HCL Foundation gives Rs 16.5 cr grant to 9 NGOs

HCL Foundation, the CSR arm of HCL Technologies, on Tuesday awarded a grant of Rs 16.5 crore (USD 2.27 million) to nine NGOs working towards development in areas of environment, health and education.

A grant of Rs 5 crore each has been awarded to three NGOs -- Saahas (Environment), India Health Action Trust (Health), and Child Rights and You (Education) -- under the sixth edition of the HCL Grant this year.

These organisations will each receive the grant for a three to five-year project.

HCL Foundation Director Nidhi Pundhir said the year 2020 has been ''both special and unusual''.

''Special, in that the Foundation is completing ten years of facilitating high-impact, sustainable socioeconomic development in rural India. Unusual, in that the NGOs we support had to deal with unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic and various natural disasters, while initiating and implementing their developmental projects,'' she said in a virtual briefing.

Pundhir added that NGOs are treating COVID-19 as the ''new normal'' and are continuing with their path-breaking projects without a pause, creating a much-needed last-mile support framework.

She noted that despite the pandemic, jury members and the entire team have worked towards the whole selection process of organisations that are addressing some of the most pressing issues in the key development categories of environment, health, and education in the most remote corners of the country.

Saahas is working on sustainable waste management through community-owned rural resource recovery systems. The project aims to implement waste segregation and processing at village level for improved waste management and reduced negative environmental impact. It will cover 560 villages in Udupi, Ramanagaram, Ballari, Dakshina Kannada districts in Karnataka and is expected to directly benefit 11.4 lakh village residents.

India Health Action Trust, through its project on improving maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) outcomes in tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh, aims to ensure availability, quality and utilisation of critical MNCH service. It will cover 478 villages in Shahdol district in Madhya Pradesh.

Child Rights and You (CRY) aims to cover 20 villages in Guna and Sagar district in Madhya Pradesh with its project on breaking barriers and rebuilding the lives of Bedia girls and re-orienting Bedia girls from sex work to education and literacy. In addition, two finalists in each category will receive a one-year grant of Rs 25 lakh, making a total grant of Rs 16.5 crore. The NGOs were chosen after an eight-month review of thousands of applications by an eminent jury, monitored and audited by Grant Thornton, the governance partner of HCL Grant.

The jury consisted of Robin Abrams (Director, HCL Technologies), Suresh Narayanan (Nestle India Chairman and Managing Director), B S Baswan (former Human Resource Development Ministry Secretary), Pallavi Shroff (Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. Managing Partner), Richard Lariviere (President Emeritus, Field Museum (Chicago)) and Shiv Nadar (HCL founder).

Previously, the Foundation had committed more than Rs 60 crore (excluding this year's grants) under the HCL Grant programme.

The HCL Foundation has also released “Fifth Estate – NGOs Transforming Rural India in Environment, Health and Education,” - a compendium featuring the top 30 NGOs selected in the sub-jury round, as well as the previous year's winning NGOs.