Social Business for Peace Building: A Humanitarian Prospective

According to European and American definition, the social business and social enterprise are the same and they are used interchangeably. “Md. Yunus, Nobel Laureate from Bangladesh in his work for Alleviation of Poverty through economic empowerment and increasing purchasing capability of poor people has defined the Social Businesses are the enterprises established for Poverty Alleviation and address one of the social issues like education, health, livelihood, food, hygiene, wellness, quality of life etc. Throughout his life, he focused on micro financing particularly women and poor for building their confidence that they have the capability to spend and add values in their lives. His financing was helping those poor and women to utilize that fund in their profession starting from agriculture to micro enterprises, through which they could earn a dignified life to live and lead. The concept not only solved the problem of poverty in many parts of Bangladesh, but also created the zone free of hunger, poverty and gender inequalities”

Focus of Mr. Amartya Sen, Indian American Nobel Laureate in Economics on Welfare Economics, where he developed the models for measuring poverty that yielded for measuring poverty on the basis of his theoretical research on inequality. His focus on famine and eradication of hunger through equal distribution of wealth among all. According to him, capacity building is also the strive for the wellness.

Most of the business leaders of the Globe contributing for adding values in lives by bringing different products and services to the reach of the people. Like Lary Page of Google has objective for developing an inclusive knowledge society, by bringing information and knowledge to the fingertips of all, as nobody should be deprived of or left out to access to the knowledge base of the globe. Which is helping many to bring their own thoughts and ideas into the picture. Marks Zukerberg is committed for developing an intelligence system for connecting the minds and hearts and sharing emotions and experiences which itself is a solution for doing away with loneliness, stress, left out etc.

Different studies show that the business models are the most trusted model for developing processes with proper structure and line of command. Poverty, Conflicts for survival, Instability prohibit lives to lead happy and prosperous lives. The lacs of business houses being registered in this country and are being pioneered by our honorable Prime Minister, Sri Narendra Modi ji either for bringing solution to national and local issues or developing community enterprises for making a self-reliance Bharat. The social well-being is the core of any such objective.

Many states of this country are trying to bring Start Policies and business studies as one of the subject in school syllabus, by which it will be easier for the youngsters of this country to get engaged with some type of business activities for developing a rich India.

Normally we see two types of Social Businesses, where promoters focuses not on profit , but on scaling up and in second type, the investors scale up and withdraw their shares and develop an independent model for solving a social issue.

New Companies Act 2013 of India has tried to bring humanitarian prospective into the legal framework of companies operations by making CSR compulsory for well off industries. The integrated reporting approach by combining the financial reporting and sustainable reporting together carries the strong message of social responsibility of businesses and creates awareness among all the stake holders.

The focus on creation of new businesses in most of the counties in the globe is the evident that businesses are having potentials to serve the society on structure way by protecting the financial and emotional well being of human being. This the most efficient social system to increase the financial inclusivity from micro to macro level. The microfinancing community enterprises, growing fast in this country, lead by mostly the women, in the name of Mission Shakti is growing fast and transforming the economic land scape and empowering poor women in rural India. Odisha’s Mission Shakti Model is one of the best nationally and it has the potential to serve the world as one of the largest supply chain particularly for consumer and food products.

Number of examples of social business houses worked hard during pandemic for reducing the strong impact of Covid 19 either through treatment, creating awareness, supply of preventive accessories like mask, PP kit etc.

Following few practices adopted by social businesses are changing the business and social land scape by managing the social risks and opportunities and reducing the cost of operations, organizing public private business dialogue for developing grass route ownership, sharing the information and best practices among all and tapping talents for bringing excellency in a particular field. Such initiatives not only committed for establishment of a society concerned for equality among all the stake holders but also helping in developing and equitable society.

The organizational concepts are not only connecting minds, but also connecting hearts to contribute for a particular purpose and achieve excellence, by which they get the opportunity to lead a dignified life full of achievements and successes, away from social issues.

Organisations are built up with we concept of working together and achieving together. The sense of togetherness, trust and faith are the major strength of any business community, so as of society.

Recognition of potentials, creation of ownership, focus on localized issues, by protecting the human respect and dignity can create a peaceful society where human values and human centric systems are considered as supreme one.