According to WHO, India contributes a third of the global burden of undernutrition. Given India’s population size, investing in actions to reduce all forms of malnutrition is important and an urgent need.
According to Global Hunger Index, India is ranked 15 globally with a score of 29.1. The score corresponds to “serious hunger situation” (refer graph below).
Companies in India are starting to put their attention towards this need in a gradual manner since the introduction of the CSR law by Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013.
Below is the most recent data that shows the spend towards - Health, Eradicating Hunger, Poverty and Malnutrition, Safe Drinking water, Sanitation by the eligible CSR Corporates since 2014 (graph below). The total CSR Budget spent in FY 2020-21 was 26210.95 Cr by 20,840 companies, and out of this total spent towards health and nutrition area was around 5800 Cr. (factoring in that more amount was spent because of Covid) amounting to about 22% of the total CSR spent.
Eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition and promoting health care falls under list of approved Schedule 7 CSR activities that can be taken up.
Nutrition is central to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda, and at least 12 of the 17 SDGs include indicators relevant for nutrition.
There is a lot of misinformation and gaps when it comes to food and nutrition around the world leading to onset of health problems from an early age. It therefore becomes crucial to channelize this powerful ecosystem that we are starting to have in the right direction to make a real impact in lives of people.
(Data sources - National CSR Portal and Statista)
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