Pledges to raise women board representation to 33% by 2020, Company is a signatory of the UN’s Women’s Empowerment Principles

India CSR News Network

NEW DELHI: Anil Agarwal led Vedanta, a global diversified natural resources company, has pledged to partake and lead in the United Nations’ ‘Planet 50-50 by 2030’ vision, this World Women’s Day.

A signatory of the United Nations’ Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP) – ‘Equality Means Business’, Vedanta practices and promotes equal employment opportunities. The company’s Board has set a target to reach over 33% by 2020.

WEP are produced and disseminated by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality, the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) and the United Nations Global Compact.

“Hiring women far outpaces that of just diversity and gender inclusion. Women bring unique insights irrespective of the sector. Vedanta has taken the lead in ensuring that women constitute a sizeable number of our workforce; these will only increase in the years to come,” said Suresh Bose, Head, Group HR, Vedanta.

To mark International Women’s Day; Vedanta reached out to the communities, along with celebrating the women workforce across locations.

The company’s Sterlite Copper operations in Tuticorin honors women achievers, while their ‘Sakhi’ project, a flagship women empowerment initiative achieved formation of 1,056 Self-Help Groups (SHG) covering 15,251 rural women from Tuticorin.

Sesa Goa Iron Ore operations in Goa has held employee engagement activities themed #BeBoldForChange. The employees also interacted with the Superintendent of Police, South Margao, Chandan Chaudhary at the premises.

At Hindustan Zinc Limited, an interaction was organized for female employees to honor their contribution to the company, along with community members, government officials and union representatives across its six locations. The event included sports and cultural activities. Beneficiaries of the CSR projects were also invited to share their experiences. A Story-Sharing competition was also held for the employees, with the best story being featured in the company’s HR magazine.

At the company’s operations in Jharsuguda, an interaction was organized with 350 rural women at Kureabaga village, with volunteers from the company’s workforce. Vedanta’s operations at Lanjigarh observed the day by organizing an interaction between senior management and women employees.

Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL) in Punjab, in partnership with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) (Mansa, Punjab), hosted awareness activities, including the screening of ‘Swachh Shakti 2017’, a mega event organized by Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation in collaboration with Government of Gujarat wherein the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi addressed a gathering of 6,000 Swachh Bharat Champions at Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

Cairn India organized a photoshoot and a leadership talk for all women employees on the theme ‘Be Bold for Change’. In addition, the company premises hosted stalls from women-centric NGOs.

In Namibia, Vedanta’s Skorpion Zinc operations organised a special women’s breakfast meet. The activities included interactions with senior management and guest speakers centered around the theme ‘From Peace in the Home to Peace in Namibia: Be Bold for Change’.

At Konkola Copper Mines, the company is created a TV documentary to highlight the role of women in the growth of the business, focusing on women doing tasks previously stereotyped as men’s jobs, amoung other activities to provide a roadmap for women involvement in the coming one year.

In a unique Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) with the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Vedanta’s ambitious goal to create a network of 4,000 modern Anganwadis in India completes almost a year. Nearly 100 modern Anganwadis, called Nand Ghars have been established across 3 states of India, with over 2000 children and 1600 women directly benefitting from the program. On International Women’s Day, the first set of nearly 200 women entrepreneurs in Barmer will begin the process for establishing their own startups, with skills developed at Nand Ghars. This remarkable achievement is a testimony of Vedanta’s vision of nation building and driving a long term change.

The Nand Ghar runs as a children’s education and health centre in the mornings and train women in vocational skills in the afternoons. This will be a revolutionary measure to eradicate malnutrition in children and create women entrepreneurs across India.