Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been at the heart of discussions on July 20th in Bangalore, India. Behind the watch in the picture is a celebrated example of CSR in the Indian context.
A women's self-help group and a corporation found common ground to work together, literally. Disadvantaged young women with little formal education have taken on value-added activities on behalf of Titan Industry, a subsidiary of one India's and one of the world's leading companies, the Tata Group.
How did this come to be?
According to Anand G Rao (center in photo), Manager for Corporate Social Responsibility at Titan Industries, it started simple. The women's self-help group sequentially took on tasks like cleaning uniformed and supplying a selected food item to factory workers. Then climbing the value chain, they secured the right to participate in semi-skilled operations around watchstraps.
Today, even precision tasks such as setting diamonds and rubies are handled by young women, some say, would otherwise be ignored in the economic and social terms. Formalised today as MEADOW (Management of Enterprises And Development Of Women), the young women count as valued suppliers to Titan Industries.
A young lady we met at the factory supervises a group of, maybe, 50 women. She hands on the knowledge she has learned to the newcomers. My family are proud of me, she says. I send my children to the Titan school.
At Titan school, the story continues. It's a private school historically dedicated in priority to Titan employees. Today, the school is so successful that many well-to-do families wish their children to be educated there, too. Children learn art, physical education, classical Western and classical Indian music, as well as yoga, says Sajeetha Barathi, Principal of Titan school. To that we add the academics (!), where our student score very highly and accede to the best universities.
The meeting was kindly organized by the Corporate Social Responsibility Manager of our partner Alliance University, Mrs Leela Karkaria (left in photo). Mrs Karkaria also published a fascinating article on the like between Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility in the India context.
Desmond McGetrick (right in photo), published Harnessing management and market mechanisms for societal benefit: the blurring distinction between for profit and not for profit enterprise as co-author of the third book in the Paris School of Business-Harmattan book collection, Les Nouveaux Enjeux du Management.
A women's self-help group and a corporation found common ground to work together, literally. Disadvantaged young women with little formal education have taken on value-added activities on behalf of Titan Industry, a subsidiary of one India's and one of the world's leading companies, the Tata Group.
How did this come to be?
According to Anand G Rao (center in photo), Manager for Corporate Social Responsibility at Titan Industries, it started simple. The women's self-help group sequentially took on tasks like cleaning uniformed and supplying a selected food item to factory workers. Then climbing the value chain, they secured the right to participate in semi-skilled operations around watchstraps.
Today, even precision tasks such as setting diamonds and rubies are handled by young women, some say, would otherwise be ignored in the economic and social terms. Formalised today as MEADOW (Management of Enterprises And Development Of Women), the young women count as valued suppliers to Titan Industries.
A young lady we met at the factory supervises a group of, maybe, 50 women. She hands on the knowledge she has learned to the newcomers. My family are proud of me, she says. I send my children to the Titan school.
At Titan school, the story continues. It's a private school historically dedicated in priority to Titan employees. Today, the school is so successful that many well-to-do families wish their children to be educated there, too. Children learn art, physical education, classical Western and classical Indian music, as well as yoga, says Sajeetha Barathi, Principal of Titan school. To that we add the academics (!), where our student score very highly and accede to the best universities.
The meeting was kindly organized by the Corporate Social Responsibility Manager of our partner Alliance University, Mrs Leela Karkaria (left in photo). Mrs Karkaria also published a fascinating article on the like between Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility in the India context.
Desmond McGetrick (right in photo), published Harnessing management and market mechanisms for societal benefit: the blurring distinction between for profit and not for profit enterprise as co-author of the third book in the Paris School of Business-Harmattan book collection, Les Nouveaux Enjeux du Management.
