Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the form of corporate self regulation integrated into a business model. CSR aims to embrace the responsibility for corporate actions and to encourage a positive impact on the environment and stakeholders including consumers, employees, investors, communities and others.

At present,, CSR is gaining momentum in Nepal, especially at a time when our country is facing a disaster. We can hear news about billions of rupees being donated by different organizations as part of their CSR. It is good news to hear that organizations are initiating steps to help rebuild the nation. The citizens are more responsible for rebuilding the nation.

We hear that corporate bodies like big manufacturing houses, banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and retirement funds are donating huge sums of money for the purpose of relief and rehabilitation of earthquake affected victims. This is a wise step. However, while one side of the story shows large donations being spent on the relief campaign as part of their CSR, the other part of the story reveals negligence of these same humanitarian organizations about their responsibility towards their own employees.

The devastating earthquake of April 25 took thousands of lives, injuring more and destroyed lakhs of houses. Many people are not being able to come back to their normal state. Even in such situations, many organizations expected their employees to rejoin their office right after the disaster, i.e. on the immediate next day, as though nothing had happened. Those who didn’t join work had their leave or salary deducted. There was no favorable environment in which the employees could do their work.

However, they were compelled to stay in the office, though most of their services were not essentially required. This is lack of responsibility of organizations towards their own employees. Donations of millions of rupees have reflected the financial organizations’ CSR in bold letters of newspapers and giving good image, which is fairly philanthropic. But the benefits of tax waivers they will gain from these acts, as provisioned by the Inland Revenue Department, is also not to be undermined, which has created a win-win situation for the organizations. But have they truly fulfilled their corporate responsibility towards their employees?

The news that three people of a bank got killed when their office building collapsed has come into light.