Long before corporate social responsibility found a place in the corporate lexicon, it was already textured into the Group's value system. As early as the 1940s, the late Mr. G.D. Birla espoused the trusteeship concept of management — investing a portion of the company's profits for the larger good of society. The late Mr. Aditya Birla went beyond chequebook philanthropy when he brought in the concept of 'sustainable livelihood'.
For over 50 years, Hindalco has worked in the hinterlands of India to better the quality of life of the underprivileged sections of society.
Today, we reach out to millions of people in the villages, of whom more than 60 per cent live below the poverty line. Their needs include: access to water, agriculture and sustainable livelihood, healthcare, and education. These four areas form the focus of our efforts.
The company also works to bring about social reform through widow re-marriage and dowry-less marriages.
We work in partnership with government agencies and the beneficiaries to provide these necessities and encourage social reform.
Corporate Social Responsibility Committee
- Mrs. Rajashree Birla – Chairperson
- Mr. Satish Pai – Member
- Mr. Sudhir Mital – Member
- Mr. Yazdi Piroj Dandiwala – Member
- Dr. (Mrs.) Pragnya Ram – Permanent Invitee
- Ms. Geetika Anand – Secretary
Focus areas
Healthcare
- Medical camps: Taking mobile medical units and providing ambulance service to remote areas.
- Health facilities: Setting up well-equipped and professionally manned health centres at several locations.
- Regular health camps: Providing family planning, mother and child care and specialised camps for eye care and for cataract; coordinating regular pulse polio immunisation drives; and promoting the awareness, prevention and treatment of malaria, water-borne diseases, TB, HIV/AIDS, and others diseases.
Education
- Balwadis: Providing for the primary education of underprivileged children.
- Adult literacy: Providing formal and informal classes and active support to the government's mission to improve rural literacy levels.
- Merit scholarships / Schemes: Support female students for educational endeavours.
- Educational support: Contributing uniforms, textbooks and classroom equipment and undertaking school building construction and maintenance.
Agricultural support
- Irrigation schemes: Land brought under irrigation with better yield and multi-cropping methods
- Watershed development: Hydel towers, drainage canals, wells, check-dams, pedal pumps and harvest tanks. Training: Field schools train local farmers in modern agricultural techniques for higher crop yield; introducing lac cultivation, post-harvest technology with safe grain storage through an integrated pest-management system, floriculture, horticulture and kitchen gardens; shifting from mono to multi cropping patterns and distribution of high-yield seeds.