15/07/2020
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR)
TOWARDS PROTECTION OF NATIONAL HERITAGE, ART AND CULTURE
CSR is about capacity building for sustainable livelihoods. It respects cultural differences and finds the business opportunities in building the skills of employees, the community and the government.
CSR is the procedure for assessing an organization’s impact on society and evaluating their responsibilities. It begins with an assessment of the following aspects of each business:
• Customers;
• Suppliers;
• Environment;
• Communities; and,
• Employees.
The most effective CSR plans ensure that while organizations comply with legislation, their investments also respect the growth and development of marginalized communities, common people in the society and the environment. CSR should also be sustainable – involving activities that an organization can uphold without negatively affecting their business goals.
Indian organizations have been quite sensible in taking up CSR initiatives and integrating them into their business processes. The organizations have recognized that besides growing their businesses, it is also important to shape responsible and supportable relationships with the community at large, because ultimately it’s the society which helps and provides support to any industry to sustain and flourish. CSR is just an Idea of ‘giving back’ to the society.
Companies now have specific departments and teams that develop specific policies, strategies, and goals for their CSR programs and set separate budgets to support them. Most of the time, these programs are based on well-defined social beliefs or are carefully aligned with the companies’ business domain.
An American Economist and pioneering CSR scholar, Howard Bowen defined CSR as “obligations to pursue those policies, to make those decisions, or follow those actions which are desirable in terms of the objectives and values of our society.” Therefore, CSR is understood as a business approach that contributes effectively to sustainable development.
As we all know that India is the first country in the world to make corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandatory, following an amendment to the Companies Act, 2013 in April 2014. The amendment notified in the Companies Act, 2013 requires companies with a net worth of INR 500 crore or more, or an annual turnover of INR 1000 crore or more, or net profit of INR 5 crore or more, to spend 2 percent of their average net profits of three years on CSR. Prior to that, the CSR clause was voluntary for companies, though it was mandatory to disclose their CSR spending to shareholders. It’s a government initiative to regulate and ensure the ‘responsible business’ attitude within the corporate.
As JEREMY MOON, a New Zealand businessman and entrepreneur have correctly stated, “whilst governmental regulation may be important for responsible business, it can lack sensitivity to business circumstances and social agendas. So, social regulation of business through CSR is regarded as a complement to governmental regulation rather than as an alternative. As a result CSR is not only significant in business to society relations but also in understanding new features of ‘the way we are governed’”.
Role of CSR in protection of art and culture
The art is a strong medium of our expression and also a mirror which reflects exactly how we look as a ‘society’. The prevailing arts in any society keep on doing an important role in representing, cultivating and expressing the ‘culture’ of that society.
Art and culture plays a very vital role in building of any Nation. It not only a matter of pride and heritage but it also represents a set of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices within the citizens. A country as diverse as India is symbolized by the plurality of its culture. Indian culture refers collectively to the thousands of distinct and unique cultures of all religions and communities present in India.
India is the only nation where the religions, languages, festivals, customs, life styles, arts, cultures, dance forms, music and food differs from place to place within the country. It’s a diversity of the nation which makes it unique in the world. Indian culture often labeled as an amalgamation of several cultures, spans across the Indian subcontinent and has been influenced by a history that is several millennia old. Many elements of India's diverse cultures, such as Indian religions, philosophy, cuisine, languages, dance, music and movies have a profound impact across the Indosphere, Greater India and the world.
Clause (v) of Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013 covers the field of ‘protection of national heritage, art and culture including restoration of buildings and sites of historical importance and work of art; setting up public libraries; promotion and development of traditional art and handicrafts’ under the activities which may be included by companies in their Corporate Social Responsibility Policies.
Present trends on CSR in India and abroad:
According to a survey , since the CSR provision was made mandatory by the government in 2014, CSR spending by corporate India has increased significantly. In 2018, companies spent 47 percent higher as compared to the amount in 2014-15, contributing INR 7,536 crores (US $1 billion) to CSR initiatives.
Taking into account the recent amendments to CSR provisions, industry research estimates CSR compliance to improve and range between 97 to 98 percent by FY 2019-20.
The education sector received the maximum funding followed by hunger, poverty, and healthcare, environmental sustainability, rural development. Programs such as protection of art and culture, technology incubators, sports, armed forces, reducing inequalities saw negligible spends.
CSR is a broad concept that encapsulates many areas such as environment, education, corporate governance, health and safety, human rights, women and child development and many other areas of social concern as well as workplace wellbeing. Most companies in the West have focused on these areas as far as CSR funding is concerned. However, there are also examples of some firms branching out to some niche areas such as conservation and preservation of Art, culture and heritage. For instance, the American Express has invested over $70 million in support of historic preservation efforts around the world since 1974. Their funding has preserved more than 620 sites, from the National Memorial and Museum in New York to the English Tower in Argentina.
However, protection of art and culture and heritage conservation has not been seen as the field of interest for companies who have largely directed their CSR budgets towards solving educational issues, environmental concerns and addressing workplace concerns, apart from spending a portion on other causes. Though some firms have displayed visible interest in this area and have invested in conservation projects in the past.
Following pie chart represents the results based on random survey done on the CSR spending of 10 public limited companies during the Financial Year 2018- 19:
To understand the Theme-wise CSR sending trends in India, for last three years till 2018, following chart can be referred:
Thus it can be clearly observed that the field of ‘Protection of National heritage Art and Culture’ is one of the most neglected areas by the Indian companies while considering CSR amount expenditure. The reasons behind this may be much deeper than just the economical. In my opinion, it relates to the thinking process, social upbringing and psychology of a society as a whole. The following reasons can be considered for this issue –
1. Art and culture were never considered as a ‘necessity’ for the human beings. If was never included in the list of basic needs of life i.e. food, clothing, shelter, education and health.
2. It is considered that investing amount on such kind of projects do not give anything productive and material in return to the society. Like spending on education improves the quality of skilled manpower for the future or spending on health increases quality of life of people.
3. Further there can be a case that it is generally assumed by the people that art is just an integral part of human being which is going to remain as such forever in any form. Thus there is no need to make any special efforts to protect it.
4. Or considering the economic state of the society, the companies may be of the opinion that – while there are many more severe issues before the society like malnutrition, illiteracy, unemployment etc.; there is no time and need to look after other less important issues like protection of art and culture.
Art is always considered as a ‘luxury’ which can be afforded by a person whose basic needs are already satisfied. If we say it more clearly in the language of our society, – art and culture can be thought of only when the stomach is full and ends are met. So art and culture was never a priority.
However, if one can give a serious thought, it can be really observed that all the above factors are not really true. We need a much liberal view toward our own culture and heritage. Instead of being just ‘proud of it’, we need to understand the need of protecting it for our future generations.
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How can CSR perform a vital role in protection of art and culture In India?
India has one of the world’s largest collections of songs, music, dance, theatre, folk traditions, performing arts, rites and rituals, paintings and writings that are known, as the ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ (ICH) of humanity.
The art is a part as well as the language of any culture which can convey a true picture of any regime to its decedents. India has indeed a very glorious culture to be passed on to our future generations. But for that, it has to be well preserved and protected. That’s the reason why specifically in India, Protection of art and culture becomes very important and CSR – a policy that talks about the social, moral and ethical aspects of business – can play an important role!
It is common knowledge that most Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds are directed towards education, health and employment creation. Education is the most preferred intervention area for companies, especially companies with medium CSR budget, and this is expected to remain the most preferred theme for years to come. Three-fourth’s of the top 100 companies are supporting at least one program in education. In spite of being an avenue in significant need, art, culture and heritage conservation found no favour with corporate for CSR spending until recently.
According to the latest Annual CSI Tracker, in Financial Year 2016-17 there was an increase in spending in the field of national heritage by 153%, with the number of companies spending towards art heritage increasing by about 24%.
A total of 130 companies invested in this area in 2017, whereas 79 companies did so in 2015. To go into details, non-PSEs (Public Sector Undertakings) contributed Rs 57 crore towards national heritage, whereas 18 PSEs spent Rs 144.72 crore. PSE’s especially showed a huge surge as they had spent only Rs. 11.98 crore in the field in FY 16.
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All the writers, poets, painters, craftsmen, play writers, film producers, actors, film directors, tailors, scientists, architects, historians, reviewers and all those who are always engaged in the process of new avenues are the artists. They are not only the inherent but the absolutely fundamental part of our society.
The corporate citizens of this country are our economic pillars. As social duty and as a part of their social responsibility, the companies in India should think of investing funds in this field.
The artists and their art is a ‘camera’ which is capturing the picture of our society as of today to be shown to our several future generations. So better look good and behave in a better way today in from of them. Let’s be mature enough to protect our heritage today and to keep our doors of communication open for our future generations.
