IS INDIA RICH ENOUGH TO TALK ABOUT CSR?
The land that occupies a mere 2.4% of the geographical area but houses more than 33%of the world’s destitute; the land which is home to one-third of the world’s malnourished children; the land where more than 42% of the rural population lives with a per-capita income of Rs 447per month, and where an astounding 43% of the children are underweight.
This land is none other than our very own motherland, India. As stated by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi “poverty is the worst form of violence” and the Indian government is still not equipped to curb this rampant violence.
Under such circumstances ‘a greener India’ is nothing but a distant vision to the population, with their aspirations being restricted to the fundamental requirements and the satisfaction of their basic physiological needs of food, clothing, shelter.
CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility is a management concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and interactions with their stakeholders. This concept is not only vague and remote to the corporate houses, but also not the “primary” issue of concern. Implementation of CSR requires developing a decision making structure, preparing a business plan, setting measurable targets, engaging employees, designing the training, establishing mechanisms and creating communication plans. The procedure is not only time consuming but also requires the deployment of huge funds.
President Obama’s budget of 2012 included 9 billion dollars to successfully execute the mission of the EPA which is to protect human health and environment. Such a country is definitely in a much better position than a developing nation like India to employ CSR.
In a country where corruption is wide spread, the collected resources for the ‘so called’ welfare of the unfortunate actually find a place in the bank accounts of the fraudulent authority. “Poverty alleviation” or Poverty reduction which is a process that seeks to reduce the level of poverty in a community targeting both economic as well as non economic poverty should hence be the “primary” issue of concern for emerging corporate sectors. The sustainable development policies in collaboration with poverty alleviation principles and programmes should take care of the need of the future generations. The term 'sustainable development' coined by the Brundtland Commission means "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.". India is miles away from the utopian scene where it can proclaim itself to be a flourishing employer of CSR. Sustainable development and poverty reduction cannot be achieved overnight. Efforts and resources should be committed to the accomplishment of targets in respect of these two vital objectives, the fulfillment of which would serve as the pillars on which the growth of the economy and a better society with greater concern for the environment would lie. All Indians need to diligently execute the fundamental duties outlined by the preamble because as stated by the father of the nation, "There is enough for everybody's need, but not enough for anybody's greed".