The need to fund other social initiatives besides Covid-19

The covid-19 pandemic has affected millions of lives, however, as much as there are relief works being initiated by various kinds of organisations to help the victims, the overall functioning and philanthropic works within the NGO sphere have also been, in some ways, thrown into disarray. Providing relief for the pandemic-hit victims has become a top priority that the need to address other dire causes such as health, education, nutrition, etc are being overlooked.

With that said, the National Commission for Women (NCW) reported a stark rise in complaints against domestic violence. June recorded an all-time high number of crimes committed against women in the past eight months. In addition to this, there are other social problems as well that the pandemic has given rise to. All these call for a collective effort from both the government and private sectors so that the nation can effectively deal with the pandemic all the while curbing other problems as well.

With over 60 per cent of corporate revenue  gone into the PM-Care Fund or other covid-19 related projects, social workers and civil society members say that the spending for other areas have been adversely impacted. For instance, in many hospitals, non-covid patients are not being given treatment. “If we don’t provide medical intervention, they may die of other diseases, not covid-19,” said Mathew Cherian who had retired as CEO of HelpAge India. Therefore, it has become the need of the hour for all the governments to allocate a significant amount of fund for other sectors accordingly. Sandeep Chachra, Executive Director, ActionAid India said that just like Britain had announced an extra £750 million of funding for frontline charities, the Indian government too should do the same and dedicate funds for NPOs.

There is no doubt in the fact that individuals and conglomerates are making generous contributions now more than ever. However, they are predominantly directed towards Covid-19 relief. Thus, through a mutual co-operation between government and CSR arms but more importantly, by providing enough funds to NPOs and NGOs, the on-going long term projects will not be affected as much.