Essar Foundation’s social development efforts have been directed towards creating shared value, where the various communities have grown alongside Essar’s business
Prosperity is best achieved in an inclusive society and adopting responsible practices and processes can make all the difference in the long run. Giving back to society is just not about making donations or organising a few blood donation camps; it’s about making a difference. It’s about difference in the quality of life through better education, health, infrastructure and livelihood which in turn helps a community prosper.
Not an easy task by any means, it warrants long-term planning, commitment, understanding the real needs of a community and effectively utilising your CSR funds. One organisation that has been successful in making its mark in the Indian corporate sector with its CSR initiatives is Essar Foundation (EF), the CSR arm of Essar Group.
Essar, which started its operations in 1969 as a construction company, over the years has expanded its brand portfolio to include Essar Steel, Essar Oil, Essar Power, Essar Projects, Essar Ports, Essar Shipping, Aegis, and AGC Networks, to name a few. However, all this growth has not been without fulfilling its social responsibilities. The organisation’s social development efforts have been directed towards creating shared value, where the various communities have grown alongside Essar’s business.
EF runs community outreach initiatives in all its plant locations, with a focus on education, selfemployment, healthcare, infrastructure, environmental and agricultural development, aligning them with its long-term sustainable development goals (SDGs). In all locations, the local government's effort in development is supplemented with the Foundation's resources and facilitation. As per its 2015 annual report, EF has been able to make a difference in the lives of more than 4, 05,000 people in over 500 villages spread across eight states and 13 districts.
The person heading this change is Deepak Arora, CEO, Essar Foundation (EF), who took over the reins of the foundation in 2011 and has a team of more than 200 people. According to him, the initial years were spent streamlining things, understanding stakeholder expectations, building relationships, mapping, planning and executing programmes, and taking them towards community ownership and sustainability. Considering the diverse portfolio of Essar’s businesses, the organization had to employ distinct approaches to suit the local requirements and have a long-term approach for project sustainability.
The Essar Foundation’s overall vision is aligned with the conglomerate’s, and is based on four Ps – people at the core, progress towards aspirations, power of synergy, and passion with compassion. To give shape to its vision, EF decided to divide its CSR activities in six broad areas, namely, livelihood and entrepreneurship, women empowerment, education, infrastructure, health, and environment conservation.
Livelihood and entrepreneurship: This programme helps rural communities become self-sufficient and sustainable by providing a range of basic and specialised training in self-employment (in both urban and rural areas) and supporting entrepreneurship initiatives.
While some of the training is linked to the company's own business, the majority of trainees find opportunities beyond Essar. Its focus areas are skills training projects; supporting new ventures; and enabling entrepreneurs.
Empowering women and reducing inequality: The Foundation undertakes different initiatives focused on health, education, nutrition and financial management for women living in the rural areas near the company's operations. Women are encouraged to be part of self-help groups (SHGs) to earn an alternate and additional income. They are also encouraged to form dairy cooperatives and poultry farms to increase their earning potential.
Another important focus area for EF is reproductive health of rural women. This is done through various reproductive health and immunisation camps, doctors' training, referral transport to tertiary care units, obstetric care and training for auxiliary nurses and midwives.
Education: The Foundation helps in building students' skills and provides timely motivation and reward (scholarships) for a student to excel.
EF has been actively involved in bringing alternative learning techniques to school students in rural communities it works with. Indradhanush (rainbow) is EF’s award-winning flagship initiative in this field.
In addition to providing books, learning aids, utilities and basic infrastructure to schools in rural areas, the Foundation also builds schools in isolated areas. Under its scholarship project, EF encourages differently-abled and underprivileged students with promising academic records to complete school and pursue higher education. A special emphasis is given to girls being raised by single mothers and women-headed families.
Considering the crucial role a teacher plays in imparting quality education, EF’s teacher training programme aims to make educational activities more fulfilling for teachers. The training encompasses different motivational workshops and IT skills development courses, too. To date, more than 10,000 students have been supported by the Essar Education Programme.
Infrastructure: Essar companies often operate in areas where communities are at a disadvantage because they lack access to basic infrastructure. To provide basic Infrastructure amenities in rural areas near its operations, the Foundations works closely with the government authorities and have different projects running under this category.
Provision of clean and safe drinking water is a vital aspect of a robust infrastructure system, however many times it is marred by issues such as water availability and supply, poor water quality, financing of operation and maintenance costs. The infrastructure programme regularly provides 1 million liters of water to communities around its areas of operation.
To create a hygienic and healthy environment, EF has instituted a programme that supports the construction of household and community toilets in the rural areas.
Health: EF supports both preventive and curative healthcare in communities where disease and periodic epidemics are prevalent. The Foundation also funds the provision of doctors and paramedics, builds new health centres, provides critical equipment such as ambulances, and manages mobile health services across its locations. Essar's mobile medical units (MMUs), complete with skilled doctors and paramedics, are deployed in villages around Essar facilities. The MMUs also provide referral transport for secondary and tertiary treatment.
Essar’s infant health program aims to ensure infant well-being is held quarterly on all its site locations. At present, the Essar Foundation provides healthcare services to more than 190,000 families. It also offers specialised services such as eye and dental care to more than 250,000 people, as per their 2015 Annual report.
Environment conservation: EF promotes environmentally responsible living among India’s rural and tribal communities and pays special attention to preserving natural ecologies.
Some of the activities under this program include conserving water through harvesting wells, developing wastelands and constructing check dams. It also provides community water storage in order to improve the ground water conditions in water-scarce areas and providing equipment such as solar panels to encourage the use of renewable energy. Recently, the Foundation had won the ‘Best Practices on Water’ Award for its efforts in Integrated Water Resource Development. This initiative was deployed across 15 villages in Gujarat after involving communities and local authorities as well.