CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Dear students

Good example of CSR

Gautam Bansal

Tata Steel

In the large enterprises category, it was Tata Steel’s CSR initiative in Orissa that was adjudged the best. What makes it different from other corporations is the way such efforts are perceived. CSR does not pose a conflict of interest on the balance sheet.

 “CSR is not a post-profit activity but a pre-profit activity, seen as part of the cost of steel making,” says Sanjiv Paul, vice-president (corporate services) at Tata Steel. The company introduced workmen’s compensation as early as in 1920 and maternity benefit in 1928. He, however, acknowledges that the recent tussle between large industries and land owners has led to CSR activities being seen as a gimmick to win over public opinion. In Orissa, for example, Tata Steel’s integrated greenfield steel plant at Kalinganagar has been inordinately delayed. Land acquisition has not been smooth for the company’s other projects in the state, such as the deep-sea port at Dhamra or the special economic zone at Gopalpur in Ganjam district. While Tata Steel’s project in Ganjam is stuck, the projects of other steel makers, too, have faced tough resistance.

This hasn’t deterred the company from giving its due to the society. In the coastal town of Gopalpur, for example, Tata Steel’s help was sought by the Orissa Lift Irrigation Corporation (OLIC) to resurrect defunct irrigation systems at the four blocks of Hinjilicut, Chatrapur, Seragada and Degopahndi. OLIC’s irrigation projects, which were initiated in 1968, had failed when water levels fell from 30-40 ft to 70 ft in 1985. OLIC installed new submersible pumps, but corrosion of pipes and silted channels, coupled with sheer lack of maintenance, dried up the project.

Tata Steel Rural Development Society, which works under Tata Steel’s social responsibility wing, undertook the responsibility of reviving some of these irrigation lifts. The idea was to increase yield and income from agriculture and check the distress migration of youth to places such as Mumbai and Surat. An assessment of phase-1 showed a profit of Rs 10.40 lakh in rabi production through improved irrigation methods, benefiting 107 households and covering an area of 30 acres. From a single kharif crop that sometimes failed them, farmers now reap multiple crops such as chilli and groundnut, which fetch more revenues. After Tata Steel stepped into these blocks in Orissa, annual income from a hectare has gone up to Rs 45,000 thanks to improved irrigation.