Every business organization is bound by law to allocate a certain amount of its profits towards social causes. This is known as Corporate Social Responsibility, commonly referred to as CSR. When doing a CSR activity, companies are expected to spend their own resources for the betterment of the society while getting no financial gain in return. CSR is a type of business approach that aims for the overall development of the community by undertaking social, economical and environmental initiatives.
Large scale corporate houses today are more aware of their role in the society. It understands the kind of impact they can have on the world. This is why all big and medium sized businesses have started allotting a significant part of their company revenue towards CSR operations. Companies are giving away large sums of money to improve the world we are living in. Every organization should own up the responsibility it has towards the society and community they operate in. That is where CSR plays a key role.
CSR can be of different types:
- Environmental – where companies work towards creating a cleaner and greener planet. Causes like pollution, recycling and climate change are tackled.
- Community-based – where companies join hands with smaller non-profit institutions to improve the quality of life in a community. Organizations provide vocational training for the local people, financial aid to set up small scale industries, build better schools and hospitals, etc.
- Philanthropy – where companies donate money to a good cause, usually through a charity partner.
The CSR fund in Kolkata is mostly used by corporations for social welfare and community issues. Efforts are aimed at providing easy access to education and skill development, bridging gender inequality, creation of employment opportunities, creating awareness about preventive healthcare, tackling hunger and malnutrition, and measures to empower socially and economically backward groups.
The most important social cause in any backward or underprivileged community is the lack of education opportunities. Access to free and compulsory primary education is the fundamental right of every child in India. But unfortunately, many children in this country are deprived of this basic right. There are thousands of children in our rural areas and also the city who do not get access to quality education. To help these poor kids, there are many social welfare organizations that run NGO schools in Kolkata.
As a metro city, Kolkata has a large share of its population who are living in the slums. Many families from the rural areas migrate to the city in search of better working opportunities, but unfortunately end up living on the streets or at under construction sites. The children of these families are often involved in child labor. Some of them are forced into begging on the streets. A vast number of corporate organizations have given their CSR fund to work towards the betterment of these underprivileged children. They provide financial aid to organizations that run schools in these slum areas and provide equal learning opportunities for the kids. These NGO schools play a crucial role in empowering children from the poor community. They provide good quality education to child laborers and street kids, creating hope for a better future for these children. With the help of volunteer participation, these NGO schools help the children to catch up on their education years and prepare them to take up formal schooling in the future.
One of the biggest problems for education in our country is the lack of infrastructure. The number of government schools are few and far in between. This is the case as seen in both rural as well as urban regions. For the few schools that are there, it lacks in basic facilities like electricity, chairs and desks, and even toilets. There is also a severe shortage of teachers and administrators. There are many social welfare organizations who are working hard at the grassroots level to provide equal opportunities for the underprivileged children from the poor sections of the society.
The lack of properly built toilets in a school building is one of the primary causes for girls dropping out of schools during their teenage years. A good way to spend a company’s fund is to build separate toilets for boys and girls in a school building. They can also contribute by providing the schools with blackboards, chairs and benches, computers, and other technological equipment. All of this helps in improving the state of education on our country. By contributing with their financial resources, businesses can help to bring about positive changes in this society.
