Nand Ghar on Saturday rolled out its 1500th centre at Surahi village in Kashi Vidyapeeth block of Varanasi, marking an important milestone for the Vedanta Group’s flagship corporate social responsibility project.
Union Minister for Women & Child Development and Textiles, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani virtually inaugurated the new centre at Varanasi and also interacted with Anganwadi workers and Nand Ghar beneficiaries from Barmer district of Rajasthan and Lanjigarh district of Odisha.
Speaking on the occasion, Smt. Irani complimented Vedanta for making a difference to the lives of women and children at the grassroot level.
“It gives me immense pleasure to be inaugurating the 1500th Nand Ghar project by Vedanta. It is one of the finest examples of CSR , an important milestone for Vedanta which has transformed the lives of rural women and children across India through its network of Nand Ghars, a modern, state of the art version of the Anganwadi model. I was there for the first Nand Ghar launch four years back and the project has indeed come a long way since then. Congratulations to the Nand Ghar team on this special occasion” she said.
The Nand Ghar journey began in 2015 with a vision to transform the lives of 8.5 crore children and 2 crore women across 13.7 lakh anganwadis. A dream project of Vedanta Chairman, Shri Anil Agarwal, Nand Ghar is a network of model anganwadis where the thrust is on inclusive development of children, women and local communities. The Nand Ghars are set up in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Women & Child Development.
Vedanta Chairman Anil Agarwal said: “I am delighted to see that Vedanta’s flagship project, Nand Ghar, is transforming the lives of rural women and children across the country. We are committed to fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of eradicating child malnutrition, providing education and healthcare, and empowering rural women through skill development, and Nand Ghar will be the change agent. I have no doubt in my mind that Nand Ghar will continue to create a better tomorrow for the mother and the child at the grassroots level.”
With the rollout of 1500 centres, the Nand Ghar project is now spread across 7 states – Rajasthan, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. The project aims to touch the lives of 4 million community members while directly impacting around 2lakh children and 1.8 lakh women on an annual basis.
Nand Ghars are equipped with solar panels to ensure 24X7 electricity, water purifiers, clean toilets and smart television sets, and have become a model resource centre for the local communities. Pre-school education is provided to children in the age group of 3-6 years. Nutritious meals and take-home rations are being provided for children, pregnant and lactating women.
Primary healthcare services are rendered through mobile health vans and women are empowered through skilling, credit linkage and enterprise development.
