Company: Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd
Income 2005-2006 = Rs 2500 Cr (rounded off)
Net profit after tax (05-06) = Rs 450 Cr (rounded off)
Karmayog CSR Rating-2/5
CSR activities:
Motiben’s self-confidence seems typical of the urban youth in India. Only she is far removed from urban realities – in Sandhanidhar, a village of about 1,800 people in Saurashtra. She is part of a women’s self help group, Pragya Mahila Mandal, which earns Rs 1,000 a day from collecting and distributing milk alone. The mandal has done enough sterling work to be noticed by the chief minister; Motiben has met Narendra Modi twice. She says if it weren’t for the programme initiated by Ambuja Cement Foundation (ACF), she wouldn’t have become self-reliant.
Motiben is one of many who have been helped by ACF. A non-profit organisation set up by Gujarat Ambuja Cement (GAC) in 1993 in Kodinar, Saurashtra, it now extends across seven states, touching the lives of 4.5 lakh people in nearly 300 villages.
ACF does not associate itself with ‘corporate philanthropy’. Haribhai Mori, senior manager, ACF, says: “Charity… makes the stakeholders of a project complacent. Every project that we have involves some contribution by the stakeholders.” Part of the Rs 3 crore-5 crore it mobilises every year comes from GAC and the rest from the government and other trusts.
ACF projects are simple and need-based. So, water harvesting gains priority in Saurashtra, a drought-prone area. The projects also aim at generating self-reliance. In Bhuj, ACF did not ‘adopt’ any village during the earthquake rehabilitation. Instead, it set up masonry camps so locals could build houses – and have a career option.
Recently, the Gujarat Salinity Cell invited ACF to work with it after ACF cleared 12 wells near the coast of saline water. But ACF’s biggest success story is that of Hunny Saini, a mentally-challenged girl. Teachers at ACF’s special school in Ropar encouraged her to take up sports. And earlier this year, Hunny won a gold medal in badminton at the Dublin Special Olympics
Gujarat Ambuja Cement Ltd (GACL) bagged the Asian Corporate Social Responsibility Award (Asian CSR) 2005 for an initiative for corporate sustainable development.
Gujarat Ambuja said it won the award in the ”Environment Excellence” category for the company’s contribution in water conservation, land conservation, maintaining eco-friendly environment, energy conservation, resource conservation, waste management and air-pollution control.
The company said in a statement here that it has adopted environmentally sound technologies and management practices for optimum utilisation and conservation of natural resources.
The awards were categorised under five heads — support and improvement of education, environmental excellence, poverty alleviation, small company CSR and best workplace practices.
CSR Activities :2006-2007
Ambuja Cements Ltd
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Making way for a vibrant and dynamic neighbouring community
Through Ambuja Cement Foundation set up in 1993, the company has engaged the neighbouring communities as partners in all developmental activities.
Last year, the company was able to reach out to over 1.2 million people in over 670 villages from 10 states across the country. Since all the issues tend to be interrelated, our approach has been aimed at dovetailing our efforts to respond to each of their issues.
The company has carried out numerous activities like water harvesting and conservation to prevent salinity ingress in areas close to the sea, sustainable agriculture and animal husbandry, health & sanitation, HIV / AIDS programme, promotion of self-help groups of women for socioeconomic development and capacity building for enhancing skills of students, women and farmers in the villages adjoining all our locations, as our commitment to corporate social responsibility.
We raised the water table to a whopping 25 feet in Rajasthan
Based on the success of our Natural Resource Management, we continued working on water in states like Gujarat and Rajasthan that traditionally face water problems. In the process, we found a balance between traditional knowledge and scientific knowhow. Sealing the bottoms of the wells has considerably improved their quality of water in Gujarat.
Our techniques were so effective that the government has now decided to take on the project on a larger scale in other areas in Gujarat.
In Rajasthan, we focused on improving the traditional reservoirs of water. Ponds
that had been used as reservoirs of water for years were deepened and in places where it was possible, they were interlinked. Seasonal rivers were de-silted and in some cases dykes were built under the river bed to increase the flow of underground water in the region.
The result was that the dykes have helped the water column in the existing wells to rise from an average of 11 feet to a whopping 25 feet.
Alternate livelihoods. Skill enhancement for a brighter future
Through intensive training programmes, we have introduced farmers to better technologies and cropping techniques, increasing their yield in agro-based livelihoods. Expansion into alternative livelihood options meant sustained incomes for the families, which in turn directly influenced the standard of living of the family. Moreover, as agriculture is a seasonal activity, it is easily possible for a family to engage in an alternate occupation during the lean months.
Taking into consideration the availability of materials locally, the interests of the people and the traditional crafts of the area, the company has initiated programmes on alternate livelihoods across all locations. Groups are now engaged in various activities like dairying, making bags, incense sticks, soaps, detergents, candles, garments and embroidered products, handicrafts,in addition to developing nurseries, running flour mills and grocery shops amongst others.
In collaboration with the leading banks in the area, we have established two Skill and Entrepreneurship Development Institutes in Rajasthan and HP, where hundreds of youth had an opportunity to enroll for skill training. Courses that would generate employable skills were selected on the basis of local surveys.
Courses for computer literacy and DTP, mobile repairing, auto and electrical maintenance, garment making, television and radio repairs were offered after personal interviews and assessment of aptitude of the candidates. With our assistance, several placements were made in existing set-ups and some trainees were facilitated to obtain bank loans to establish small businesses. An overwhelmingly large number of trained persons are now gainfully employed.
Village self-reliance. New inroads into community health
Our efforts in training and empowering tais, or village health functionaries, are an important part of our inroads into community health. They have been consistently providing primary health care to the villagers. We have increased their responsibilities to include pre-natal care and the care of new born infants.
Their active monitoring of new-born infants and the expectant mothers has helped in bringing down the infant mortality rate in the villages.
They continue to provide medical help to the villagers, refer serious cases to hospitals, assist the mobile dispensary operated by the company during its regular visits and conduct sessions in their own communities on preventive health education. After the success of our project in Chandrapur, where thousands of people including tribals benefited, we have now extended the project to several of our locations.
Waging a war for an AIDS-free supply chain
Taking the lead in the area of HIV/AIDS, Ambuja had formally accepted a policy on this issue in the year 2004.
Following this, we have initiated various activities at our plants and corporate offices. All these activities are geared towards awareness generation and prevention.
We recognize that our workplace programme must reach out to those in our supply chain. We have a large programme for our truckers who are an important part of this chain.
Since the railways also form a significant part of the cement supply chain, we have initiated an awareness programme for the labourers working at our cement yards. We began with the yards in Mumbai and are gradually expanding it to include other yards across Maharashtra. In course of time, we are sure this will have a multiplier impact on other railway yards across the country.
Accolade from the Asian Institute of Management
We have been appreciated for our work at various forums. The Sixth Annual Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility conferred the Asian CSR Awards for our comprehensive programme on health and HIV/AIDS.
School Education Programmes: A ticket to a brighter future
A school support programme has been put in place in which the government schools in the villages are supported by us in terms of infrastructure, mid-day meals and quality of education. An extension of the school support programme is the training programme for teachers and the government established Village Education Committee (VEC) members.
In addition, we have established centers for pre-school education as well as those for non-formal education. Having improvedthe quality of the village schools, we have further energized the VECs to effectively monitor and maintain the quality of education in the villages.
Besides bringing in the required ownership, this is enabling the programme to attain sustainability.
Manovikas Kendra: Reaching out to special children
We are proud of our Ambuja Manovikas Kendra (AMK) which continues to take care of the needs of special children from rural areas around Ropar. AMK is a one-stop centre that meets all the needs of the children. Professionally trained and experienced personnel provide functional academics and services like occupation and speech therapy, pre-vocational and vocational training and help each child attain their highest potential to equip them to face the challenges of life.
The children of AMK have taken a special liking to sports. They have constantly been giving stellar performances in state, national and international level sports competitions.
Our new premise has enabled us to plan for expanding our facilities and will consequently reach out to much larger group of children.
We empower women to take on new community projects
Our communities are actively involved in the welfare of women folk. Today, we have about 440 self-help groups (SHGs) actively functioning at various locations with over 5000 women taking active participation.
We partner with organizations like the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) for their livelihood training programmes for skill development and entrepreneurship development.
The women have access to micro credit that has made them vocal and participating members not just of their communities, but within their families. Many of them are now engaged in activities that generate alternate incomes.
These empowered women are also our most willing grass-root force in piloting and establishing new community projects.
In the coming year, we hope to continue working with our people, thereby contributing to the United Nations Millennium Developmental Goals.
Source : Annual Report 2006-2007
Amount spent on CSR : Rs 3 crore-5 crore it mobilises every year comes from GAC and the rest from the government and other trusts.
Contact details : Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd
Ambuja Cements limited
106, Maker Chambers III
Nariman Point,
Mumbai 400 021
Tele: 91+22+6659 7300
Fax: 91+22+2284 6270
Email: mailto:investor@ambujamail.com?cc=info@karmayog.org
Web address : http://www.gujaratambuja.com