Green Delta’s Strategic CSR Initiative for Human Rights and Road Safety

By Syed Najmus Saquib (Green Delta Insurance), Green Delta Insurance Co. Ltd.
08:59 AM, July 21, 2015

Green Delta Insurance Company Limited has been practicing CSR effectively since the inception of the company. Over the years the organization has put more focus on strategic CSR and has been strictly and consistently following the Ten Principles established by the United Nations Global Compact. This year Green Delta launched a few innovative CSR projects aligning with human rights principles as well as some philanthropic issues.

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and has an estimated population of 15.5 million. One of the major issues the city dwellers face almost every day are the streets filled with traffic. Often this is due to the unplanned roads and population density, but most of the time it is due to the uneducated drivers and the lack of awareness of the masses. The rickshaw is the most popular vehicle of the city, but it is also one of the major reasons for clogged streets. The rickshaw pullers are rarely educated and often do not care about following the traffic rules, so they create unnecessary nuisances on the streets. Their passengers often do not complain when the rickshaw pullers break the rules and take the wrong route to reach a destination quickly, as they are also in a hurry. But just to save 5–10 minutes, people encourage the rickshaw pullers to break the rules, leading to a rise in road accidents.

We came up with an idea to address this issue through a strategic CSR campaign. The name of the CSR project was 'Ekbar Bhabun' (Think Once). We designed and manufactured 2,500 green T-shirts for 2,500 rickshaw pullers from major areas of Dhaka. All the T-shirts had Bangla messages written on the back to help build awareness regarding traffic jams and offered instructions to people on how to follow the rules. The T-shirts also had messages regarding a scheme of Green Delta Insurance: People’s Personal Accident Policy.

Translating the messages into English, some of them were as follows:

> Sir, please warn me if I pick the wrong lane.
> Not more than two passengers please.
> Considering the risks you take every day while commuting, do you have accident insurance?
> Please don’t tell me to hurry – life is more precious than time.
> I’m not superman, so don’t expect me to pull more than two passengers in one trip.

Before launching the campaign, we made sure the rickshaw pullers were covered by our accident insurance. With the help of our activation partner, we arranged short sessions with the rickshaw pullers and briefed them regarding the importance of following traffic rules and regulations. In those sessions, we handed them the T-shirts and informed them about our campaign.

Green Delta also launched a social media campaign to spread the safety issue among young Bangladeshi.
A rickshaw puller wears one of the shirts issued by Green Delta.
 

On the day of the launch, we went to different areas of Dhaka in groups to watch public reactions and rickshaw pullers’ activities. Most people were surprised to see so many rickshaw pullers in the same green T-shirts. When they read the messages on the back, it seemed as if they appreciated the idea. The traffic officers seemed to be more active that day than usual, as we had arranged for print and electronic media professionals to be in those areas to record public reactions and conduct interviews with people. When we pointed out someone who was trying to pick the shortcut, our team would go to them and request that they follow the road rules. After a few hours, the road became visibly less crowded. The vehicles were not stuck for a long time, as they were constantly moving.

The major impact of the campaign was experienced on social media. People were taking pictures of the messages and uploading them to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. Most of them appreciated the idea. Some promised to follow the road rules regularly. The number of followers for Green Delta Insurance started to increase rapidly.

We also prepared a post-campaign video and released it on YouTube and Facebook, where it went viral on social media. The number of views is still climbing fast and the youth of Dhaka are sharing it on a regular basis.

Our objective of this CSR project was to address the issues related to traffic jams and road accidents and also to promote human rights through the T-shirt messages, namely that human life is more valuable than time. At the same time, we encouraged people to safeguard their future with accident insurance.

 
InitiatorGreen Delta Insurance
Project start
2015
Statusfinalized
Region
Bangladesh, Dhaka
Contact person
Syed Najmus Saquib
Awards

Project benefit

  • Raising awareness on safety issues
  • Providing education on road and traffic safety
Anti-Corruption -
Business & Peace -
Development -
Environment -
Financial Markets -
Implementing UNGC Principles in your Corporate CSR Management -
Human Rights X
Labour Standards -
Local Networks -
Advocacy of global issues -
Business opportunities in low income communities/countries -
Project funding -
Provision of goods X
Provision of services/personal X
Standards and guidelines development -
About the Authors
Saquib, Syed Najmus
 
Green Delta Insurance Co. Ltd.

About Green Delta Insurance Co. Ltd.

Green Delta Insurance Company Limited (GDIC) is one of the leading private non life insurance companies in Bangladesh. GDIC was incorporated in December 14, 1985 as public limited company under the companies’ Act. 1913. But the actual operation of the company started on 1st January 1986, with a paid up capital of BDT 30.00 million only. The shares of the company are listed with both Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchanges as a publicly quoted company. In 1997, GDIC participated in equity investment to establish Delta Brac Housing Ltd. In 2005, GDIC sponsored a joint venture consortium firm named Green Delta Aims Ltd. This year, the company also floated its very first subsidiary “Green Delta Financial Services Ltd.” – a share brokerage firm. At present the company has been operating its business through 36 branches located at different strategically important areas of Bangladesh. Stepping at it’s 25th birthday, Green Delta Insurance Company Limited has now become a big family of 20 respected board members, 11 dedicated senior management members, 600+ committed staff, numerous valued clients and thousands of esteemed shareholders with a paid up capital of BDT 408.24 million.

With the charismatic leadership of Mr. Nasir A Choudhury, Green Delta Insurance Company Ltd. has been leading the wind of change in the insurance industry of the country in terms of service standard, innovative products and legislative restructuring.

With the slogan “Marches with time” -- during the last 25 years, GDIC has been helping people in the time of need; pulling all the steps when needed and has been proud to be a partner in progress. Hence GDIC has achieved an excellent market reputation with the leading position in the non life insurance business industry of the country.

Products & Services

Corporate

  •     Risk Management
  •     Property All Risks Insurance including Business interruption
  •     Electronic Equipments and Computer insurance
  •     Corporate Hospitalization cover
  •     Corporate Overseas Health policy

Financial

  •     Portfolio cover
  •     Credit card Protection Insurance
  •     Bankers Blanket Insurance
  •     Money Insurance
  •     Idelity Bond

Conventional

  •     Fire & Allied Perils Insurance
  •     Marine Cargo & Hull Insurance
  •     All types of Aviation Insurance
  •     All types of Automobile Insurance
  •     All types of Accident, Miscellanious & Liability Insurance
  •     All types of Engineering Insurance

Takaful (Islamic)

  •     All types of (non life) Takaful Products

Investment & Portfolio Management

  •     Underwriting
  •     Pre-IPO placement Syndicate
  •     Trusteership

Source: green-delta.com

 
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect CSR Manager's editorial policy.
 
Comments
Post Comment
 

Write a comment about this page

Your comments are provided by your own free will and you take sole responsibility for any direct or indirect liability. In order to maintain the highest discussion quality, all comments will be reviewed by our editors. You hereby provide us with an irrevocable, unlimited, and global license for no consideration to use, reuse, delete or publish comments in accordance with our Community Guidelines.

 
 
 
 
 

Partners


GCYB

SBA

CSR Manager Logo

 empty

 empty

 

 

 

 

 

Supporters


BMAS

    ESF 

empty


 empty

 

 

 

 

 

About Us // Privacy Policy // Copyright Information // Legal Disclaimer // Contact

Copyright © 2012-2018 macondo publishing GmbH. All rights reserved.
The CSR Academy is an independent learning platform of the macondo publishing group.