Project Shikshit Sunderhattu gets Jury Award for boosting education in tribal communities
Nuvoco Vistas Corp Ltd, one of the country’s leading manufacturers and retailers of building materials won the FICCI CSR Award 2018-19 in the Education category for their project ‘Shikshit Sunderhattu’ at the 18th edition of FICCI CSR Awards. The award ceremony was held virtually on 27th July 2020 in the wake of COVID 19, where Shri. Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs graced the ceremony with his presence and facilitated the award to Mr. Joydeep Chatterjee, Chief of CSR & Corporate Affairs, Nuvoco for their project ‘Shikshit Sunderhattu’ near Jojobera Cement Plant, Jharkhand.
Nuvoco Vistas Corp Ltd have been long committed to sustainable growth and development, this is an intrinsic part of the company’s vision. Nuvoco has been able to give back to the society by making a difference in the lives of over 1,98,000 people across 103 villages through company’s five CSR pillars. Nuvoco’s ‘Sikshita Sunderhattu’ was introduced to empower the tribal community and improve the way of living. With a population of more than 10.2 crores, India has the single largest tribal population in the world. This is 8.6% of the total population of the country, lack of education in tribal areas is a glaring issue. Education is the primary element towards development of any country. Education will help them in meeting new challenges of life and will improve the immediate living condition. The tribal community needs the weapon of education to understand their rights and participate in the programme and policies made for their upliftment.
Nuvoco’s ‘Shikshit Sunderhattu’ project has been implemented in the year 2014 under their CSR pillar ‘Sakshar Bharat’ in order to provide formal education, create education awareness and contribute to the tribal population’s development in Sunderhattu and Sarenbera villages near Nuvoco’s Jojobera Cement Plant in Jharkhand. Under this initiative Nuvoco started Birsa Prathmik Vidyalaya to empower the tribal population by giving them access to education and enrolling them into mainstream education. Birsa Prathmik Vidyalaya currently educates 108 students from Nursery to class III and has shaped lives of more than 500 tribal children. This has also resulted in improvement of their livelihoods, as children too were involved in rag-picking and other hazardous activities. This initiative is a success as Nuvoco has observed zero dropouts since the inception of Birsa Prathmik Vidyalaya.
As a socially responsible corporate Nuvoco plans to replicate the project by developing Model Government schools at various locations. The success of ‘Shikshit Sunderhattu’ has motivated the organisation to expand the school till class V. The company is contributing towards education across various plants, through development of smart classes, providing better infrastructure, learning essentials, setting library and computer labs etc. They have already installed more than 35 smart classes in various government schools in Jharkhand. The company has been long committed to provide access of new age education to children in rural areas; they have touched 7300 students under their CSR pillar Sakshar Bharat
Speaking on the win Joydeep Chatterjee, Chief of CSR & Corporate Affairs, Nuvoco, said, “”We are humbled by this recognition of our efforts towards creating a better tomorrow for children of tribal communities in rural areas. ‘Shikshit Sunderhattu’ project is an ambitious initiative to bring the tribal children into mainstream education. Our aim is to instill the importance of education, bring that change in mindset, so that the children are able think of a better future. Sustainable growth and development is Nuvoco’s vision and in this regard development of villages with focus on women and children has been our endeavour. FICCI CSR Award is an encouraging validation of how small but meaningful initiative can lead to significant transformation. I would like to congratulate the entire team of Nuvoco who have worked relentlessly towards this and we will continue to thrive for excellence”