It’s Hard To Convince People About CSR Activities Initiated By Corporate Houses: Sonalika ITL

It is commonly believed that corporate houses have hidden interest in comparison to NGOs who are working for the betterment of society. It becomes difficult to convince people to come out and participate in projects initiated by corporate companies.

“Gradually people start building trust on projects initiated by corporate organisations as they witness continuous and selfless efforts by them,” Lopamudra Priyadarshini, CSR head, Sonalika ITL told The CSR Journal.

Sonalika Group is an Indian multinational company headquartered in Punjab, and Sonalika ITL is the flagship company involved in manufacturing and exports of tractors, farm equipments and accessories. The company claims to incur an expenditure of Rs 12-15 crore annually on CSR initiatives.  Focusing on social and environmental growth, CSR activities of Sonalika ITL, has five major CSR work areas:

1. Udaan -Works for Women Empowerment 2. Jeevan Utsav -Focuses on health and social wellbeing of the elderly 3. Go Green Initiative- Environmental protection through its NGO – Clean and Green Association 4. Swach Dhara- Water and Sanitation initiative with Sulabh International 5. Kilkari – Youth and Child welfare programme associated with UNIC for various projects.

Under Udaan, a project aims at encouraging women to participate in sports. Young girls are trained and supported for shooting at national level. Priyadarshini added, “Recently few of girls who were trained for rifle shooting under Udaan initiative had been recruited in Indian army and BSF.

Achievements like these boost our moral to do more for the betterment of the society,” Sonalika ITL states to be involved in philanthropic activities for over 15 years. “We believe it is important to work for the betterment of society keeping in mind the needs of future. Thus, many of our initiatives promote sustainable development.

Recently we have signed MoU with UNIC for India and Bhutan to create awareness pertaining to sustainable development amongst citizens,” added Priyadarshini. “It is difficult to measure the overall impact of CSR initiatives done by us as our philanthropic activities emphasizes on upliftment of society at large.

However, the trust which we have developed amongst the people regarding our initiatives is the outcome of our contribution to society,” mentioned Priyadarshini. Priyadarshini believes that the numerous NGOs present in India help corporate houses to impact their CSR activities efficiently.

A reliable association between NGOs and corporate can help achieve better results from initiatives having a direct impact on the welfare of the society.

The company claims to have been able to spend the target of 2% of its net profit under its CSR activities. The group aims to align its CSR activities to have a direct impact that will help progress of people, environment protection and sustainability and proves to be beneficial to the society at large.

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