The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
BHUBANESWAR, JANUARY 6, 2021
Aditya Aluminium’s CSR Project Saksham is changing the lives of underprivileged women in 23 villages under Rengali Block of Sambalpur district. Enlisting 853 members across 78 Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and honing their skills, Aditya Aluminium has helped these women rise on their own.
Various structured entrepreneurship and economic empowerment programmes have helped provide them with a reasonable income. Five SHGs have registered a 15 percent increase in their income in the last 5 months, while 15 SHGs have been offered loan linkages. Aditya Aluminium has adopted 22 new units and facilitated 150 women access government schemes. The Saksham Project has infused in these women a new spirit, captured in just two words that is “We Can. We Will”.
Under Project Saksham, Aditya Aluminium adopts SHGs, reaches out to the women through a dedicated facilitator who is instrumental in holding meetings, providing training on income generation activities, mobilising government funds and linking them with government schemes.
Over the past one year, the CSR team has reached out to villages, assessing resources and ways to leverage their capabilities and interest. Based on that assessment, more than 100 women are chosen for income generation activities which fetch high returns with minimum investment. Among these activities are mushroom cultivation, paper bag making, turmeric processing, leaf plate making, tailoring, poultry, goat farming, pisciculture etc. On an average, the women are earning nearly Rs 5,000 per month. During the Covid-19 pandemic, those with tailoring skills have been able to earn anywhere between Rs 40,000 to Rs 70,000 in just three months.
To kindle entrepreneurship spirit, the Aditya Aluminium CSR team also helps these women start their own independent business such as phenyl production, poultry farming and tailoring.
Lauding this initiative, Kailash Pandey, Unit Head – Aditya Aluminium, comments, “This is a very heart-warming project because we have been able to help so many women lead a better quality of life through economic independence. It has bolstered their confidence as well as self-esteem significantly.”
“We are much encouraged by our iconic Chairperson, Mrs. Rajashree Birla, Chairperson, Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, who believes that we must Engage, Uplift and Empower our women,” added Pandey
Going forward, Aditya Aluminium wants to focus its efforts on skill development of youth through vocational courses, but the company’s primary focus will be on strengthening good agricultural practices through multi-cropping and introducing cash crops to improve per capita income in the area,” informed Pandey.
The Aditya Birla Group feels very encouraged by the positivity that its CSR projects generate at the ground level.
