Amidst hundreds of nominations from companies in India, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd (HCCB) won the CSR Excellence Award 2017 under the category of Women Empowerment. The award recognizes HCCB’s efforts in training 50,000 women to help them become economically independent.
HCCB is one of India’s largest FMCG companies and it uses its infrastructure, resources and supply chain to train women in areas like digital literacy, retail skills, basic IT, Tally, English speaking, personality development and job readiness. It also supports education of women on farming methods like Ultra High Density Plantation.
Partners like NIIT Foundation, Jain Irrigation and AA Edutech and others have supported HCCB in this endeavour. HCCB also engages with Self Help Groups (SHGs) who come together for a collective decision of starting a small scale business by generation of funds through mutual savings.
Accepting the award, Umesh Malik, Vice President, Public Affairs, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages, said, “Our goal is to align our business interests to the wellbeing of the communities where we operate. The company is focused on creating shared value in three critical areas – water, women and community wellbeing. We are happy that communities and civil society are seeing value in what we bring to the table. Your appreciation gives us the motivation to continue the drive”.
The award was presented at a function at Delhi by Bhaskar Chatterjee, IAS (R) known as Father of CSR in India; Suhaib Ilyasi, Editor-in-Chief, Bureaucracy Today; N.K. Verma, MD, ONGC; Indresh kumar, RSS leader and Dr. Khwaja Iftikhar Ahmed, Founder President, Inter Faith Harmony Foundation of India.
