Daily Times

It is a twin strategy that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in national and multinational organizations need to address, on the one hand, the urgent needs of the less-privileged, and on the other, initiating a training and development program for them in order to enhance their job-oriented skills and help them move forward in their professional lives, by reassuring them and giving them the motivation they need to develop further.

CSR basically includes philanthropic or social work that involves the care of the impoverished segments of our society who live in the shadows of the opulent and luxurious lifestyle of our elites. It involves organizations, usually multinationals, that help people as a matter of policy, by providing them with alms or charity, grants or loans and financial aid for them to use to improve their lifestyles.

Imagine the less-privileged of our schools, colleges and universities across Pakistan. Think about the toiling street vendors, be it Sindh, Balochistan, Punjab and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Look at exhausted cobblers, labourers, car cleaners, cart pushers, street charmers, rickshaw drivers, and the large number of beggars on the streets. Or you can turn to the houses or offices of the elites and the rich, and just observe the way they exploit their office peons, lower staff, domestic servants, gardeners, security personnel, and drivers etc.

What is important is the sense of responsibility of the “haves” for the “have not’s” in helping the latter out in personal, social and financial crises. But what is vital is to carve out and act upon a pertinent and practical strategy in inculcating a life-changing spirit of self-reliance and self-confidence, enabling our countless poor to stand on their own feet and look towards a better and brighter society in the future.

What is important is the sense of responsibility of the “haves” for the “have not’s” in helping the latter out in personal, social and financial crises. But what is vital is to carve out and act upon a pertinent and practical strategy in inculcating a life-changing spirit of self-reliance and self-confidence, enabling our countless poor to stand on their own feet and look towards a better and brighter society in the future

If CSR just focuses on temporary relief in cash or kind for the poor, it may lead to a crippling dependence on financial aid and these ‘handouts’. It is ironical for CSR to neglect the vital factor of giving people professional training and teaching so that they can find long term solutions to their financial problems. What is actually needed is monetary and social relief, blended with a strong and long lasting training in self-assurance and vocational training that will lead to self-actualization.

It is a question of CSR insights and initiatives changing mindsets and die-hard habits of the common man. This is a daunting test, especially when talented and capable nephews or nieces look for influential uncles to get them jobs, when seeking commercial tutors becomes a fashionable trend to pass exams, when banking on IMF, USAID, CIDA and alike become helpless hallmarks of our financial wizards.

Among exemplary CSR initiatives is IoBM, being the first private university in Sindh to launch their Four Year Fully Funded Engineering Education program that leads to a Degree of Bachelor of Electrical Engineering and Bachelor of Industrial Engineering, for deserving students that are selected on merit and belong to less-privileged areas of Sindh. These initiatives help in inculcating in them a sense of self-reliance and enable them to stand on their own feet with grace, dignity and honour.

The writer is the HoD and Senior Faculty of Public Affairs, at IoBM, Karachi. He can be contacted at parvez@iobm.edu.pk

Published in Daily Times, September 18^th 2018.