business group famaous in social accountability

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What is SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY?The measures that are made by an organisation to be aware of concerns to the

community surrounding it. It is reflected in a commitment to health and

safety, civil and human rights and betterment of the community.

The idea of responsible business behaviour is far from new. But since the 1990s,

increasing concern over the impacts of economic globalisation has led to new demands

for corporations to play a central role in efforts to eliminate poverty, achieve equitable

and accountable systems of governance and ensure environmental security. In essence,

the approach is to view business as part of society and to find ways to maximise the

positive benefits that business endeavour can bring to human and environmental well-

being whilst minimising the harmful impacts of irresponsible business. The agenda

that has resulted from these concerns has variously been called corporate citizenship,

corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate accountability or simply corporate

responsibility.

As we all know, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an expression used to describe

what some see as a companys obligation to be sensitive to the needs of all to take

account not only of the financial/economic dimension in decision-making, but also the

social and environmental consequences.
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Sustainable Development

ONE of the most significant developments in the field of CSR over the past few years

has been the growth in public expectations that the companies not only make

commitments to its stakeholders in its business operations. The principle is closely

linked with the imperative of ensuring that these operations are sustainable, that is,

that CSR is recognised as not only necessary but also develop systems to manage

implementation and systematically assess and report on progress relative to those

commitments. Corporate accountability encompasses the systems a company

establishes to develop policies, indicators, targets and processes to manage the full

range of activities. The scope of operations for which companies are expected to be

accountable has increased dramatically in recent years to include not only companys

own performance but also that of the business partners and other actors throughout

the companys value chain. The mechanisms a company uses to demonstrate

accountability are varied and inevitably need to change and grow as a company

evolves; at the same time effective systems for increasing accountability generally

allow the company to be inclusive, responsive and engaged with its stakeholders.

Accountability in its basic sense implies render-ing of accounts and, by extension,

indicate answer-ability to an external agency or group and, further, implies ensuring

propriety, legality and safeguarding public interest in satisfaction of the expectations

of the external agency or group. Social Accountability suggests accountability to the

people; this is a core value in a democratic set-up. In a decentralised democracy the

basic objec-tive is power to the people.


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OVERVIEW

Our Vision

"To actively contribute to the social and economic development of the communities in

which we operate. In doing so, build a better, sustainable way of life for the weaker

sections of society and raise the country's human development index."

Mrs. Rajashree Birla, Chairperson - Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives

and Rural Development

Making a differenceBefore Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) found a place in corporate lexicon, it

was already textured into our Group's value systems. As early as the 1940s, our

founding father Shri G. D. Birla espoused the trusteeship concept of management.

Simply stated, this entails that the wealth that one generates and holds, is to be held as

in a trust for our multiple stakeholders. With regard to CSR, this means investing part

of our profits beyond business, for the larger good of society.

While carrying forward this philosophy, our legendary leader, Mr. Aditya Birla,

weaved in the concept of 'sustainable livelihood', which transcended cheque book

philanthropy. In his view, it was unwise to keep on giving endlessly. Instead, he felt

that channelising resources to ensure that people have the wherewithal to make both

ends meet would be more productive.

He would say, "Give a hungry man fish for a day, he will eat it and the next day, he

would be hungry again. Instead, if you taught him how to fish, he would be able to

feed himself and his family for a lifetime."

Taking these practices forward, our chairman Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla,

institutionalised the concept of triple bottom line accountability represented by


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economic success. Our community work is a way of telling the people among whom

we operate that We Care.

Our strategy

Our projects are carried out under the aegis of the "Aditya Birla Centre for

Community Initiatives and Rural Development", led by Mrs. Rajashree Birla. The

Centre provides the strategic direction, and the thrust areas for our work ensuring

performance management as well.

Our focus is on the all-round development of the communities around our plants

located mostly in distant rural areas and tribal belts. All our Group companies

Grasim,Hindalco,Aditya Birla Nuvo andUltraTech have Rural Development Cells,

which are the implementation bodies.

Our partners in development are government bodies, district authorities, village

panchayats and the end beneficiariesthe villagers. The Government has, in their 5-

year plans, special funds earmarked for human development and we recourse to many

of these.

At the same time, we network and collaborate with like-minded bilateral and

unilateral agencies to share ideas, draw from each other's experiences, and ensure that

efforts are not duplicated. At another level, this provides a platform for advocacy.

Project identification mechanism

All projects are planned in a participatory manner, in consultation with the

community, literally sitting with them, and gauging their basic needs. We take

recourse to "participatory rural appraisal", which is a mapping process. Subsequently,

based on a consensus and in discussion with the village panchayats, we prioritise

requirements. And thus a project is born. Implementation is the responsibility of the

community and our team, as is the monitoring of milestones and the other aspects.
http://www.adityabirla.com/Businesses/Profile/Grasim-Industries-Limitedhttp://adityabirla.com/Businesses/Profile/hindalco-industries-limitedhttp://www.adityabirla.com/Businesses/Profile/aditya-birla-nuvohttp://adityabirla.com/Businesses/Profile/ultratech-cement-limitedhttp://adityabirla.com/Businesses/Profile/ultratech-cement-limitedhttp://www.adityabirla.com/Businesses/Profile/aditya-birla-nuvohttp://adityabirla.com/Businesses/Profile/hindalco-industries-limitedhttp://www.adityabirla.com/Businesses/Profile/Grasim-Industries-Limited


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Monitoring entails physical verification of the progress and the actual output of the

project.

Village meetings are held periodically to elicit feedback on the benefits of ourcommunity programmes and the areas where these need to be beefed up. We try and

ensure that while in the short term we have to do enormous hand-holding, the projects

become sustainable by the beneficiaries over the long haul. Once this stage is reached,

we withdraw. In this way we do not build a culture of dependence, instead we make

the villagers self-reliant.

Model villages

One of our unique initiatives is to develop model villages, so each of our major

companies is working towards the total transformation of a number of villages in

proximity to our plants. Making of a model village entails ensuring self-reliance in all

aspects viz., education, health care and family welfare, infrastructure, agriculture and

watershed management, and working towards sustainable livelihood patterns.

Fundamentally, ensuring that their development reaches a stage wherein villagecommittees take over the complete responsibility and our teams become dispensable.

Our project operations

The geographic reach, annual spends

The footprint of our community work straddles 3,000 villages across the length and

breadth of our country. We reach out to more than 7 million people annually. Over 60

per cent of these live below the poverty line and belong to scheduled castes and tribes.

The Group spends in excess of Rs.130 crore annually, inclusive of the running of 18

hospitals and 42 schools. The Group transcends the conventional barriers of business


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and reaches out to the marginalised as a matter of duty and to bring in a more

equitable society.

Our focus areas

Our rural development activities span five key areas and our single-minded goal here

is to help build model villages that can stand on their own feet. Our focus areas are

healthcare, education, sustainable livelihood, infrastructure and espousing social

causes.

Education

Formal and non-formal education, adult education Scholarships for girls, merit scholarships and technical education for boys Distance education Girl child education Digital literacy / computer education

Health care and family welfare

Pulse polio programme Mobile clinicsdoctors' visits General and multispeciality medical camps, cleft lips Reproductive and child health care, supplementary nutrition / mid-day meal projects Safe drinking water, sanitation household toilets, community hospitals HIV / AIDS, cancer, TB awareness and prevention camps Blood donation Responsible parenting

Social causes

Widow re-marriage / dowry-less mass marriages Social security (insurance) Culture and sports Women empowerment

Infrastructure development


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Community centres Schools in villages Health care centres and hospitals Roads Homes for the homeless Rural electrification Irrigation and water storage structures

Sustainable livelihood

Self-help groups (microfinance for women and farmers) Integrated agriculture development Integrated livestock development Watershed management Microenterprise development Skill development / vocational training through Aditya Birla Technology Park for integrated

training programme and VT centres at most of our plants in collaboration with ITIs

Our partners

WHO, Australia India Council, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Habitat for

Humanity, CII, European Union (EU), British Council, City& Guilds (UK), Global

Compact Network, International Rotary Club, NSDC, FICCI, NABARD, NACO,

CARE, IGNOU, Aide et Action, SEWA, BAIF, MYRADA, Basix, CARD, Art of

Living Foundation, Smile Foundation, Maya Foundation, Childline India Foundation,

local NGOs, District Development Offices, Central and State governments.


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business group famaous in social accountability

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