CORPORATE SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY DIVISION
RELEVANT RESEARCH AND STUDIES
“The Social Dimensions of Business Practice in the Brassware Industry, Moradabad, India”.
With the past experience of extensively working on the issue of working children in Moradabad town, it was very relevant and challenging task for us to undertake this Research. This was undertaken in association with Resource Center of International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF), UK. The aims behind the study of business practices and socio-economic status of workers were been to identify any correlation between business and poverty, and how the change in business scenario influences the socio-economic conditions of workers. Further, the scope of the project also aimed at studying relationship existing between formal and informal sector and the measures or initiatives (if any) adopted by the business community to assist workers’ community.
Research on existing and emerging social and environmental issues in Information technology sector in India
In partnership with Verite, a US based non profit organization, ASK has been appointed as In Country Research Coordinator & Capacity Building Specialist for this prestigious three year project for DOL. The five pilot countries for this project are Philippines, India, Morocco, Jordan and Swaziland with agriculture, apparel and Information Technology being the three sectors under the pilot research. ASK has successfully completed this research in 2005 and is committed to work towards addressing some of the core issues identified in the IT Sector
CALPERS Emerging Markets Research project 2000 – 2005
CalPERS is the largest state public pension fund in the United States. In 2000 CalPERS began to consider issues of political stability and labor protections when making investment allocations for emerging markets. This research is an indicator of responsible investment decision-making. The focus of the research is on assessing labor conditions and compliance with international labor standards in 27 emerging markets countries, India being one of the countries. ASK has been the In Country Coordinator for past five years of the research.
“Report on Pre study: Basic labour conditions in the Garment sector in Mumbai”
Fair Wear Foundation (FWF), Netherlands is working on implementation ethical trade practices in the garment industry supply chain. A study was initiated by FWF for gathering basic information on regional labour conditions in garment industry. The region under the purview of the study was city of Mumbai, India. ASK was assigned the task to undertake this study. The scope of the study was to gather information on the following aspects of the labour conditions,
Besides this, the study also aimed at gathering information on factors that are obstacles in implementing labour standards and on the feasible process of verification of labour conditions in the specific units.
The study report is available at http://www.somo.nl/monitoring/reports/pre-study_ASK.pdf
Research on Social Compliance in IT: Identifying Problems and Advancing Solutions
With the spectacular growth of the IT sector has come a call for greater responsibility in it’s complex supply chains and business relationships including demands for better conditions in settings as diverse as factories manufacturing and assembling electronic products, high tech call centers and informal e-waste recycling communities. This exploratory research on the Indian IT sector was designed to focus on the labour and environment issues tied to corporate performance. The project relied heavily on a Multistakeholder forum composed of experts from Indian labour unions, government, business organizations, NGOs, companies and academia. The expert group identified four key area of focus for the research in India namely: Computer Hardware Manufacturing, E-Waste, IT enabled services and Software Engineering and Support. The report highlights how the pressure on the global IT industry has affected the Indian IT sector.
Corporate Training & Development Remediation ProgramsResearch & Studies Consultations on Core Labour standards Supply Chain DocumentationSocial AuditingFacilitates Community Based Development Projects
