It was a tryst with destiny- bringing two like-minded forces together; the one-man-army who put ‘CSR-The Indian Way’ on the world map, Dr Bhaskar Chatterjee, and the Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Group in Sathya Sai Grama, which is fast putting, ‘Being an NGO- The Indian Way’ on the world map.
Curiously, both grew over this last decade. In contrast to the western way, where CSR is a strategic investment of company funds to further the company’s own interests, Dr Chatterjee who literally, single-handedly, created CSR in India, made it a tool for nation development. An IAS officer of the batch of 1975, after serving as Principal Secretary, Odisha, Chatterjee had moved to the centre. It was then, when he was Secretary, Government of India, in the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, that a small note on CSR, came to his table. Somehow, it caught Dr Chatterjee’s imagination; and that led to the creation of ‘CSR- the Indian way’. Thanks to Dr Bhaskar Chatterjee’s vision, today in India, companies contribute a mammoth sum of 23 lakh crores to support activities by NGOs and non-profits in line with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
In India, public and private sector companies are legally bound to contribute 2% of profits- the rule of thumb to calculate CSR- which is then channelised through NGOs and non-profits for nation development; through funding, volunteering and helping in kind. To Dr Chatterjee must go the credit of laboriously, painstakingly, working out Section 135 of the Companies Act, its Schedule 7 listing all the activities that could qualify for CSR funds and more importantly, its implementation across the nation. Little wonder that in 2016 and in 2018, he was presented Lifetime Achievement Awards for his outstanding contribution to CSR space and for innovation in CSR.
Dr Chatterjee also elevated CSR to a Board level exercise with built in accountability and transparency. The CSR funds translate into impact only if they are used for right activities; in Dr Chatterjee’s own words, “CSR is best energised with really good NGOs, civil society organisations, and non-profits, who can alleviate the problems of the poor. At the heart of all this CSR, lies the poor, the marginalised, the deprived. Once you bring them into the centrality of everything that you do in CSR, then CSR is raised to a whole new level altogether and for me, that really is the bottom line.”
Sathya Sai Grama, a rural Karnataka hamlet, is home to an NGO- the Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam Group of Institutions and its sister concerns. Made up of a bunch of young idealistic professionals, it is led by an equally young humanitarian and spiritual leader, who goes by the name, Sadguru Sri Madhusudan Sai; incidentally, a Gold Medallist from the renowned B-School of World Teacher, Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Over the past decade this NGO with spiritual moorings, dedicated to service, led by him, has made waves globally in the verticals of nutrition, healthcare and education for the unserved.
In India, it has established India’s largest morning nutrition program for government school kids who would otherwise go to school hungry, that covers nearly 10 million children as of now. It has state of the art Sri Sathya Sai Sanjeevani hospitals in rural geographies. The tertiary care hospitals- incidentally, the largest chain of paediatric cardiac hospitals in the world- have saved the lives of over 23.000 children through heart surgeries; while the secondary care ‘Manatwa maternity hospitals’ with outreach services, are focussed on bringing down maternal and infant morbidity and mortality. Primary healthcare Sai Swasthya Centres, which are to number a hundred this year, equipped with telemedicine facilities, help diagnose and dispense medicines to rural patients. Let me also hasten to add that the NGO has also launched India’s first rural medical college in Sathya Sai Grama, providing totally free of cost MBBS, post-graduate courses, nursing and para-medical courses.
On the general education front, around thirty idyllic rural residential school campuses and a private university have been established, that provide with great love, world class, values based, holistic education to around 5000 students from class six to post-doctoral levels. Roughly half the seats are reserved for the most marginalised children; and education of the girl child from class six all the way to a Master’s degree gets top priority; because if you can help one rural girl get empowered, she will lift not just her family, but all the girls in the village out of the poverty-ignorance vicious cycle.
