MAKING "SWACHCH BHARAT" MANDATORY FOR INDIAN INC - NOT DONE!

By Ruma Dubey

The first thing that strikes any foreigner, when he/she lands in India, apart from the ocean of people and cacophony of noises is the filth. India is a dirty country. We have accepted this truth but somehow, it is simply not a part of our behavior to not litter or spit in the public. Defecating in the open is the consequence of unplanned urbanization, lack of sanitation and no water in most places.

Thus it was a wonderful idea mooted by the PM two years ago - Swachch Bharat. He was the first PM to ever address this huge problem in the Independence Day speech, giving it the due importance that it deserves.

But the same ‘abhiyaan’ is threatening to become a leash on our necks. First the ‘cess’ – quietly, without increasing the service tax directly, we are already paying 0.5% more for funding the Swachch Bharat program. And now a new idea is mooted– making it mandatory for companies to allocate 30% of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds on this program.

The cess will help the Govt collect around Rs.10,000 crore in FY16 and this plan, if approved, will mop up Rs.2 lakh crore over the next three years for Swachch Bharat.

This is indeed overstating the numbers – in FY15, out the over 2700 listed companies, only 460 companies disclosed spending Rs 6,337.36 crore on CSR. This included 51 PSUs that spent Rs 2,386.60 crore.

More than the question of whether or not the targeted Rs.2 lakh crore will come in, the bigger question is whether it is right to make it mandatory for companies to spend the earmarked money for CSR on this program? Sadly, if this is implemented, this could lead to a gross misuse of the CSR money which otherwise could be put to much better and more visible good.

Money for schools, parks, roads or such projects, will get diverted to making toilets. Swachch Bharat for India Inc means constructing toilets. We already know the plight of the constructed toilets which are not usable simply because there is no facility to clean and no water in most places. So companies could show the 30% spend on making toilets which will never be used.

For toilets or for that matter, the entire Swachch Bharat to be successful, there has to be an integration between water, urban waste management and other planning ministries. Just making a random toilet is useless.

And why does the Govt not step up its act? The Mumbai civic body, BMC, the richest in India, had presented a budget of Rs.33,500 crore for FY16. Out of this, it set aside an amount of Rs 5.25 crore for building public toilet facilities for women in crowded areas. And its answer to Swachch Bharat – drafting a Rs.20 crore sanitation plan for cleaning house lanes. This was its only contribution to cleanliness. Not to mention there was a Rs.150 crore graft unearthed when it came to drainage cleaning. Thus civic bodies and PWDs are hotspots of corruption and the prime reason why our country is so dirty.

Companies as such have committed to spending for Swachch Bharat, over and above CSR. Companies, such as Airtel and TCS have already pledged Rs 100 crore each for building toilets for girls in schools. CII launched the Sanitation of Schools (SoS) programme, which aimed to construct nearly 10,000 toilets in schools, in 2015–16. National Aluminium Company Limited (NALCO), has assured that it would provide sanitation facilities to 150 schools in Odisha in addition to organising cleanliness drives at its residential townships and office premises.  Eureka Forbes participated in cleaning the Mangalore Railway Station and made a commitment to take its cleanliness drive to railway stations and police stations all across India. Companies like Vedanta and Apollo Tyres conducted cleanliness drives. Coca Cola, NDTV and UN Habitat have been running an ongoing programme, ‘Support My School’ since 2011, which provides sanitation facilities in schools.  L&T announced that it would build 5,000 toilets for the underprivileged. HUL is  constructing a hygiene center which will have toilets, bathrooms, laundry and water recycling facilities. Dabur contributes Re 1 from the sale of its toilet cleaner product towards building toilets. Maruti Suzuki plans to concentrate on toilet maintenance. Aditya Birla group is making 10,000 toilets in one year. PSUs are already doing their bit.

Yes, we should see more from India Inc coming forward to keep major tourist destinations clean. It is not just about toilets – responsibility can be taken for recycling garbage, cleaning the rivers, and also educating people about cleanliness. The private sector can be used better – like the way in which IT companies in Bangalore have helped improve sanitation. But making it mandatory is not the right way ahead.

Anything which is forced and not coming from within, almost always is just a formality, doomed to fail.