Officer - CSR

The core mission involves planning, executing, and monitoring comprehensive community development programmes in surrounding rural villages under the umbrella of the Hi-Tech Carbon Jan Seva Trust. You will lead periodic need-assessment surveys to identify critical gaps in community welfare, prioritize grassroots requirements, and draft structured annual plans that define operational milestones, inputs, and measurable social outputs. Operationally, the position focuses on driving key local projects covering primary education promotion, maternal and child healthcare, and income-generating self-help groups (SHGs). Day-to-day work entails coordinating directly with village panchayats and local leaders, training community collectives, facilitating baseline data collection, and resolving community friction to ensure high beneficiary participation. Additionally, the role requires strong liaison and governance management. You will build relationships with local government agencies to tap into complementary public development schemes, prepare statutory documentation and trust records, and produce detailed periodic MIS reports for the Zonal CSR authorities and the corporate Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development.

This role offers comprehensive grounding in grassroots corporate social responsibility executed within the rigorous governance architecture of a premier Indian multinational conglomerate. You will deepen your understanding of how corporate trust mandates operate in compliance with Section 135 of India's Companies Act, moving beyond theoretical knowledge into hands-on budget execution and participatory rural appraisal. You will develop advanced skills in community facilitation, social mobilization, and grievance mitigation while learning to structure partnerships with regional administrative bodies and village institutions. Furthermore, close collaboration with the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development (ABCCI & RD) provides direct exposure to corporate sustainability reporting, outcome measurement, and institutional impact assessment frameworks.

The ideal candidate brings a solid grounding in social work, rural development, or development studies (such as an MSW or MA in Social Sciences) alongside demonstrable operational experience in field-level community engagement or corporate CSR units. Fluency in Tamil is essential for credible and effective daily dialogue with village leaders, self-help groups, and local administrative bodies, complemented by professional working proficiency in English for reporting. Crucial soft skills include high emotional intelligence, deep cultural sensitivity, persuasive negotiation ability, and patience. The candidate should be comfortable spending substantial time in rural communities, listening to vulnerable groups, and translating sociological insights into structured project reports and actionable monthly plans.

To stand out, tailor your application around tangible grassroots outcomes rather than abstract CSR theory. Highlight specific instances where you successfully conducted community baseline assessments, helped establish or scale women's self-help groups, or mobilized rural families around school enrollment and healthcare check-ups. Demonstrate your familiarity with the operating model of the Aditya Birla Group's social initiatives and highlight any track record of converging CSR interventions with existing government welfare schemes. Prepare to discuss how you address deep-seated social dynamics or overcome community hesitation regarding gender-related livelihood initiatives and child schooling in rural industrial corridors.

This role operates directly at the intersection of the 'Social' pillar of ESG and operational community relations. The primary focus is building positive societal impact and protecting the plant's social license to operate through structured, participatory investments in local education, preventive healthcare, and rural capacity building. Key intervention areas include reducing child labour through regular schooling incentives, improving maternal and infant nutrition indicators, and improving household resilience by fostering female entrepreneurship. This ensures that surrounding communities experience tangible, long-term socio-economic benefits alongside industrial production.

The most complex challenges stem from navigating entrenched cultural norms and socio-economic dynamics at the village level. Persuading agricultural and daily-wage families to withdraw children from informal labour and support continuous schooling requires persistent, patient outreach rather than transactional interventions. Similarly, fostering female empowerment through self-help groups often demands careful negotiation with male community members to overcome traditional hesitations. On the organizational side, balancing community expectations with predetermined corporate budgets, strict project schedules, and rigorous corporate documentation represents an ongoing balancing act.

A typical morning might begin at the manufacturing plant reviewing operational tasks, cross-checking documentation for the trust, and preparing village visit schedules. The middle of the day is frequently spent on the ground in neighbouring communities, meeting with village elders, inspecting an ongoing health camp, or conducting skill development sessions for a local women's collective. Afternoons generally involve administrative coordination, which might include meeting district block officers to discuss joint water or education initiatives, followed by internal meetings with plant managers. The day usually wraps up back at the unit desk updating beneficiary databases, verifying expenditure against planned targets, and logging data for corporate MIS submissions.

Within a global conglomerate like the Aditya Birla Group, success in this entry-to-junior operational role builds strong credentials for upward mobility. Performing well can lead to broader CSR Manager roles overseeing larger plant clusters, regional coordinating positions within the zonal office, or specialized roles in social compliance and stakeholder management. Given the rising corporate focus on social impact measurement, human rights due diligence, and ESG disclosure, professionals who combine authentic community field credibility with structured reporting competence are increasingly well-positioned for career paths in corporate sustainability.

At the grassroots level, you will interact continuously with village heads (sarpanches), school administrators, local health workers (such as ASHA workers), self-help group members, and community beneficiaries. You will also maintain constructive relationships with local district officials and line departments to align corporate funds with public welfare programmes. Internally, key interfaces include the local plant management team, plant HR and administration, the Zonal CSR Officer, and corporate leadership at the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development (ABCCI & RD) for program evaluation, guidance, and audit reviews.