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CSR SPECIAL: FOREWORD
Goodwill Hunting
From steering girls to school to fighting AIDS, India Inc.’s drive to be responsible is catching on. But is it doing enough?
PUJA MEHRA
16 May 2008
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CROSSING OVER: A little girl in
Rajasthan goes to a state school
supported by Mahindra & Mahindra |
Every year, the 100-year old Tata Steel trains batches of 10-15 unskilled women to operate cranes, earth movers and blast furnaces at its Jamshedpur plant. Eschewing cleaning, sweeping and odd jobs, the women, called tejaswinis by the company, move on to rub shoulders with men as mechanics, welders and operators of heavy machinery—and a new life. The Infosys Foundation is tracing and helping revive the dying forms of art from different parts of India. The effort has given a fresh lease of life to the hapless weavers of Pochampalli village in Andhra Pradesh, the rapidly-fading writers, painters, poets and musicians in rural Karnataka. ITC’s hotels recruit school-dropouts, source masalas from the disabled and procure fruit and vegetables from vulnerable, marginal farmers.
So corporate social responsibility has caught on. In their quest to do — and be seen as doing — good, Indian companies are groping in varied directions. Caught in cancer hospitals, vocational schools and carbon footprints, most are floundering, yet to fully grasp the concept. “Though most Indian companies want to be socially responsible, hardly any understand what that entails,” says Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s School of Social Sciences, Dipankar Gupta.
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FATHER FIGURE: Tata
Group’s founder J.N. Tata
also founded India’s CSR.
He led the way by imbibing
the CSR spirit in the group |
Few, such as cigarette maker ITC, are going about their corporate socially responsibility (CSR) the way companies ought to. They are doing it right by mainstreaming social responsibility in to every business decision, even extending it to their supply chains. Doing good, to them, is the way of earning, not spending. Kinetic, for instance, is manufacturing two-wheelers for the differently-abled. ITC’s diversification into non-tobacco businesses and, amongst other things, its tweaked hiring and sourcing policies are inspiring examples. Benefit to society is the intended byproduct of ITC’s business of running hotels, just as the injurious outcomes of its cigarette sales are a byproduct of the rest of its business. So that the benefits outweigh the harmful consequences, it is progressively expanding its non-tobacco portfolio.
Then, there are companies that have taken CSR to be making up for or undoing the harm to the ecosystem from their pollution-spewing factories or mining of the earth. CSR to them is limited to treating effluent and rehabilitating tribals dislocated to make way for industrial plants. In no way dispensable, these pursuits alone does not make them socially responsible.
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LEADING LADY: Founder of
Self Employed Women’s
Association of India Ila
Bhatt’s grass-roots work
has empowered women |
Some companies pursuing CSR are doing it in isolated, localised islands within their businesses. The efforts of CSR departments or foundations of these companies are no less worthy, but do not amount to enlightened CSR. Ficci’s Secretary General, Amit Mitra, says, “Corporates in India are moving from philanthropy to project-based CSR.” They are yet to understand that what they are doing—more commendable than not doing anything at all, as it may be—is not CSR. The vast majority of the Indian corporate sector is barely writing cheques to NGOs or charitable institutions. “Despite their vast resources and reach, companies aren’t even doing the bare minimum,” says NGO War Widow’s Chairperson Mohini V. Giri.
The compulsions vary. Key paybacks include goodwill, which easily translates into buoyed sales and profits. Genuine altruism is another driver. As is the heightened susceptibility to ever increasing, all-the-more assertive activists, public scrutiny and global standards for safety and ethics. Acknowledging the harm caused in manufacturing chemicals, pharmaceutical company Jubilant Organosys, for instance, declared, “There are stakeholders who can voice their concerns today. Another category of stakeholders, whose voices we cannot hear but who are affected by anthropogenic impacts of global population is flora, fauna and the environment,” in its 2007 corporate sustainability report. “The future generation will be impacted by our activities….”
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DOCTOR’S PROPHECY:
Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh defined CSR in the
current context with his
Ten-Point Social Charter |
Jubilant Organosys actively works to minimise the damage it causes. It is one of the only six Indian companies that publish a Corporate Sustainability Report.
Since the Indian companies’ practice of CSR is still nascent, BW and Ficci got together in 1999 to institute a CSR award in recognition of stellar work and to commend the spirit of using corporate resources, core competencies and funds for the benefit of people and the environment. Every year, we award companies, the contributions of which go beyond creating economic value. The selection process weighs for each applicant, this contribution against the damage to the ecosystem by its products and processes. This year’s winner is the Mahindra group for its worthy targets of lending a helping hand to the state of Rajasthan in educating girls, and vocationally training youngsters from the weaker sections. NTPC follows. The six-member jury chose Apollo Tyres—BW’s favourite among the 33 contestants—for a special mention for its AIDS programmes around truckers that it is now proffering to its countrywide network of dealers.
PRIME MINISTER MANMOHAN SINGH’S
Ten-Point Social Charter For Companies |
- Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Ten-Point Social Charter For Companies
- Invest in worker welfare and health, their children’s education. Give pension and provident fund benefits
- Factor in community needs around operations; don’t define CSR by tax planning alone
- Pro-actively employ the less privileged at all levels. Deliver credible results at an early date. Make work places conducive to the employment of physically less-abled
- Resist excessive remuneration to promoters and senior executives and discourage conspicuous consumption
- Invest in skill-building and education to make the youth employable. Current efforts need to be multiplied a thousand times and companies need to allocate resources for this vital work
- Desist from non-competitive and restrain cartel-type behaviour
- Invest in environment-friendly technologies, conserve national resources and ecology, and avoid wasteful consumption Promote enterprise and innovation within firms and outside
- Develop Codes of Conduct for business practices and for fighting corruption
- Promote socially relevant messages and causes in the media
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