Social Audit - A Well-Rehearsed LIP-Service

The term social audit connotes many things to the corporate honchos on one hand, and the society at large, on the other. The job of social audit has figured more as a matter of magnanimity on their part than a real surge in objectively assessing the net contribution to society-net in the sense that resources consumed and resources made available to the people at large. More particularly, the objective of social audit has been to assess how far the companies have lived up to their promise. For serving a useful purpose, social audit should be on a regular and systematic basis and the findings should be made public with an indication of the actions taken thereon. Since all the industries, that may be under the purview of social audit do not have the same features, industry-specific social audit programs should be developed with an eye to the seasonal factors capable of raising typical issues.