Honorarium ...!

Image source: http://openbuildings.com/buildings/tata-consultancy-services-profile-3331/media#!buildings-media/4

I was traveling from Pune to Mumbai by train to attend a GRI-TCS one-day workshop ‘Moving beyond Disclosure to Drive Change’ at Thane campus of TCS on Friday, 20th November 2015. The Indian Railway is an independent ecosystem in itself of distinct and influential character and dynamics. Being the largest corporation with highest no. of employees in the world, it has to be. However, apart from the Rail Management and travelers, there are different types of elements in this ecosystem that bring it to life, sustain and maintain it. Hawkers are one of them who board the train to sell anything from snacks, beverages to accessories, toys and what not. There are help seekers of various types, right from singing blind beggars to transgender community members capitalizing their guise. I never pay any heed or money to any of these for my own philosophical reasoning. However there is a new emerging community I am witnessing lately that acts as a ‘silent worker’ whom I always pay!

Without making a fuss of their vulnerable category, pitiable situation or deprived status, they have discovered a ‘decent’ tool for a ‘clean’ purpose to earn their means, without even asking for it, most of the time. They sweep the floors of the rail compartment with whatever piece of cloth they can find and most of them do it almost professionally and with a commitment more than majority of the government employees. I always pay the member of this community that I find on the train I am boarding and also make it sure that I will not use coins but paper currency; coins make noise and declare the philanthropy to the world in an amplified tone! Now, why I pay these people has a multi-layered explanation on personal, social and global levels –

1. I am committed to cleanliness to the extent of developing an OCD for it, almost. I love everything spick-and-span, a major reason I love the conferences at star hotels. Everything there seems to be as clean as a mirror except for the thoughts and intentions of the humans I meet.
2. It’s a matter of national shame that its citizens make filth around them all the time, live happily amidst it and expect somebody to clean it silently for them without any demand or expectation.

3. The members of this community could have formed a group, union or a party to rebel against their ‘exploiters’ OR could have joined a Militia OR simply surrendered to their condition and have chosen to beg like their fellows without moving even a finger. But they chose otherwise.

That’s why, on behalf of all my countrymen who should be ashamed of filth they keep on creating, I pay them this ‘Honorarium’ that they deserve and not the ‘philanthropy’ they have intrinsically disclaimed.

Well, the workshop did not provide me greater impetus to write about it than this small mundane incidence happening round the clock and could have been smartly ignored, just like any other responsible and tax-paying citizen of the nation but somehow I found a thread between the take-away (Can anybody explain me the meaning and intent of this phrase in context of a seminar…?) of the workshop and this activity. Reporting merely cannot change the situation as it will always lack the complete transparency in first place and secondly it is like expecting the road vehicles to abide by all the traffic signals as we have installed the Signals, Speed-barkers and signs all over. We must not forget the very fundamental right and hard-earned mastery of any human being, particularly in this part of the world, to ‘Ignore’, ‘Bypass’ or ‘Manage’ anything that might discomfort it. Discipline happens only when each individual is ‘conditioned’ enough to follow the signs and lights just like its basic instincts, a very common thing for a self-centered human, mostly concerned with I, me and myself.

With the rise of personalized products, gadgets and equipments, the already dying ‘communication’ is entering the phase of monologue day by day. Loads of information and knowledge from all types of ‘sources’ is drowning the human brain in an info-pool (formerly known as info highway!) empowering it to have an opinion over virtually any matter (not just under the sky, but even beyond it!) that concerns it or not. The ‘smart’ gadgets competing with the jets in the speed and connectivity service providers trying to win over each other with light-speed guarantee have made it sure that the dozed brain full of trivial garbage would be over-armed to voice their opinions which would be immediately upheld by the Media and Social Media developed to be at their disposal 24x7. This has created a chaos that has a noise of its own and no voice of any specific value; exactly the situation for any government when it wants to govern the least! And this is the picture of all developed, developing and underdeveloped nations invariably, a pathetic picture for the humanity for sure!

And there is a bigger noise inside that needs a vent. The paradoxical state-of-affairs happening incessantly in every part of the nation in purportedly each field provides the opportunity to vent out this noise in the thought-crowded head at such a speed that there is no time to listen, understand, reflect or reciprocate… just express, emphasize and forget! If Sanjay Leela Bhansali decides to film a beautiful dance number by 2 gorgeous women of the nation by taking the cinematic liberty and fantasizing the ‘history’ a little for glamorizing his effort, suddenly it becomes talk of the town but nobody seems to be concerned of the historic monuments that are deteriorating fast to reduce to ashes. While, if a Yogi decides to diversify his ‘business’ with products of neighboring country with [supposedly] local and healthy ingredients and to achieve ‘revered’ purposes, we accommodate it in his ‘interests’ and chew it religiously but won’t pressurize the government to find the offenders who have blood bathed the war of thoughts by brutally murdering the rationalists and activists. 

Well, the question remains the same as it was for decades – could any such new Legislation like CSR Act, or GRI Guidelines G4 or OECD principles make any difference in the situation? What could make the CSR more proactive than reactive? How the Corporate sector could be made aware, encouraged and facilitated to accept and imbibe the CSR, CSV or Corporate Citizenship in the business process? And, as for me, the answer also remains the same – by developing a culture of CSR / CSV and not appointing a ‘panel’ to take care of it!

It should be done as voluntarily and inherently by the entire organization as sweeping the floors without expecting any direct, instant or material returns from it. The moment Corporate will understand this, no more Act or Reporting Standard would be required as there is no effective evaluation of works and deeds than self-appraisal! [Read the story here] Way to go…