Mahindra’s Integrated Watershed Management Project helps conserve over 10 million liters of water per yearA rural area can be defined as a place, as per the latest census, which meets the following criteria: A population of less than 5,000 people; Density of population less than 400 per sq km; and, more than ‘25 per cent of the male working population’ engaged in agricultural pursuits.
Rural development refers to the host of activities enhancing the quality of life and financial security of individuals living in rural areas and remote areas. With more than two-third of India’s population dependent on agriculture as source of livelihood, rural development, till today, forms a significant share of the overall developmental activities in the country.
This sector is also experiencing a shift in focus with increased urbanisation and modernisation. Rural development focuses on developing infrastructure such as irrigation facilities and electricity for increased employment and economic opportunities, education, public health and sanitation, easing credit availability, women empowerment, etc.
Improving knowledge and skills
ICICI Academy for Skills – Rural Initiative is a CSR programme initiated by ICICI Bank that aims ‘to improve the knowledge and skill base of agrarian population and provide them with multiple sources of income’.
ICICI Foundation along with ICICI Bank launched this initiative to further economic inclusion of the villages in India and expand the reach of CSR activities of ICICI Group to new target segments.
In India, a significant number still live in villages and is dependent on rural and agrarian activities for livelihood. The group’s comprehensive programme focuses on the socio-economic development of villages.
The CSR initiative aims at ‘making the local economy vibrant; improving the income level of villagers through focus on locally relevant skills; making the villagers financially independent; and restricting migration’.
The idea is to train villagers in skills that will ensure sustainable livelihood. The bank provides credit linkages to the trainees and facilitates market linkages to ensure a steady market for the products and services of the trainees.
At the same time, the bank facilitates financial inclusion as it provides digital banking platforms and a host of other channels and products. After the completion of the training, participants are provided with long-term handholding and support for sustained impact.
The programme has a market settlement ratio of over 72 per cent with more than half of all the trained participants being women. The initiative has helped more than a thousand villages across India.
Helping fishing communities
In Gujarat’s Kutch district, Mundra Port – the largest private port of India located on the north shores of the Gulf of Kutch near Mundra – is a major economic gateway that caters to the northern hinterland of India with multimodal connectivity. The deep draft, all-weather port is the largest commercial port in India with state-of-the-art infrastructure, largest coal import terminal which gives faster cargo evacuation and minimal turnaround time.
Here, the CSR wing of the Adani Group aims to empower the fishing communities living in Kutch region near the Mundra port as part of a long running livelihood project. The fishing community of the zone are vulnerable and directly impacted by climate change that affects their livelihoods, food security and health.
The area owing to its location faces issues of salinity ingress. At the same time, excess use of fishery resources and degraded ecosystems also threaten the existence and livelihood of the fishing community.
The CSR project here has adopted a multi-pronged focus approach to resolves issues of the fragile community. These include: livelihood, women empowerment, quality education, skill training, health and infrastructure development.
So, the fishermen are given better equipment and also trained in fishing-related activities. They are also exposed to and trained in alternative livelihood opportunities such as nursery development to reduce dependence on traditional sources that are vulnerable and prone to destruction owing to climate change.
Another important aspect of the project is women of the community who are trained in financial literacy and other vocational works to empower them financially.
Here, as part of the CSR project, free education is provided to the children of the community. Over the decade, the work initiated by Adani Foundation has affected more than ten thousand fisherfolk families and over 40,000 person-days of work has been provided to them as supplementary livelihood opportunity.
Strengthening the foundation
The Mahindra & Mahindra group has done exemplary work in the area of rural development through its Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP). IWMP is a Private Public Partnership model with the Government of Madhya Pradesh in Bhopal, and in Hatta with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), to increase the groundwater table of the region.
The programme was implemented in 48 villages (35 villages in Bhopal and 13 villages in Hatta) to help improve the agricultural productivity and overall standard of living of the people of the region and has benefitted about 38,000 villagers of the zone.
The Mahindra group, through Mahindra Hariyali, planted more than 1.5 million trees – of which 1.13 million trees were planted in the Araku Valley. The idea behind plantation was to aid the building of green cover in the area and protect the biodiversity of the region. The trees planted in Araku Valley also help the tribal farmers and offer them livelihood support.
On the other hand, the Holistic Rural Development Programme (HRDP) – HDFC Bank’s flagship project within the CSR umbrella, Parivartan, was developed keeping in mind the fact that rural development is crucial for the nation’s overall economic development.
In India, the rural population is predominantly engaged in agriculture and highly dependent on rain-fed irrigation. The programme initiated by HDFC Bank not only identifies the essential and critical needs of each village that has been adopted by the programme but also facilitates interventions to further these goals. The interventions are designed in consultation with the villagers and other stakeholders who will directly benefit from the efforts.
Like most projects undertaken for rural development, the knowledge and involvement of the stakeholders is of utmost importance.
Healthcare in rural areas
CSR projects have played a very important role in bridging the infrastructure gap between rural and urban India. Today, with the right support from government initiatives and policies, the gap is reducing and more and more people are reaping benefits of welfare schemes.
Hero MotoCorp’s CSR projects are also transforming rural landscape and doing it with the support and participation of the stakeholders themselves. The regions of the country where the business group has been implementing its CSR activities are those that lie within the operational area of the company’s plants and manufacturing units.
The initiative called Hero ‘We Care’ tries to make a positive influence on the aspects of healthcare and basic infrastructure needs like access to power and water in these areas through the CSR projects.
Here, the CSR department works with implementing partners and agencies to implement the project goals that include making rural women self-reliant and encourage entrepreneurship among them.
There is a big focus on providing basic healthcare facilities in the villages. The idea is to make villages self-sustainable. Some of the major activities undertaken as part of CSR initiative include rebuilding public health centres, developing and rebuilding community health centres, increasing access to clean drinking water by rebuilding hand pumps and providing water filters in areas where groundwater is not present or accessible, etc.