MUMBAI: Diversey India, engaged in the business of cleaning and hygiene solutions announced that their ‘Garima Diversey School of Hygiene’ has managed to place 1800 candidates in the first year of its operations as a part of its shared value initiative.
With the vision of creating a better way for life by providing livelihood and bringing dignity to the cleaning profession, Diversey had embarked upon Garima- Diversey School of Hygiene – India, a CSR program to improve and standardize the skill sets for this important but neglected industry. The name for this initiative has been derived from a Hindi word “Garima” which means Dignity.
This program has enabled Diversey to help the unemployed rural youth find jobs and a better living condition, bringing scientific approach to the cleaning and hygiene profession and enhancing the standards of the cleaning industry, also helping the industry bring dignity to the job of cleaning profession by positioning them as “hygiene technicians” instead of janitors.
Himanshu Jain, President, Asia Pacific said, “The design of this program consists of the courses like ‘Cleaning Science’ and ‘Food safety program for food handlers’. These courses have a clear structure and training module and the person under this training starts from a ‘hygiene technician’ to becoming an ‘expert’ and finally to becoming the ‘hygiene supervisor’. These trainings are provided by the Diversey approved trainers.”
“The candidates are placed with an average annual salary of Rs. 8000. There were candidates earning higher based on their skill and capabilities. The annual approximate value creation is Rs. 144,000,000 (1500 employees *Rs 8000*12).”
“Since January 2016, the team has been piloting this initiative (Garima- Diversey School of Hygiene, India) in six states of India, providing placement to 1800 candidates. This is an ongoing activity and has been successful in generating a shared economic value. With this initiative, we plan to place at least 5000 candidates,” he further added.