 crores (financial year 2015 –
16). They are a subsidiary of Unilever, one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast moving
consumer goods with strong local roots in more than 100 countries across the globe with
annual sales of €53.3 billion in 2015. Unilever has 67.2% shareholding in HUL.
In 2008, HUL commissioned Sustainability to carry out a strategic stakeholder engagement.
Based on the findings, a rigorous and detailed exercise was carried out with the HUL Board
to create the Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF) as its vehicle for social investment in
India. Accordingly HUF has been set up as a Section 25 not for Profit Company in India. It
operates as a subsidiary to HUL. Water for Public Good with specific focus on livelihoods
was identified as the key thrust for the Foundation. The Foundation has partnered with five
leading global organisations – Oxfam, Population Services International (PSI), Save the
Children, UNICEF, and the World Food Programme. The Foundation’s mission is to
improve quality of life through the provision of hygiene, sanitation, access to clean drinking
water, basic nutrition and enhancing self-esteem. Past Projects undertaken by foundation: •
Handwashing • PSI: Improving Health & Hygiene • UNICEF: Sanitation for All •
Water works: Improving access to safe drinking water(Bhopal).
Some CSR activities in the recent times:
Water Conservation Project(s)
 Hindustan Unilever Foundation (HUF) is a not-for-profit Company that anchors water management
related community development and sustainability initiatives of Hindustan Unilever Limited. The
Foundation supports reputed NGOs in the country to scale up solutions that can help address India’s
water challenges – specifically for rural communities that intersect with agriculture. HUF operates the
‘Water for Public Good’ programme, with specific focus on empowering local community institutions
to govern water resources and enhancing farm-based livelihoods through adoption of judicious water
management practices.

Through HUF’s initiatives, we have created a water saving potential of over 980 billion litres,
generating over 9,60,000 tonnes of additional agriculture and biomass production and over 10 million
person days of employment (as assured till end of March 2019). In financial year 2019-20, HUF’s
water conservation capacity stood at 1,200 billion litres* cumulatively. To underscore the importance
of the water potential created by HUF; one billion litres of water can meet the drinking water needs of
over 8 lakhs adults for an entire year.

Some of the key projects initiated in 2019-20 were in partnership with Foundation for Ecological
Security (FES) in Odisha, People’s Action for National Integration (PANI) in Eastern UP, PRADAN
in West Bengal and Development Support Centre (DSC) in Gujarat. By 2024, HUF aims to create an
additional water potential of 1 trillion litres of water for India.

Swachh Aadat Swachh Bharat

‘Swachh Aadat, Swachh Bharat’ (SASB) programme is in line with the Government of India’s
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) to promote good health and hygiene practices. In
2019, the programme continued to promote good health and hygiene practices by stressing the need to
adopt three clean habits (‘Swachh Aadat’) of washing hands five times a day, using a toilet for
defecation and adopting safe drinking water practices.

A part of SASB, Swachhata Doot (Messenger of Cleanliness) is a volunteering programme that

enables any person to become a change agent in his / her community. More than 4,000 of the
Company’s employees across our 25 factories in India have embraced a new role as agents of change
(Swachhata Doot). They educate and motivate their communities to adopt better Water, Sanitation &
Hygiene (WASH) habits.

Since its inception in 2015, the Programme has reached out to 21 million people. Your Company also
contributes to the Chief Minister of Maharashtra’s Village Social Transformation Mission (VSTM).
In this regard, it has also created Swachhata Curriculum that teaches students the importance of
adopting three clean habits – washing hands with soap, safe drinking water practices and using clean
toilets over a 21-day period. The Community Hygiene Centre – ‘Suvidha’ is another important project
by our Company that contributes to SASB. ‘Suvidha’ is a first-of-its-kind urban water, hygiene and
sanitation community centre, that was first set up at Chiragnagar, Ghatkopar, one of the largest slums
in Mumbai. This year, we opened two more Suvidha centres in Mumbai in partnership with HSBC to
give people access to clean water, sanitation and laundry facilities bringing the total to three, with two
more under development. In December 2018, your Company launched the campaign, ‘Start a little
good’ to urge consumers to take small actions in the areas of water conservation, plastic waste
management, and teaching good hygiene habits. The campaign has reached out to around 149 million
households by end of March, 2020.

Project Shakti

Project Shakti is your Company’s initiative that aims to financially empower and provide livelihood
opportunities to women in rural India. The Shakti Entrepreneurs are given training for familiarisation
with your Company’s products and basic tenets of distribution management. Your Company has a
team of Rural Sales Promoters (RSPs) who coach and help Shakti Entrepreneurs in managing their
business. Across 18 States, Project Shakti has nearly 1,20,000 Shakti Entrepreneurs whom we call
‘Shakti Ammas’. This programme has helped Shakti Entrepreneurs gain selling skills, become self-
confident, improve their self-esteem and learn communication skills. Most importantly, our
interventions have helped in building and fostering entrepreneurial mindset amongst Shakti
Entrepreneurs.

Project Prabhat

‘Prabhat’ is your Company’s USLP-linked programme which contributes to the development of local
communities around key sites including our manufacturing locations. Prabhat is building on the local
community needs at grassroot level through targeted pillars of enhancing livelihoods, water
conservation and ‘health and well-being’ awareness. Project Prabhat is live in over 26 locations across
the country. It has directly benefited over 4.5 million people across 12 states and two union territories
in India through partnerships with over 20 NGOs. More than 5,000 HUL employee volunteers
participated in the volunteering activities under Project Prabhat in the last seven years.

Bharat Petroleum
In sync with the greater good of the society, we are committed to “energising the grassroots” as a
cornerstone of achieving Sustainable Development Goals. With a firm belief that the edifice of
sustainability is built by conscientious efforts, we have nurtured and practiced a philosophy of social
handholding to invigorate communities.
 
In our quest for greater social inclusion, we are crafting, deploying and supporting a host of initiatives,
largely in five core areas – Education, Water Conservation, Health & Hygiene, Skill Development, and
Community Development. These five pillars of social advancement also represent key indicators of the
Human Development Index.
 
In addition to these we are sensitive to the greater needs of our nation and additionally support projects for
preservation of our heritage, conservation of natural resources and disaster relief and rehabilitation among
others.

Project Akshar

Project Akshar, being undertaken at Nandurbar in Maharashtra and Sagar in Madhya Pradesh,

has transformed the way in which early-age education is perceived and imparted. Over the years,
Project Akshar has evolved into a mass movement. The beneficiaries are several young children
of tribal populations that are spread across numerous hamlets in the regions.
The mega project covers 1,059 villages, with no school left behind, thus touching the lives of
more than one lakh underprivileged pupils in this area. During the initiation of the project, one of
the sombre facts realised was that children here were dropping out of schools well before
finishing their primary education. One of the main reasons behind this was the variety of dialects
in use in these areas, which was creating impediments in comprehension, reading and writing. In
order to address this situation, a methodology was soon developed and ‘Read India’ was launched
with the aim of building reading and arithmetic skills in children of standards 3 to 5. A multi-
pronged crusade was launched by roping in government agencies, teachers, volunteers and
parents. Necessary pre-requisites, such as teacher training, were taken up.

Nirmaan- Infrastructure Related Interventions

Darrang which is also identified as an aspirational district is situated in the central part of Assam
and on the northern side of the river Brahmaputra. BPCL is supporting construction of 80
additional classrooms with allied facilities in identified 30 Government Primary Schools. The
allied facilities include benches, desks, tables, chairs, etc. and the project aims to create an
advantageous & safe learning atmosphere for the school students. The main beneficiaries will be
around 10,000 students including both boys and girls enrolled in these 30 schools.

Swachhta Pakhwada
BPCL under the various Swachhta fortnights has actively participated and successfully concluded
more than 80,000 activities since the first pakhwada. BPCL’s workforce, its extended family of
dealers and distributors have come together and reached out to more than 10 lakh people. The
activities included various Information, Education and Communication campaigns among the
citizens across the nation. BPCL won the first place amongst Oil and Gas Companies for the
Pakhwada in 2019.

IndiGo
We reach out not just with our planes but also with our heart. As we grow in our operations and
market share, our focus lies on responsible growth. IndiGoReach, our CSR arm is called so, as we
strive to reach out to as many people as possible, leveraging on our extensive operations and network.
Our IndiGoReach initiatives are rooted in our core priorities of Children and Education, Women
Empowerment,  Environment, Heritage, and 6E Responsibility, through which we strive to make a
difference to our community.

Children and Education

Education is a core pillar of our commitment towards transforming lives and strengthening
one of the primary building blocks of our nation. We at IndiGo, believe that our world needs
educated citizens who lead their lives with a high level of responsibility and integrity.

To reach out effectively, our outreach initiatives are centered around - Access to Education
and Nurturing Excellence. Our initiatives aim to educate and empower underprivileged
children across the country and are mainly concentrated in the rural parts of India, along with
few urban interventions catering to the education of children from the slum.

Women Empowerment (IndiGo Shakti)

Gender is one of the focus areas at IndiGo, and we strive to extend the same to our
IndiGoReach initiatives as well. IndiGo Shakti aims at increasing the income generation
opportunities for women through on- farm and off-farm interventions. As a part of these
interventions, rural women are trained on capacities to undertake different interventions for
increasing their income.

The women are organised into SHGs (Self Help Groups) and Producer Groups for capacity
building. The programs are also aimed at creating micro-entrepreneurs while improving the
income of the beneficiaries and linking them to the Government schemes, thereby enabling
them to avail their entitlements.

Relief initiatives

As a socially conscious and responsible brand, we at IndiGo, believe that it is our

responsibility to undertake humanitarian activities during any natural or man-made crisis .
The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented crisis with the utmost ramifications on human
life. We undertook small yet important steps through our employees, to support people
affected due to the lockdown initiated by the government for the prevention of COVID-19.
Some steps that we took in few cities are mentioned below.

Mumbai: With the support of an organisation called Responsenet, we were able to feed
children at an orphanage and also the migrant families from the slum communities . It was a
highly rewarding experience to have been a part of this initiative to fight hunger and serve
many in need.

Bengaluru: The distribution in Bengaluru was carried out by various teams associated with
Responsenet. We  provided meals to migrants who had been travelling on foot, those living in
vulnerable conditions in slums, children at orphanage, and students from underprivileged
families from other parts of the country who are currently stuck in the city without any means
to take care of their daily necessities.

Chennai: We connected with few organisations in Chennai for the distribution of food to
children in orphanages, frontline warriors at nursing homes, police stations, etc.

National Capital Region of Delhi: IndiGoReach partnered with the Delhi Langar Seva
Society (DLSS) – an organisation based in New Delhi. The initiative was aimed at preparing
and offering meals to people who were struggling to afford daily food. Through this
wonderful partnership, we were able to provide food to more than 2,00,000 people across
Delhi and NCR regions. 
My Opinion
It is clear that the CSR obligation is a game changer for ensuring that the gains made by
corporations in India can be transferred back to society in a meaningful manner. The
government’s efforts to keep the activities permitted under the obligation broad based is
commendable. Moreover, linking the CSR activities to the SDGs both explicitly and
implicitly will ensure that CSR spending aligns with and augments national priorities.
However, there are several shortcomings observed in the implementation of the CSR
regulation which need to be resolved proactively for ensuring maximum impact on the
ground. Firstly, a shift in mindset from one that focuses on meeting a statutory obligation to
one where companies actively identify and create sustained impact projects aligned to their
values. Secondly, streamlined information on activities that are permitted under the
regulation as well as timely clarifications. Thirdly, creation of channels for identification of
projects on a pan-India basis. This will help spread the deployment of CSR funds to areas
where maximum impact would be possible. A welcome step in this regard is the proposal for
a ‘Social Stock Exchange’ by the Securities & Exchange Board of India. The SSE will allow
for more efficient deployment of CSR funding, verification of the impact of projects and
trading of excess/deficient CSR spends between companies. Finally, there is an urgent need
to ensure that CSR-spending has a multiplier effect on social, economic and environmental
impact on the ground. This will have to be achieved by measuring outcomes of CSR spending
over time, as well as engaging in activities with larger impact potential. Funding research and
technology incubators could be one such area where the impact could be highly diversified.

In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought Corporate Social Responsibility to the
forefront. Corporates, both large and small, headquartered in India or abroad, have risen to
the challenge and augmented the government’s efforts by re-orienting their CSR strategies. It
is hoped that the same zeal and mission-mode orientation carries over to activities beyond the
pandemic. Invest India, on its part, will endeavour to facilitate corporates looking for
impactful CSR opportunities under the larger effort to enhance the ease of doing business in
India by strengthening initiatives such as the CSR repository on the IIG, and facilitating
knowledge transfer between different stakeholders.