Vedanta Ltd., which has manufacturing facilities in Jharsuguda in Odisha, conducted various training and capacity building programs in collaboration with local government departments for women in the rural hinterlands of Jharsuguda during October and November 2019.
More than 250 women, who are also members of the company’s flagship CSR project – Subhalaxmi Cooperative, hailing from 35 villages underwent various training programs like vegetable cultivation, advanced & innovative agriculture practices, animal husbandry, dairy farming, poultry and goatry, etc.
With the aim to encourage and nurture rural entrepreneurship, especially through women, training and capacity building programs form a key segment in Vedanta Ltd., Jharsuguda’s CSR portfolio of sustainable livelihoods and women empowerment.
To the same end, the CSR Dept. plans and executes an annual calendar of training & development programs, based on felt and perceived needs of the community, providing an impetus to willing women to build small & micro-enterprises and enhance their family income.
Speaking about the same, CN Singh, CEO – Vedanta Ltd., Jharsuguda said, “We are focused on empowerment of women, both within the workplace and in our community. We have created multiple avenues to encourage, empower and enable women to emerge strong, take up leadership positions and script their own success stories. Our all-women Subhalaxmi Co-op stands testimony to those efforts.”
Referring to the programs, Sundar Raj, Head – CSR, Vedanta Ltd., Jharsuguda informed India CSR Network, “Through Subhalaxmi Co-op, we organize various initiatives aimed at helping women in rural folds of Jharsuguda take up sustainable, fulfilling and rewarding means of livelihood. We are especially focused on encouraging more and more women in the rural margins of Jharsuguda to take up entrepreneurial avenues for supplementing their family income and programs like contribute greatly towards bridging the skill gap.”
Monabati Bag, Vice President – Subhalaxmi Co-op, expressed her gratitude and said, “Initiatives like these by Vedanta and Subhalaxmi provide good opportunity for our women members to learn advanced techniques and implement them in daily lives to for better output in their trades.”
For FY 20, Vedanta Ltd., Jharsuguda has planned more than 30 training and capacity building programs in farm, non-farm and allied sector trades such as tailoring, vegetable cultivation, floriculture, animal husbandry and farming, the company informed.
Till date, 17 programs have already been conducted, covering more than 400 women from 120 SHGs. Currently, the co-op supports 1779 women micro-entrepreneurs in farm and non-farm trades, with the aim of adding more than 600 new entrepreneurs into the fold of the co-op by the end of next year, the company said.
