Ms. Rati Forbes
Forbes Marshall

What is your vision and mission regarding CSR ?
We have been working in the area of CSR much before it became a fashionable term, as it is today. Our earliest interventions began with the setting up of our first factory in the late 50s. Mr Darius Forbes felt it was not enough to just contribute monetarily to the farmers from whom the original plot of land was bought. Rather, we needed to give back to the community where we were going to operate - and impact positively the lives of the people who were residing there. Thus, land was bought, but at the same time, farmer's sons and relatives were trained to be our first shop floor members. Street lighting and paving of roads was done in Kasarwadi; the village in which the land was located.

A small medical OPD was set up too; as not even basic medical facilities existed in this area at that time. Today this OPD has grown into a 35 bed hospital which is open to all members of the Kasarwadi and the adjoining Bopkhel community, for a minimal charge of Rs 2 for the first visit. This vision still drives us today as well.

Instead of focusing on just one issue, e.g. education or children or HIV, Forbes Marshall seems to have been working on various issues at the same time.
How do you manage your resources ?
We continue to focus on three main areas -
a) education which encompasses not only education for children and youth, but also awareness building for the community members in general in various area. Recently, we expanded our interventions to working in generating life skill training amongst the youth of Kasarwadi communit
b) health through our hospital and health outreach services and thru awareness programs. We also partner with KRIPA Foundation on drug and alcohol de-addiction programs as well as forming support groups for the family members of drug and alcohol afflicted people
c) working with women and the girl child. Although we focus our work in these three core areas, it is impossible not to look beyond these three issues, as our main desire is to positively impact the community around us.

However as far as feasible, we restrict our work to these 3 core areas. As we work in communities in a close vicinity to ours, we are well able to manage our resources - both in terms of manpower as well as in terms of finances.

Can you share your typical interventions ?
We have interventions in many areas. Here are some of them.

Development of women

Self Help Groups of women (SHG):
To empower the women from the community we started SHGs in the community. We have associated with Development Support Team (DST), an organization that has been working in several communities.

At present we have 57 groups in Kasarwadi and Bopkhel. Each group consists of 15-20 members. We give various skill-training programmes for the women. Many of the women have taken loan from the groups to start their own businesses and have become self-sufficient.

From these groups, women have come forward to start their own credit cooperative society.

We also conduct various skill-training programmes like, beautician's course, photo-lamination course, fashion designing, balwadi teacher's training course, etc. for these women, to give them better opportunity to get jobs or to start their own businesses.

For overall development of the women, we conduct lots of sessions of expert resource persons on social, psychological, legal and health issues. Many of these women help us in our various community development initiatives and also refer several genuine cases to us.

Health

Hospital and medical facilities
The Shehernaz Medical Centre is a 30 bedded Hospital located at the Kasarwadi campus where free medical aid is provided not only to employees of FM and their families, but also to the communities of Kasarwadi and Bopkhel.

Initially, each patient pays a token amount of Rupees 2.00; all other treatment is free. On the factory premises is a full fledged team of doctors and nurses where medical aid and simple surgery is conducted. There is a visiting psychiatrist, 2 dentists, an orthopedic expert and a family counselling center helping individuals to cope up with family problems.

Regular camps are held where a number of cases - e.g. orthopedic cancer detection and eye - are dealt with. As a result of these camps, we have been able to reach out to a greater mass of people in the communities around . For example, we recently assisted with a little girl of eight, who had a severe deformity of her left foot from birth. She is now able to walk normally with the help of an artificial foot (the Jaipur foot technique).

With the help of our doctors, health awareness talks are given on a regular basis on a myriad of topics such as basic nutrition in the home, dental hygiene for children and so on.

Initiatives for spreading awareness for HIV/AIDS

Considering the spread of the epidemic, we feel that it is imperative that we spread awareness for prevention of the dreaded disease. Therefore we conduct awareness programmes for the community members. We also collaborate with National AIDS Research Institute (NARI) and assist them to conduct activities related to HIV/AIDS.

We support CYDA (Center for Youth Development activities) through which we have undertaken initiatives to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS among young students from 5 schools and 1 college, where the CYDA staff talks to the girls and boys from 9th to 12th Std. on sex education, responsible behavior, healthy attitudes and friendship along with sexually transmitted illnesses and HIV/AIDS.

De-addiction activities

The problem of substance abuse is rampant in the community. The disease of addiction is not limited to the individual who is abusing substance, but it affects the whole family. The women who come to us in large number for various activities always have expressed the need for our intervention, mainly for the problem of alcoholism in their families. In response to their need, we began with counseling help, but the felt there was a need to address the problem at all levels. Therefore we joined hands with a) Kripa Foundation b) Sahayak Hath and invited their staff on regular basis to give counseling services to the individual substance abusers, their wives, children and other family members. They started making home visits, identifying new cases and conducting awareness programmes in the community.

'Savangadi' group

This is a group for children of substance abusers. We started this group in 2002 to give these children an opportunity for ventilation, sense of belongingness and psychosocial support. We consider this activity as a step towards prevention. It has been observed that children of alcoholics tend to be more vulnerable towards substance abuse. By conducting group activities and talking to them about effects of addiction, we hope to make them aware that it is a disease and how they can stay away from this disease.

In this group we try to offer these children a common platform to share their feelings, experiences and to try to build group support for better coping skills. Through the group we identify children who need individual counseling.

We encourage their self-expression by giving special inputs, and make products where we use their art. The income collected from the sale is used for their educational, medical and recreational needs. We also take them on educational visits to various places in the city.

'Shakti' group

This special group is formed for the wives of alcoholics. Apart from giving them group support, we focus on trying to give them opportunities for income generation by teaching them skills and helping them in marketing their products. We also provide them counseling facilities. The group meets once a week on regular basis and also when they have to work in response to the orders placed by the customers for their products.

Activities for the Youth

'Khushi' group
This group is made of less privileged adolescent girls from the community of Morewadi in Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial area. We have been giving them life skills training and inputs in the areas of health, hygiene, and personality development. They also have started making and selling various products that they learnt in the vocational training programmes offered by us.

'Josh' group
In this group we call the young adolescent boys from the community and conduct various awareness programmes on issues like, de-addiction, effective study methods, and career selection. We conduct sessions on HIV/AIDS awareness for the youth groups from the community.

Education

Akanksha
"Akanksha" (meaning aspiration) is an after school programme where English is taught to young children, along with an emphasis on building confidence and inculcating good values in them. These programmes are taught in a fun way - and are a change from the dreary routine the children are used to.

Attendance is incredibly high for the two Akanksha centers we sponsor - each center has about 50-60 children coming to us everyday for 2 and a half hours.

We support four "Gammatwadi or fun preschools" at both our factories where children learn through the play way method. This gives them an ideal foundation to introduce them to school. Enrollment at the Gammatwadi has been increasing over the years with a waiting list of approx. 20 children at both locations. Presently 110 children, (80 % from slums and 20% from marginally better off families attend the preschool)

Circulating libraries function for both women and children
A librarian goes door-to-door issuing books to slum children and women. Apart from encouraging reading habits, it also provides an additional source of income to women from the slums - there are incentives also built in to this programme.

Presently about 252 children and approx. 30 adults from the communities are our subscribers. Those who are reading for over three years are now demanding literature of a better quality.

Other educational initiatives

We also work with a group of young children (15) at Kasarwadi (within the slum they live in) who are unable to go to school, due to family exigencies, to conduct a Non Formal Education class. Our aim is literacy in Marathi.

Some of these children (and their mothers) have gone on to appear for the government-based exams.

Another initiative has been to introduce spoken English classes for the helpers who work in the Shivaji Market in Poona. As per the request of the bys, the conversational classes now encompass simple business methods - how to start a small business of your own, balancing accounts, simple banking methods and so on. This has been one of our most successful and innovative programmes so far. We are glad to introduce newer avenues in the lives of these citizens of the future.

In our quest to provide quality education, we have partnered with the local municipal authorities (the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation) and at their request, have provided an in-service training programme for 99 balwadi (preschool) teachers. The teachers have been taught about different creative teaching methods and there have been follow up programmes to actually track how much of what has been imparted, is actually being implemented.

Since June 2003, we have partnered with "Vanasthali" and laid emphasis on field visits of teachers who need to improve their Balwadi. One monthly meeting in small groups and one of all teachers at FM has been very fruitful.

We have started a school enrichment programme for three municipal schools at Kasarwadi this year. By doing this we are strengthening the Government for bringing in Quality education. Though we are still in the initial stages, we are optimistic that this approach will usher in good and quality education to the masses.

We had to modify our intervention in the school after negative intervention by the Corporator, following which the teachers felt threatened and our active involvement has lessened.

Prerna Kendra
We started the Prerna Kendra in the community at four locations since the month of December 2003. Children attending standards 1st to 4th who stay in the community attend the centers for one and a half hours in the morning. Ladies from the community who are trained by resource persons help children learn the alphabet and barakhadi along with math input. The teacher student ratio is approximately 1: 8.

Balbhavan
While interacting with children on various occasions, we came to know of various instances of abuse children were exposed to in their house, school and community. In order to provide an avenue for expression and recreation, we started this activity. Children gather at three grounds in Kasarwadi for an hour in the evening six days a week. We are presently utilizing the municipal school ground, PCMC garden and a private school ground where approximately 125 children are participating.

Electricians certificate course for adolescent boys from the community
This was a three month course conducted for 16 boys who had completed 10th/11th standard. The boys also completed a two-week course at the ITI. Amongst the group, four boys have started undertaking odd jobs by themselves while others are undertaking minor repair works in their house, neighbors and relatives.

Programme with LABS, Hyderabad
Livelihood Advanced Business Skills is a programme developed by Dr. Reddy's foundation at Hyderabad and some other cities for training the youth from underprivileged background who have not been able to continue with their education after 10th or 12th std. We are collaborating with LABS and running their programme for more than 80 young men and women from various communities in the areas of hospitality and customer service. After the 3 months they will be assisted in finding suitable job placements.

How many NGOs do you partner with ?
Also how do you select partner NGOs ?
We partner with following seven organizations on regular basis: Akanksha, DST, Kripa Foundation, Sahayak Hath, Vanasthali, ASHA, Dr. Reddy's Foundation (Hyderabad).
The process we use to select an NGO partner takes time and great care.
There are several other NGOs with whom our partnership is need based.

What is the typical involvement of your NGO partner and How to you monitor and evaluate your programmes ?
Once we have established a rapport and relationship with our NGO partner, the partner is involved completely on the project. The scope of their work is clearly defined on paper and goals and objectives mentioned at the outset. Thus, they are clear what they need to work on. Members of our welfare team review regularly with the NGO partner, at least on a bi-weekly basis if not more often.

I personally meet the partner at least once a month for a review meeting either at our own office or at the office of the NGO partner. I also try and go as often as possible to the site of the project to see it first-hand. As most of the projects we work on are in the environs in and around the communities of Kasarwadi, Bopkhel and Morwadi (all close to our factories), this becomes relatively easier to handle.

Most NGO partners and consultants we work with, also give us a quarterly report based on goals we have set up with them at the beginning of the year. We review this also at the meetings they have with us. Also, based on these reports and meetings, further ideas evolve and we plan for the forthcoming 6 months or year.

Do your employees volunteer with your NGO partner ?
How do you facilitate the process ?
We continually encourage our employees to volunteer on all our social initiatives. We have had some excellent instances of employee participation. Two of our employees regularly come to teach craft to the disadvantaged children who attend Akanksha center. Four members are mentors of the adolescent students of Akanksha from a different center. Two of our senior managers take personality development sessions or the youth and young children, Some of our employees help the disadvantaged children by giving financial help, many of our employees give books, gifts and toys to the preschool children who come to our Gammatwadi. Some employees volunteer for various outings/exposure visits we have for the children.

How do you measure the impact of your work ?
As mentioned earlier, we set out clear goals at the beginning of the relationship with the partner. In some cases, the goals are numerical in nature, but as we work with people, it is sometime difficult to have very tangible measures. However, because of the constant interaction and review with the partner, both by the welfare team members and myself, we have been able, in most cases, to effectively measure the impact of our work.

You are personally very active integrating the work of various CII Companies.
Which are some of the more interesting interventions you are working on ?
We have had some excellent interventions thru the CII social development cell. We initially met about 25-30 CEOs or key decision makers of CII member corporates - both large and medium sized, in the western region. Based on the needs and desires expressed by the company, we try and identify a worthwhile project for them to partner with. CII monitors the progress then, and ensures that the partnering company gets feedback and reports on a quarterly basis on the impact of the project.

We have had some excellent partnerships through the Godrej group who have supported women's self help groups, with amazing success. Tata Motors has partnered with CII on water management projects. One of the villages they have worked with has been tanker free after 9 years.

On the other hand, there are companies who would like to share their knowledge and expertise with NGOs, on governance. Our own company hosts a seminar each year for employees of NGOs on various topics such as finance management for NGOs, effective communication etc. We have hosted these for the last 3 years where we have invited excellent faculty and host these at our training center in Poona.

Similarly, an IT company has shared its expertise in the IT area with employees of NGOs in a series of workshops. This has been well appreciated and we always get feedback asking for more of such partnerships and sharing processes. It is also good to see smaller companies coming together as members of an industry association and contributing to social causes.

Do you have policies on child labor, disaster management, employing disabled, environment and sexual harassment? Can you share these policies ?
We do not employ children ever. We are in the process of setting up a committee to look at issues of sexual harassment. We have always been very conscious of not polluting the environment around us. We have focused on this on a city scale as well by being part of initiatives to clean up the river; planting trees in school projects, setting up road dividers on the busy Bombay Poona road due to the to prevent accidents.

Likewise, we put up a bus stop for people to use (none existed for several miles around). We also took care to light the busy underpass on the Bombay Poona road such that women and children could use this area safely at night too. There have been several such initiatives where we have worked to better the environment we operate in.

Do you have a 'social contribution through payroll' program ?
We don't currently enforce any such policy for our employees. But most of them have voluntarily contributed to some cause or the other, when the need has arisen.

How does Forbes Marshall look at ethics and CSR ?
Forbes Marshall has believed in the philosophy of contributing and giving back to the community it operates in. We take it very seriously and are committed to the ethics and CSR. For all our CSR projects we work along with people and seek their involvement in every way.

Do you employ differently abled persons ? How ?
We have always employed differently disabled members. We have four on our shopfloor whose sight is affected. We also support children of our members who are mentally or physically disabled.

Right now, we are working on a project for mentally disabled youth in the area, who would learn a skill, such that they could earn on their own. Two of these youth are children of our own employees.

- .Ahmed Karim
( Pune )