The Times of India 15.02.2013
Govt seeks corporate’s help to boost public health
LUCKNOW: In a bid to check
high rates of child mortality, the Centre has decided to rope in
private sector and corporate houses. Using corporate social
responsibility as a tool to save children, the government is looking
forward to commitment from the private sector for use of technology and
innovations to boost interventions in reproductive, maternal, newborn,
child and adolescent health and save preventable deaths.
“Corporate partnerships are an approach to contribute to solve child
survival issues by using their reach, unique skills and expertise,
resources, energy and influence to undertake coordinated and concerted
efforts,” said Keshav Desiraju, secretary, ministry of health
and family welfare. The ministry officials released a document in this
regard at a recent national summit on child survival and development.
The Indian Institute for Corporate Affairs has pledged its support for
providing a platform for the cause. Talking to TOI, director of the
institute, Bhaskar Chatterjee said, “There is immense potential in the
private sector. It can reach out to people living in difficult areas.
Till now, this potential was not tapped. But the start will make a
difference.”
Dr Sharad, who heads UNICEF’s field office in
Uganda, cited the example of how corporate sector helped improve the
rate of birth registrations in his country. “We collaborated with a
telecom company which used its mobile money transfer technology to aid
registration of births. In a span of several months we saw rate of birth
registration picking up at an unbelievable speed. A cell phone based
monitoring system has helped us achieve almost real time updates,” he
said.
The IICA and Unicef
have also agreed for on developing a web based platform to enable
corporate companies to access and download a “do it yourself’ toolkit of
CSR projects linked to child survival and developmental activities.
This tool kit will include not only specific projects such as model
child friendly ‘anganwadi’ centre but also their unit costs and specific
guidelines for implementation. It will also upload data and information
on their child survival and developmental projects. After verification,
the data will be consolidated to show the global impact of the private
sector engagement. The alliance would also participate in online forums
and groups to foster convergence, cross-sectoral learning and knowledge exchange. The system would be ready by the end of 2013.
On what kind of collaboration was the ministry looking for from the
corporate sector, an officer said, “four key strategic areas where
corporate sector can prove beneficial include corporate social
responsibility wherein companies can pledge in their resources,
technology and development where they leverage
skills and expertise in innovation, create shared values through their
market based approaches and create a movement through a state holder
engagement.”.
In the particular area of child survival, the least they can do is spread
key messages – something that they did in case of polio immunization.
Citing an example, another officer in the ministry said, “Britannia’s
initiative against iron deficiency anaemia is an example. They came up
with iron fortified biscuits that are being used in mid day meal
programmes in several districts. Then Novartis and Abbot adapted their sales force to reach low income populations in remote areas of India.”
How can the corporate sector help?
Schedule 7 of the Companies Bill 2012 suggests activities which can be taken up under CSR. These are:
Eradicating extreme hunger and poverty
Promoting education, gender equality and empowering women
Reducing child mortality and improving maternal health
Combating HIV, AIDS, Malaria and other diseases.
Ensuring environmental sustainability
Imparting employable vocational skills
Social business projects
Contribution to prime minister’s national relief fund or any other fund
set up by the central government or state governments for
socio-economic development and relief and funds for welfare of the
scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward castes, minorities
and women.
