India is welcoming foreign investors to start various factories or other services in all parts of the country. We all know, the reason behind this is of course to improve our economy and per capita. There are many MOUs signed by various leaders of India and other foreign countries, which remain just a signed document. No real investment is happening in most of the cases. In this article we definitely not going to probe into that, instead, I am going to point out various programmes of CSR of corporates established in our country.
The national statistical data tells us that there are 1.66 million registered active corporate companies are present in Indian Subcontinent. From the year 2013, RBI made a statutory compliance for all corporates that they spend at least 2% of their profit for the welfare of the society and coined the term CSR Corporate Social Responsibility. The CSR is done under 80G, 35, and 35CCD offer them a tax deduction. Otherwise, that 2% is also completely a taxable income.
It is natural for the corporates to minimize the tax amount and avail all the opportunities to claim the tax deduction. Each company has a huge fund for CSR and their books show (In the AGM) how that 2% is distributed for various other social activities and a long list of beneficiaries are added at the end. As usual, no one has the time or patience to read the beneficiary list and cross-verify the validity. CSR of companies show many documents of collaboration with good many NGOs. They claim that they have adopted certain clusters of villages, they are sponsoring certain underprivileged children and so on.
There are 2 factors here I would like to bring to your notice.
- The adoption, the help everything happens in the sub-urban locales of the big city where the corporate is situated.
- Even in those areas, a certain pattern is followed as CSR activity.
Let us see in detail the factors one by one.
The corporates are mostly situated in big cities, and a very few in tier 2 cities. No corporates are functioning in tier 3 and rural areas of India. Naturally, the employees of that particular corporate are from the suburban areas of the locale, and they represent the people of those areas. When the persons in charge for CSR ask for the prospective places, where their money could be put to good use, those employees naturally refer to their suburban locale. This pattern is persistent in most of the corporates.
Ok, Now Factor 1 is being elaborated, now let us move on to Factor 2. As a person who had resided in those suburban areas of CSR jurisdiction, I know what are the main activities they conduct. Mostly on the 15th of August, 31st of January or any other functions or any natural calamity that strikes the area, they provide meals for the local people. Seldom I have seen any other activities.
I am not saying feeding is not good. Of course, it’s a great deed. But I would like to point out that instead of providing a meal for those people if the corporates train him how to earn, that would be a better perspective.
The most important appeal I am making to those corporates who really have good CSR programs, please consider rural villages. People living there don’t have proper training and communication skills so that, they are employable.
I will take the village called Poonkurichi which is located in the mountain area of western ghats of Tamilnadu. There is no shortfall of schools or colleges even in that locale. But after graduation how many of the students go for a job in an office? I am talking about Tamilnadu which claims the highest literary rate and GDP. There are districts like Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, and Tenkasi where no CSR reaches them. The students after completing a degree either migrate to Chennai or do the odd jobs (like, electric, plumbing etc) in their locale.
One can ask, by making these students move towards a metro city, we are increasing urbanization and the villages will perish. Yes! I agree with them 100%. It’s the duty of the government to develop a corporate in each district of all states. Increasing the employability in rural areas is the key to preventing urbanization. Since this is not our topic of discussion, I am moving on to CSR in rural areas again.
Many numbers of skills development training, women entrepreneurship programs, and basic computer and English training are needed of the people living in rural areas. Senior citizens in those areas have to travel at least 30 km for specified ailments. All these things could be addressed by CSR of corporates. If people of corporates call for a proposal from tier 4 and rural areas, then I assure that there will be many good proposals from NGOs and individuals from those regions.
I like to attract the attention of corporates to open smaller units in rural areas or provide training to youths of that locale. They can have a tie-up with the private/government schools in those areas, where they can give additional training needed, and also could give away notebooks, pens and sometimes even the backpacks.
CSR of many companies claim the changes they have brought into the life of the adopted village. But all is for a certain period of time, and after that period, the village is abandoned and another village is taken or the books show us that. But this is not a good practice. Sustainability, and trustworthiness, are what people expect from them. Instead of treating the CSR programmes as some kind of a ritual that has to be done for the sake of doing, I request the corporates to take it seriously. That way they can really change a lot more lives. I know it is difficult for a corporate employee to travel down to the remotest villages of districts of India. They don’t have to do it. There are willing NGOs and many retired people whose intention is really is to give back to the society.
My intention is not to degrade or make fun of corporate people. But just the opposite is my intention. I want them to concentrate on rural people too. I suggest a possible solution which is worth trying.
If a corporate company has a bigger office in the state capital of any state in India, then let it form a group consisting of people representing each district in that state. The group members need not be employees of that company. They could be retired teachers, or bank staff who are familiar with the needs and requirements of the rural area of their respective districts.
In this era of IT, communication is not that difficult. Those group members need not relocate to the state capital or the company need not dedicate an employee to visit the rural parts. The group member will be responsible for all the CSR of the company in that region. Once in a year or twice in a year, the top employees could make a visit and see whether the said plans and programmes are implemented in that part. By this both corporate and the people benefit. It’s a Win-win situation.
I request the readers, if any of you are able to tell your company about this plea, I will be the happiest person. As a true Indian citizen, I want the corporates to concentrate on rural areas too. Distribution of food, construction of palaces of worship, and conducting women empowerment programmes on Women’s Day are all good. But besides that, please turn your attention to people who really need it. As Mahatma Gandhi said, the soul of India resides in villages. If we ignore the soul and concrete on the body, then one day, the body will be there and no soul to support it. So, the CSR of corporates let us unite the soul with the body.