‘Currently, CSR funding is unequal to the task’

"I don’t think you can force a business to buy CSR credits. It’s not clear to me how funds generated by a CSR credit market will find their way to back to social causes. They should ideally go to the government and should be well spent.

Our experience is that there are numerous causes to work on and not enough funds flowing from companies.

There are companies that have say Rs 10 crore earmarked for CSR, but they can’t even spare Rs 1 lakh for us. They will say ‘we have our own set-up.’ We will be fully accountable for Rs 1 lakh or any other amount.

Many companies brand all NGOs as fraudsters, which is another blow to the effort to generate funds.

I have recently been to a village where lungs of the residents are getting damaged due to mining activities. What compensation can you give such people?

We work to set up schools in North-eastern states. There state governments are prescribing minimum standards for schools. In some cases, they are ordering that schools be shut down for not meeting the standards.

My point is the state governments won’t do anything to expand access to schools and at the same time find faults with the efforts of an NGO to set up schools."

Amita Pal is a consultant at the National Foundation of India.