National Semianr of CSR and Sustainable Development

Dear All

Gandhigram Rural Institute is going to organize the above event in the end of Feb 2011. It is the needy and gains priority as CSR is going to play key role for achieving the development with sustainability and quality of the people as well as the country. I am planning to be with this seminar and present a paper on the role of CSR in Disability Rehabilitation as an NGO approach. The abstract of the paper is given below as:
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ABSTRACT

Disability affects the people in accessing their benefits and rights due to the barriers prevailing in the environment and thus deprives development to lead independent life with sustainability and quality of life (QOL). Poverty, disability and development are the cause and consequence of each other and disability further deepens the poverty with vulnerability for health hazards. Disability rehabilitation (DR) works on life cycle basis for providing care, support and training for building capacities of the persons with disabilities (PWDs) as an empowerment approach. In spite of the efforts of Government, NGOs and other stakeholders, the reach of targeted groups is 5 to 10 % and thus leaves a mammoth task of reaching the un-reached. The stigma, low priority and traditional way of working with welfare approach create barriers to be with the community in an inclusive environment. The recent Act, United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) has brought paradigm shift in DR from traditional welfare to developmental to human rights model. It focuses more on the environment rather than the limitations of the PWDs. This shift focuses more on the community based rehabilitation (CBR) with right based strategies for sustainable inclusion. Mobilization of resources matching to the needs and demands of the targeted groups is another constraint of DR. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) supports Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) for an effective working of disability rehabilitation on life cycle basis. The approaches of empowering the persons with disabilities as working models were presented in this paper. The CSR - NGO collaboration works from the stage of identification to creating of better livelihood and to transform the targeted groups as productive members of the community. The concepts of Resource Centre cum Placement Cell (RCPC) as working model between CSR – NGO provided employment for 202 PWDs and have become part of the inclusive community with better living. This process has created business, branding and recognition for corporate as well as to NGO. The models are flexible, cost effective and sustainable and can be replicated with need based strategies.
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Looking forward for better networking and thus to create sustainable environment.

with thanks