Most businesses and business leaders do not see cross-cultural religious literacy (CCRL) as relevant or needed in their context. They assume that religion is best kept a private matter. Therefore, it is critical to connect CCRL to its practical applications and business benefits.

Studies show that the most successful businesses encourage an environment in which employees can bring their “whole self” to work (e.g., the xxx study as embedded link). Employees need to feel comfortable, willing, and able to talk about what is most important to them. Employers benefit when they recognize and respect an employee’s religious identity, including their beliefs and practices.

In today’s increasingly competitive global business environment, companies need to draw upon the unique talent and diverse experience of every employee. Employees that feel free to bring their entire self and identity to work demonstrate higher levels of innovation, creativity, and positive working environments, directly affecting business success. On the other hand, organizations that have environments of exclusion, intentional or not, risk excluding the next great business solution, the next great product idea, or talent retention. As companies globalize, they’ll need employees who can relate to the daily experience of increasingly diverse customers. For billions of potential customers, including in the world’s fastest-growing economies, religious belief and practice are a part of daily life. Having employees who understand the ways religion manifests in private and public life—in a particular context—will help companies avoid costly missteps and develop products and services better tailored to customer needs, an essential part of being competitive. 

In short, religion—religious freedom in particular—is relevant to the economy, businesses, and workplaces. By making workplaces faith-and-belief friendly, businesses increase motivation and retention, while also increasing recruitment by becoming attractive to top talent, all of which directly benefits the bottom line. By promoting faith-friendly workplaces—thereby building religious freedom for potentially every family on earth—policymakers have a clear pathway forward to reap the economic benefits of religious freedom, which are clearly documented. By NGOs (including educational institutions) becoming conversant and literate about these dynamics, they can be a key provider of CCRL resources that are relevant to business and policymakers. The biggest challenge is for consumers to become literate about the socio-economic benefits of freedom of religion or belief for all. Business, policymakers, and NGOs must take on this task as part of each and every CCRL imitative if there is a hope to spread this to all. 

At the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (RFBF) we have taken two solid steps towards realizing this vision via education and training initiatives integrating CCRL and business skills: (1) the development of CCRL training resources for businesses, and (2) the development of a middle school Human Rights and Business Skills Curriculum that policymakers can endorse and that businesses can support through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). 

CCRL Training for Business

The RFBF offers training and consulting services to help companies effectively address faith and belief at work. Through our executive seminars, training offerings and certification program — developed by our expert faculty in consultation with top businesses — participants will learn how to increase the bottom line through faith-and-belief friendly policies and strategies. The certification program will help companies benchmark progress towards excellence in religious inclusion. 

The training is built on the following three pillars: 

• Knowledge: An understanding of the laws addressing faith and belief at work, as well as familiarity with the empirical evidence illustrating the role that religious accommodation, religious diversity, and religious inclusion play in business strategy, corporate policy, and economic growth, is a critical foundation of any training on faith at work. 

• Skills: All training deliveries include an emphasis on skills participants can develop, such as religious literacy to help cultivate an appreciation for the religious needs and requirements of employees and customers or knowing how to identify religious discrimination and effectively address it. This also includes best practices and tools for building, launching, and sustaining successful faith and belief-oriented initiatives, which have been compiled from the experiences of dozens of companies in addressing faith and belief at work and launching faith and belief-oriented initiatives. 
• Action: Participants learn frameworks and tools that can be implemented to help them lead effectively in a world of growing religious diversity. 

Middle School Human Rights and Business Skills Curriculum

The RFBF’s Dare to Overcome Human Rights, Business Skills & Peace Secondary School Curriculum that is being developed for schools in India begins by providing foundational knowledge of ten important human rights guaranteed by the laws and Constitution of India as well as recognized by the United Nations. These include freedom of religion or belief, and other rights associated with this right. As each right is taught, it is combined with logically related soft business communication and analysis skills, and ends with a demonstration of how these rights and skills promote inclusive peace. For example, the knowledge portion of Lesson 3A is Freedom from Discrimination, and the associated soft business skill is Networking (see image below). The activity of trying to find someone “just like you” teaches the value of connecting with others no matter their differences. The step towards peace is exploring the good that comes from being with people who are different from ourselves. 

This curriculum is especially suited for Secondary Education where the education from ninth class to tenth class, which provides a foundation for lifelong learning by preparing students for further study and enabling them to acquire work-related skills necessary for entry to the workforce (Indian Standard Classification of Education, InSCED, New Delhi, 2014). By 2030, it is estimated that India will have more than 90 million people joining the workforce. This skill-based curriculum will help develop cohorts of holistic, lifelong learners who are not only equipped with relevant skills for the evolving workplaces of the future but are also flexible, innovative leaders ready to take on the unknown challenges of tomorrow’s world.

As part of a grant from the Templeton Religion Trust (TRT), the RFBF, in partnership with MIT World Peace University (MIT-WPU) School of Education professors and student teachers, piloted this curriculum in 2024 and 2025. The university produced a comprehensive report on the implementation of the human rights curriculum, which was piloted across 10 different schools of various faiths in Pune, a major city south of Mumbai. The report provided valuable insights into the curriculum’s execution, identified opportunities for growth, highlighted the challenges encountered, and included series of accountable recommendations for enhancing future efforts. This review played a crucial role in assessing the curriculum impact its adaptability within diverse educational settings. 

Here, I will summarize some of the key outcomes. 

The human rights curriculum was very well received, and each of the 10 school principals was especially attracted to the practical business skills tied to higher values. Assistant Professor Priya Kale, in the photo below, explains that while none of the schools has a business skills curriculum and only four are aware of such a curriculum, they all would like to implement such a curriculum in their schools. 

Assistant Professor Priya Kale

During my visit at the end of the pilot, the team’s student teachers demonstrated as part of the roundtable four of the 10 human rights lessons that they piloted: Freedom of Religion, Protection from Child Labor, Right to Marriage and Family, and Freedom from Bullying. The class teacher at Anjuman Islam Peer Mohamed High School – Pune, an all-girls Muslim school (pictured below, bottom right), gave a ringing endorsement after the demonstration lesson, Freedom from Bullying. She and the chief school administrator invited us to implement the curriculum on an ongoing basis. 

Anjuman Islam Peer Mohamed High School

At a Pune school for underprivileged students (the Bharati Vidyapeet School), the pilot was on the fundamental human right to Marriage and Family. The class was executed effectively, with a variety of engaging activities designed to raise awareness about this right. Students actively participated in role-playing exercises, group discussions, and case studies, which helped them explore marriage laws, family dynamics, and personal freedoms. A highlight was the performance of one of the 10 original songs written by one of the Hindu student teachers. He partnered with a Christian student teacher (both pictured below) to write the songs to go with each of the 10 lessons. 

Bharati Vidyapeet School

At a prep school attached to MIT-WPU, the pilot class on Religious Freedom was animated through “gamification”—using games and competition to motivate learning. In one game, teams competed to see who could find the most similarities between India’s multiple religions. My minor but really fun part was to come on stage and hand out the awards. 

The final demonstration pilot was at a tutoring center giving evening classes for underprivileged students. The center is an act of love by a husband-and-wife team who offer daily coaching classes on English and math as well as other subjects as needed. The lesson was one that hits close to home for these students: Freedom from Bullying. The Impact and Next Steps Comments from students ranged from, “I didn’t realize we had universal rights at birth,” to coming up with strategies on how to combat discrimination. 

We are working towards sustainability and expansion of the initiative across India and worldwide through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funding. Indian companies must spend a minimum of 2% of their average net profit over the preceding three years on CSR activities. 

In recognition of his leadership making this pilot possible, we conferred the Global Business & Interfaith Peace Gold Medal to MIT-WPU’s Executive President, Dr. Rahul V. Karad (pictured below, center). 

Dr. Rahul V. Karad, center

The award took place during the IRF Builders Forum in partnership with our Dare to Overcome Fortune 500 conference in Washington, DC, May 20-22, 2025. I made the announcement of this prestigious award during MIT-WPU’s Executive Board meeting while in India earlier this year. Also present was the founder, Revered Prof (Dr.) Vishwanath D. Karad. He established the university’s guiding principle based on the teachings of India’s Noble Son Swami Vivekananda, “The union of science and spirituality will bring peace and harmony to mankind.” (For more on the curriculum and its success, watch the video of the report given at Dare to Overcome in May 2025.) 

In conclusion, through its initiatives in human rights and business skills curricula thus far, RFBF has identified the following positive outcomes, challenges, and needs going forward:

Positive Outcomes

• Increased awareness and understanding of human rights.
• Enhanced empathy and critical thinking skills among students.
• Creative outputs, including 10 original songs promoting equality and unity.
• Engagement across diverse student groups, showcasing the curriculum’s adaptability.

Challenges Identified

• Curriculum constraints include limited depth in certain topics.
• Cultural and social barriers, with some minority schools hesitating to share perspectives.
• Limited availability of trained teachers.
• Sensitivity of certain topics, requiring careful handling.

Recommendations

• Integrate human rights education into existing curricula.
• Provide multilingual resources and teacher training.
• Foster industry collaboration for resource sharing and volunteer engagement.
• Utilize innovative pedagogies, such as storytelling and music.

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About the Author

Brian Grim, Ph.D., is the founder and acting president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation and the global chair of Dare to Overcome.

A recognized global expert on religion and economic sustainability, Dr. Grim developed leading religious freedom indexes and advises prominent institutions including Pew Research Center, the World Economic Forum, and the University of Notre Dame.