For all those critics who believed that business education in India was all about increasing the shareholders’ money, the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has come up with an answer.

In a path-breaking initiative that could go a long way in sensitising future business leaders in India, IIM-A has introduced a compulsory course ‘Socio-Cultural Environment of Business’, in its first-year curriculum of the Post Graduate Programme.

IIM-A officials said this year’s batch, which was the first to undergo the course, was divided into 15 groups pertaining to various socio-economic and cultural problems of the society.

It included rehabilitation issues of victims of the 2002 riots (living in Citizen Nagar, Ahmedabad), problems of single woman and domestic violence, manual scavenging, manhole workers, and farmer suicides. Problems faced by the farm sector, salt pan workers, displacement issues in the Sabarmati Riverfront Development Project and suicide by the diamond industry workers are also included in the course.

Course Instructor, Prof Navdeep Mathur of IIM-A explained the vision that led to this course. He said: “Rather than focus on ‘Corporate’ (or Big) business itself, the focus here is to have a closer look at society in terms of how economy and economic activities are rooted in the changing multiple contexts of culture and politics.”

He added that though the course requirement is only to prepare a project report based on field trips along with a 6-8 minute short film presenting the project’s approach and findings; the impact has transcended much beyond that.

Jinoy Varghese, among the 23 students who studied the living conditions at Citizen Nagar, a rehabilitation colony in Ahmedabad for the riot victims, said: “We have all the documented proof of the appalling conditions in which these people are living. It’s a solid waste dumping site, with unbearable foul smell. The colony is not even recognised by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation.”

He added: “There is no water supply. We have collected samples of the water from a tubewell, from which they are forced to drink.”

Another student, Hemant Gaule, who studied the impact of Nari Adalats in Gujarat, remarked: “At first, all of us were apprehensive about the course as such. But as it progressed, especially the field trips, we realised the interwoven nature of the concepts of politics, society, culture and economics.”

He was supported by Rohit Suri and Anurag Gupta, who dealt with the issue of farmers’ suicides.

The students were unanimous in their decision to take their learning much beyond a ‘simple’ course.