At UltraTech, we undertake our social initiatives under the aegis of The Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, under the able leadership of Mrs. Rajashree Birla. The key focus areas are education, healthcare, sustainable livelihood, infrastructure and social reform. Women empowerment, water and sanitation are cross-cutting issues.
The Centre provides the strategic direction and the thrust areas for our work, while also ensuring performance management. We work towards overall development of the way of life of the communities around our plants, most of which are in distant rural areas and tribal belts. Through the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, we reach out to more than 1.6 million people across 507 villages spanning 16 states.
We follow bottom-up approach for all our social projects. All projects are planned in consultation with the community. The process involves interacting with them and understanding their challenges and issues. 'Participatory Rural Appraisal’ process is used to understand the specific needs of the community.
We interact with village panchayats and prepare a list of requirements based on in-depth focused discussions. Implementation and monitoring of a project is a mutual responsibility of the community and our team. Regular community stakeholder meetings are held to ensure appropriate implementation process is followed. Once the project achieves a status of self-sustenance, ownership is transferred to the villagers. This transfer of responsibility ensures a culture of independence and self-reliance.
Of the over 500 villages that we are associated with, 44 villages have been transformed to model village status. In a few years, we expect to see a major transformation of these villages. The Bibi Village in Chandrapur district is one such example. The village has been selected as one of the Smart Villages in Maharashtra from 3000 villages, post a 30 major criteria evaluation.
The social situation in many villages has gone from dependence to self-reliant and from backwardness to progress.
Reached out to a population of 1.6 million people in over 507 villages in 16 states of India through our CSR initiatives.
Sanitation: In collaboration with the Government of India's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission), we aim to make 300 villages ODF free by 2025.
Livelihoods: The 840 Self-Help Groups (SHG) setup by us empowers 8,000 women economically and socially.
Reached out to around 5523 farmers to help them in agricultural and horticultural activities to reap a rich harvest and 33,857 farmers for water conservation and harvesting..
Education: Over 36941 students are empowered through various school education programmes..
Health: More than five lakh villagers have availed our healthcare services across units.
Our focus areas for community development are as follows:
