Introduction:
CSR stands for corporate social responsibility. It is a theory adopted from the western and the roots of this concept was generated in the 19th century in America when American companies started working voluntarily towards the welfare of the society. The term “corporate social responsibility” was first used in the book “Social Responsibilities of Businessman” in 1953. The companies Act of 2013 introduced the Concept of Corporate social responsibility” in India Under section 135 of the Companies Act, which came into effect on April 1, 2014, and it mandated to adopt corporate social responsibility for the companies which have the threshold value for taking up CSR initiatives.
The Companies Act,2013 under section 135 described what companies should constitute a corporate social responsibility committee and it described as follows:
- Company which have
- Net worth which stands at 500 crores
- Companies having a turnover of 100 crore
- Net profit of 5 crores and more.
Composition of CSR committee section 135 of the companies act
- The committee should consist of not more than three directors and one such director should be an Independent director.
- The CSR committee should be disclosed in the companies board report.
Responsibilities of the corporate social responsibility committee
- Recommending or formulating a corporate social responsibility policy suggesting activities to be undertaken by the board.
- Framing the revenue expenditure for such activities
- Time to time analysis if the CSR policy.
Today many big and large-scale companies work towards the welfare of the society as that is their corporate social responsibility and they also spend huge amounts on the Initiatives under the CSR policy and in this article, we will discuss one such company which do outstanding work towards the welfare of society under their corporate social responsibility and the company is Dabur India Ltd.
Dabur is a company which have a belief that a business can and it should take initiatives for the betterment of the society and it realized that social work can help a company to earn the trust of the consumers and Dabur has successfully achieved the same by its corporate social responsibility policy.
Dabur India’s CSR policy
The inspiration behind the effective CSR policy of Dabur is the words of the founder of the company Dr Burman who said: “what is that life worth which cannot bring comfort for the others”. Dabur’s CSR policy is based on such a manner that while delivering and introducing products for health and wellness of the consumers it also keeps in mind to adopt ways to reduce its impact on the environment to protect the planet and also extending help to the community.
CSR Mission of Dabur India Ltd
- Dabur India Ltd aims towards making Self Reliant the poor and unprivileged section of the society by adopting the socio-economic model if development and taking up various need-based initiatives which helps the poverty-ridden section of the society to create a better world for themselves.
- Dabur India Ltd encourages protection of the plants of endangered species and ensuring sustainable development and promotion of biodiversity.
Dabur India Ltd.’s community initiative
- SUNDESH: The Ngo initiates many participatory and the initiatives which are needed for ensuring sustainability in development and helping of the rural and urban poverty-ridden sections.
- Swasthya Chetna Abhiyan: This initiative was taken with the aim to launch a program for informing and awaking people regarding the issue of low immunity and this program was launched in the rural sections of the State of Uttar Pradesh and in the six rural Areas of the State of Bihar.
- Samajhdar Maa, swastha bacha: The idea behind this initiative was to conducting health check-ups for the infants.
- Machchhar Mukti Abhiyan: Dabur India Ltd joined hands with odomas for this initiative for making people aware of the deadly mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and dengue which causes thousands of deaths across the country each year.
Focus Areas of Dabur’s CSR policy
Four key focus areas are:
1. Eradication of hunger, malnutrition and poverty
Under this scheme, provisions were made for providing food, nutrition supplement and clothes for poor kids and for promoting nutrition in Anganwadi and to provide safe drinking water and shelter homes for the poor.
2. Promoting Health care including preventive Health care
This program aims towards providing provisions for health check-up and awareness program for preventing female feticide, building immunity and Prevention of diseases.
3. Ensuring environmental sustainability and ecological balance:
Under this initiative, provisions are made regarding promotion of flora and fauna and school drives making children aware about the importance of the plants and promoting animal welfare and various other activities for promoting environmental sustainability.
4. Employment and livelihood generation enhancing skills
Under this initiative, new skills such as beautician, mehndi design application, tailoring and other skills were taught to Individuals for skill development program.
Other Activities
5. Promotion of Education
This program was led with the vision of promoting education in children and women and provisions were made for supporting education for children and encouraging them towards taking up higher education and supply of toiletries, benches and stationery in schools and development of infrastructure of schools and other educational institutions.
6. Encouraging Gender equality
Provisions were made regarding promotion of education in women, promoting and providing credit facilities for self Reliant women, setting up homes for women, establishing old age homes for senior citizens, training for skill development in women.
7. Promotion of technology incubators
Dabur provided funds for technological incubators for the government-approved institutions.
8. Rural Development programs were initiated.
Dabur also worked in the areas for promotion of sports activities in rural areas and to ensure the welfare of disabled people and to set up libraries of public use for free and the welfare of windows army personnel and restoration of the cultural, traditional and handicrafts heritage of India.
Implementation of CSR policy by Dabur India Ltd.
Dabur implement its CSR Policy on its own but for better implementation, it also includes following ways for better implementation of its CSR policy:
- Principal implementer being Dabur foundation, Dr S K Burman charitable trust and SUNDESH foundation.
- Dabur join hands with various groups and Ngo which works for the above-mentioned causes.
- Providing funds to which works parallel to their cause such as prime minister welfare fund.
- Dabur multiplies its resources by mixing them with other companies which aims towards the welfare of society.
Dabur’s CSR funds
- Dabur uses 2 % of the average net profits made by the company as prescribed under section 135 of the companies Act,2013.
- Income arising therefrom.
- Any income which was incorporated from carrying out the CSR activities is used only for the CSR policy implementation and not counted as the profit of the company.
The valuation of Dabur’s CSR Funds for the year 2019-20 was 28 crores and the estimated valuation of the CSR Funds for the year 2020-21 is 29 crore and for this Dabur India Ltd is one of the top contributors for CSR Policy.
Dabur India Ltd initiative for Covid 19 relief
Dabur established “Dabur care funds for Covid 19” for the Protection of mankind and livelihoods of people who are extremely affected by the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic and for the same Dabur group issued funds of 21 crores for Covid relief for the year 2020-2021 and to implement the same Dabur made provisions for
- Providing 10,000 beds for Covid hospitals
- Donating Covid testing vans
- PPE kits and protective items for the police officers.
- Immunity building program for community and migrant labour
- Donating and producing hygiene and safety kits.
Dabur’s Message on CSR policy
Dabur gives a message for promoting participatory CSR initiatives rather than charity as Dabur India Ltd believe that charity makes people irresponsible towards the cause and they don’t take the awareness program sincerely. At Dabur, they charge ten-rupee from an individual for a monthly subscription of health services so they don’t take them for granted and they also charge a little form the households to build toilet in their home so they too feel connected and are inspired to work towards the welfare of the society rather than just accepting them as mere gifts And Dabur encourage its corporate colleague for the same.
Conclusion
Dabur India Ltd spends a lot on its corporate social responsibility with the vision of ensuring the welfare of each individual. Dabur was engaged in the social work way before it was mandated by the law. Dabur is doing social and community work since 1994. Dabur does not believe in charity rather it demands the active participation of Individual in return of its community help Initiatives. Dabur also believes that for efficient implementation of their corporate social responsibility policy it is essential for joining hands with other groups which are working towards the parallel cause as it increases the resources and minimizes the efforts and costs of implementation of the CSR policy for the betterment of the society and the community.
References:
- Dabur India’s CSR policy, Dabur India
https://www.dabur.com/amp/in/en-us/csr-be-the-change/csr-policy
- CSR interview, CSR universe, https://thecsruniverse.com/interview-with-dabur-india-csr-head-a-sudhakar/.
- CSR at Dabur, India Csr, https://indiacsr.in/tag/csr-at-dabur/.
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