Livelihoods Generation through Corporate Social Responsibility: The Impact of CSR Initiatives on Socioeconomic Empowerment in Odisha

Spearheading the cause of the communities is often eulogized as the overwhelming mandate of the corporate houses. There are a plethora of instances wherein companies of various sorts put serious effort on their social obligations and financially invest a lot in various developmental activities revolving around community development in one way or the other. This may include donations, volunteering activities, educational programs, livelihood ventures, healthcare initiatives, or infrastructure development in disadvantaged areas. The paper represents an attempt to highlight the role of CSR in community development through generation of livelihood programes especially for the rural women. By following descriptive and exploratory research designs with a sample size of sixty women collected from five different SHGs chosen through simple random sampling along with the use of interview schedule as the tool, it analyzes the CSR contribution of the Dalmia Bharat Foundation (DBF) in promoting the livelihood concerns of women through a variety of initiatives including mushroom cultivation, tailoring, spice packaging, imparting business skills, access to finance and host of other initiatives.