In an interview with Rusen Kumar, Editor, India CSR; Priyadarshini Nigam, Director, and Head- CSR spoke about, under her leadership, Newgen started the ‘Sadbhavna’ initiative in 2006, to support the education of less privileged children and equip them with basic life skills. The focus area of Newgen’s CSR has been digital education and holistic development. Since the beginning of our flagship program, NDDP, in 2015, the aim has been to promote digital education among government school students.
Newgen is among the companies leading CSR activities in India. What are your focus work areas?
Newgen’s CSR is focused on the holistic development of less privileged children through ensuring continuity of education and enhancing digital proficiency to bring them at par with their peers. Other activities, such as career counseling, personality development, and soft skills, have also been integrated with the program.
Newgen’s CSR activities are branched out into remedial education, personality development, mental health counseling, public speaking, and overall development. The flagship program of Newgen’s CSR is Newgen Digital Discovery Paathshala (NDDP) which focuses on promoting quality education through equitable digital learning among 3,000 government school students. The program uses web-based technology and audio-visual mode to transform classroom teachings into fun learning sessions.
To ensure the success of online sessions, Newgen has provided smartphones and tablets with sim cards to all the students. The program’s structure primarily focuses on creating digital awareness and a research-oriented attitude, encouragement to complete studies, and aiming for a career. Furthermore, Newgen has partnered with Khushii, to empower over 4,000 students from classes 1st to 5th digitally.
Newgen also believes that meeting the nutritional needs of the students is a prerequisite for their development in the formative years. For this, Newgen has partnered with The Akshaya Patra Foundation to provide healthy and nutritious mid-day meals to over 8,000 children per year.
How has CSR implementation at Newgen been impacted due to the Covid-19 pandemic?
The implementation of the CSR activities has been adapted according to the restrictions posed by the pandemic. Earlier, classroom sessions were conducted using iPads and the internet. With the onset of the pandemic, the schools closed, and the sessions went online.
We understood that the transition would not be feasible for all the students, so to ensure online connectivity, 850 digital devices (smartphones, tablets, and iPads) and SIMs were provided to the students. Gradually, we observed increased involvement in the online sessions. Students’ interest in the studies and participation in the sessions remained our prime parameters of scaling the progress.
Various engaging activities are also conducted to enhance the skills and provide exposure to the students, such as quizzes, newsreaders, debates, declamations, the virtual celebration of important days, such as Independence Day, New Year, and more. This has improved their confidence, public speaking skills, and digital proficiency to a large extent. In addition, sessions on mental health and counseling have also helped the students to deal with the stress and anxiety caused due to the pandemic and being in closed spaces.
For the nutrition program, mid-day meals took shape with the distribution of monthly rations of non-perishable food items to the students and their families. We call them “Happiness Kits.” This initiative was to ensure that the students have access to nutritious, wholesome food and their studies do not have to suffer due to lethargy which is often caused due to insufficient intake of required nutrients. To date, Newgen has distributed over 22,500 happiness kits.
How are you continuing your CSR activities while adhering to the Covid-19 protocols?
The education programs—NDDP and remedial education—are being implemented online on digital platforms. While distributing devices or whenever there is any requirement of physical interaction, the COVID-19 protocols, including hand hygiene, use of mask, temperature monitoring, and social distancing, are adhered to properly. Students are suggested to visit in small numbers and during an allocated time to prevent over-crowding.
How has your company’s focus area for CSR has evolved over the last 4-5 years?
The focus area of Newgen’s CSR has been digital education and holistic development. Since the beginning of our flagship program, NDDP, in 2015, the aim has been to promote digital education among government school students.
Over the years, the program strengthened by updating its implementation approach by including state-of-the-art technology and resources. In addition, to upscale the program, we have been modifying the sessions and course material, including topics, such as mental health and personality development to cater to the all-around development of the children and include engaging activities like quizzes, debates, declamations, drawing competition, and newsreader.
We keep reinventing in line with the changing needs of the students. Many teachers and parents have highlighted the interest of the students in their studies has increased due to the audio-visual mode of teaching and access to digital devices.
Over the years, Newgen also extended partnerships with organizations like KHUSHI and The Akshaya Patra Foundation to achieve impactful results in ensuring quality education, nutrition, and holistic development.
In the current scenario, Newgen has been expanding its digital umbrella by including ex-NDDP students from classes 9th to 12th. With the ex-NDDP students, we formed an alumni association and decided to work with them closely to strengthen and amplify the impact of the NDDP program. We conducted online sessions regularly to support them in their school courses, mental health, and career counseling. The sessions were designed to focus on soft skills, personality development, and career and personal guidance.
The approach has helped the students to become research-oriented and develop analytical skills.
CSR has fundamentally changed after the CSR was made mandatory by the Companies Act 2013. It has been seven years since then. What are your thoughts on CSR laws in India?
The CSR law has been a constructive step in the development of the nation. It has made companies socially accountable and has given a structured framework to the idea of giving back to society. By incorporating CSR in the company framework, the whole nation can come together to improve the current social and economic situation. Over the recent years, companies have also realized the importance of this and have started investing more resources for the noble cause. In the emerging paradigm of CSR, companies understand their social responsibility and try to contribute their bit toward the communities they operate in. We feel elated about being instrumental in the growth of our beneficiaries.
Which key CSR activities did you undertake in 2019-20?
During 2019-20, the digital education program was focused on the overall development of the government school students. With Khushii, the remedial education project continued supporting the basic learning needs of students up to class 5th. We followed a child-based pedagogy centered around the learning capabilities and academic standards of individual students that helped in improving their performance. As the pandemic hit, to prevent the discontinuity of the studies, we switched the mode of classes to online. NDDP students were provided digital devices with sim cards. For remedial class students, Khushii distributed study materials at the students’ doorsteps to ensure continuity of their studies.
We also connected with the ex-NDDP (classes 9th to 12th) students to assess the impact of digital education on their personal and academic lives. We built about 100 case studies based on their feedback. Regular sessions are held with the students to help them with their school courses and personality development.
Newgen also supported The Akshaya Patra Foundation with the mid-day meals distribution to school students.
With this initiative, Newgen ensured that healthy and nutritious meals are being served to the children. In 2019-20, the program reached over 8,689 children in Vrindavan and the remote areas of Jhalawar and Guwahati.
With the schools closed due to the pandemic, Akshaya Patra started distributing monthly rations of non-perishable food items to the students and continued supporting their nutritional needs.
What would be your CSR focus for the next 2-3 years?
Newgen’s vision is to empower every girl to stand on her own feet and become financially independent. In this regard, Newgen will keep supporting the students through digital education, scholarships and provide a platform for knowledge and thought-sharing.
The focus is to keep building the program to enhance the technical abilities of the beneficiaries and make them digitally proficient at keeping up with the current digital revolution.
Furthermore, Newgen’s CSR looks forward to continuing to support the NDDP alumni students towards a stable education and career. In addition, Newgen’s CSR is also working towards increasing interaction between students’ parents and teachers to enhance the sustainability of our efforts.
