Philanthropy in the guise of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has taken many forms yet it failed to meet the objectives which were thought to be central to it. However, Barefoot Manager, a joint CSR activity of Central Coalfields limited (CCl) and Indian Institute of Management, Ranchi (IIM-R), is set to redefine CSR in days to come.
Barefoot Manager, a term coined for unskilled entrepreneurs, is aimed at imparting training to a businessman not so privileged in terms of knowledge, finance and motivation. The programme is likely to get CCl’s approval in a month.
“We will provide market insight to school dropouts, illiterates and low-skilled businessman who set up a
business. Our objective is to help them in running their business successfully,” said RB Prasad, General Manager CSR, CCl.
The programme, part of CCl’s CSR activity, will impart training to as many as 500 people, mostly project affected, to make them write their success story.
“Our main priority will be to train project affected people. We will bear all expenses for training them,” added Prasad.
The five day training programme will impart business skills through audio and video modules depicting cases specific to as many as 10 different types of business activity prevalent in a rural area.
“We will show them how an idea germinates, takes root and then becomes a fully grown tree. The basic idea is to educate people on how to manage their businesses,” said Arpita Sutradhar, Coordinator-cum-trainer, Barefoot Manager.
Significantly, the programme transcends imparting skills and stresses on backing it with adequate financial support to make the Barefoot Managers thrive. The training programme will culminate with an interactive session between financial institutions and the Barefoot Managers.
“We will help in obtaining loans from banks however they will be responsible for paying it back to the lending institution,” maintained Prasad.
Interestingly, the programme emphasises as much on sustaining the advantage made by trained businessman as imparting right training to them.
“Sustainability as a concept embedded in the programme has taken CSR to a new level,” added Sutradhar.
However, training the untrained is a test of the trained as well and precisely for the reason the IIM-R team will asses the achievements made by those trained by them.
“We will visit those places where we will provide training to know whether the training has been fruitful or not,” said Sutradhar.