January 10th, 2024 : Rural women usually serve as farm labourers, home-based microentrepreneurs in the informal sector and seasonal labourers. However, they are low-paid as they are unskilled. Skill development plays a critical role in ushering in economic independence of rural women and improving their living standards by enhancing their employability and income-earning opportunities.
The community-based skills training initiative in employment-intensive domain, designed and delivered by our grinding unit, Arakkonam Cement Works located in Ranipet district in Tamil Nadu played a key role in helping over 2,000 poor rural women achieve financial independence and contribute to their families and communities by empowering them to secure sustainable livelihoods.
Over 3,000 economically marginalized women from five villages, namely, Kumpinipet, Melpakkam, Thandalam, Parithiputhur and Chitteri located in the vicinity of our unit depend on unskilled labour, animal husbandry and agriculture to earn their livelihoods. As the work is seasonal and erratic, the women remain financially dependent on their families. Given the potential of tailoring and embroidery for self-employment as well as employment in the local textile units, our unit CSR team commenced free tailoring and embroidery training in 2021 for these women. For this, two trainers with experience in tailoring and embroidery were hired, and 11 stitching machines and one embroidery machine were deployed to execute the training.
After successful completion of the training, the women were awarded certificates. So far, 2,202 women from three villages of Chitteri, Thandalam and Parithiputhur have been trained. Training for women from the other two villages is currently underway. About 800 of the trained women have been gainfully employed in local textile companies such as Ammayapper Textiles. The other trained women have also been able to augment their income by providing tailoring services to the local people.
UltraTech undertakes its social initiatives under the aegis of The Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development with Mrs. Rajashree Birla as its Chairperson and anchored by Dr Pragnya Ram as the Group Head for CSR. UltraTech’s CSR focus areas are education, healthcare, sustainable livelihoods, community infrastructure and social causes. UltraTech reaches out to more than 1.6 million beneficiaries in over 500 villages in 16 states across India.
