Manikchand Group – CSR Activities
CORPORATE social responsibility for us at the Manikchand Group is not only a company policy, but more of a heartfelt need to serve the society at large. Today, if we as a company stand tall and successful, it is due to the support and affection society has extended to us.
Though we have taken a couple of initiatives towards helping the society solve its problems, the one I would liketofocusuponistheRasiklal Manikchand Dhariwal Foundation.TheGroupstarted the foundation with healthcare and education as its focus areas. The reasons wedecidedtoconcentrateon these two sectors were because these were interlinked andbasedonacommonchallengeofilliteracy.
In our country, illiteracy is the core problem for a number of issues. As for healthcare, it leads to low awareness on disease, the availability of medical facilities, treatments, etc. Accord ing to the 2001 Census, 72% of India’s population lives in rural areas, which again are marred by the illiteracy menace.
When I visited a few villages and towns in India, I realised that giving access to healthcare information and medical facilities at subsidised rates would definitely help reduce the pain of mortality rates in theseareas.
Taking this further, I also realised that thereisaneedtoaddressthemaincauseof the problem, and education was the solution to this. I believe that education helps build responsible citizens. Education helps a person identify right from wrong, besides empowering one. I also feel that India has a rich cultural heritage and its importance can only be maintained by educating people.
Having been born and brought up in small towm, Shirur in Maharashtra, it was my dream to bring to this place good health and education facilities. Hence we set up Matoshree Madanbai Dhariwal Hospital here. Even though the hospital is set up in a small town, we have facilities like 24-hour ICU, operation theatres, piped oxygen and nitrogen to patient beds, ventilators, defibrillators, image intensifiers, laboratory analysers, colour doppler, UGS machine, post operative facilites, etc. This hospital has proved to be our first step towards providing worldclasshealthcaresystemtoruralIndia.
Apart from this, we have initiated a number of social initiatives like the RM Dhariwal English medium school and Manikchand Dhariwal Institute of Man agement and Rural TechnologyagainatShirur,RMDcentre for Cardiac & Neurosciences at the Poona Hospital and Research Centre, an old age home in Pune, Aligarh and Palitana (Gujarat) along with a girl’s hostelinPune.
Recognising the need of the hour, and also in view of the fact that there is a glaring shortage of proper treatment for cancer in the country, we have come up with the Rasiklal Manikchand Dhariwal (RMD) Cancer Hospital at Waghaldhara, Valsaad. Here we offer holistic cancer treatment, wherein all patients have the benefit of expert Ayurvedic treatment following the Panchgavya therapy which involves the usage of goumutra, ghee, milk and curd collected from the hospital-bred cows. The hospital has a capacity of 80 beds. In fact on the day of its inauguration, we recorded a booking for 50 beds, showing how much such projects are needed.
Under Manikchand Dhariwal Foundation we also offer an annual scholarship fund of Rs 50 lakh to bright and needy students. Also, we are always available to help people in difficult times of diasters like during the Latur and Gujarat earthquakes.
InanutshellIcansay,weattheManikchand Group will continue carrying out suchinitiatives.Keepinginmindtheinterests and development of the society and thereby the country as a whole, with a vision of making India a better place to be. I am sure, these actions would make forsome great leaps towards a better society weallwant.
(The author is the chairman of Dhariwal Industries)
URL: http://epaper.financialexpress.com/artMailDisp.aspx?article=11_05_2008_012_004&typ=1&pub=321