Development of Corporate Citizenship (DoCC) is an SPJIMR initiative conceived 25 years ago, that aims at engaging with social sector initiatives across India. As part of this initiative, SPJIMR community engage with rural communities as part of curriculum where students both volunteer and intern with organizations working in social sector. This rural internship is in line with SPJIMR’s philosophy of Influencing Practice and Value-based Growth, which helps creating sensitivity based on knowledge and the social environment around us.
DoCC Objectives
- Develop sensitivity amongst students to rural India, its heterogeneity, pluralism and sociology of rural poverty
- Expose students to hardships and adversities of under-privileged
- Understand organizations as a system, its logic and importance in the Indian context
- Develop ability to work in an unstructured environment of the organization and amongst the underprivileged.
- Develop an ability to interact and communicate with marginalized and vulnerable groups in the society.
- To recognize the universality of management principles and apply them to the relatively unstructured social sector.
- To be able identify and define problems appropriately and recommend implementable solutions
“How can a Management Institute go beyond its basic purpose and make a definitive contribution to society?” Two decades ago, this is the question S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR) engaged with. The institute was looking for ways to provide value addition to its academic programmes and contribute towards development of the institute as well as society. The late Dr. M L Shrikant, then Dean, SPJIMR, identified socially relevant research as an opportune area.
In 1989 an opportunity came the SPJIMR way when ASSOCHAM, under the presidentship of Shri Viren Shah, then Governor of West Bengal, and a close acquaintance of Dr. Shrikant requested support to prepare a paper to show the way by which business in India could relate to both rural society and the global economy.
Two reports emerged from the research efforts. 1) Accelerating socio-economic development of rural India and 2) Enhancing India’s international Competitiveness. These two reports earned the institute acclaim and recognition.
The findings were shared with an audience of 100 dignitaries chaired by the then Prime Minister Shri Narsimhan Rao. Also present were other ministerial colleagues, senior bureaucrats, prominent business leaders and NGO functionaries.
The Prime Minister stayed on beyond the scheduled 20 minutes. Incidentally, he was also holding the rural development portfolio at the time. During the deliberations he made two pertinent observations. First, he endorsed and backed the concept of networking among stakeholders. Second, he promised the business leaders present that he would ensure withdrawal by Government agencies if corporate sector came forward to shoulder the responsibility towards rural India. He also promised availability of requisite resources if corporate sector stepped in.
After the meeting, Centre for Development of Corporate Citizenship (C-DoCC) was established at SPJIMR. As part of this initiative MBA student at SPJIMR, were required to undertake several weeks of social internship as part of their curriculum. It was aimed to sensitize them to rural issues, make them operate in an unstructured environment, and explore the potential of applying management principles to societal issues. Since then DoCC internship has become an integral part of the SPJIMR curriculum. As Dr. M L Shrikant observed “Our work has been recognized, appreciated, awarded and publicized several times. But the intangible reward to our students is beyond description”
