The Hindu Business Line : Sharing the harvest

For quite some time now, India Inc has been involved with corporate social responsibility or CSR initiatives. eWorld tracks some moves by IT companies that seek to fuel social change.

"I honestly believe that the winning companies of this century will be those who prove with their actions that they can be profitable and increase social value — companies that both do well and do good... Increasingly, shareowners, customers, partners and employees are going to vote with their feet — rewarding those companies that fuel social change through business. This is simply the new reality of business — one that we should and must embrace." — Carly Fiorina, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, HP.

THE quote above says it all. CSR or corporate social responsibility is one way India Inc is repaying society - by helping to reshape it for the better. eWorld tracks initiatives seeking to make a difference.

Sample this. Lason India, a player in the business process outsourcing (BPO) space, has decided to hire 12 physically-challenged people in its Business Associates (BA) facilities. These people are being trained by Ability Foundation, an NGO, to use computers. The candidates, who are either graduates or post-graduates, are being put through a 45-day training to make them competent in the BPO business. They will initially be involved in data capture but may, in times to come, become knowledge workers. "Lason has selected people after analysing their aptitude for the kind of work that it does," says Pradeep Nevatia, managing director, Lason India.

Digital imaging company, Canon India has committed itself to the `Save the Siachen Glacier' initiative with the Himalayan Club, to raise the awareness bar on environmental distress at the Glacier. Canon also recently held, in New Delhi, an exhibition of photographs of the Siachen Glacier.

IT services company CSC allows its employees to take up six-month sabbaticals for working on social projects during which the employee is paid half the salary and is appraised on the basis of his/her performance in the social development project. The company, which has a development centre in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, has adopted three tribal villages, Sagarpaisa, Nayagaon and Lalpura.

In Sagarpaisa, the company has helped to start a school to provide education up to Class 4, following which the children are admitted to Government schools in neighbouring villages. As part of this initiative, CSC has not only employed a teacher at its own expense, but is also supplying uniforms and books to the school children. "We started the school renovation by 2000 end and completed the school building within two months. However, even after the school was operational, we observed that not many children were attending it as their parents were alcoholics," recalls Rajesh Therani, Assistant Vice-President, CSC. To tempt the children to attend school, CSC started distributing biscuits and candies. In this village of 300 illiterate, landless peasants and Bhil tribal families, the school provides these children their only hope of standing on an equal footing with the world outside.

The Pune-based Kale Consultants has founded a social welfare organisation, Catalysts for Social Action (CSA), which works for child welfare. The specific focus is on child adoption. CSA aims at enhancing the number of adoptions through promotion and co-ordination and ensuring better childcare, both while the child is institutionalised and post-adoption.

Leveraging its strengths as an IT consultancy company, Kale extends facilitation services to adoption agencies. This comes in the form of donation of software and computers to adoption agencies and training to social workers and childcare workers.

Intel has rolled out CSR initiatives in what it does best — Technology. The Intel Teach to the Future program is an initiative to help teachers learn how best to use technology to improve teaching and learning, so as to develop higher-level thinking skills among students. A total of 3,11,382 teachers have been trained under this programme. The Intel Science Talent Discovery Fair (STDF) aims at infusing a spirit of discovery in school children and enhances their interest in science and technology. It was first held in India in 1999, and was organised for the first two years with the help of the National Council of Museums, West Zones. Since 2001, Intel has been organising the fair independently. Intel STDF is affiliated to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) held in the US in May every year. The winners of the Intel STDF National Fairs get the opportunity to represent India at the Intel ISEF.

The success of this initiative can be gauged from the fact that five out of six Indian projects have won awards, and multiple recognition this year. Intel India has also joined hands with a few educational and social institutions in India to support community needs. One such effort is the Intel Computer Clubhouse launched in New Delhi in December 2001 at the Katha Khazana, an NGO-run school, which is open to children from Govindpuri slum area in Delhi. The second clubhouse was opened in Bangalore in December 2002.

At Tata Honeywell, the board donates its sitting fees to deserving organisations. This year, the company donated about Rs 6.5 lakh to SOS Balagram, which funds the Hermann Gmeiner Social Centre (HGSC). HGSC takes care of the primary needs of about 50 street children. Apart from the annual money donations, Tata Honeywell employees contribute time and energy by directly involving themselves in community work. Each day, a team of volunteers goes to the HGSC sanstha to teach. The company also plans to adopt a Sutarwadi village in Mulshi taluka this year and contribute by repairing the dilapidated school building and conduct workshops for women to make them self-sufficient.

Xansa India has taken up projects to impart basic education to peons and their families and has facilitated computer literacy for an orphanage for girls, Arya Kanya Sadan, in New Delhi. Instances such as these are no longer far and few. For every story told, there are dozens that have not been highlighted. The spirit with which companies are pursuing such initiatives is bringing a social transformation. In the process, it is also bringing Corporate Social Responsibility closer to its true meaning.

moumita@thehindu.co.in

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