While the world was grappling with a situation that off-guarded everyone and pervaded every facet of our lives; Nuvoco ensured that all its stakeholders, not limited to its employees were safe and secure.

Nuvoco Vistas is a leading manufacturer and retailer of building materials in India, offering a diversified business portfolio under three broad business segments, namely, cement, ready-mix concrete (RMX) that enjoys a pan-India presence, and modern building materials (MBM).

Guided by one of the core values, care; Nuvoco has always made a responsible and sustainable contribution to the society in which it operates to ensure a safe and healthy environment for all its stakeholders. Nuvoco’s corporate social responsibility initiatives focus on five themes; namely, Surakshit Bharat (safety), Swasth Bharat (health), Shikshit Bharat (education), Saksham Bharat (livelihood) and Sanrachit Bharat (infrastructure development) through which we have reached out to 1,98,000 people across 103 villages.

Surakshit Bharat (safety): Keeping safety at the heart of all that we do, through this initiative, we are able to build awareness on safety (on the road and at home) and endeavours to stimulate behavioural change in the communities living in the close proximity of our operating units. We also extend support towards building a safer world while addressing issues like waste management in the villages and promoting the ban of single-use plastic while showcasing its harmful effects on the environment.

Swasth Bharat (health): Focus is to provide access to primary health care, improved sanitation and safe drinking water to the communities and addressing the needs of adolescent girls. Under the flagship program, project Angan we have adopted more than 170 Anganwadis across locations that promotes joyful learning for children and improving overall service delivery of Anganwadis especially focusing on mother and child health. Continuing our focus, Swasth Matritva is another such project where we have provided mobile ante-natal care (ANC) check-up kits integrated with a mobile app to the government health workers in rural areas. Through this kit, they were able to conduct regular ANC checkups, even during COVID-19 times, and thus contributing towards safe motherhood. We have also helped form girls health groups focusing on adolescent girls; one of its major activities is to promote the use of sanitary pads to maintain hygiene during menstruation. We have also been able to provide preventive healthcare facilities, free medical and health check-up camps and spread awareness on WASH (water sanitation and hygiene) in schools.

Shikshit Bharat (education): The focus of this initiative, is to provide access to new-age education facilities in government schools to improve the quality of education. We have been supporting approx 50 government school across locations by installing smart classes and providing better infrastructure facilities and special health care facilities for girls (construction of toilets and installation of sanitary pad dispenser and incinerator in girls toilet, etc.) in schools. Through our project Shikshit Sunderhattu (winner of FICCI CSR Jury Award 2018-19 for education) in Jamshedpur, we were able to establish "Birsa Prathmik Vidyalaya" through community participation and educate the tribal children of the Sunderhattu and Sarenbera villages, which have shaped the lives of more than 500 tribal children by bringing them into mainstream education.

Saksham Bharat (livelihood): This initiative focuses on diversifying livelihood by imparting new skills to the youth and women to enable them to become self-reliant. Projects like Aakriti (a women enterprise for garment manufacturing) and Samridhi (women group-led initiative for mushroom cultivation) have helped to accelerate progress towards the economic empowerment of rural women. These projects were also awarded FICCI CSR Awards – 2016 and 2017, respectively. Project Aakriti transformed itself from a training center to a garment manufacturing centre with turnover of more than 35 lakh per annum and supporting livelihood of more than 500 women across locations. While Project Smariddhi in West Bengal is providing additional livelihood support to more than 100 women members. Other skill development programs like computer training, bag making, food processing are also some of the initiatives looked upon.

Sanrachit Bharat (infrastructure development): Through this initiative, we have been working towards improving the quality of life by developing community infrastructure through the construction and repair of roads and providing safe drinking water through pond distillation and rainwater harvesting. We were also able to refurbish the school buildings, build community centers, improve drainage systems in villages and conduct tree plantations in communities and villages where we operate.

While the world was grappling with a situation that off-guarded everyone and pervaded every facet of our lives; Nuvoco ensured that all its stakeholders, not limited to its employees were safe and secure. Our employees came forward to support the channel partners (dealers and sub-dealers) and the local communities by contributing a day’s salary. Plant teams and their families came ahead to support the nearby villages by producing and distributing face masks, food packets, and other essential services. Nuvocans’ combined were able to distribute approximately 12,000 safety kits comprising of N95 mask, cotton mask, face shield and temperature scanners in the east and north markets and to the local district administration across locations. They also supported in installing approximately 750 hand wash stations (a foot-operated washbasin developed in-house that enables people to avoid handling taps or soap dispensers) at public places in Jharkhand, Bengal and Chhattisgarh markets and donated a ventilator machine at the government hospital in Janjgir Champa district of Chhattisgarh.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joydeep Chatterjee, Chief of CSR & Corporate Affairs at Nuvoco.