Status of Corporate Responsibility in India, 2019
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Status of Corporate Responsibility in India, 2019 Is Human Rights in Business Limited to Rhetoric? First reprint: October 2019 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ Guideline for citation: Status of Corporate Responsibility in India, 2019; Praxis (2019) Status of Corporate Responsibility in India, 2019 Is Human Rights in Business Limited to Rhetoric? Preface Two crucial campaigns are underway for India’s holistic development. It is time to take stock. Notwithstanding the Make in India campaign to boost manufacturing and encourage companies to manufacture their products in India, the GDP growth has dropped to 5 per cent which is the lowest in the past six years and well below the 8 per cent plus annual expansion needed to achieve the goal of becoming a 5 trillion dollar economy by 2025. Over the past months, the core industries have witnessed a gradual slowdown due to weak consumer demand and lack of dedicated investments into manufacturing as envisioned by the Make In India campaign. Some of the sectors that have been hit badly include automobiles, manufacturing and real estate sectors. While the Skill India Campaign aims to train over 40 crore people in India, thus aiming to generate employment opportunities, the current scenario is that unemployment is at a 45-year high. Assuming the skills of the Indian youth segment is being developed, given the economic slowdown, the opportunities to absorb them have reduced. As a result of the economic slump, jobs are dwindling and companies are unable to retain the existing workforce. Certain sectors like IT, manufacturing and automobiles have laid off their employees. This problem has been further compounded by more and more companies increasingly resorting to unethical, non transparent means to cut corners and shirk their social, economic and environmental responsibilities and accountability to their communities as its primary stakeholder. As the most crucial actor that is driving the economy towards the target of becoming a 5 trillion economy, one of the critical areas that companies are overlooking or consciously ignoring is the violations being committed against communities in their core operations. In this context, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been reduced to acts of philanthropy, as companies continue being irresponsible in their primary business activities. The narrative of the two per cent spent on CSR is insidiously masking the wider accountability of India Inc towards the society, environment and economy. The reality is that while businesses have been engaging across multiple domains of community development in India, they have been doing so without a firm commitment to treating communities as key stakeholders, and not merely as beneficiaries. It is set against this context that the Status of Corporate Responsibility in India today can be appreciated. Corporate Responsibility Watch (CRW) is an initiative that is attempting to unpack, track and monitor corporate responsibility as well as clearly separate it from the overpowering CSR narrative that tends to absolve companies of their responsibilities to the nine basic principles towards social and environmental practices in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs’ National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) framework for business responsibility. After having published analyses of Business Responsibility Reports (BRRs) through the series Disclosure Matters and three editions of the India Responsible Business Index, this is the fourth in the series of Status of Corporate Responsibility in India reports. The authors, all experts in their respective fields, have built on the analyses of the BRRs to unpack and nuance ground realities of corporate responsibility in India on issues as diverse as the dilution of environmental norms, state-business complicity, health impacts on consumers and communities child labour, violation of worker and child rights in the corporate sector and businesses and human rights defenders. The report uses information available in the public domain, largely put across by companies themselves through their business responsibility reports, annual reports and annual CSR reports. This report would not have been possible without valuable contributions by the organisations and networks associated with Corporate Responsibility Watch. We would also like to place on record our sincere thanks to the distinguished authors Ajay Sinha, Amita Joseph, Amita Puri, Anirudha Nagar, Basudev Barman, Dheeraj, Jhumki Dutta, Lara Jesani, K. Moulasha, Nandini Sharma, Pooja Gupta, Pradeep Narayanan, Dr Rahul Suresh Sapkal, Rajavelu K., Rijit Sengupta, Subhash Mittal, Shireen Kurian, Umi Daniel, Vikas Yadav and Viraf Mehta. We would also like to thank Tarini Shipurkar and Pragya Shah for providing overall support in data analysis and Anusha Chandrasekharan, Sowmyaa Bharadwaj and Zoya Surana for report production and finalisation. Acknowledgements CRW members Amita Joseph Pradeep Narayanan Amitabh Behar Pradeep Patra Anand K. Bolimera Rijit Sengupta Annie Namala Prof Sri Ram Khanna Archana Shukla Mukherjee Semeda Steves Ashok Bharti Subhash Mittal Jashodhara Dasgupta Tom Thomas Karandeep Bhagat Viraf Mehta Paul Divakar Core team for Status of Corporate Responsibility in India, 2019 Amita Joseph (Business and Community Foundation), Amita Puri (National Foundation for India), Dheeraj (Praxis), Pradeep Narayanan (Partners in Change), Shireen Kurian (Praxis), Subhash Mittal (Socio Research and Reform Foundation), Rijit Sengupta (Centre for Responsible Business), Tom Thomas (Praxis) and Viraf Mehta (Partners in Change) Research Team Report production Tarini Shipurkar Praxis Anusha Chandrasekharan Praxis Pragya Shah Partners in Change Sowmyaa Bharadwaj Praxis Sowmiya Kannan Partners in Change Zoya Surana Consultant Sarulatha S Praxis Geethanjali Balakrishnaiah Partners in Change Jhumki Dutta Partners in Change Irshad Ali Socio Research and Reform Foundation Interns Durba Biswas Tata Institute for Social Sciences Himani Tiwari Tata Institute for Social Sciences Pankaj Malik Asian Law College Pritha Choudhury Tata Institute for Social Sciences Shahid Patel Asian Law College Siddhas Goel Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Simran Preet Kaur Puri Asian Law College Sujeet Tiwari Asian Law College Abbreviations ACMS Assam Chah Mazdoor Sangh AGM Annual General Meeting APPL Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited ARD Asbestos-Related Diseases BHR Business and Human Rights BRR Business Responsibility Reports BSE Bombay Stock Exchange CAO Compliance Advisor Ombudsman CBI Central Bureau of Investigation CEO Chief Executive Officer CFTRI Central Food Technological Research Institute COPTA Cigarette and Other Tobacco Product Act COPs Conferences of the Parties CSO Civil Society Organisations CRW Corporate Responsibility Watch CSR Corporate Social Responsibility DBBS Diocesan Board of Social Services EPFO Employees' Provident Fund Organisation ESI Employees' State Insurance EWI Employing Workers Index FCTC Framework Convention on Tobacco Control FMCG Fast Moving Consumer Goods FY Financial Year FPIC Free, Prior Informed Consent FSSAI Food Safety and Standards Authority of India IARC International Agency for Research on Cancer IFC International Finance Corporation ILO International Labour Organisation IMPEX 2019 (Index compiled by a Mumbai-based non profit India Migration Now) IRDA Insurance Regulatory Development Authority IRS Industrial Relations System ISMWA Interstate Migrant Workmen Act ITC India Tobacco Company Limited ITUC International Trade Union Confederation GRI Global Ranking Index LIC Life Insurance Corporation of India MCA Ministry of Corporate Affairs MoEF&CC Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change MSG Monosodium Glutamate NAP National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights NCDRC National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission NDA National Democratic Alliance NFSI Nestle Food Safety Institute NGRBC National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct NGT National Green Tribunal NHRC National Human Rights Commission NSA National Security Act NSE National Stock Exchange NVGs National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Economic and Environmental Responsibilities of Business OBC Other Backward Classes PAD People's Action for Development PAJHRA Promotion and Advancement of Justice, Harmony and Rights of Adivasis PIL Public Interest Litigation PLA Plantations Labour Act PWD Persons With Disability PSU Public Sector Undertakings R&D Research and Development RTI Right to Information SC Scheduled Castes SDGs Sustainable Development Goals SEBI Securities and Exchange Board of India ST Scheduled Tribes UAE United Arab Emirates UAN Universal Account Number UK United Kingdom UN United Nations UNCRC United Nations Child Rights Convention UNGPs United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights UNHRC United Nations Human Rights Commission USA United States of America VST Vazir Sultan Tobacco WHO World Health Organization Table of Contents Title Authors* Page Number Part 1 The Big Picture Analysing Disclosures: Are Businesses Corporate Responsibility Chapter 1 10 Paying Lip Service to Human RIghts? Watch Team Part 2 Workers’ Rights: Yet another series of violations A Textile Story: Missed Opportunity Umi Daniel and K. Chapter 2 For Creating Model of Safe Migration In 28 Moulasha Tamil Nadu Corporate Accountability: The Elephant Chapter 3 Anirudha Nagar