New Delhi, Sep 3 (IANS): Vedanta Ltd, one of the world's largest natural resources companies, has positively impacted the lives of 4.23 crore people across the country through its various social development initiatives, the company announced in its maiden Social Impact-CSR report released on Friday.
Over the years, Vedanta has built many impactful CSR programmes in India and is considered one of the most socially responsible corporates in the country.
The company spent Rs 331 crore in the last financial year on various CSR activities with focus on pandemic relief works, children's well-being & education, women empowerment, health care, sustainable agriculture and animal welfare, market-linked skilling of youth, environment protection and restoration, development of community infrastructure, among others.
The comprehensive social impact report lays out Vedanta's CSR policy including the aims and objectives, implementation and audit guidelines as well as the activities being carried out across 56 prominent projects across the country in various sectors including education, sustainable livelihoods, health, skilling, women empowerment, environment, sports, water, sanitation and community development.
Earlier this year, Vedanta announced the social development roadmap through the Anil Agarwal Foundation (AAF) and pledged Rs 5,000 crore as part of their Give Back towards its rural upliftment programmes. AAF's 'Swasth Gaon Abhiyaan', will provide end-to-end healthcare services across 1,000 villages in 12 states, impacting the lives of more than 2 million people.
AAF is also running its flagship Nand Ghar programme, in partnership with the Ministry of Women & Child Development, that aims to provide critical access to nutrition, healthcare, education and women empowerment. Around 2400 Nand Ghars have been set up across 11 states with the vision of transforming the lives of 7 crore children and 2 crore women across 13.7 lakh Anganwadis in India.
On the occasion of the release of the report, Vedanta Resources Chairman, Anil Agarwal, said: "Vedanta is a responsible natural resources company and has always found its purpose in giving back to the community and it is an inherent part of the Vedanta ethos. Over the years, Vedanta has been positively impacting lives, through healthcare, education, skilling, and livelihood providing inclusive development of our communities and developed trust with our communities. We will continue to scale this up as much as possible."
Vedanta Resources Director Priya Agarwal Hebbar said: "Over the years, Vedanta has built one of the most impactful CSR programmes in India, but this time around we went beyond our scope of traditional activities with a stronger focus on protecting lives during the pandemic. We believe every mother and child should get the opportunity they deserve to grow and with this purpose in mind we developed Nand Ghars. We are also launching a first-of-its-kind animal welfare project which will provide world-class infrastructure, veterinary services, training facility and shelters in partnership with global academic institutions and knowledge partners."
As part of its many interventions, Vedanta also extended significant support towards helping battle the Covid-19 pandemic. Vedanta committed Rs 201 crore in the battle against Covid-19, including Rs 101 crore donation to PM-CARES Fund and an additional Rs 100 crore corpus for supporting communities, daily wage workers, preventive healthcare and welfare of employees, contract partners or business partners. As many as 15 lakh have benefitted from Vedanta's Covid Care initiatives.
Additionally, this year under Vedanta Cares, field hospitals were set up with 100 critical care beds with oxygen and ventilator support across 10 locations and more than 20 lakh litres of oxygen to Covid-affected patients was supplied.