Report on CSR activities done by Wipro

INTRODUCTION

The concept of corporate social responsibility is based on the idea that not only
public policy but companies, too, should take responsibility for social issues. In
more recent approaches, CSR is seen as a concept in which companies
voluntarily integrate social and environmental concerns into their business
operations and into the interaction with their stakeholders. The idea of being a
socially responsible company means doing more than comply with the law
when investing in human resources and the environment1. In general terms, the
CSR approach seeks to motivate companies to assume responsibility for
problems and challenges that used to be addressed by state regulation. Despite
various attempts at an unambiguous description of CSR, the concept still lacks a
uniform definition.

Consequently, the various stakeholders define CSR in their own way, and
several approaches to CSR exist. CSR is understood as “the commitment of
business to contribute to sustainable economic development by working with
employers, their families, the local community and society at large to improve
their quality of life, in ways that are both good for business and good for
development.

A widely quoted definition by the World Business Council for Sustainable

Development state that “Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing
commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic
development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their
families as well as of the local community and society at large” (WBCSD,
1999). Thus, the meaning of CSR has two fold. On one hand, it exhibits the
ethical behavior that an organization exhibits towards its internal and external
stakeholders. On the other hand, it denotes the responsibility of an organization
towards the environment and society in which it operates. CSR is regarded as
vehicle through which companies give something back to the society. It
involves providing innovative solutions to societal and environmental
challenges. But the challenge for development professional and business
community is to identify CSR priorities and the areas of interventions which are
meaningful in the context of rural development sector.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY INITIATIVES OF WIPRO

LTD

Wipro, one of the world‟s most trusted brands, the name with a long history,
was established in 1945 as Western India Vegetable Products Limited in
Amalner, Maharashtra. Today Wipro Ltd is a global information technology,
consulting and outsourcing company with 156,866 employees serving clients in
175+ cities across 6 continents. The company posted revenues of $7.3 billion
for the financial year ended Mar 31, 2014. The company at present is financially
sound which has motivated them to contribute something to the society in the
form of corporate social responsibility. Some of the CSR Initiatives of Wipro
Ltd is as follows:

1. Wipro Care: Wipro Cares is Wipro‟s community initiative focused on

certain key developmental issues faced by underserved and underprivileged
communities. It is a trust formed in the year 2003 that seeks to work with
communities proximate to Wipro‟s center of operations. Wipro Cares is
currently engaged in 16 projects across India. Through seven of its health care
projects in four states of India Wipro Cares is providing more than 75000
people in 53 villages access to primary health care. More than 47000 children
benefit from the five education projects in five Indian cities. Their project in
social forestry has helped plant more than a lakh trees, and has at the same time
provided livelihood to around 80 farmers. Wipro‟s projects in disaster
rehabilitation have helped rebuild the lives of people affected by Karnataka
Floods, Bihar Floods, Japan Tsunami, Hurricane Sandy, Philippines Cyclone,
Uttarakhand Floods, Odisha Floods and many more.

1.1 Education: Wipro Cares focuses on meeting the educational needs of the
urban poor along with other initiatives. The educational needs of children that
belong to this group are often neglected due to various reasons. Wipro Cares
aims at helping these children by offering them opportunities for holistic
educational and social development by running bridge schools, non-formal
schools and giving them vocational training. Wipro also help train teachers to
engage with these children, with empathy. In addition, they support a school for
hearing impaired children and encourage girl child education.

1.1.1 Magic bus, Bengaluru: The Magic Bus project started in October 2013
and is working with 500 children around Sarjapur area in Bangalore.
Sensitization of around 500 children in and around Sarjapur area on importance
of education, gender issues and health hygiene is being carried out and also 20
youth leaders from the community were be trained and assisted to take up
leadership roles in the community.

1.1.2 Every child counts campaign, Pune: The Key goal of the Campaign is to
reach and enroll all children in the age group of 6-7 into mainstream schools.
With the support of Wipro Cares ECC would be extending the campaign to five
areas in the outer developing area of Pune.Door Step School, an NGO working
for education of children of marginalized communities at construction sites and
roadside dwellings for more than 2 decades, foresaw the alarming trend of large
numbers of children who were out of school. Driven by a need to act upon these
concerns with a sense of urgency, the "Every Child Counts- Citizens'
Campaign" was initiated to ensure access to elementary education for all
children in the city of Pune.

1.1.3 Towards future, Kolkata:This learning center, named 'Back to the

Future' helps children of migrant labourers, brick kiln workers and other
marginalized communities in the village of Kalikapura near Salt Lake in
Kolkata. This center welcomes out of school children from 11 am to 3 pm. The
school today has 50 children of different age groups. The nutritional supplement
that is provided to the children is made locally. The center also engages in
educating the parents about the importance of hygiene and nutrition and how
they affect the growth of their children through adult literacy programs. The
mid-day snack serves to demonstrate this factor.

1.1.4 Door step School, Pune: In Pune, Wipro Cares work with an NGO called
the Door Step School to train and equip teachers to engage with migrant
children, this project is called Parivartan. Today this initiative has reduce the
dropout rate of children of migrant laborers

1.1.5 Ashrayaakruthi, Hyderabad: Wipro work with AshrayaAkruti which is a

non-profit integrated school. The school works with hearing disabled and
normal children from underprivileged sections of the society. The project
provides for the school staff that is trained to meet the needs of the hearing
disabled children. Through this initiative around 200 students from the
underprivileged section of the society with hearing disabilities are being
supported. The Children, despite their handicap, have become independent, self-
reliant and contributing citizens of the country and also there has been Increase
in the number of hearing impaired children improving their speech and
language resulting in more number of children joining main stream schools.

1.2 Primary Health care: Wipro believes that Health is a basic enabler. Most
of their factories are in underdeveloped rural areas where access to health care
is remote. Their health care projects aim to provide primary health care, and act
as a catalyst in the overall development of the community. 1.2.1 ArogyaJyothi:
Healthcare is generally identified by the services it renders. Usually, general
health awareness levels and behaviour patterns are intrinsically linked to
attaining good health. Most often, the Government and NGOs focus more on
maternal-child wellness measures and services and not on imparting knowledge
and understanding about good health and hygiene practices. The ArogyaJyothi
project aims to assess and raise healthcare awareness and bring about positive
changes. The key focus area of the project is to bridge the gap of lack of
preventive healthcare knowledge among the rural children. This is undertaken
by visiting schools and educating children about various aspects of health and
hygiene and equipping them with knowledge that can help prevent diseases.

1.2.2 Project Sanjeevini: Sanjeevani was launched in November 2009, in

Waluj, Maharashtra. It covers 9 small villages, all situated within 10 – 25 kms
area from Aurangabad city. The population of the villages ranges from 300 to
1500 where the primary occupation is agriculture. The rainfall in the region is
inadequate and water scarcity is a major issue. Due to poverty, malnutrition is
another issue associated with this region.

The villages are in the hilly terrain of Aurangabad district and are not well
connected; two of them are inaccessible during monsoon. All the 9 villages,
planned for intervention, have genuine need for basic medical services as they
are not covered by Govt PHCs. The awareness regarding health is very low;
cases of malnutrition and infant mortality are a common problem here. The
awareness regarding reproductive healthcare is totally nil and early marriages
are a common factor increasing the risk for both the mother and the new born.
Sanjeevani aims to build a sustainable primary health care system with the
involvement of the local population.
Since the villages are widespread, to make access easy for the villagers, the
company has launched a mobile health clinic in this region. To make this
intervention a success as far as the community is concerned, the company is
working with the local anganwadi institutions, through whom the company is
able to reach the children to ascertain and improve their health.

1.2.3 Tumkur Health care project: This project is started with an objective of
providing comprehensive and quality primary health care services, regular
health camps on various diseases and also to increase awareness regarding
personal hygiene, diet-nutrition, health issues, mother and child care,
vaccination amongst all. Through this project Wipro is able to provide Quality
primary health care to all the needy, and has empowered people asserting for
their health rights which have led to the emergence of a model project that can
be replicated in other areas.

1.2.4 Hindupur Health care Project:Wipro Infrastructure Engineering (WIN)

has a manufacturing unit outside Hindupur in Andhra Pradesh. Hindupur is one
of the most backward areas as it is drought prone and has perennial water
shortage. The fact that it is not on any major highway or station has added to its
woes – no development has reached the interior villages. The villagers are
malnourished and prone to diseases. While some try to make out a living on
their dry land, some work as daily wage workers in factories like that of WIN
and others. The community felt that health care was a priority for them and was
keen that we focus on health care in their area. This project was started with
objectives of rendering health care services to around 2000 workers in the
industrial area of Hindupur through a Health Clinic where patients will have
access to a doctor and a nurse regularly, creating awareness among the targeted
groups and families on health aspects in the 9 villages and also to organize
Health camps for the benefit of the agriculture laborers, workers, women and
children in the 9 villages.

1.2.5 Mysore Health care project: The chosen villages in Mysore houses
around 70% of schedule caste and 30% of (Other Backward Caste‟) OBC‟s. A
very small percentage of families own land and dwelling of their own, the vast
majority does coolie work as construction workers and agricultural labourers.
Around 50% of the families earn below

Rs.10000 per annum (BPL). Sanitation is a major concern in the area which
results in a constant slew of diseases. This projectfocuses on the preventive and
curative health needs of the community. Provide comprehensive primary health
service, regular health camps and awareness generation on various issues of
health to control and prevent contagious diseases and improve women and child
health and hygiene.

1.2.6 Amalner Health care project: Amalner Health Care Project was started
in January 2012. Currently company has a Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting
Group (WCCLG) plant situated in Amalner. The five villages selected for the
project lack adequate health care facilities. Amalner is a drought prone taluka,
only 3% land is irrigated. People do not have a continuous source of livelihood;
most of the people living in the area are either small farmer or labourers. The
people of these villages are unaware of the various health care services that are
available to them. The project aims at providing curative and preventive health
care facilities along with working towards increasing the efficacy of existing
health care infrastructure and services.

1.3 Environment: Wipro has been working in different areas that contribute to
environmental sustainability, one such initiative is: TIST Program empowers
small groups of farmers in countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, India,
Honduras, and Nicaragua to reverse the devastating effects of deforestation,
drought and famine by identifying local sustainable developmental goals that
include tree planting and sustainable agriculture. TIST India operates the TIST
Program in India. The project identifies, encourages and involves about 25 or
more subsistence farmers to plant 25,000 trees in their own land. These farmers
would engage in tree planting activity in their own land which would result in
about 25-40 acres of dry/waste land transforming into a green space. The newly
planted trees will gradually change the climate and improve the air quality in
addition to working towards water conservation. TIST India also trains the
subsistence farmers on various other activities to use their land effectively to get
additional income so that the farmers will continue to view their land as a
source of income. This project has assisted the livelihood of about 80
subsistence farmers and has planted more than a lakh trees.
1.4 Disaster Rehabilitation: Whenever there is a disaster, one feels a sense of
urgency to help the affected people and provide relief. Unfortunately most of
this support is directed towards or restricted to relief. Once the relief phase is
over, the affected people need sustained support to rebuild their lives. So in
order to support the affected people Wipro, first engages with such people to
understand their needs and then provides support.

1.4.1 Uttarkhand floods Project – Unnati: In June 2013, a multi-day

cloudburst centered on the North Indian state of Uttarakhand caused devastating
floods and landslides in the country's worst natural disaster since the 2004
tsunami. This project was intended to address systemic socio-economic issues
through Strengthening sources of alternate livelihoods and lessening
dependence on tourism through : Organic farming, Horticulture, Bee-keeping,
Dairy farming

1.4.2 Odisha flood project: A severe cyclonic storm named as Phailin with
wind speed of more than 220 km per hour hit Odisha at about 9 PM on 12th
October 2013 which affected 1, 36, 86,368 population belonging to 10,053
villages, 1960 GPs and 42 urban local bodies (ULBs) of 143 blocks of 16
districts of the state due to cyclone as well aftermath flood as per OSDMA
report.The cyclonic storm Phailin and the subsequent floods caused immense
damage to the boats of fishermen in coastal areas of Ganjam.The proposed
project was implemented in 15 villages covering 5 Gram Panchayats (GPs) of
Ganjam Block and Polasara Block of Ganjam District, which were affected by
cyclone Phailin and the subsequent flood. The project was implemented by
Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD), Bhubaneshwar. 1.4.3
1.4.3Tsunami project – Tamilnadu: The tsunami that hit coastal India in 2004
left many to grieve, their lives were swept away in front of their eyes. The
Indian Ocean tsunami killed 2, 30,000 people in 2004 and those who were left
behind had the daunting task of rebuilding their lives. This was when, Wipro
Cares helped victims in Tamil Nadu by providing support in the areas of
livelihood, education, construction of houses and building defense against any
natural calamities in the future.

Livelihood: support was an integral part of the project. Under livelihood

support was provided in the areas of agricultural land, plantation and fishing.
Education:No rehabilitation is complete without addressing the needs of
children. In Pushpavanam, a village in Tamilnadu, Wipro Cares added
additional infrastructure to four of the existing schools catering to over 500
children. Objective of this was to get all the children, both boys and girls, in
Pushpavanam to get educated and one way of ensuring this was by building
toilets and providing clean drinking water.

Protection from floods:The coastal tree plantation in Pushpavanam village was

an insurance against the destructive recurring floods. Pushpavanam had a
coastal tree cover which, to some extent, provided relief to the village during
tsunami.On October 1st and 2nd of 2005, Wiproites joined the people of
Nagapattinam in planting 2, 54,464 saplings on 47 hectares of land along the
coast of Pushpavanam and Naluvedapaty.
Construction of houses:Wipro Cares constructed 35 earthquake and cyclone
proof houses as per the government norms in Naluvedapaty. The construction of
houses was completed in 2007.

1.4.4 Bihar Floods- 2008: In 2008 Bihar saw the ugliest face of Kosi when she
changed her course and inundated vast areas of land. Nearly 2.3 million people
in North Bihar were affected by these floods. Wipro Cares assisted the victims
by being a part of an owner driven collaboration and partnering with UNDP, the
State, Civil Society and the communities affected by the floods. Wipro Cares
realized the need to build awareness around eco sanitation and rain water
harvesting. As a part of the campaign, we implemented a social advocacy
campaign. The campaign included awareness building, educating and
monitoring the usage patterns. Some of the other important activities carried out
in this project is eco-san toilets, Solar Light, dug well, shelters, rain water
harvesting, road construction and planation.

1.4.5 Karnataka floods 2009: Like Wipro‟s earlier engagements in the tsunami
and kosi flood affected areas, here too company met the affected communities
to understand their needs and work to fulfill these needs, one such identified
area was housing. For this two villages belonging to two different districts were
selected to build the houses. These villages were Hosurapaidoddi in
Surapurtaluk of Yadgir district and Naregal of Koppal District. 111 houses have
been built in HosuraPaidoddi where as in Naregal a total of 428 houses have
been constructed.
1.5 Volunteering at Wipro: Wipro Cares has initiated Learning Enhancement
Programs at schools catering to children from the underprivileged section of the
society. The main objectives of these programs are to improve the standards of
learning, building confidence, igniting curiosity and improving the ability to
communicate in English.This project was work through a dedicated set of
volunteers. 1.5.1 Bangalore chapter: At Jalahalli School, the volunteers help the
children with their school curriculum. 1.5.2 Chennai Chapter: At Thiruvika
School, Shenoy Nagar, company engage with children by helping them learns
and enhances their creativity.

1.5.3 NCR chapter:At Dhyan Foundation, the volunteers add more meaning to
the children‟s lives by celebrating days like Childrens‟ Day and Christmas,
especially for them. 1.5.4 Hyderabad chapter: Volunteers visit AshrayAkruti
every month and organize extra-curricular activities for the children. They
conduct a theme based activity every month. The volunteers seek constant
support from the teachers to carry out these activities. 1.5.5 Mumbai Chapter:
At Each One Teach One, the volunteers visit the children regularly to interact
with them, understand them and conduct sessions which help the children. The
common topics taken in these sessions are English, Computers, Arts and Crafts,
General Knowledge, Career Guidance etc.

1.5.6 Pune chapter:Volunteers visit the Door Step School regularly to interact
with the children and teach them the significance of hygiene and nutrition.

1.5.7 Singapore chapter:Volunteers at Wipro, Singapore visit an old age home

called Society for the Aged Sick. The home houses mostly wheelchair bound
old people who have endured a lot in life. The volunteers try and spend some
quality time with the old people and help them enjoy the simple pleasures of
life.

2. Wipro Applying Thought in Schools: This is our initiative to help in

societal change and development. The intent of this initiative is to improve the
quality of education in schools.Schools across the country tend to be regimented
and homogenous, with no space for individual interpretations or conceptual
learning – memorizing is learning. In this line Wipro have built a partner
network of 30 of India‟s foremost educational organizations to helpin building
and growing social organizations. Wipro has alsoworked with around 2000
schools and 10,500 educators across 17 states reaching around 800,000 students
and supported 10 people on Wipro Education Fellowship since 2007. Currently,
company engaged in projects with around 700 schools across the country in
partnership with 22 partners.
3. Mission10X is a not-for-profit trust of Wipro, launched on September 5,
2007, with an aim to enhance the employability skills of engineering graduates
in India. It aims to achieve this by collaborating with academicians & leading
educational institutions across the country.

The Mission10X Learning Approach empowers engineering faculty with

innovative teaching techniques using which they can help learners in imbibing
higher level of understanding of subjects, application of concepts learned and
development of key behavioral skills.

Since its launch Mission10X has gained tremendous recognition and

momentum in the field of engineering education. Mission10X has reached out
to over 1,200 engineering colleges across 25 States in India and has empowered
over 23,000 engineering faculty members.

4. Eco eye: The core of Wipro‟s social and community initiatives is focused on
responsible and deep engagement with all stakeholders – present and future
generations. eco-eye is the way we see ourselves and our engagement with
stakeholders – on the journey to more sustainable business practices. The
initiative focuses on reducing ecological footprint of business operations,
engagement with employees and supply chain, partners and customers to create
a more sustainable society, and transparent reporting/disclosures.The ecological
dimensions of Wipro‟s operations are focused on energy efficiency, water
efficiency; waste/pollution management and recently enhancing biodiversity-
company have set stretch targets for each of them. Moving beyond mere
compliance with laws and regulations, engagement with employees focuses on
health and safety, people development, and increasing diversity and inclusivity
at workplace. Close collaboration with suppliers to reduce their own ecological
footprint and help meet and exceed labour and human rights norms is a key
focus area. For customers and business partners, Wipro offer a host of solutions
and products to help make their own businesses more sustainable.

5. Earthian is their Sustainability Program for Schools and Colleges. It is

designed to act as a catalyst for fostering excellence in sustainability thinking
and doing amongst young people. The annual awards program is a first step
towards a deeper engagement with children and young adults in schools and
colleges. Those in schools and colleges today will be our future policy makers,
technocrats, administrators and educationists who will lead this change. Since
its inception in 2011, earthian has more than 3000 schools and colleges
registered in the program.

Each year, earthian aims to introduce new themes and global issues to students.
Schools have been given an activity based program with Water as the central
theme while Colleges have been asked to write analytical essays on various
themes such as Global Warming, Sustainable Cities etc. earthian was also
launched in Hindi in 2013, targetingschools in the north Indian states.”

CONCLUSION: Today the competition is so much that majority of the

companies are fully concentrating on how to out-beat their competitor, when to
come up with a new product, how much is to be spent on R&D, whether to
diversify or not and which new market to enter. So the companies have hardly
got time to think about doing something good to the society. But still, there are
some companies, despite paucity of time, are still able to do good to the society
and one such company is Wipro. By looking at the various CSR initiatives of
the Wipro Ltd, it is very much visible that Wipro has done a lot to the upliftment
of the society. They have not confined themselves to one particular cause, but
with each and every problem that is being encountered by the various sections
of the society, Wipro has lend its helping had in various spheres of the problems
in the society. Wipro should not become complacent in what it is doing with
respect to the corporate social responsibility, but should continue to serve still
better so that Wipro becomes a household name throughout the company,
bringing lights in the life of the people who have suffered because of man and
nature created problems.