CSR Roots in Indian Culture

Sum of the speeches given at Jharkhand CSR conclave organised on Monday came in the form of eminent speakers reiterating threads of Indian culture and searching the roots of social commitment in the Vedas and old customs. Though, the discussion brought drying of the stream out in the open that has been a cause of worry for one and all.

RANCHI: Referring the Vedas and the Puranas, Chief Editor of Prabhat Khabar, Harivansh, said that the mantras taught people to think about the others before the self. “We can see pundits chanting mantras before a puja starts where he invites all the powers of the universe at one place. Kautilya has also talked about happiness of all the stakeholders and not just of the king,” he said.

The senior journalist also called upon the corporate world to deliver their responsibilities before demanding for better governance from the Government of the day. He even rated tendencies of western world to pay back society its dues better than in India.

“Examples of giving back to society come more from western world than ours. We have leant everything but this from them. In Jharkhand, the corporate in tandem with Government should do some real efforts jointly to catch up and take the society forward,” said Harivansh.

Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister DK Tiwari also underlined the principles already before the Indian society but blamed the hastened lifestyle for the ignorance. “The world is changing like anything and we have no time to look to our glorious past that has numerous examples of delivering social responsibilities. The CSR tendency should come from its own and not from by any law,” he said.

He also talked about the tendency creeping in the private sector companies that take CSR activities just a tool to prevent obstructions from coming in the way and not for the real welfare of the people affected. “This attitude has to be changed. CSR is not a charity but a responsibility. You also have to think that what not is to be done as a responsible company. It is also a kind of CSR,” said Tiwari.

Director of IIM-Ranchi MJ Xavier termed greed coming into business houses as a curse for the society. “We in India cannot leave everything on the Government to do. We at IIM want to make it an institution that is not exclusive but inclusive in nature,” he said.

Referring to the CSR activities done by the Central Coalfields Limited, Chairman-cum-Managing Director Gopal Singh said that CSR activities should be focused on employment, drinking water, health, education to productive employment and environmental management. He also said that CCL had build vision 2020 that aimed to produce 200 MT of coal and enable the company to spent Rs 100 crore in CSR fund instead of Rs 24 crore currently.

Rajesh Sharma of Usha Martin talked about total village management through its organisation KGVK. Deputy General Manager of SBI (Ranchi Zone) Praveena Kala termed CSR for inclusive growth that means everybody was generating wealth with sustainability. Unicef’s Job Zakaria said that his organisation was willing to bridge the gap existing between the Government and corporate as the former needed assistance of the later in delivering its duties efficiently.