When: 18 August 2014
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Bharti Foundation on 18 August 2014 announce to spend 200 crore rupees for Clean India Campaign.
TCS has decided to provide hygienic sanitation facilities in 10000 schools for girl students. On the other hand, Bharti Foundation (development arm of Bharti Enterprises) decided to build toilets in Ludhiana in next three years covering every rural household.
This initiative of Bharti Foundation is part of Satya Bharti Abhiyanwherein it will invest in improving sanitation facilities in government schools in rural Ludhiana by building new toilets for girls where no such facilities exist.
Coca-Cola water and Sanitation Programme
The initiative by two corporate giants of India is in addition to the ongoing water and sanitation programme run by Coca-Cola in schools. Coca-Cola along with partners NDTV and UN Habitat has so far built toilets in 350 schools across 20 states and are expecting to complete 600 schools by 2014 and target to reach number of 1000 schools by 2016.
Why the decision
The decision to spend was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Independence Day on 15 August 2014 called on the corporate sector to build toilets in schools by 15 August 2015 as part of corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes.
He called on the corporate sector to do so during his announcement to launch the Clean India Campaign with the objective that all schools in the country should have toilets, with separate ones for girls.
Corporate Social Responsibility
As part of Corporate Social Responsibility defined under the Companies Act, 2013, it has become mandatory from 1 April 2014 for corporate sector to set aside two percent of net profits towards CSR activities.
Companies are subject to the CSR requirements if they have, for any financial year:
• A net worth of at least 5 billion rupees (approximately 80 million US dollar);
• A turnover of at least 10 billion rupees (approximately 60 million US dollar); or
• Net profits of at least 50 million rupees (approximately 800000 US dollar)
• A turnover of at least 10 billion rupees (approximately 60 million US dollar); or
• Net profits of at least 50 million rupees (approximately 800000 US dollar)
Sanitation Facilities in School across India
- According to the latest District Information System for Education, no government school in Chandigarh, Daman & Diu, Delhi, Lakshadweep and Pondicherry has toilets for both boys and girls.
- Bihar has the biggest requirement of toilets with 17982 of the 70673 schools in the State with no such facilities for girl students. And 9225 of the schools have dysfunctional toilets.
- The next in line is West Bengal with 13608 of the State’s 81915 government schools do not have toilets for girls.
- Other States lagging behind include Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.
- But in States like Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, and Uttaranchal, most schools have the toilet facilities for both girls and boys.
- More than providing for the infrastructure, the bigger requirement, according to educationists inside and outside the government system, is maintenance.
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