About the Nation Builders Series by The Logical Indian

The Nation Builders series by The Logical Indian shines a light on companies, individuals, and institutions making a substantial difference in India’s socio-economic landscape. Through responsible business practices, committed CSR initiatives, and a focus on sustainability, these entities are carving out a legacy of positive change. This series acknowledges those who prioritize nation-building, contributing far beyond their industry mandates. In this article, we delve into the journey of Procter & Gamble (P&G) India, a company renowned not only for its products but also for its enduring commitment to social impact.

About Procter & Gamble (P&G) India

Procter & Gamble, a global leader in consumer goods, has been a household name in India for over three decades. P&G India operates across key segments like household essentials, health, grooming, beauty, baby care, and, with brands like, Vicks, Gillette, Pampers, and Whisper leading their respective categories.

Globally headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, P&G in India has continued to delight its consumers through superior daily use products, and has surpassed US$2 Billion in revenue through three legal entities, underscoring its market leadership.

The Indian operations are currently led by Kumar Venkatasubramanian, Managing Director & CEO of P&G India, who has championed the company’s dual focus on business growth and sustainable development. P&G’s innovative products, strong market presence, and commitment to community impact make it a significant player in India’s FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods) sector.

Company’s Contribution to Nation Building through Corporate Social Responsibility and Philanthropy

P&G India’s commitment to nation-building goes beyond offering quality products. The company has consistently prioritized creating a strong community impact through its flagship Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program – P&G Shiksha. For two decades, P&G Shiksha has been committed to addressing critical barriers to quality education.

P&G’s commitment through Shiksha, further highlights its dedication towards underserved communities in the country, ensuring long-term positive impact through education.

Details of P&G Shiksha and Impact Over the Last 3 Years

Focus Areas of P&G Shiksha

P&G Shiksha began in 2005, even before CSR laws came into effect. By assessing the need on the ground, the program started with building school infrastructure. With socio-economic progress, the program continued to evolve into a 360-degree holistic program focusing on strengthening educational infrastructure, improving learning outcomes, and empowering underserved communities through education.

Legacy and Impact

P&G Shiksha has today streamlined its efforts to enable every child to learn with conceptual understanding and realise their aspirations. Shiksha uniquely remains single-mindedly focused on education, creating deep and lasting impact.

Over the last 19 years, P&G Shiksha has supported thousands of schools and communities across the country, impacting over 45 lakh children from underserved areas via targeted educational interventions.

Four-Pronged Intervention Approach:

Today, P&G Shiksha is focused on improving learning outcomes in children, through a dedicated four-pronged intervention approach:

• PREVENTION via Infrastructure Interventions: In line with the belief that strong infrastructural support at schools can help make the environment around children more conducive to learning and eliminate distractions, P&G Shiksha, together with its partners at Round Table India, undertakes educational infrastructure interventions like building classrooms. This helps improve the learning environment for children and teachers, and the impact is seen in increasing enrolments, better attendance, reducing dropouts, driving lesson efficiency for teachers, encouraging students, and therefore, overall higher learning level. Over the years, P&G Shiksha and Round Table India have constructed thousands of classrooms across the country, impacting lakhs of underserved children.

• PREVENTION via Early Childhood Education: During early childhood when brain development is at its highest point, nurturing appropriate developmental skills has been closely linked with positive outcomes, including improved school readiness, increased knowledge retention, and holistic growth of the child. To enable this, we partner with Pratham Education Foundation for our Early Childhood Education program dedicated to children aged 3-6 years. This program focuses on developing motor, cognitive, social emotional, language and creative skills in children, thereby setting them up for a strong start as they begin their education journey. By leveraging various models partnering with states, ranging from in-school, Anganwadi-led, and a unique, first-of-its-kind model involving mothers as volunteers, the program leverages activity-based pedagogy. In 2023-24, the program impacted over 8.8 Lakh children and 4.2 lakh mothers, across 5 states. 84% children reached age-appropriate developmental skills at the end, vs 50% at baseline.

• REMEDIATION via Community Learning: A unique community based and an ‘in-school’ model, in partnership with Pratham Education Foundation, comes to live with the support of trained volunteers from the community and school teachers. Here, we follow the ‘Teaching at the Right Level’ approach, where children in Grades 3 to 5 are grouped according to their learning levels rather than grade, and level-specific activity-based learning is delivered to help strengthen skills in foundational subjects of language and mathematics (in line with NEP). We strive for sustained impact by bringing the community at the centre of interventions, taking responsibility, and playing their part. In 2023-2024, the program impacted over 45,000 children and more than 35,000 mothers, across 3 states in the country, where 80% children in grade 3-5 could now do basic arithmetic subtraction vs 37% at baseline.

• REMEDIATION via Digital Remedial Learning: We are leveraging technology to bridge learning gaps, partnering with Educational Initiatives. We partner with state governments to set up digital labs, where P&G and EI implement ‘Mindspark’, a computer-based adaptive learning tool that leverages AI and ML to integrate pedagogy, teacher instruction and a learning management system to assess a student’s learning level and develop a customized learning path for each one of them. Gamified learning helps encourage students to keep learning in the privacy of their screen, removing barriers like mockery, lack of motivation and negative spotlight. Multi-device tool access ensures continued learning at home and during breaks. Through this initiative, we are also impacting over 20,000 children from Tribal communities of Maharashtra and Telangana, in partnership it the government offices. Collectively, in 2023-2024, the program impacted nearly 1 lakh children across 6 states in the country, where 70% students progressed in their learning levels.

In last fiscal year alone, the children who are part of P&G Shiksha’s programs focused on improving learning outcomes achieved remarkable progress in performances.

• Early Childhood Education
  • 84% children reached age-appropriate developmental skills vs 50% at baseline during the year.
• Digital remedial learning
  • 70% students progressed in learning levels
• Community remedial learning
  • 80% children in grade 3-5 could now subtract vs 37% at baseline

P&G Shiksha’s efforts are aligned with the National Education Policy, focusing on foundational literacy and numeracy, to ensure that every child learns with conceptual understanding.

Further, strong collaborations and partnerships are key to the success of any community program. In line with this belief, P&G Shiksha partners with various government bodies, reputed NGOs and local communities, which help create a scalable and sustained impact. This fuels a lasting change and acts as a catalyst in achieving sustained positive educational outcomes.

Annual CSR Spend and Focus Area Allocation

In FY 2023, P&G India’s total CSR spend was over ₹30 crores, single mindedly focused on the cause of education.

The company collaborates with respected NGOs like Round Table India, Pratham Education Foundation and Educational Initiatives ensuring effective implementation of their programs.

Current CSR Leadership

P&G India’s CSR initiatives are currently guided by Enakshee Deva, the company’s Head of Corporate Social Responsibility and Communications.

Enakshee Deva, Head – CSR and Communications, P&G India said, “P&G brands and P&G people are committed to helping communities around the country through meaningful actions that improve lives every day, and has been a priority always. P&G Shiksha reflects this commitment, and our ambition of driving continued positive impact in communities through education. Through robust targeted educational interventions for early childhood education, strengthening educational infrastructure to be learning conducive, community and digital remedial learning, we are focused on improving learning outcomes in underserved children through PREVENTION and REMEDIATION of learning gaps. With this single-minded focus on education, P&G Shiksha has been impacting over 50 lakh children since its inception in 2005, even before the CSR law was introduced in the country.”

The Logical Indian’s Perspective

P&G India’s legacy of social impact and sustainable growth is a beacon for other corporations aiming to combine business success with community development. The company’s CSR programme P&G Shiksha, is impacting millions of underserved children, creating opportunities and enhancing education in underserved regions.

P&G’s forward-thinking approach showcases its dedication to partnering the nation’s progress.efforts go hand-in-hand with India’s National Education Policy..

The Logical Indian commends P&G India’s consistent and meaningful contributions to nation-building. Their journey underscores a holistic approach where profitability and social responsibility are intertwined, reflecting a true commitment to making India stronger, healthier, and more equitable. P&G India truly embodies what it means to be a Nation Builder.

Sources:

• Procter & Gamble India’s Official CSR Reports
• Annual Reports from P&G India
• Coverage on CSR-specific websites like The CSR Journal and Business Responsibility Reports
• Press releases and official updates from P&G India’s website

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