Article Source: New Indian Express

Date of Issue: April 5, 2008

Title of the article: 'Shiksha' for the underprivileged 
  
Proctor and Gamble, in association with CRY launched Project Shiksha, an annual education programme. As part of the organisation's corporate social responsibility programme, Shiksha has helped over 67,000 children last year to win their right to education.

"India is home to the largest number of uneducated children in the world," said Lakshmi Narasimhan, district manager, P&G India, giving more statistics on the deplorable state of education in India. In lieu of this, P&G has committed to allocate a percentage of its earnings from every unit of its products such as Tide, Ariel, Pantene, Olay, Head and Shoulders, Rejoice, Vicks Vaporub, Whisper, Gillette Series, Oral B, Duracell and Pampers to this programme. "But the percentage of money that would go from each unit of every product has not yet been decided," Narasimhan added.

Danseuse Anita Ratnam, who has been associated with the project for four years, candidly stated that all she did these years was spend her time for the children."But it's all in our hands to give them a better future," she stated vociferously. Actor Ramya Krishnan, who was also at the event, said it made her extremely proud to be associated with Shiksha.

Though P&G has committed to use a certain percentage of its earnings, it has agreed to contribute a min­imum of Rs 1 Crore for Project Shiksha. Also present at the event were Ruchi Mathur, general manager, resource mobilisation, CRY, and Bala Swaminathan, Jaya TV, the project's media partner