It has been found that about 90% growth of human brain occurs in the first 5 years, which reiterates the significance of early childhood education in the life of an individual and of the nation in remaining competitive at global level. Importance and mammoth size of this task requires other stakeholders namely; the corporate and the civil society to join the Government for bridging the gaps and achieving the goal.
After considerable deliberations, responsibility of the corporate towards the society (CSR) was made mandatory in India with effect from the 1st April 2014 under the Companies Act 2013. As per Section 135 of this Act, corporate having net worth or turnover or a net profit above the prescribed levels are mandated to spend two percent of their average profit of preceding three years on CSR.
The activities for spending the earmarked amount have been notified in the schedule VII of the Act, which cover education, health, livelihood, rural development, environment, other activities, which are broadly in sync with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 2030.
Responsibility of the corporate, coming under purview of this provision, are four fold, namely (i) to form a board level CSR Committee (ii) to frame CSR policy (iii) to spend two percent of the average profit on the notified activities; and (iv) to disclose the amount spent activity wise and indicate reasons in case of any shortfall.
There has been a positive trend in compliance with the mandatory provisions as well as the amount spent on CSR activities. Against an initial estimate of about Rs 15,000 crores to be available for CSR activities, Rs 10,065.93 crores was spent on CSR in 2014-15, which increased to Rs 13,326.69 crores in 2017-18. This amount looks like a drop in the ocean of amount spent by the Government on these social issues.
