“Corporate social responsibility key to ensuring equitable society”

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the private sector is the key to ensure an equitable society. It will help in ending deprivation, especially among the oppressed sections, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu N. Ram observed on Friday.

Handing over the CSR awards instituted by the Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC) to eight corporate houses and 12 individuals, Mr. Ram appreciated the firms for their contribution to society and environment protection and the RAAC for recognising it. He particularly appreciated the choice of a recipient for not employing child and contract workers.

Child labour was unacceptable and Kerala had gone far ahead in eradicating child labour compared to its neighbour Tamil Nadu, he said. Contract labour too was against the workforce as it did not offer social security.

On imbalance in growth, he said, “We have done well industrially, but there has been neglect of agriculture.” Coimbatore is a prosperous place and its industry has done well in sustainable growth. But there are pockets of deprivation among oppressed classes, in terms of basic rights, income, education, nutrition and health care, he said.

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District Collector M. Karunakaran said that growth led to mass consumption for ensuring good standards of living, but it was posing a challenge to biological and ecological balance. Economic development of individuals depended on the growth of industries and service sector. This thinking led to the concept of sustainable development without compromises.

“As we inherited from our forefathers, we need to leave behind a pleasant world for the future citizens.”

C.R. Swaminathan, president of RAAC, said the association had been striving for the overall development of Coimbatore. Efforts were being made in areas such as infrastructure development, solid waste management, a Greater Coimbatore Development Authority (GCDA), scheme roads and Master Plan. R.R. Balasundaram, vice-president of RAAC and Honorary Secretary R. Raveendran spoke.

Companies that won the CSR awards

were: Autoshell Casts Private Limited, Padmavahini Transformers Private Limited, Dawn Engineering India Private Limited, Ammarun Foundries, Roots Industries India Limited, Oriental Plants and Equipments, Chennai Silks and Sulochana Cotton Spinning Mills.

Individuals who won the awards for social service, green cover drive and other welfare activities were: Aru Mayil Govindarajulu, I. Devika, S. Ganapathy, M. Gowrishankar, S.B. Jagathiswaran, K. Jayaraman, A. Loganathan, B. Murugan, P. Santhakumar, V.R. Unni, R. Varadharaj and A.S. Velusamy.