CSR: Reducing The Income Gap
India is the sixth richest country in the world according to a report by New World Wealth, a global wealth intelligence and market research company. However, India houses largest number of people living under poverty line.
Income inequality in India has risen substantially since the 1980s. According to a report by the World Inequality Lab, adoption of globalisation has benefited just a tiny fraction of population in India. In 2014, the share of national income captured by the top 1 per cent of earners was 22 per cent, whereas the bottom 15 per cent was able to capture only 15 per cent share.
It is crucial for people with more personal earnings than they need to spend it on others as part of their Citizen Social Responsibility, in order to bring back the balance.
The Shah family does their bit in order to restore the balance in the society. The Shah family are into diamonds and stock business. They are a well to do family residing in the breach candy area of Mumbai. They lead a comfortable lifestyle for themselves while making sure to do their bit for the society.
The family is associated with a private caterer who provides free food to the city’s old rag pickers. They contribute a certain amount of their income every month to provide for these meals. However, in order to boost their campaign, the Shah kids as part of their school activity conducted a Cyclothon on April 15.
About 75 participants including the school children and their guardians, cycled from Trident Hotel to the Teen Batti circle at 6 AM, on Sunday, to collect over 125000 rupees for their kitchen. This will be enough to feed 3 meals to about 70 old age rag pickers for a whole month.
“We do this at least three to four times every year and invite our friends and family to participate to fund our venture. This gives us all an opportunity to get together, enjoy and work for a cause,” said the Shahs.
The Shahs do not belong to the super rich elite. They can certainly not afford an IPL team or a private jet, but can definitely afford to buy box tickets of the IPL or travel business class. They however choose not to do so, and prefer to live life of comfort and dignity, while giving back the excess to the society.
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