The Business Bytes
TBB BUREAU
JHARSUGUDA, JULY 21, 2023
Vedanta Aluminium, India’s largest producer of aluminium, has rolled out ‘ArtShala’ – a unique employee volunteer-driven initiative, to help transform learning spaces in rural areas. The company initiated this program at the Government UP School, Purna, where employee volunteers of the company painted lively child-friendly murals and helped transform the school walls towards creating interactive learning spaces.
The ‘ArtShala’ initiative aims to create fun and engaging learning spaces for primary school students which are also helpful in encouraging them to attend classes and boosting the district’s literary rate.
This extraordinary initiative draws inspiration from the innovative concept of ‘Building as Learning Aid’ (BaLA) and harnesses the power of art to inspire young minds. The walls of the school have now been transformed into visual learning aids, with the murals depicting letters of the alphabet, parts of a tree, new words, days of the week, numbers and much more. Children were thrilled to come to a bright and inviting school after the summer holidays, and seeing the positive response of the students, the company is working towards extending this initiative to several more government schools in Jharsuguda.
Speaking on the ‘ArtShala’ program, Vedanta Limited – Aluminium Business COO Sunil Gupta said “At Vedanta Aluminium, we are deeply committed to enhancing access to growth and developmental opportunities in the communities where we operate, especially for its younger generations. With ‘ArtShala’, we aim to inspire and nurture a love for learning among students. Through this unique fusion of art and education, we wanted to create an environment where their creative potential can truly thrive. Our education initiatives are aimed at bridging the literacy divide and improving community access to quality education.”
Expressing happiness over the company’s efforts, Government UP School, Purna Headmaster Ambika Naik said “We thank Vedanta Aluminium for their visionary initiative, ‘ArtShala’, through which they are setting an exemplary benchmark for empowering education in the community. By infusing art into shared learning spaces, the company is creating an inspiring environment that sparks creativity and cultivates a passion for learning. Their work will undoubtedly leave a lasting impression on our students”.
The Jharsuguda unit of Vedanta Aluminium is committed to developing the educational infrastructure around its areas of operation. Some of the education initiatives presently being undertaken by the company include:
Supporting more than 5,000 children with access to early childhood education through Nand Ghars, which are modernized anganwadis supported by Vedanta that act as community hubs of women and child development; Infrastructure development in government schools at Jharsuguda under Govt. of Odisha’s ‘Mo School Abhiyaan’, benefiting more than 1,000 students; Vidyagraha, an e-learning program to provide recorded lectures and online career counselling to students from classes 8th-10th, thereby augmenting classroom learning in government schools of Jharsuguda; Vedanta Mini Science Centres, which provide innovative models, experiments, and instruments to more than 1,200 students to enhance their aptitude and skills in learning science and mathematics in effective and interesting ways; Vedanta Computer Literacy Programme, which imparts basic computer literacy and training to those without access to proper knowledge on using computers; Vedanta-DAV Education Support Program which supports the education of meritorious students from peripheral communities at DAV Public School, Jharsuguda; and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Education Project to impart knowledge on the basics of AI to students and build AI-based solutions for real-world problems.
Vedanta Jharsuguda’s social interventions in the domains of sustainable livelihood, quality education, women empowerment, health, water and sanitation, bio-investment and community infrastructure reach out to 80 villages in Jharsuguda and nearby areas, benefiting over 3 lakh people in a year. It empowers more than 4000 women from over 350 SHGs, provides doorstep healthcare services to about 43,000 people annually, gives educational support to more than 13,000 students, and has planted more than 1.48 lakh trees in partnership with locals at the community level.
