DailyPost 181
IS CSR A PHYSICAL DEAL?
The Tatas & Birlas and few others have shown us the way much before we developed a neat matrix of CSR post tax with a combination of 2% and the activities for which it can used. This epochal legislation was to bring in equally epochal change in the quantum and quality of CSR activities, the conspicuous visibility of the change is nowhere to be seen & can safely extrapolated that the mindset change has not even been initiated either in top echelons of the business enterprises or in their functioning.
It’s not true to say and before this legislation they were free from any social responsibility, all laws of the land from environmental clearance to company laws somewhere had this intent in mind. As as has been the case with these laws, so is the case with the present legal directive, the companies have successfully reduced it to another compliance issue. Is gives a feeling that the money is being squandered directly or through the NGO route, to provide it with a better semblance of credibility.
Big business enterprises are into books & bags nature of activities, some odd computers & similar ventures in their geographical area of operation in & around big cities. The social responsibility is not seen in employees mindsets, the care & concern so visibly absent in them. This is not like any other outsourced activity like transport.
The biggest de facto owners and operators of capital, the banking & insurance industries are still to take the real plunge. They can create and operate one of its kind schools, colleges inclusive of professional ones & hospitals to start with, which can be par with he best in this country, worthy of replication.
The synthesis of employees efforts would provide ownership of the CSR projects, it’s not meant to be mechanical philanthropy, that to in a physical manner, for compliance purposes.
CREATION OF SUSTAINABLE IMPACT MAKING INSTITUTIONS WITH OWNERSHIP & ACCOUNTABILITY IS THE REAL CSR.
Sanjay Sahay