Corporate Social Responsibility at Bharat Petroleum: A Project Report On
Corporate Social Responsibility at Bharat Petroleum: A Project Report On
Corporate Social Responsibility at Bharat Petroleum: A Project Report On
INDEX Sr. No. I) II) III) Title Acknowledgment Epilogue Executive Summary Chapters 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) Introduction to the CSR Objective of BPCL towards CSR Methodology adopted by BPCL for CSR Sharing wider responsibilities at BPCL BPCL: CSR in Business Process Environment Internal CSR activities Other CSR activities Achievements by BPCL Conclusion and Suggestions Bibliography 6 7 7 8 12 16 18 20 21 22 Page No. 3 4 5
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my gratitude to all those who gave me the possibility to complete this project. I want to thank first instance. I am deeply indebted to Prof. whose help, stimulating suggestions and encouragement helped me in all the time for the Project. Last but not the least, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all those who have contributed directly or indirectly to make this project a reality. for giving me opportunity to commence this project in the
Epilogue
As it was the first time I was doing this project, it was a tough job for me. social responsibility Corporate social responsibility is my first Management project. Although great efforts were put & extensive study is done for this project to accomplish what was required, but there are times when things just dont go the way one expects. So, I humbly appeal you good selfs to overlook all the mistakes wherever you find them. I will try to develop my gray areas. I will try my level best not to repeat the mistakes in the future. Thanking you for your anticipation Yet I learnt a lot of things in corporate
Executive Summary
The project enables me to know various aspects of Corporate Social Responsibilities and its importance and steps taken by Bharat Petroleum towards social activities. BPCL is a Model Corporate Entity with Social Responsibility and also builds a powerful partnership with society for Sustainable Development. As a corporate responsibility, today 37 villages across India have been adopted by BPCL. This includes making substantial investments for nearly a decade and a half in them to make them fully self reliant, providing them fresh drinking water, sanitation facilities, medical facilities, enhancing their income standards by imparting vocational training and agricultural innovations. However, BPCL also firmly believes that the only vehicle for raising the villagers from their present state is by educating the young and the old, a focus on providing grants for opening schools and opening adult literacy camps as well. A Herculean task indeed, which BPCL recognized and thus even sought assistance from NGO's working around these centers in fulfilling its dream, which to many of BPCL employee's still remains incomplete, on account of the large magnitude of work necessary in completion.
Globalization, the explosion of information technology, advances in the biological sciences, and the growth of democracy and diversity can be considered among the positive developments in our world today. On the other hand, poverty, environmental crises such as global warming, epidemics such as AIDS, and terrorism are also part of today's world. What do these positive and negative aspects have in common? They reflect the breathtaking increase in global interdependence, to the extent that borders don't count for much anymore and local communities are increasingly affected by things that happen a long way from home. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been proposed as a way to respond to some of these issues, both locally and globally. According to "Integrating Responsibility," most companies that have initiated CSR programs have done so in response to one problem or another; for example, in the thermal power station, it was environmental issues. CSR programs have also surfaced in the sourcing departments of companies facing supply chain issues.
Building Sustainable Communities - to have a positive impact on the communities in which we operate Health and Safety - to ensure the health and safety of our workforce and communities Environment - to minimize adverse impacts while taking steps to protect and enhance the natural environment Employees train tomorrows leaders in teamwork skills and running socially responsible business
3. Methodology
Integrated with Business Strategy and Context
Leverage our Core competency People and Technology Three way Execution model for Community Projects Develop deserving Communities through Focused & Need based interventions No Giveaways Create Sustainable Models which are Replicable & Scalable
With years our focus changed from restorative to preventive as well as primitive, holistic health. Talks on various issues at plant level like addiction, HIV/AIDS, parental issues, time and finance management, and family relationships were initiated, which still continues and gives considerable positive returns. For the above mentioned activities they have collaborated with various Non Government Organizations, to deliver 8
best humane services for our employees and their family members. Eventually, their involvement in the whole process of employee related issues were taken, there by channelising their energy positively as well as encouraging prosocial behavior. India, has a social contrast, while one strata of the society comprising of approximately 30% live in the cities, a great percentage of nearly double -700 million Indians reside in villages, which we term as rural India. Now rural India too has its own disparity, some are what we call the islands of prosperity and the rest that have the other extremes, riddled by droughts and some difficult conditions of weather and climate and sometimes these villages are so remote and far flung from cities that many a times makes others go past unnoticed BPCL initially started working in Mahul, the village located in our neighborhood of its Mumbai refinery since 1986, for the sole reason of their upliftment. The habitants of Mahul, essentially from the fishing community, were rich because they possessed marine wealth but as far as education, health, etc was concerned, they needed help.
Some of Bharat Petroleum's assistance to these inhabitants so far has been Infrastructural development, like construction of jetty, Balwadi, Homeopathic Dispensary Vocational guidance through aptitude testing, scientific vocational need based study through Jan Shikshan Sansthan (NGO under ministry of HRD) Exhibition for the Fishermen to equip them with latest avenues in fishing through Central Institute Of Fisheries Education(CIFE)
BPCL volunteered and the initial success brought such gratification that immediately it adopted another village (this time an interior one) called Karjat, developments with selfless intentions helped introspect about the future role BPCL should adopt in its aim to contribute to this effort, then there after there was no looking back The rationale behind selecting Karjat for community development initiatives was that the company wanted to work for vulnerable groups. The Karjat endeavor began with construction of a community hall, which was like a meeting place for villagers and way of reaching out to village women. Later many programs like medical assistance, grain bank, marketing artifacts, conducting certified vocational training courses, etc were carried out. From last 10 years farmers in 21 villages of karjat are 9
helped through our interventions. There are eight villages, which are covered through BPCLs projects in and around Washala. Washala is situated in Shahpur taluka in Thane district. It is made up of tribal population. The various on-going activities are:
Farm facts:
For agricultural upliftment, BPCL arrange training through Pune Agricultural University, distribute seeds and fertilizers every year. There are lectures arranged on technical guidance, use of less water for farming, teaching newer methods of agriculture, etc. They also educate the farmers about fish farming and provide them all necessary information. Guidance is also given as regards buying of seeds. The methods of multiple cropping are taught. Every year farmers are given free fertilizers. Bamboo cultivation is also promoted. 5000 Bamboo saplings are planted every year, by giving it to villagers who will take care of it. Along with it, even mango, chikku and guava saplings are provided.
Cattle care:
At Karjat, BPCL conduct exhibitions of cattle of various breeds, training sessions are arranged for improving the health of available cattle, there is vaccine program conducted on regular basis for all pet animals. Competitions are also held among cattle and prizes are given to the best cattle. Once a year there is a camp organized in which doctors from veterinary inspect all the cattle.
Education:
For motivating intelligent students coaching is provided to students. Balwadis is available for small children as pre-school intervention. Tree plantation programs are held at Adivasi ashram schools.
Health:
A dispensary with a doctor is available and regular health camps are conducted. General health camps are organized twice a year. To cater to the needs of all villagers, may it be men, women, senior citizens, children and so on. To ensure proper eyesight, eye camps are conducted periodically. their sight back through this endeavor. There are camps held for pregnant women regarding guidance in pregnancy, stress on nutrition, etc.
Grain Bank:
In the villages of Karjat, Rural Farmers were dependent on money lenders for money as well as seeds and grains and thus in turn fell in the
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debt trap. The money lenders would harass them and exploit them. For e.g. for every one quintal of grain borrowed, the farmer would have to return it three quintals. To avoid such exploitation, IRCED came out with the grain bank scheme. The concept of grain bank was to make grains easily accessible to the farmers and to keep them away from the clutches of the moneylenders. Grains are made available to the farmers without any advance and they also do not have to return anything extra than what they had taken. Through BPCL, there is also a small room allocated for the purpose of maintaining the grain bank in every village so that the grains do not get spoilt.
Community centre:
We have provided a multipurpose Samaj Mandir at Pinglas Karjat for the Villagers to have a meeting point. There is a community centre which encompasses classes for villagers on tailoring, mehendi, beautician course, bamboo article making, multi-skill training, etc. Cane Weaving and Bamboo making classes are conducted regularly. Tailoring is helping the girls in income generation. Later there is also an exhibition held in Mumbai for sale of the bamboo articles made in these villages.
To make available water in case of scarcity, there was a need felt to start a project on rain water harvesting. The work has just begun. As this is a hilly area the problem of ground water and land water still remains. For provision of water, tube wells and small dams are made for the villagers.
Infrastructure development:
We have constructed shed for schools. For e.g. repairing the fans, replacing broken furniture, etc jetty for fishermen so that they can rest in the night when they are not fishing. We have also constructed a public toilet. We are vigilant in keeping the surroundings clean. Timely garbage disposal is also taken care of. Tree plantation programs are carried out on a regular basis. .
A group of women came together in Karjat who felt the need of being together and saving some amount of money. They started meeting regularly and since then they collect savings and deposit in the bank this
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is a scheme whereby every village will have one woman leader. This leader is trained in such a way that she is able to manage the whole group of other women, take training sessions for them, conducts awareness programs and also provides counseling help. Such women leaders are termed as SAKHI, which means a friend in Marathi. Thus the groups serve a double purpose, that of starting a small-scale business and that of learning through various sessions. These meetings help them to improve their quality of life.
in
Business
Process
As energy corporate, BPCL feel that we may have a larger say in the course of many events in the coming decades. The consequence of our actions, in the short term, may be totally inadequate but in the long term very valid. It is thus that BPCL finds it necessary and proceeds with utmost caution, when it comes to issues related with the environment. The magnitude of the problem concerning this sensitive eco-balance is so massive that the best way forward for BPCL, as it sees ahead, for the 12
above being achieved is using a two pronged approach of executing environmental protection activities and sharing knowledge, with a view to educate the common man on this front. The four reasons, believed to be the cause for treading cautiously in matters related to the environment are as follows. 1. Moral responsibility towards the environment. 2. Understanding of the need for an ecological balance. 3. The understanding of the inter-linkages of the web of life. Inadequacy of Human 4. Understanding of Environmental Process. The above four cover the entire canvas of concerns for the subject and BPCLs contribution towards the same has also been oriented around its objective. Like mentioned, BPCLs corporate philosophy towards environment is also directed towards life and mankind. Thus, it is a tacit responsibility that it proposes to undertake without any solemn promises made. In other words, it would try and ensure that at least in its conscious actions, BPCL would not become party to any decisions which will have damaging consequences to this earth & the life on it. BPCL, on the other hand would give its best in educating mankind, on the necessity of understanding the dynamics of the fragile eco-diversity and hope to seek contributions from each individual in maintaining the balance.
And that is exactly what they have been doing. Currently, 166 disabled persons are employed with BPCL. The recruitment process is duly monitored to ensure that vacancies for physically handicapped persons do not remain vacant. Special relaxation is given to these candidates up to 10 years of the required age profile for the post. And whenever required, special recruitment drives are undertaken. Its not just recruiting candidates with disability BPCL ensures that they are assigned suitable work and a good working environment in the organization. For e.g., visually impaired employees are provided with customized computers equipped with optical character recognizers, enabling them to work independently Disabled employees are also encouraged in activities outside the organization a visually impaired employee was sent on Rock Climbing Mountaineering Course, and successfully scaled a peak of over 13,000 feet in West Sikkim! BPCL even follows carefully laid down reservation policies for allotment of dealerships and distributorships to physically disabled candidates. What's more, special concessions and financial assistance is given to deserving candidates initiating the business Other areas of Corporate Social Responsibility that BPCL is active in: it has adopted 37 villages in 13 states, directly impacting 120,000 people; it has initiated the Bharat Petroleum Scholarship' to promote excellence in higher education; it has contributed towards community facilities and infrastructure; and donated generously in times of calamity and disaster.
Cataract camps for villagers, vocational classes to make the rural women self-reliant, development of rural women and children, providing sanitation and drinking water in the villages, are just a few of the many contributions made by Bharat Petroleum to meet its social responsibilities. In recognition of the outstanding work done in the area of Rural Development, FICCI awarded the 'Rural Development Award 1999-2000' to Bharat Petroleum. List of 20 villages adopted * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Bhogalpura (Agra) Srinivasapura & Muneshwara (Bangalore) Neelgarh (Bhopal) Ramathenga (Bhubaneshwar) Brindabanpur & Farakidanga (Calcutta) Jahazpur (Calcutta) Mankara (Calcutta) Kadambankulam (Coimbatore) Basantgarh (Delhi) Jyotinagar (Goa) Nangalgovind (Jaipur) Babukhera (Lucknow) Pedawada/Manjripal (Nagpur) Laakarhawar (Patna) Kasabkhede / Pohey (Pune) Khara Bairaja (Rajkot) Mangadih / Jaradih / Dimra / Obar (Ranchi) Bhaktachiwadi / Mogrej (Karjat) Tembre (Karjat) Mahul (Chembur)
We feel happy when we see 'Smiles on the faces of villagers and children'. It helps us to get closer to our Corporate Philosophy.
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corporate body to give back to society their best. With this social obligation Bharat Petroleum started community work way back in 1987 by adopting Karjat (tribal area in Raigarh District) and Mahul (our neighborhood) for ameliorating lives of the deprived. Karjat is located in Raigarh District and comprises of mainly tribal population. Some of the activities undertaken to help the tribal population are* Constructing a community hall/ Samaj Mandir * Health assistance, through regular health camps, pediatric camps and cataract Camps * Educational assistance through distribution of books, holding competitions * Vocational assistance by imparting training in bamboo and tailoring * Encouraging environment friendly attitude through distribution of smokeless chulhas, solar cookers as well as educating them through folk music.
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6. Internal CSR
Social Welfare in Bharat Petroleum was initiated as a non-statutory body in the year 1984. Bharat Petroleum has been the pioneer in the oil sector to hire the services of professional social workers. Areas of work in the initial years were primarily to cater to the softer areas of employee related issues, to mention a few are: -
Counselling
Initially counseling began in BPCL to overcome the different problems of employees at work. But now, BPCL has come closer to their lives. Thus now counseling does not only aim at solving disputes at work but involves a whole gamut of issues ranging from employees overall development to the development of their families. Thus there is a shift from what used to exist earlier as our orientation is towards prevention. Over the time, recoveries and success stories started flowing in resulting in values of counseling being upheld as an important contribution for employees well being. Thus at the refinery counseling is seen as a mission which aims at making people live lives fruitfully. The help received through counseling is what is valued by most of our employees 1] Addiction-The Slow Poison Alcohol and drug use is extremely common in todays world. In spite of the awareness of the ill effects of these substances, people continue to get addicted to it. The abuse and addictions result in malfunctioning of an individual in major spheres of life. Addictions lead to poor work performances, disrupted relationships and adjustment problems. The rising awareness about employee welfare and raising the quality of work, various companies today make efforts to reduce addictions. We have been one of the first companies to engage in continuous endeavours to help our addicted employees to overcome their problems. We have successfully partnered with Kripa Foundations De-addiction Center for sustainable efforts in this direction. Kripa foundation is one of the largest Non- Governmental organizations in India helping people suffering from Chemical Dependency and HIV Infection. Kripa offers a non-discriminating, supportive community living, helping people to introspect and bring about change in lifestyle.
Our Success- Strength Of Sobriety Although difficult to believe, the success ratio is 60% at the refinery level, whereas the addiction improvement rate worldwide is 45.50%. Through counseling employees who recovered from alcohol addiction and the other personal problems
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became our biggest strength for extending our chain of human help. These peer educators are very efficient at work and they aid our CSR activity by being of help to the other addict employees and the community too.
The Pune Centre A de-addiction center has been set up at Pune for both men and women addicts for all over Maharashtra. The Kripa Foundation runs it. We are supporting them and helping them in their efforts
2] Family Wellbeing Through all the Employee assistance programs, prominence is given to family as a system. It is a known fact that family is one of the most closely knit system which needs to be enriched to cope with the stresses and strain of life. Thus when an employee comes with a problem, joint counseling sessions are also conducted including his family members to ensure resolving of problems amicably. 3] Grooming Children As Caretakers Of Next Generation Children are tomorrows future, and when it comes to our own employees children, we ensure their development through various activities like Career guidance, aptitude tests, etc 4] Parenting During training or workshops, one of the main topics covered is parenting. This is important because in todays competitive world it is very difficult to manage both work and house Thus to ensure care of children, parenting sessions are conducted about emotional problems and problems encountered by children at different stages, puberty issues, etc. 5] Women Empowerment In women lie natures best qualities of motherhood, compassion, humanity and love. Because they have been blessed with the capacity for giving and nurturing life, women also have the capacity for a deep commitment for preserving and nourishing not only their own offspring, but of the entire planet as well. BPCL is also blessed with efficient women staff who are enthusiastic and who come forward to help others. Women power in the true sense is seen when women meet regularly and discuss on varied issues and the stands they take. LIKE WOMAN IS WOMANS BEST FRIEND. It is normally said that a woman is a womans worst enemy. But at the refinery, the bond within the women is exceptionally charged with making a difference to their personal as well as work life.
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6] Safety Ambassadors This is a new activity being started at the refinery. Some of women employees are made safety ambassadors to ensure safety in the plant. These women would co-ordinate with the safety observers at the plant level and ensure that their co-employees take adequate safety measures. It is process to help the employees help themselves for their own safety and that of the others
2. 'Generation Next'
BPCL is passionate about the Generation Next, and thus also supports various education initiatives at all levels. This involves granting aid to schools, acknowledging and rewarding meritorious students and an initiative called BPCL scholars. BPCL scholars are a group of approximately 100 Indian students, who yearly, seek full study-assistance from BPCL in doing their post
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graduation, both in India and abroad. We support these students, the future of tomorrow, the fuel of tomorrows growth, with all humility and passion. As a corporate responsibility, today 37 villages across India have been adopted. This includes making substantial investments for nearly a decade and a half in them to make them fully self reliant, providing them fresh drinking water, sanitation facilities, medical facilities, enhancing their income standards by imparting vocational training and agricultural innovations. However, BPCL also firmly believes that the only vehicle for raising the villagers from their present state is by educating the young and the old, a focus on providing grants for opening schools and opening adult literacy camps as well.
BPCL thus believes in giving the rural people vocational guidance and give them a platform for market-linkages and become selfsufficient. BPCL self-sufficient projects include the Water project in the rural area which has been initiated by Oil Development Board (ODB) with the Ngo Bridge Trust which trains the rural people to build water projects for which they receive minimum waged. BPCL is also planning to do some work for the Truckers of BPCL as they play a major role in laying down the foundation stone to what BPCL is today.
3. Project Boond
If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water. -Loran Eisley BPCL understand the value of water in the lives of people who strive for it. Whose lives are dependent on its availability alone? These sentiments gave birth to the project Boond. Because when BPCL being a company of fuel, how can they miss out on the fuel of life? Boond is a Rain Water Harvesting Project undertaken by BPCL with financial support from (Oil Industries Development Board) and executed in collaboration with NGO, Bridge Public Charitable Trust. Villages suffering from acute shortage of water were identified for this activity. Women from these villages had to walk long distances in the blazing sun on mountainous paths, at times exceeding four kilometers to fetch water. Runoffs triggered by topographical conditions, impervious
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bedrock, poor water holding capacity of the soil, soil erosion and unrestrained grazing had made the situation critical. The objective was to turn these villages from Water scarce to water positive. The work mainly comprised of repairs/Deepening of wells, building bunds to capture and store rain water, repairs and leak proofing of existing bunds, building water tanks etc. All the activities undertaken to draught free the villages were performed with complete participation from the villagers. This imparted a sense of belonging and responsibility towards their own village. Not just that, while working they learnt additional skills like masonry, welding etc. which they later used as an additional source of income for themselves. This helped check the rampant levels of migration as well. Another unique aspect of the whole project was the concept of Shram Dan. The villagers performed Shram Daan once a week and for the balance days they were paid minimum wages. Seeing the enthusiasm of the villagers, BPCL also initiated an Employee Volunteering Initiative where in approximately 100 BPCL employees gathered collectively for Shram Daan.
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Employees were made equal partners in conducting any activity. Because of this there was no point where employees felt left out. Need based activities: We at BPCL have never arranged activities for the sake of doing it. We have conducted activities as and when people demanded, may it be our own employees or people from the communities. Thus we have indirectly given onus to the people to decide when, why and which activity they need. Involvement of all: We have been successful in involving people of all cadres at the refinery level, right from the managers to the workers, and from the various departments to the different unions. This helped us to get the opinions and contributions of all. At the community level, all the people are involved right from the planning level. People take decisions along with us. Human stories of revival helped: We had many success stories of our employees which constantly motivated us to work consistently. The recovered addicts are our strength. They help us to help the others who are in similar problem.
IT IS FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE COMPANYS LONG LIFE AND CONSISTENT GROWTH.
AS WE HAVE SEEN IN THIS PROJECT, BPCL HAS CONDUCTED A NUMBER OF SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY ACTIVITIES; IT HAS GAINED A GOOD REPUTATION IN THE GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE MARKET.
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IN THESE DAYS MORE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY U UNDERTAKE, MORE YOU WILL GET CONSUMERS SATISFACTION AND EARN OUR CUSTOMERS LOYALTY
AS THE BUSSINESS IS OPERATED WITHIN THE SOCIETY, IT BECOMES COMPULSORY TO CONDUCT CSR ACTIVITIES TO WIN CONSUMERS CONFIDENCE AND REPRESENT A GLOBAL BRAND IMAGE
ATLAST TO SAY WE SHOULD GIVE BACK TO THE WORLD, WHAT WE TAKE FROM IT.
Bibliography
1. 2. 3. www.wikipedia.org www.indianngos.com www.karmayog.org
4. www.bharatpetroleum.in
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