Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharat’ call gets Rs 200 crore from TCS, Bharti

August 19, 2014 Incredible India Fusion WeRIndia No comments

Within four days of Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s call to corporates to take up building toilets in schools as a priority under their corporate social responsibility (CSR), companies have announced over Rs 200 crore contribution for government’s “Swachh Bharat” campaign.

Two major corporates – Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Bharti Foundation, an arm of Bharti Enterprises – on Monday announced a total expenditure of Rs 200 crore as part of their CSR initiatives to construct toilets in schools. On August 15, Oriental Bank of Commerce was the first to earmark Rs 2 crore to construct over 200 toilets for girls and boys in government primary schools in villages.

Tata Consultancy Services announced it would finance hygienic sanitation facilities for girl students across 10,000 schools in the country and said it would spend Rs 100 crore for this initiative.

“We firmly believe that achieving the mission of providing hygienic sanitation for girl students will have a tangible impact on the level of education achievement and development of India’s next generation,” TCS CEO and managing director N Chandrasekaran said.

Bharti Foundation announced an initiative named ‘Satya Bharti Abhiyan’ to improve rural household sanitation facilities in Punjab.

The foundation has decided to adopt Ludhiana district, which happens to be the home district of the founders of this body.

As part of this programme, the body will invest upto Rs 100 crore in constructing toilets over the next three years.

Moreover, the company’s programme will also invest in improving sanitation facilities in government schools in rural Ludhiana by building new toilets for girls.

“Lack of private sanitation facilities in rural households not only constitutes a major cause of embarrassment for the women, but also points to a much wider problem of rural hygiene and cleanliness…

It is our commitment that no single household or school in rural Ludhiana will be without a toilet by the end of this tenure,” said the foundation chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal in a statement issued to media.

In his Independence Day speech, Modi had asked everyone to be a part of the ‘Swachh Bharat’ campaign and to make it a public movement rather than just a government mission.

Attribution: Kremlin.ru / CC BY 4.0