Baga Cement Works helps rural women form microenterprise to earn sustainable living

October 19th, 2023 : One of the key barriers to rural prosperity in India is the lack of sustained income opportunities, especially for rural women. The lack of easy access to markets for their local produce such as farming produce puts them at a severe disadvantage and often leads to them selling their produce at very low prices. This was the situation faced by women living in 15 villages in the vicinity of UltraTech’s integrated manufacturing unit Baga Cement Works, located at Solan district in Himachal Pradesh. With the objective of contributing to the socio-economic development of the local community, the CSR team of the unit engaged with the women to form a microenterprise in 2020 to help them augment their seasonal income from farming and animal husbandry with a sustainable income source.

The unit team started a microenterprise with 200 women living in these 15 villages. The microenterprise focused on four livelihood areas synergistic to locally available resources and community requirements. The unit team trained the women in specific microenterprise areas to help them become self-reliant in conducting their businesses. In addition to capacity building, the unit team also provided necessary infrastructure support. As part of the CSR project the unit team undertook several interventions to help the women to make the microenterprises self-sustaining:

⦁ Detergent products: The unit team trained ten women in making detergent products in 2020. The women on an average earn Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 per month

⦁ Turmeric value chain: Hundred women were trained in organic methods of turmeric cultivation this year. Our unit team supplied them to a new variety of turmeric with 15 times higher crop yield. The women were trained on the best practices for cultivating the new seed variety.

⦁ Supply chain of milk products: Almost every family in the villages own a milch animal. Earlier, they were selling the surplus milk at an extremely low price locally. Our CSR team identified a local vendor to collect milk from the villagers in 2021. The vendor now collects milk from 60 to 70 families and this is supplied to the unit as well as employee families residing in the unit township. This has helped the villagers to realise a fair market price.

⦁ Value-added products of milk: A group of seven women have been trained in making value-added products of milk such as curd, paneer and ghee this year. The unit team provided them with the required infrastructure such as milk machines, deep freezers, and milk analyzers. The women procure milk from the villagers to make the products, and sell them directly in the market without depending on middlemen. The women earn on an average Rs 1,200 additional income every month.

As a result of this CSR initiative of the unit, 200 local women are now successfully running microenterprises. They are now earning an average monthly income of Rs 3,000 on a sustainable basis thus helping to improve their socioeconomic status in the community.

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. 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 507 villages in 16 states across India.