India CSR News
NEW DELHI: Dedicated towards contributing to the overall societal development, Sony India has been honoured with the prestigious Bureaucracy Today- CSR Excellence Awards 2016. In a competition among 356 organizations and an eminent jury panel from ASSOCHAM, FICCI, CII, Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Public Service Commission etc. Sony India emerged as a winner in two of the popular categories.
- “Rural Development”: Sony Model Village Development Project at Alawalpur
- “Education”: Sony Hole-In-the-Wall Project.
“We are proud to receive this esteemed accolade by Bureaucracy Today. This award is a reflection of our commitment to give back to the community. Our projects in the areas of education and community development – Sony Model Village Development and Hole-In-the-Wall are aimed at making a positive difference in the lives of the beneficiaries including children who are the future of our country, through our CSR programs” commented Sanjay Bhatnagar, National Head, HR and CSR, Sony India.
Sony Model Village Development at Alawalpur village in Haryana
Alawalpur is a village located in Palwal Block (Haryana) with a total population of over 15,000 people. The project not only aimed at sustainable village development but has also catered to the aspect of development by generating awareness amongst community on various issues towards sound behavioural change. Some of the visible impacts were as follows:
- Better health care programs: With special focus on maternal and child health wherein both general & specialized (gynaecology & paediatrics) health camps were organized which benefitted more than 1400 villagers including women, children and old people.
- Youth skill development programs were organised which witnessed the enrolment of 160 youths and their successful completion of trades like computer literacy, mobile repairing & beautician courses. These training not only imparted skill but paved a path for these youths to be budding entrepreneurs. Some individuals were able to start their own ventures upon completing these programs
- Extracurricular activities like sports which saw participation from more than 200 youth and children in athletics, wrestling and “Kabaddi”.
- Participation of women in social gatherings has improved over the past one year. This was visible in the women participation in meets organised by Sony India.
- Emphasis on women empowerment through formation of Self Help Groups and enterprise development by organizing capacity building workshops for more than 60 women.
- Social infrastructure development through renewable energy applications like installation of solar panels in Govt. Schools, erecting solar street lights, distribution of solar lanterns to 250 children coming from disadvantaged background.
- Agriculture initiatives have been undertaken in order to improve quality of life through horticulture and kitchen garden development, construction of vermi-compost units, building drainage systems, undertaking WASH programs etc. were done.
Promoting Education award for “Sony Hole-In-the-Wall Project”
Hole-in-the-Wall project provides learning stations with Sony Televisions & Laptops so that children can approach these learning stations with curiosity and while examining the products they get the basic education, through customized content produced by Sony Global Education. Working with our partner (NIIT Foundation), we provide Televisions and Laptops to the Hole-in-the-Wall project. The project provides them a hand-on experience on how technology can be used for better information access about things in their day to day life. With this in mind, Sony has till now established 31 learning stations in New Delhi, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Pune and Bangalore which are running successfully.
Hole- in-the-wall site
Successfully improved the knowledge and capability of children in English, Math & Computers
Assessments done for evaluating the impact of the program by onsite tests have shown that children using this facility have improved in English, Maths & Computers. This project has helped provide digital awareness among children and readiness towards using computer.
