CORPORATES AS FAMILY PLANNERS
 

The corporate sector accounts for less than 10 per cent of the population, nevertheless it provides an efficient alternative/supplementary option for the successful implementation of the Family Planning programme. This is all the more so due to the multiplier effect, whereby the impact of such area-specific projects also falls on the peripheral zone via workers, relatives and friends.

With their aggressive marketing and management skills, the corporate sector has helped to intensify research in social and behavioural sciences to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of services provided and provide practical help as in the social marketing of condoms.

S.P. Godrej

Population growth in India has the dimensions and the immediacy of an impending holocaust, directly preventing, by far, the much-desired congenial environment and economic betterment. India confines 14 per cent of the world population on 2.4 per cent of the world’s land and sustains it on 1.5 per cent of the world’s income. The problem becomes even more difficult and complex because it has to cover a billion people, from diverse lingual and cultural backgrounds, spread over 5 lakh villages and thousands of cities and townships covering a wide and varied topography.

Much before Independence, Godrej founder-consolidator, Pirojsha Godrej, foresaw the danger of expected squalor and misery, and spoke of it in no uncertain terms. He felt strongly that just because some industries are well managed doesn’t mean that our country is well managed. He was aware that social welfare programmes, of which the most important is Family Planning, not only bring welfare benefits to workers but commercial advantages to business, improved employee morale, less absenteeism, lower labour turnover, economising expenses on workers’ health by better education and proper nourishment. He wanted women to be empowered and to do social work.

His youngest daughter-in-law and Naval’s wife, Soonuben, along with a dedicated educationist and founder of Pupil’s Own School, Cooverbai Vakil (Auntie), and Welfare Officer Alooben Mowdawalla, joined right from the start. Alooben Mowdawalla was the first female employee employed by Godrej in June 1955. Alooben, who grew to become Sr. Welfare Executive in Godrej, recalls: "Our aim right from the beginning was to raise the standard of living of our workers, not just their economic standards, but in every sphere. They were our employees and we looked to their benefit. The employers also gained from having a happy workforce."

Godrej pioneered in devising and planning their own programmes as per the felt needs at that time with the following objectives:
>> All-round development of all family members of the employee, including himself. (At that time no female employees were recruited.)
>> To raise the standard of living of employees
>> To provide counselling and case work services.

Additions to the world population in the next decade are expected to average 97 million per year, the highest in history and affecting India most. The lack of attention to this runaway growth is shocking when one recalls that more than three decades ago the Pearson Commission Report, hailed as a milestone in international economics, laid particular emphasis on the dire need for population planning. The Commission warned: "There can be no serious social economic planning unless the serious implications of uncontrolled population are understood and acted upon." "No other phenomenon," the Commission added, "casts a darker shadow over the prospects for international development than the staggering growth of population."

SURVEY FINDS:
To begin with Godrej conducted a survey of families occupying the Company's quarters during that time. The Company wanted to find out their educational standard, economic status, number of unemployed persons in the family, whether the ladies were gainfully employed or not, whether the children of school-going age were sent to schools and the number of children that would start coming to the school if Godrej make a beginning with Pre-primary classes for children between the age group of 21/2 to 5 years. Above all, the Company tried to know the number of dependents and the family size on an average, as the Godrej township was a miniature India, representing almost all the States. Godrej also ascertained from them their expectations from the Company and what, in their opinion, were their immediate needs.

The following basic requirements were listed:
>> School for children, as no school existed in the near vicinity.
>> Dispensary, as only a mobile van used to come near the Godrej colony twice a week.
>> Flour mill because there was none nearby.
>> Consumer store where all the daily necessities could be obtained as meagre facilities were available in the nearby Vikhroli village.
>> Well-paved electrified roads.