Interview with Aakanksha Bhargava, CEO, PM Relocations on CSR

By Rusen Kumar

P.M. Relocations Pvt Ltd (PMR) is a premium relocation Indian company based out of India. Today, as the CEO and President of PMR, she is leading one of the most exciting and fast-growing businesses in India. It is a Small-Medium Enterprise and one stop solution for mobility needs, with respect to anybody relocating within India or overseas. PMR has been part of many diverse CSR initiatives to support the cause of education, end hunger, build awareness around sports and spread smiles to underprivileged children and people. Aakanksha Bhargava, CEO, PM Relocations sharing her thoughts with Rusen Kumar, Editor, India CSR on various topics of CSR and social development. Excerpts:

What is the CSR vision of PM Relocations?

We at PMR believe that we owe a lot to the society and environment and therefore, emphasize returning to society by serving the underprivileged and spreading happiness through our CSR activities. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” To put our philosophy into practice in our day-to-day business activities, PMR conceptualised and associated itself with the causes which are closest to our hearts. We specially joined hands with a few NGOs and started campaigns as a part of our corporate social responsibility to serve society within our capacity and spread social awareness. With our crisp vision in line, PMR is well on its way to executing its ambitious growth plans. PMR has been part of many diverse CSR initiatives to support the cause of education, end hunger, build awareness around sports and spread smiles to underprivileged children and people. 

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Which are your flagship CSR programmes and future initiatives planned as a part of CSR?

We have various Flagship CSR programmes. Let me share:

Shiv Prem Scholarships:  One of our first CSR initiative in our own humble capacity was to academically support our own warehouse staff’s children who scored exceedingly well. This in turn gave rise to our ‘Shiv Prem Scholarship’ Program. This scholarship was extended to the warehouse employee’s children who scored exceedingly well in academics but had limited resources at hand. Every year we recognise worthy children who excel in academics and empower them by entirely supporting their education.

COVIDCare Initiative: In midst of the crisis situation in India, PMR has been supporting and conducting Pro Bono activities for many individuals and NGOs. Everyone at PMR is relentlessly working for the cause and has joined hands to uplift and support whoever we can. 

The COVID19 pandemic has led to logistics playing a very important role to support people. To ensure that emergency medical and food essential services are not affected, and the public does not suffer, the PMR team had opened their services for free to healthcare companies, hospitals, pharmacies, and individuals who are in urgent need of logistical support or require moving-and-packing services for essential items. We also tie up with GIVE India and RHA to transport oxygen concentrators, beds and other medical and food essentials to underprivileged communities. 

Mission30M by RobinHood Army: As the world was battling and overcoming the crisis of COVID-19 in 2020 and economies and businesses from around India came to a standstill, PMR joined hands with an Indian NGO called the Robinhood Army (RHA) in their #Mission30M. This passionate campaign started by Robin Hood Army with the aim to serve staple food to over 30 million people who are most affected due to the pandemic. Their campaign spans from 1st July to 15th August 2020 in rural and urban areas across 10 countries. RHA’s vision is to beat global hunger and bring out the best of humanity using food as a medium. PMR supports the NGO as their logistic partners across major metro cities such as Delhi (NCR), Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Chennai. Together PMR supported the logistic movement of 63-tonne of essential items such as pulses, rice, wheat and biscuits, etc. The movement ensured that RHA could deliver food items to both remote villages and also in urban sprawls. By joining hands with RHA to support the community we realised a rewarding relationship which helped us to work for an environment that secures food for the needy and witness this gesture transforming lives. 

Toy Bank – Donate for Joy: In line with the vision of empowering children, we have also partnered with the Toy Bank to spread happiness with our little efforts wherever we can. We launched the ‘Donate for Joy’ campaign on February 7th, 2017. As a part of the initiative, we placed special Carton boxes at our client’s home and encourage them to support the underprivileged children around us by donating they’re old, used, or new toys, crayons, stationary items, colouring books, study books, etc that they do not wish to move with them. Also, in order to accelerate the giving, we also started running collection campaigns at PMR offices where employees can also contribute gifts and toys for the children which are then sent to the Toy Bank headquarters in Delhi. Till now we are proud to have successfully donated close to 100 toy boxes to the toy bank. 

The joy of Giving at Christmas: In 2015, we started the “Joy of Giving” campaign within the organisation every Christmas where employees are encouraged to donate anything useful to support people and children who are looking at us with hope. Every year the employees actively participate to donate and encourage the underprivileged ones. The purpose of this campaign is to develop compassion, humanity and social values among the employees and thereby spread eternal happiness in the lives of people staying in the orphanages. We have tie-ups with institutions such as Prayas, Goonj, and the Earth Savior Foundation by Ravi Kalra to support them with clothes, blankets, and edibles to celebrate the Joy Of Giving. 

Support for Sports: We have partnered with the Amentum Prodigy Foundation to support them in their vision to encourage young and talented sportsmen/ sportswomen in India. These children are passionate about sports with underprivileged backgrounds. As a part of the support initiative, we provided logistic support to help Amentum sports import close to 10 Javelins from the US. Apart from this, we have collaborated with a coach to support them under 18 girls’ team. Currently, we have set up a clean source of drinking water for the girls at the practice ground along with sippers to help them stay hydrated during practice in this scorching heat. Apart from this, we would be supporting the team with Volleyball kits, professional shoes, and volleyballs for the girls to practice. 

How much do you see the CSR Initiatives taken by the company are being impactful and effective?

Our CSR initiatives are conceptualised in a way that understands the exact demand and needs of underprivileged adults and children support them with the exact support they require in order to grow and support themselves and their families. Our initiatives don’t necessarily include financial aid but extend beyond it to handhold them to better opportunities and alternatives to become self-sustainable thereby impacting their lives in a positive manner. 

As the CSR domain opens up huge possibilities for change or impact, what do you think are the key areas of the society that should be focussed on to make a change?

Even as the CSR domain opens up to huge possibilities, still all sections of the societies need to come forward equally to support and impact the people in need to see the desired change/ impact. CSR should not just be looked at as a means to benefit the organisation, rather it should be a means via which people’s lives could be transformed in a way for them to build a self-sustainable life and aim for growth. 

Being a renowned logistic and relocation company, how do you think the various logistic companies can contribute to developing a sustainable society and environment? What would be their role in it?

Amidst the turmoil around the world, relocation and logistics firms left no stones unturned to be more agile to tackle the pandemic scenario and simplify their processes. Owing to strict full and partial restrictions; the global transport network witnessed pressure with respect to free movement and thus had to innovate to find out ways to come together and provide vital solutions for accelerated growth and speed. 

In order to aim for a sustainable society and environment logistics and non-logistics firms could come together to collect and curate resources to help people. Supporting the bigger picture, logistic firms can partner with NGO’s who have dedicated themselves to reaching out to people and uplifting them. This further gave a new direction and approach to expand the service line-up while staying agile and relevant. The logistics industry is one which is massively labor-intensive and has huge potential for upskilling the labour. Even though the industry has suffered due to the pandemic, and is gearing back to normalcy, the potential of growth has grown even more than ever. The supply chain industry could aim for a better-planned process in order to ensure that logistics firm could realign their business operations to cut down on wastage and thereby be more environmentally sensitive. 

What initiatives as per you should be taken by the government, civil society, and corporate under CSR and how it can make a national level impact?

CSR initiatives could have a big push if the society in its entirety comes together to make a national-level impact. Any CSR initiative could only be fortified by the following: 

The government sector could join hands with the private sector to formulate a holistic CSR approach that is clearly defined. It should be such that it not only benefits the receiver but also incentivise the corporate sector too in order to boost their participation. 

The corporate sector has been actively embracing corporate social responsibility. This can be further strengthened by initiatives that directly understand the pain points of people and connect with them on a more interpersonal level. Also, it is essential for corporates to connect with the cause which is not only relatable but also long-term in nature and reflects the true nature of supporting people. Gathering employees who could effectively come together, and volunteer for the cause is essential as this will help in the overall success of the campaign/ initiative which is undertaken. 

According to you, how can the masses and corporate leaders be educated to be socially responsible?

A socially responsible organisation is one that acts for the greater good of the society and not just for earning profits only. This means that a company that is socially responsible should redefine how employees are treated, delivery of products/ execution of services, running of the business and the impact it has on the environment. Learning contributes majorly to the journey from becoming ignorant to socially aware and responsible. Some of the key things’ leaders could implement is: 

Getting the team to assemble is one of the crucial steps to becoming socially responsible as it can make or break the entire strategy. It is very important for people who are like-minded and dedicated to the cause to come together for a shared vision. 

The CSR vision and sustainability should resonate with each and every member in the organisation of key stakeholders which is associated with the business. 

Once the vision resonates well with everyone it is vital to adequately incentivize people in order to keep them motivated towards the cause. 

Using internal and external benchmarks would help people align themselves and measure not only their participation but also the effectiveness of the entire campaign/ program. 

During the pandemic a lot of the corporates came forward to help the people and government at various levels, how did PMR contribute to it?

Yes, we took our corporate social responsibility very seriously and are involved in several projects. Owing to the challenges India faced, we extended pro-bono support to various healthcare facilities, NGO’s and individuals. 

Over the past months, since the pandemic began, we have been actively supporting NGOs and individuals with our PRO-Bono support. Inspiring and impacting people’s lives have always been the basis of PMR’s entire ecosystem. Hence, the team got together to tackle the current unprecedented health and humanitarian crisis arising from the pandemic outbreak. All of PMR’s resources and services were dedicated to providing support and aid to battle against the current scenario. Amidst the second wave of the pandemic, PMR launched COVID help support where people reached out to us at covidsupport@pmrelocations.com for verified and authentic leads with respect to finding / connecting with hospitals for beds, oxygen support, and helping with other medical and basic essential needs. 

We also tied up with two leading NGOs in a collective mission to support both individual and healthcare facilities with necessary medical and basic essentials. The first tie-up was with Give India to support them with pro-bono logistics and warehousing of oxygen concentrators across India. These oxygen concentrators were delivered to various hospitals and individuals to enable them to battle against the pandemic and help India breathe. 

Our second tie-up was with the Robinhood Army (RHA) to transport and deliver dry rations and other essentials to remote migrant workers, low-income residents, and villages. The joint efforts of PMR and RHA ensured that people and communities across India had access to basic essential items and food. PMR with its initiatives also aimed to raise large-scale awareness and encourage people to adhere to proper practices discouraging the spread of COVID-19 amidst the community. 

How is your association with the Amentum Prodigy foundation contributing to the sports industry and society?

Our association with the Amentum Prodigy foundation has been a holistic experience so far. Our partnership ensured that we reached out and encouraged the young and talented sportsmen/ sportswomen in India. These children who are supported by the foundation are passionate about sports with underprivileged backgrounds. As a part of the support initiative, we provided logistic support to help Amentum import close to 10 Javelins from the US. These javelins were offered to talented national players such as Sumit Antil – Gold Medalist in Men’s Javelin Thow (Class F46) who won a World Record throw of 68.55m at the Paralympics 2021 and Rohit Yadav – the national javelin throw open champion (in under 18 category).

Apart from this, we have collaborated with a coach to support them under 18 girls’ team. These girls are passionate about playing volleyball to achieve their dream of winning under 18 girls’ volleyball championships. Currently, we have set up a clean source of drinking water for the girls at the practice ground along with sippers to help them stay hydrated during practice in this scorching heat. Apart from this, we would be supporting the team with Volleyball kits, professional shoes, and volleyballs for the girls to practice. 

In a country that is focused on cricket, it is essential for children to pick up and learn about the diverse sports played in India which otherwise go unnoticed due to lack of awareness and publicity. Hence, our partnership focuses on nurturing this dream where underprivileged children can learn and pick up on key sports and become the future sportsmen/ sportswomen in games that involve jump, throw, and run. 

Any message you would like to share with our readers?

Any CSR initiative in the country can only be successful if it is joined by equal-minded stakeholders. Hence, apart from collective corporate support, there needs to be an equal partnership and sync between the civil bodies, government, and corporates alike. 

(India CSR)