CSR and Women’s Empowerment in Odisha, India: A Case Study of Business and Social Equity Initiatives

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a term, which has attracted the attention of academics institutions and industries very recently. In India, especially Tata has been implementing CSR activities since 1912. It is the beginning of the 19th century transformed this concept of philanthropy and encouraged the industrialists to empower communities through different capacity building program towards women development and thereby making the community as its stakeholder. The business strategies varies from company to companies, where it is observed that few companies give importance to health care, educational initiatives, environment sustainability, livelihood generation etc. The intervention of micro finance has brought in tremendous changes in the life of woman at the grass root level. The self-help groups (SHGs) are the instrumental in empowering rural women with affordable banking, insurance and entrepreneurial approaches. Keeping this as backdrop, the present study focuses on CSR and women‘s socio-economic empowerment through livelihood generation in Indian Metals and Ferro Alloys Ltd (IMFA) located in Tangi, Cuttack. The study is carried by both primary and secondary sources of data collection. The secondary sources have been utilized by the reported information of the companies in their annual sustainability reports. For the primary data collection, the study utilizes descriptive and exploratory research design with a sample size of 60 women respondents from six different villages to capture the diverse experience and perspective. Interview schedule is used as a tool for data collection and purposive sampling technique is used to fulfil the objectives of the study. The present study attempts to depict the objective to examine the CSR initiatives of SHG and livelihood generation of the rural women under the CSR of IMFA in Cuttack. The major findings shows CSR of IMFA carry out their CSR programs through these SHG groups where they get women folks in collectives. Not only do these corporate indulge in training programs but also give the women, placement assistance and handholding support to start off with their own entrepreneurial ventures, ensure banking and market linkages. The lives of women therefore changed for the better. This present research therefore endeavors to unfurl the aforementioned dimensions of women empowerment. The study would change the very outlook of the thinking of the future researchers for more deliberations and thoughtful contemplation in the similar path.