JK Lakshmi Cement’s CSR Initiatives Empower Communities

The Company’s CSR initiatives focus on thematic areas like education, healthcare, skill development, livelihood intervention, water and sanitation, rural development & environmental conservation. 

By Vinita Singhania

JK Lakshmi Cement is a leading cement manufacturer in India, known not only for its quality products but also for its commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR). As an organisation, with a significant presence in North, West, and East India, JK Lakshmi Cement believes that businesses have a moral responsibility to build an inclusive community and focus on the social development of underprivileged sections of society. The Company has consistently worked towards improving the lives of marginalised communities around its plant locations, even before the introduction of the CSR law, which made it mandatory for companies to engage in corporate social responsibility.

We have implemented several path-breaking and impactful projects to empower communities positively across their various plant locations. The Company’s CSR initiatives focus on thematic areas like education, healthcare, skill development, livelihood intervention, water and sanitation, rural development & environmental conservation.  However, we undertook several initiatives during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

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Education

Education is one of the core areas where JK Lakshmi Cement has undertaken various initiatives. The Company has adopted schools in rural areas, providing them with infrastructure and resources. We have initiated skill development programs to help students gain employment. We launched several initiatives under Project Vidya and Project Aarambh to provide quality education and support to children from marginalised and low-income families.

Under Project Vidya, the Company aims to ensure that every child in the communities where it operates receives a quality education. The project works with parents to create a supportive environment for children and provides remedial classes and coaching programs to support students. It also offers career counselling and guidance to help students plan their futures. In addition, the Company works with schools to improve infrastructure and processes to create a better learning environment. Other flagship initiative under Project Aarambh is ‘Back to School’ program for never been to school and drop-out. This unique project focuses on identifying and supporting out-of-school, never-been-to-school, and drop-out children from tribal, scheduled caste, and low-income communities. The program has successfully enrolled a significant number of children in various government schools, and those who dropped out are either mainstreamed with schools or linked to NIOS for passing the secondary level.

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JK Lakshmi Cement also supports multiple dimensions of education to promote holistic education and development for individuals and communities. The Company improves the infrastructure of government schools to provide a better learning environment for children and teachers. It equips schools with toilets, renovates buildings, constructs boundary walls, classrooms, mid-day meal grain stores, toilets, handwash stations, drinking water systems, and water harvesting systems across plant locations. JK Lakshmi Cement provides the JK Lakshmi Vidya Scholarship for needy and meritorious students so that they can complete their education with dignity. The scholarship is available for students who are the wards of masons, petty contractors, construction labourers, small dealers, truck drivers, helpers from Pan India, and students residing near the plants and marketing zones from Class V to post-graduation. 

The Company also supports the education of children with special needs through its “Savera School” initiative, which empowers children with special abilities. The school provides multiple interventions to enable them to gain skills to manage their daily lives. The Company provides coaching to students in Class V to prepare them for the entrance examination for admission into Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, which provides an excellent education at no cost to parents. They also organise special coaching for the National Means Cum-Merit Scholarship and professional entrance examinations.

In addition, the Company’s Career Counselling & Guidance Program aims to make students well-informed about career choices, help them create a career plan, and develop the skills they need to succeed. The program includes structured counselling sessions for students in grades X to XII, both group and individual sessions based on pre-assessment and psychometric analysis, as well as English communication and personality development sessions, skill development sessions, and more.

Healthcare

JK Lakshmi Cement has taken a significant step towards community wellness by launching various health CSR initiatives. The Company aims to promote good health, reduce preventable diseases, and improve the well-being of the community through its flagship programs, and other health interventions.

The Naya Savera program in Pindwara Block, Sirohi District, Rajasthan, focuses on improving the survival and well-being of mothers and children under 5 years of age. The program has created a community protection mechanism through education, doorstep medical service delivery and partnership with the government that promotes health and prevent mortalities and morbidities  among mothers and children. The project has influenced key processes that affect survival, such as comprehensive antenatal care, institutional delivery, child immunisation, adoption of methods of family planning, and access to quality medical services. The project facilitates over 1500 institutional deliveries, more than 20,000 household visits, over 100 awareness sessions, and video shows. Nutritional food kits, iron tablets, health tonics, and drumstick plants have been distributed to pregnant women. The project has also provided training for community-level health workers and mass immunisation camps.

JK Lakshmi Cement has also taken steps to improve primary care in the communities surrounding its plants through outreach medical camps. The Company organises routine general health clinics where a doctor or nurse is available for early detection and prompt treatment of health problems. Medicines are provided at little or no cost to patients, and women’s health clinics, eye checkups, dental checkups, as well as other checkups, are also organised. On average, more than 25,000 people seek care at these clinics annually across all cement plants.

The Company’s nutritional support initiative focuses on reducing hunger and improving survival in poor, vulnerable patients with multi-drug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). The project provides WHO-recommended staple food kits that are distributed to patients diagnosed with MDR-TB. The poor nutritional status of people with TB, who are economically vulnerable, hampers their recovery, leading to non-recovery and even death. The patients also become an economic burden for their families. In response to this highly sensitive situation, the Company provides WHO-recommended staple food for a number of Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients around their plants in Gujarat.

JK Lakshmi Cement’s health interventions also include education for young people. The Company conducts regular health camps and awareness programs for young people on personal hygiene, adolescent reproductive and sexual health, haemoglobin assessment, eye check-up, dental check-up, and treatment of reproductive tract infections, among others. The Company also provides affordable and high-quality sanitary napkins to adolescent girls.

The Company also provides care for pregnant women through nutritional support and referral of pregnant women with severe anemia for treatment. The Company organises medical camps and awareness sessions on HIV/AIDS and RTI/STI for truck drivers, masons, contractors, and other workers at plant locations. They conduct awareness sessions on Silicosis in the community in addition to organising blood donation camps in partnership with hospitals to save lives. These initiatives by JK Lakshmi Cement are a great example of how a Company can give back to the community and contribute to the overall well-being of society.

Skill Development & Livelihood Intervention

Skill development and livelihood opportunities for local communities are other areas where JK Lakshmi Cement’s CSR initiatives focus. Through various training programs and initiatives, they aim to enhance employability and income-generating capabilities, leading to sustainable livelihoods.  One of their key initiatives is Project Aajivika, which aims to facilitate sustainable livelihoods to reduce poverty and inequality by generating employment opportunities for vulnerable households and moving them towards economic stability. 

In rural communities, JK Lakshmi Cement has found that young women and men are motivated to improve their living conditions but often lack the required skills and suitable support systems for income augmentation. As part of its CSR initiatives, the Company runs several short-term vocational training programs such as cloth stitching and tailoring, beautician courses, basic computer training, mobile repairing, embroidery making, food processing, welding, diamond polishing, electrician training, and motor mechanic courses. 

We also aim to augment income from farm activities by training farmers throughout the agriculture cycle and encouraging them to adopt suitable packages of practices that improve their yields while being sustainable. The Company has also launched a project in collaboration with the Animal Husbandry Department to improve livestock in project locations. The project includes doorstep services of a veterinarian for prompt and rational treatment of illnesses. To enhance employment opportunities and income, JK Lakshmi Cement also provides skill development, upgrade programs, and employment-linked training programs for youths and others.

Water and Sanitation

JK Lakshmi Cement is committed to improve water and sanitation in the communities surrounding its plants. One of our primary focus has been on improving water and sanitation access, promoting responsible water use, reducing environmental impact, and reducing the drudgery of women involved in collecting water during lean months. One of their significant CSR initiatives is Project Swajal and Swacchta, which aims to improve water and sanitation access for underserved communities. We work towards improving the water table, quality of water, and access to safe drinking water in the communities around their plants. This initiative has helped to reduce the out-of-pocket expenditure of the local communities during summers, as water is not only inaccessible but also very expensive in lean months. The Company promotes the construction and use of toilets in households and schools, promoting proper sanitation practices that can help in reducing the spread of diseases. We believe that by constructing and promoting the use of toilets, families can reduce the incidence of open defecation, improve sanitation and help to keep the surroundings clean. 

Water conservation and management is another vital initiative that JK Lakshmi Cement undertakes. They make every effort to conserve every drop of rain in and around their plant areas, harvesting rainwater through the construction of Mini Percolation Tanks (MPTs), digging and desilting ponds, and constructing check dams. They also promote water conservation activities such as farm bunding, borewell recharge, and soak pits in the community for the benefit of the local community. In addition to this, JK Lakshmi Cement conducts the desilting of ponds and Mini Percolation Tanks. In some plant areas, they have connected water from mining pits to village ponds to provide water for fishing and irrigation purposes.

The Company provides drinking water to several villages in their communities that face acute water scarcity during the summer months. We have installed several hand pumps in villages and continue to maintain them. We have installed facilities for potable water for students in several government schools. The Company also promotes cleanliness and hygiene by providing door-to-door garbage management, promoting individual toilets, and encouraging households to keep their surroundings clean.

Rural Development & Environmental Conservation

The Company recognises the importance of rural development and improving rural infrastructure to enhance the living standards of the communities around its plants. To achieve this, JK Lakshmi Cement has initiated several projects to improve social infrastructure, including constructing all-weather bus stop shades, developing school playgrounds, and renovating community buildings such as Panchayat Bhawan and Rangmanch. Additionally, the Company undertakes electrification and renovation work at Anganwadi and Gothan shed as part of its community development initiatives. 

JK Lakshmi Cement understands the importance of preserving the environment, and thus, has undertaken various projects such as plantation and rainwater harvesting to reduce its carbon footprint. The Company has planted numerous trees in nearby communities, schools, and other areas close to its plants. The Company is also committed to engaging with older adults above the age of 60 in the community and provides various services such as health and medical check-ups, entertainment sessions, games, meetings, and awareness sessions on health and various government schemes to bring a smile to the elderly.

Finally, JK Lakshmi Cement is a socially responsible corporate citizen with strong CSR governance system and has deployed dedicated team at the corporate level, as well as at each plant location, to systematically drive its CSR mission. The CSR governance system focuses on strategic business goals and aligns them with a social license to operate, the boom of the pyramid in the product value chain, and operational excellence. The Company focuses on social upliftment and environmental protection for inclusive growth. The Company’s approach is centred around convergence (government schemes & corporate CSR), result-oriented impact measurement, plant neighbourhood communities as a target in all plants, community engagement & relationship, inclusion-focus on marginalised communities such as SC, ST, women, unskilled and unemployed youth, need-based customisation, feedback, and sustainability. These CSR initiatives are directly impacting marginalised & disadvantaged families and are silently bringing intergenerational changes.  As a Company we are committed to use technology to scale up our projects so that we are able to create sustainable impact.

(Authored by Vinita Singhania, Vice Chairperson & Managing Director, JK Lakshmi Cement Limited)