From Tihar to the Tribal Belts: Drug Deaddiction|Delhi Slums|CSR |Decoding India’s Social Sector Ep2
In this conversation
Manish Kumar Jha
CSR and Sustainability Leader
Manish’s journey is unique, beginning at the extreme grassroots working with street children at Sewa Bharti and serving as a Drug De-addiction Counselor at Tihar Jail.
Welcome to the second episode of "Decoding India’s Social Sector," a podcast series by Development Wala that explores the human stories behind policy documents and impact numbers. In this episode, we sit down with Manish Kumar Jha, a CSR and Sustainability Leader with over 15 years of experience navigating the complex intersection of corporate interests and community development. Manish’s journey is unique, beginning at the extreme grassroots working with street children at Sewa Bharti and serving as a Drug De-addiction Counselor at Tihar Jail. He then transitioned to leading high-stakes CSR portfolios for industry giants like Adani Power, Jindal Power, and Terri Mining in the heart of Jharkhand’s mining corridors. In this episode, we decode:
The Transition: How working in Asia’s largest correctional facility (Tihar Jail) provided the psychological insights needed to manage complex stakeholder relations in tribal regions.
The Jharkhand Reality: An honest look at the challenges of implementing CSR in areas where companies like Adani and Jindal are often viewed with skepticism regarding tribal land and expansion.
Exploitation vs. Development: Addressing the hard questions—is CSR just "expensive documentation," or can it truly drive a "social license to operate" that benefits the community?.
Digital Transformation: How Manish integrated SAP systems and AI-readiness to ensure transparency and "data integrity" in social impact reporting.
Advice for Fresh Graduates: A message to social studies students who fear that working for big corporates means working against the community. Can you be a changemaker from within the system?.
About the Series: Decoding India’s Social Sector creates a platform for practitioners and leaders to share their journeys and the "real stories of communities, challenges, resilience, and change".
About the Series: Decoding India’s Social Sector creates a platform for practitioners and leaders to share their journeys and the "real stories of communities, challenges, resilience, and change".
View our podcast page: https://developmentwala.com/podcast
Youtube: • Decoding India’s Social Sector
Listen in spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/32EW...
Follow the Series:
#DecodingIndiasSocialSector #CSR #Jharkhand #SocialImpact #DevelopmentWala #Sustainability #MiningSector #TribalDevelopment #Adani #JindalPower #ManishKumarJha
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