CSR: Money Problem or Where Problem?

New Delhi, Sept. 20 -- "Money isn't the

same as impact."

- Anonymous

The numbers say it all: India spent a staggering Rs 40,794 crore on Corporate Social Responsibility projects in 2024-25. Much of this corporate money flowed into education, healthcare, livelihoods, sanitation and other social causes. If we look closer, however, the geography of that spending is intriguing. For instance, per-person CSR spends work out to Rs 1,243 in Delhi, against just Rs 35 in Bihar.

The disparity in these numbers does not mean Delhi should get less or Bihar deserves more. After all, costs, projects and capacities differ. But they do beg an uncomfortable question: Is India deciding where CSR money should go by looking at the needs on the ground, or is it doing so by looking at where the money is available to be spent? Too often, we seem to be beginning the CSR journey with the money.

All large companies have a certain CSR budget. They identify an implementing agency, choose an area or project to be pursued, and then attempt to connect the available resources with a pressing social need. That is a supply-led approach. And it is time to reverse the sequence.

Start with the Need

Imagine a company proudly inaugurating a 'Smart Classroom' in a school in a village. The photographs are wonderful: new computers, beaming children, executives, officials and perhaps a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

But what if the real problem in that village is not technology at all? What if 17-year-old girls are dropping out because there is no safe transport to school? Or because the toilet doesn't work? Or because they are needed at home?

The smart classroom may be a perfectly good project. It may simply not be the most urgent one. That is the distinction CSR needs to confront. The intervention should follow the diagnosis, not the other way around.

The evidence suggests that the gap is real. CRISIL found that in FY 2024-25, only 397 of 2,020 qualifying listed companies undertook CSR projects in India's aspirational districts. Their combined spend was Rs 2,390 crore, just 12 per cent of total CSR spending. That is not proof that CSR money is being badly spent. But it is reason enough to ask whether the country's most difficult development problems are getting their proportionate share of corporate attention.

Know the People

The problem becomes even clearer when we stop talking about categories and start talking about people. Women. Farmers. Children. Rural communities. Yes, these are convenient CSR labels. But real life is often messier.

A farmer may not need a training workshop on modern agriculture; he may need irrigation, a functioning market link or a road that allows him to reach that market. An elderly villager may not need a health-awareness camp; he may simply need a doctor within reach. A school may not need a new building; it may need teachers who turn up, girls who stay on and children who can actually read at the appropriate age.

This is why needs assessment matters. The first question should not be: "What can we fund?" It should be: "What is preventing this community from moving forward?" Only then should the cheque book come out.

The Visibility Trap

There is another uncomfortable reality. Some CSR interventions are simply easier to display than others. A school building has a plaque. A hospital wing has an inauguration. A scholarship programme produces photographs. A large community event produces a crowd. But preventing a girl from dropping out does not necessarily produce any of these. Nor does spending months helping a family obtain a livelihood, getting a bedridden elderly person to a doctor, or ensuring that a health scheme actually reaches the person who needs it.

None of this means companies are acting cynically. Good intentions can coexist with a system that rewards what is visible, measurable and easy to communicate. But if the easiest project to execute-and take a bow for-is not necessarily the most important problem to solve, CSR needs a different compass. It needs to begin somewhere else.

Follow the Need

The answer is not to make companies spend more. It is to make the money work harder. A company may have the money. An NGO may know the village. A government department may already have the scheme. The missing ingredient may simply be putting the three together. And the opening question should always be the same: What is actually missing here?

Because Rs 40,794 crore is no longer a token gesture. It is enough money to make the question of allocation impossible to ignore. If corporate giving continues to gravitate towards places with easy access, established partners, visible projects and convenient ceremonies, we may end up with an impressive map of CSR activity without a corresponding map of the country's greatest needs.

The real test is not how many projects were launched, beneficiaries counted or photographs taken. It is whether the money travelled far enough from the boardroom to find the problem nobody had thought worth photographing. India may not have a CSR money problem anymore. It has a CSR "where" problem.

Views expressed are personal. The writer is a journalist & communications specialist

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.