January 2nd, 2024 : Tending a small piece of land to earn a meager living is 26-year-old Sunita from the Kharia Khangar village in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan. As a mother of two, Sunita dreams of equipping her kids with quality education to lead a better life. But her earning from the land is not sufficient to meet her daily needs let alone provide a good education to her children. Sunita is not the only one struggling. Coming to the aid of such women is the Birla White Women Empowerment Program. The program started its journey from Kharia Khangar, Block-Pipar City, Jodhpur way back in 2003 with the formation of SHG followed by locations such as Bhopalgarh, Merta City and others reaching out to more than 3000 women.
Under this, project Prayas (meaning ‘endeavour’ in Hindi) was conceptualised and commenced as a part of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative of the Birla White unit aimed at contributing towards helping socio-economically marginalised women like Sunita to secure sustainable livelihoods through vocational training like stitching & tailoring, and bag & uniform making to help them secure sustainable livelihoods. The following activities are undertaken in the project :
SHG Formation drive
Capacity building program for SHG Members on book-keeping and modular training on financial literacy and lvelihoods including both farm and off-farm
Special training to master trainers such as Krishi Mitra (agriculture) & Pashu Sakhi (animal husbandry) on modern tools and techniques
Basic computer classes for SHG members
Exposure visits of farmers
Training on organic farming-vermi compost, NADEF, Improved seeds, fertilizers, dairy, etc.
Kisan Gosthi Program
Skill-based training for SHG Members such as tailoring, beautician courses, bag making, mask making, etc.
Orchard development program
In the year 2021, the team identified stitching and supplying of safety reflective jackets used by the unit employees as an opportunity to enhance the income for the women through project Prayas. Twenty women from the SHG were selected and provided special training by the unit for making the jackets in line with international standards of safety and as per the Company’s quality norms.
Based on the samples of the jackets made by the women, the first order of safety jackets was placed by the unit to the group. Out of the 20 women who took the special training, 12 women were selected for fulfilling the order. After this, the Birla White team developed a dedicated safety jacket production facility on the premises owned by the company near its unit for the SHG members which has basic infrastructure facilities like drinking water, electricity 24X7, storeroom, etc. The unit provided the fabric and other raw materials for making the jackets. Within a month the women completed their first order. Now the group is preparing safety jackets for other units too. These resolute women have tailored 1100 jackets for Birla White.
Being a member of the SHG, Sunita took training in the stitching of the safety reflective jackets provided by the unit team. With the supplementary income she is expecting from the delivery of the jackets, she is confident of sending her children to a good school. In her words, “I feel financially empowered now and have found a new identity and confidence as I can make independent decisions and have a better say in family matters.”
These efforts of Birla White’s project Prayas have made a deep impact, on the lives of impoverished women, of Kharia Khangar town in Jodhpur. Acknowledging this, the project has won the prestigious Golden Peacock Award for CSR 2023. The award is given to businesses that behave ethically and contribute to the economic development of the local community and society at large.
