MUMBAI: Cairn India, Oil & Gas, Vedanta Limited, one of the world’s leading independent oil and gas exploration and production companies, has recently bagged the prestigious award India CSR Sanitation Leadership Awards [Corporate] [Large Impact] for its large sanitation project at Barmer district of Rajasthan, where it has oil and gas exploration facilities.
- Sandhya Thakur and Dr Uma Bihari Dwivedi representing Cairn India received the award from Ramdas Athawale, Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment and Dr. Rana Singh, Co-Founder, India CSR Network at India CSR Leadership Summit held on May 26, 2017 at Mumbai.
India CSR Group is delighted to confer the Sanitation Leadership Award [Corporate] [Large Impact] for 2017 to Vedanta Ltd., Cairn Oil and Gas, for its unique CSR Project par excellence that is focusing on improving the health and hygiene quotient of the community residing in Barmer district of Rajasthan. Through this sanitation initiative, Vedanta Ltd, Cairn Oil and Gas has not only facilitated the construction of more than 10,000 house hold (HH) toilets but has improved the utilization ratio from 30% to 80%.
One of its kind, this Public Private Partnership with Zila Parishad, Barmer, Government of Rajasthan India, Cairn has signed an MoU which aims to create 47 Gram Panchayat of Baitu block as an Open Defecation Free (ODF) Gram Panchayat’s, (GP) in Barmer district (25,000 HH).
From the Honourable Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi’s clarion call for ‘Swachh Bharat’, this initiative of Vedanta Ltd Cairn Oil and Gas, has a direct co-relation by creating a sanitation drive in the community, thereby contributing immensely to the vision of respected PM for a prosperous India.
The project focus on creating awareness about the importance of sanitation in community. Children and women are the two change agents who are the driving force behind the success of this project. Through the interventions in schools, and community (Community-led Total Sanitation-CLTS/ School-led Total Sanitation-SLTS) simultaneously, the acceptance of the project has improved and community is now building quality toilets for their household usage.
The Barmer district has been facing socio-economic challenges with more than 90 percent people practicing open defecation in rural areas and 85 percent overall (as opposed to the average of 50 percent in India) as a whole. (Barmer Sanitation Statistics, Census 2011). Such practices have, in turn, resulted in contamination of nearby water sources, thereby contributing to some of the highest Infant and Maternal Mortality (IMR, MMR) rates in the country.
In February 2013, under the ‘Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan’ (NBA) program, we adopted nine villages of Beriwala Tala Gram Panchayat of Barmer district under Private Public Partnership model. The program has been very successful and ultimately resulted in the Beriwala Tala Gram Panchayat achieving ODF status, one of the first such panchayats in Barmer to achieve such as status.
The program was subsequently extended to 19 more villages of Gram panchayats Bhadkha and Mundhon ki Dhani, which are situated near the operational areas where oil is produced. There was a pressing need for an intervention in these areas for only 9.4 percent households had improved toilet facilities and 90 percent of the population were still practicing open defacation.
Prestigious and one of the largest CSR forum for the year 2017, the India CSR Leadership Summit & Awards recently organized at Mumbai on May 26, 2017. The day long forum witnessed politician, social reformers, corporate leaders, CSR think tanks, academia and professionals of allied fields of CSR and social development.
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