When it comes to December & January, people will scratch their head to find out which is the best scheme to invest their saving to save even rupee from their tax liability. A wise man is one who does the best investment at the right time. Best investment is one which gives more yield in coming days & which secures our future. This type of capital investment will try to cover us from effect of inflation, but never gives a sense of satisfaction or sense of humanity. We all need an investment which gives that.
Investment in Social Sector is the best investment and is a peculiar investment.
Capital Investment which increases cost of living & makes differences between poor & rich deeper, Social Investment are cost reduction to everyone & makes the society more secure.
Eg: Think of building new lake as social investment in your area when you have
Shortage of water rather than buying mineral water bottle which is more costly –Rs 12/bottle. Same logic applies to investment in education by way of extending our support to needy students which makes him/her a better person. Otherwise differences in society will become deeper & it may create social unrest. Hope everyone agrees with me.
When we think of Social investment or helping to society, we come across following myths which make us inactive
1. No single person can change/help this society
2. Its NGO’s work to help society and not ours
3. For helping society, we need huge funds/sanctions from the government
4. We don’t have enough time to spend at this time & we can think of helping society at the time of retirement
5. We are here to help our family, not our society. Social change is a tough task & it’s only people like Vivekanand or Narayan Murthy can do.
The fact is that above reasons are valid to escape from our responsibility. We feel that Social work is the work that can be done only at our free time with free money. Let us start thinking about taking our social responsibility at the young age when we have energy to bring change. Think of “Professional’s Social Responsibility (i.e. PSR).
PSR is much more effective than well known CSR. CSR stands for Corporate Social Responsibility. CSR asks for an entity to reserve a part of fund towards social awareness, education & security. Usually CSR gives more importance to the family & environment related to employees. But our PSR as mentioned does not have limitation like CSR. It has no boundary. In PSR, each professional will contribute rather than using company’s amount. Here there is a sense of satisfaction. This PSR does not need any NGO to work for society. It needs some discipline towards expenditure of a person which makes a lot of difference. I can quote below project where we can make a difference without many efforts.
Eg : Cashless Seva – Use of food Coupons
This is the idea of doing social service in a unique way which will help the needy persons to live like us. This new program is very simple and easy to follow. It needs few people to become volunteers in each company. They may be classmates or working in same projects. It is as simple as "NOT having 2 lunches at office canteen or not having 4 Juices in a month".
Easy Steps for execution of this Seva:
Conclusion: Social Investment is need of the hour. It’s real investment. Unlike capital investment, this gives a sense of satisfaction & makes our future stronger & better. Each one of us or a group of people can make a difference if they have will to help the society. We don’t need a lot of Acts or amendments to the Act to curb social evils like thefts & murder in society. We do not need police man or sophisticated weapons to find culprit who disturbs society. We just need our will and responsibility to help needy people with food. We can make use of above concepts even to distribute scholarships to students where instead of coupons, we just need to collect cash from people. PSR – Professional’s Social Responsibility can make many wonders in the society that cannot be possible by any other modes.
| CA. Chikkerur Chidambar R | B.Com, MBA, CA, DISA & LLB
Are you thinking of what is the relation between having lunch at the office canteen & social service? It is very simple. We will be able to save around Rs.100 Sodexho/ticket restaurant coupon if we get lunch from home for 2 days. These coupons can be collected on first Friday of every month and this can be used to buy food items and other basic necessary items. This can be handed over to any Orphanages, old age homes, or visually impaired people
Step 1: Get lunch from home for two days in a month.
Step 2: You would save Rs.100 from the Meals passes (sodexho or ticket restaurant) if you have followed step 1 perfectly.
Step 3: Hand over the Rs.100 meals passes to Volunteers on or before 1st Friday of each month
Step 4: Volunteers can co-ordinate with other people to make arrangement for groceries and other needful items to Orphanages, old age homes, visually impaired people.
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