Abstract
The indomitable spirit of growth of mankind has led to rapid urbanisation and development, steered by industries and corporates. Whether development begets disaster or disaster begets development, is still a matter of on-going discussions and debates, but, each time the society takes a catastrophic hit, humanity begs to question the role of corporate in disaster mitigation, management and rehabilitation. The Companies Act, 2013 of India has steered India into becoming one of the few countries with a mandatory CSR regime. This study finds its genesis in the logical question that follows this premise; since expenditure through CSR is already mandatory in India and is directed towards sustainable development, why not channel such investments in such a manner that disaster resilience becomes inclusive of the final objective of sustainable development? The purpose of this study is to identify those crucial elements of our society and their inter-dependencies which when ideally tweaked and nurtured will lead to a social setup where CSR investments would lead to sustainable development inclusive of disaster resilience.Extensive literature followed by questionnaire survey and interviews were used as a tool to judge and evaluate societal enablers and then they were subjected to interpretive structural modelling which brought out the contextual relationships among the enablers.The resultant model is a hierarchical structure of enablers, revealing their inter-dependencies and relations with each-other. This can help enterprises, corporates, policymakers to understand how to leverage the mandatory CSR regime of India in their favour as well as to create disaster resilience.
Highlights
The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has always been a matter of discussion, be it formally or informally, officially or unofficially and this has been so since the 1950s
When there is an association of companies working on similar processes, they generally tend to focus on similar kind of CSR activities as well and sometimes it becomes easy for them because one just needs to follow the footsteps of others; it is very usual to see motorcycle companies investing in spreading awareness about wearing helmets during riding, driving responsibly etc
The multilevel hierarchy of enablers yields a very interesting interpretation. It should be re-iterated that the primary objective is to develop disaster resilience through CSR leveraging the mandatory CSR regime and since the path to do so is paved with hurdles like skewed investments and hefty investments in a favoured sector, this study intends to identify elements in the socio-political structure of India, which when tweaked or nurtured or re-modelled in a certain way can create disaster resilience and preparedness
Summary
The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has always been a matter of discussion, be it formally or informally, officially or unofficially and this has been so since the 1950s. Bowen published in 1953 as Social Responsibilities of the Businessman marks the beginning of modern day literature in this field. Businesses have expanded, enterprises have grown, processes have become more and more complex owing to globalisation and this in turn has demanded a lot from the societies, primarily in the form of human resources and natural resources. It is in this context that the question posed by Bowen becomes much more relevant, that, are these businesses and enterprises pursuing policies or following those lines of action “which are desirable in terms of the objectives and values of our society”?
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