Innovation

The company’s CSR initiatives are rolled out directly or in partnership with non-profit organizations. Marico’s brand is associated with a purpose which can contribute meaningfully in the company’s CSR efforts. To illustrate this, we found that through a brand named Nihar Shanti Amla (NSA), the company has created a popular program “Chotte Kadam Pragatike Aur” which has been underway since 2012, with the purpose of promoting children's education in India. In this program, the MIF has started off by contributing 2% of NSA sales towards the education for 4 years of India children in the age group of 4 to 14 years. This program was divided into three partners:

· Educate Girls: this program has been proceeded in Udaipur and Jalore district of Rajasthan.

· Going to School (GTS): this program has been practiced in Muzaffarpur of Bihar.

· Seasame India workshop: this program has been in Farrukabad, Shahjahanpur and Kannauj districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Marico’s education promotion program has existed and reach the success in reducing the inequalities between the poor and the rich, the men and the women in India as well as contributing to improve their lives. This means when they buy this product NSA, they can help children in their country to have an opportunity to connect with the education, providing the children with skills in order to help their future employability.

Marico has planned to continue this program in the future with their hope of spreading the message of joining hands to reduce the inequalities not only in India but also in all the countries where Marico operates.

Inspiration

The inspiration for the program “Chotte Kadam Pragatike Aur” stems from Marico’s CSR philosophy. "We believe that the reason for Marico to exist is to benefit the entire ecosystem. We totally believe that economic value and social value are interlinked. Our firm creates the economic value by creating social value. Therefore, Marico has a responsibility to anchor on the core purpose “Make a difference” by benefit all of its stakeholders including supporting children go to school".

Along with the Marico’s CSR philosophy, the Marico Innovation Foundation (MIF) was established from 2003 by Harsh Mariwala, chairman of Marico Limited to drive its CSR initiatives to contribute to the sustainable development in India and areas where it does business.

Overall impact

Marico is sponsoring mainly three programs which are Educate Girls, Going to School and Sesame Workshop India. First, “Educate Girls” providing quality education for all underserved and marginalized girls by mobilizing public, private and community resources or funds. Second, “Going to School” program which promotes entrepreneurship among children through their “Be an Entrepreneur" program. Finally, Sesame Workshop India using media to engage children, assist their basic academic and life skills to help them reach their maximum potential. Along with that, Galli Galli Sim Sim is India has only educational program for children while “Angrezi Mobile Pathshala” program provides its callers an opportunity to learn simple English words through stories & characters, which completely free of cost to the caller.

The above graph shows the Total number of children benefited from each program. In detail, 125,311 children benefited from the Educate Girls Program in 2015 and 2016. After participating in the “Going to School Program”, about two in three beneficiaries are of the opinion that they have found the training useful and about half claim that it has increased their confidence and helped them for future. Moreover, some positive change can be seen on the self-initiation aspects over the last three months of the program. In particular, 89 percent students mentioned that they now have ideas for saving the environment from pollution and degradation. Total children benefited from Sesame Workshop India in 2015 and 2016 is 70,000 children. Beside that, “Angrezi Mobile Pathshala” has got 16.20 lacs unique users, calling in.

Business benefit

The first benefit from CSR brought to the brand Nihar Shanti Amla is that it drives the purchase from customers, especially female customers, given customers' awareness that once they choose Nihar Shanti Amla oil for their needs instead of others, they create the opportunity to send their child to school. Beside their own child, other children in their villages or any remote areas in India have a chance connect to education and can improve those children’s life in the future. They typically want the next generation to have a better life and the honor that these women contribute to this change by buying product of brand Nihar Shanti Amla.

For the growth, according to company, Nihar Shanti Amla has been among the fastest growing brand in oil categories: its volume growth from 28% to 29%. (Indiatimes.com). For our prediction, this brand will be still growing in future due to the significantly value it brings to women and their children’s educational opportunity.

Social and environmental benefit

Almost half of the world’s out-of-school girls are in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) and around a quarter are in South-Asia (SAS). India was ranked 3rd, is a country in South Asia, which is one of the “Ten countries with the most female out of school children” (Figure 1). In fact, rural India girls continue to be less educated than the boys. Thus, “Educate for Girls Program” helps in reducing the gender gap by achieving behavioral, social and economic transformation for all girls in India, then, improving and creating an equal quality education for all children.

Interview

Nikhil Narkhede, Vice-President of Marico South East Asia