Social Factors Become The Key Focus Areas For Indian States For Fund Allocation
This year’s Union Budget is out and most states have prominently focused on enhancing social factors like health, education and welfare schemes than economic ones. Significant budget allocations have been observed in these areas. While the government is trying to promote better initiatives through Swachh Bharat Mission, the major underlying factor are these three key areas. There are certain basic reasoning behind this trend.
Basic health amenities are still absent in major parts of India. Health related areas include the supply of clean drinking water, protection against diseases, preventing hunger and malnutrition and such like. These remain one of the basic requirements to uplift the rural communities of the country. Sadly, there are many remote areas in India which still suffers due to lack of drinking water and deficiency of necessary nutrients. Around 55 percent of households lack proper toilets as per recent statistics and 12 crore toilets is still essential for which fund requirement amounts to INR 192 lakh crore.
Even before the job opportunities are enhanced there is a critical need to increase the educational spread among people. The dropouts are more frequent among girls. As per published sources, among the 116 million people in country looking for employment options 32 million are illiterate and 84 million literate. Mid day meals are being initiated among schools in order to address the issue.
Welfare schemes are associated with a variety of segments ranging from sanitation to public awareness. These schemes essentially benefit the community welfare at large. Welfare schemes like Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, Mid Day Meal scheme, Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Abhiyaan and such like has been brought in to promote social welfare of society.
An interesting feature to note is that the companies have also been associated with CSR activities in these segments. With the government pushing the organizations to take initiatives in these segments there has been significant activities in this regard. There are several reasons behind it.
The companies who have been associated with the CSR initiatives, before the implementation of the law continued in their endeavor with a more strategic and streamlined approach.
Building a social brand image has been one of the top priority achievements of the companies. Working towards creating awareness and making certain basic amenities available to the local communities has worked wonders in this regard.
In order to smoothly run the operational activities within a region, it is always beneficial to be in good terms with the locals. This helps in bringing the cheap labor force which is efficient and effective towards productivity. It also generates employment options for the locals benefiting many families and communities.
The CSR activities help to spread the word within the industry and the market. It tends to attract investors and partnerships deals which help in sustaining the growth of the organization in the long run.
Lastly, a positive support from the government and authorities is achieved. Since this year’s Union Budget clearly laid emphasis on the social factors, any company which works along these lines is sure to receive benefits in legal and legislation terms from the government.
The social factors are the key areas of concern in India. The government is working towards mobilizing funds in these sectors in order to bring the communities to a social level. The companies are also emphasizing on these factors making the true meaning of what is CSR and how it can be used for the betterment of the local communities a reality.