Companies plan to increase CSR funding towards skill, education: Survey

A significant percentage of companies in India plan to increase their corporate social responsibility funding towards skilling and education in 2022, says a TeamLease EdTech survey.

According to the survey, that covered over 100 companies across the country, nearly 70 per cent expressed an intention to increase their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) spends for education/skilling in the next fiscal.

The survey, released on Wednesday, indicated that companies are keen to dedicate funds towards projects that can create maximum impact and companies are directing majority of their funds towards imparting employability skills to school or college dropouts (22.8 per cent), women (20.4 per cent), and people with disabilities (18 per cent).

"It is welcoming to see that corporates are looking at further increasing their spends in education/skilling -- close to two third of the respondents are planning to invest further. The investments coupled with active participation will help in addressing the gaps and enable our youth to beat the root cause of poverty -- unemployment," Shantanu Rooj, Founder & CEO of TeamLease EdTech, said.

Around 95.83 per cent of companies direct their CSR funds towards education, vocational skilling, livelihood improvement, followed by 50 per cent towards health, eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition, safe drinking water, and sanitation.

Close to 45.83 per cent funds are also dedicated to initiatives that promote gender equality, women empowerment, old age homes, reducing inequalities, the survey titled 'Aligning education and skilling in the CSR agenda' said.

In fact, organisations who invest their funds in multiple arenas also dedicate a portion towards education -- 46 per cent of the respondents stated that they deploy more than 50 per cent of their funds towards skilling and education.

The optimism for CSR programmes towards skilling and education is expected to continue in 2022. Around 85 per cent companies have already revamped their CSR initiatives aligned to COVID impact.

Moreover, 80 per cent companies have taken up special initiatives already to monitor and measure impact closely and 40 per cent are even spending more to analyse the impact better.

However, many organisations have been facing pertinent challenges while implementing their CSR programmes.

"Accessibility, infrastructure, deployment continues to be a concern for companies. 70 per cent companies mentioned that connecting the right candidates to the right opportunities is their major perplexity," Neeti Sharma, Co-Founder & President of TeamLease EdTech, said.

Sharma added that additionally, 42 per cent attributed lack of infrastructure as a cause for distress and even the pandemic hindered organic implementation of the CSR programmes.