Examining The Role Of Stakeholders In Conservation And Development Of Cultural Heritage Sites Through Corporate Social Responsibility | Mrinalini Singh & Parul Munjal

The potential of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a tool for sustainable development as well as for conservation of cultural heritage has been examined globally and in India (Werna, et al., 2009; Starr, 2013; Munjal, 2013) more prominently in the last decade than before. Challenges such as lack of finance, shortage of skilled personnel and resources are more pronounced with respect to cultural heritage in developing countries (Ayman & El-Hanafy, 2018). Similar issues envelop the vast cultural heritage resources of India as well.

Built heritage is a segment of the wider gamut of cultural heritage that encompasses protected as well as unprotected sites in the India context. The government has custodianship of nationally and state protected monuments as well as unprotected sites, beyond which there is also a vast amount of unprotected cultural heritage that is under private custodianship. Hence, there are various kinds of processes of maintenance and management of heritage in India both documented and undocumented, involving multiple kinds of public and private stakeholders.

The significance of public private partnership has been gaining visibility for conservation, and development of visitor infrastructure at cultural heritage over the last two decades in India, with initiatives launched by the central, state and local governments and government encouraging involvement of private or non-government organisations, as well as individuals (Munjal, 2013). The ‘Adopt a Heritage Project’ launched in 2017 is a testimony of this acknowledgement (Ministry of Culture, 2018). The models of forging partnerships taken up for conservation and development of cultural heritage sites vary across the schemes or projects.

The focus of the current research is on charting the models of partnership that have been applied at three protected sites in Delhi, namely Jantar Mantar, Red Fort and Qutb Minar complex. Each of these have a high cultural significance and are popular tourist sites as well. All three sites have received attention from private partners through various schemes or projects and hence provide an opportunity to study the efficacy of the models of partnership and the role of the various stakeholders in the process.