Catching Them Young

Integrated Community Development

One of L&T’s flagship CSR project is to aid water conservation in drought-prone areas by building watersheds. A thorough study on water availability was conducted before the projects commenced in select water-starved areas across the country. The interventions that were kicked off to improve the availability of water, progressed to health, education and skill development in a phased manner, achieving holistic development. The Integrated Community Development (ICD) programme was conceptualised and launched in 2014-15 to enable water-stressed rural communities to turn self-reliant, meet drinking water requirements, maintain sanitation, promote agriculture, access improved healthcare and education. After over two years, the programme noted many measurable outcomes.

Highlights

Integrated Community Development Programme in States of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, has had a significant impact

Focus Areas

Construction of ‘Water Infrastructure’ including check dams, anicuts, contour trenches, farm bunds, farm ponds, and well restoration

Drudgery-free access to clean drinking water, ensuring improved health and sanitation

Empowering communities for long term viability of the initiatives through self-help groups participation

Availability of adequate fodder for livestock

Quantitative Impact

80 SHGs formed

28 animal health camps

66 trainings conducted across issues like agricultural techniques, animal husbandry, access to markets and livelihood skills

1,130 kitchen gardens for households

9 exposure visits to view successful interventions for enhancing knowledge and awareness

Support to 7 Balwadis benefitting 500 children

Seed banks in 2 villages

150 crop demonstrations for farmers

Education

L&T supports 201 schools and has reached out to over 0.33 million children with its initiatives.

This year, 3,366 employees opted to volunteer and worked on various initiatives.

Health

Around 1 Mn individuals this year are not only aware of their medical conditions, but also have better access to healthcare facilities, due to health camps and other initiatives.

Skill Development

34,696 rural and urban youth, along with women from underprivileged communities, are being taught skills that will improve their employability and expand their opportunities.

Catching Them Young

Children’s newsletters promote creative thinking and writing

L&T Construction’s flagship programme Single Teacher Schools, spread over 125 villages in Kanchipuram and Tiruvallur districts of Tamil Nadu, have been improving academic capabilities and soft skills amongst 3,125 children. The primary objective of the programme is to infuse quality into education by supporting learning after school hours.

In 2016, the programme hit upon a unique idea of creating a children’s newsletter. The content of the newsletter including articles, art and puzzles were to be contributed by children. The motive is to infuse the love for writing, and thus improve linguistic skills of children at a very young age. The children who are trained appropriately, themselves came up with the title of the newsletter, called ‘Chutti Madal’ (Children’s Souvenir). Children voluntarily contributed articles on issues relating to their village, social issues, information gathered on science etc. An editorial committee was formed by children from upper primary classes to select and edit stories. This built confidence, improved communication skills and sparked their imagination.

Children have been enthusiastically participating in this exercise, displaying their creative writing skills. They are exhilarated when their news items are selected for the newsletter. It recognised the efforts of some children and motivated the rest. This exercise also has an important lesson for adults, that ‘children have things to say’.

Hygiene For High-Marks

Toilet facilities bring girl children back to schools

L&T is building social infrastructure that enhances the quality of life in small villages. In line with the national programme, ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, L&T Water and Effluent Treatment business constructed 26 toilet blocks consisting of 100 toilets. These are spread across nine states and constructed at 30 of its project sites. The toilets were constructed at government and trust schools with provision for soak pits, and uninterrupted water supply in the form of a tank. Constructing toilets helped further the cause of girl child education. Their attendance improved, dropout rates were reduced and even fresh enrollment of girls was noted in schools with good toilets.

Open dumping of sewage was cut down due to the intervention, reducing reported cases of illnesses.

Empowering Rural Women

Self-Help Groups spark entrepreneurship in rural women

Self-help Groups (SHGs) were formed in six villages as a part of the women empowerment initiative under the Integrated Community Development Programme at Pathardi in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra state. Currently, 28 SHGs are actively functioning in the villages, with a membership strength of 350. All the SHG members are trained, records are kept diligently, and meetings are held on a monthly basis.

All the members contribute

100 per month and the funds collected are utilised to provide loans. Most women take loans, given out at two percent interest rate, for children’s education and similar requirements. The payback period is determined before the amounts are disbursed. For example, a loan of

3,000 has to be paid back in three months. If none of the members require loans, the money is deposited in the common bank account of the SHG. Sanyukta Mahila Samiti (SMS) is a federation formed with select members of SHGs. It is an overarching body and a common platform for all SHGs.

Apart from regular activities, 16 women of SHGs members are given

10,000 each as a revolving fund. This is a part of the income generation activities undertaken by the community. The amounts given as loans are utilised for entrepreneurial ventures.

Some of the activities undertaken by the initiative are backyard poultry, setting up cutlery stores and bangle shops, and purchase of picot-fall machines. These activities help them earn around

3,000 to

4,000 per month. As a steady stream of income starts flowing in, the women start repaying their loans. The other social development initiatives include drudgery reduction by giving out flour mills, LPG connections and sewing machines.