Whose responsibility?

At the CII Conference on 'Big Society' in November 2010, some delegates said India had little need for CSR (Corporate & Social Responsibility) managers because it was every worker's responsibility.

This is both true and false.

Of course India is not merely every worker's responsibility, it is everyone's responsibility whether employed or unemployed. That is what it means to be a democracy.

But, where corporations have the status of legal persons, and are accorded more privileges than most real persons, to argue that CSR is not needed is a silly way of trying to evade corporate responsibilities.

Individuals have to take responsibility and are not taking sufficient responsibility. That is why our politics is in such a mess.

Corporations too have to take responsibility, and they are taking nowhere near sufficient responsibility. If they did, our society and economics would be in much better shape.