Mrs. Rajashree Birla

is an exemplar in the area of community initiatives and rural development.She spearheads the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, the Group’s apex body responsible for development projects. Mrs. Birla oversees the Group’s social and welfare driven work across its companies. Mrs. Birla is the Chairperson of the FICCI – Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence, Habitat for Humanity (India) and is on the Board of the Asia Pacific Committee as well as Habitat’s Global Committee.

CSR Mission

“Weaving benefits for our future” To make a meaningful impact on the lives of individuals in communities around us by developing model villages through our focus on Education, Health & Sanitation, Water & Watershed, Digitalization and Skill Development. To facilitate a culture of caring in the organization through employee volunteering.

Education

Gyanarjan is a value addition program for rural girl students in Karnataka studying in the 10th -12th standards. The project aims to improve the overall academic performance of rural girl students who are from underprivileged families through imparting quality coaching and guidance for X to XII Std., and preparing them for NEET / CET exams. Under this intervention, special coaching classes, monthly tests, and special preparation sessions for competitive exams such as CET /NEET are conducted.

ABFRL signed an MoU with the Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) to transform 11 Panvel Primary Municipal Corporation Schools by improving the quality of education and health of the students. Through the programme, ABFRL aims to create a nurturing environment for young students, while providing age appropriate academic skills.

An initiative under ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’, the KGBV schools motivate underprivileged girls from rural regions to continue their education. Through the Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Jan Kalyan Trust (ABFRLJKT), we support 5 KGBV schools in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. We also, organise Special Coaching classes for the core subjects.

Health & Sanitation

The semi urban villages are overpopulated and many people from low socio-economic background are forced to live in unsafe and unhygienic environment in the villages. To make two such villages Marsur & Billawaradahalli clean and healthy, we provided two e-trolleys for garbage collection at household level under waste management project. This benefits 3,500 community members.

We organised health camps in 8 government schools. BMI measurements were taken for all the children and awareness on following hygienic practices for good health was provided. ENT check-up was also conducted. 948 students benefited through these camps.

Cancer awareness is worryingly low in India, especially among rural women. Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in India in women; accounting for 18.3% of all cancer cases in women. Evidence shows it is more common among the lower economic strata. The lack of awareness about the disease compounded by limited access to prevention and treatment facilities, makes this a grim situation. Our aim is to sensitise women by organising cancer camps and awareness programmes on how to detect cancer and the treatment options available. Throughout the financial year 2023, a total of 8 cancer awareness and screening camps were conducted, which benefitted 584 women. Out of these 206 women underwent Pap test, and fortunately, there were no cases of cancer detected.

We organised All Round Training in Excellence (ART Excel) programme, in collaboration with International Association for Human Values (IAHV), at five Government schools. Focusing on Yoga, the programme benefitted 459 children.

The ART Excel programme connects with children in a fun and light atmosphere through simple exercises, activities and games that encourage:

Creativity and learning
Valuable lessons in sharing, working together, conflict resolution & playing in harmony and developing a sense of belonging with others
Self-expression and becoming more comfortable and natural with diverse groups of people
Integration of human values, self-discipline, value of service to others into their daily lives, resulting in developing their personality to be healthy and well-rounded
Overall well-being of the children by teaching them a variety of vital non-academic skills – empowering techniques that foster peace of mind, mental clarity and focus, physical relaxation and emotional stability

Eye Camps Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Jan Kalyan Trust, in association with Narayana Nethralaya, has been organising eye camps for the underprivileged since 2011. At every camp, the patients diagnosed with cataracts are counselled and given free surgery while those diagnosed with refractive errors are given spectacles free of cost. The number of cataract cases reported in the eight focus villages have reduced, and thus we are now organising camps in nearby villages.

In FY23, 10 community eye camps were organised, benefitting 2,091 people. 1,147 patients were given support in the form of spectacles, while 321 underwent cataract operations.

Sustainable Livelihood

Project Kaushalya (Skill Training Centre) is one of our core initiatives under our focus area of Sustainable Livelihood. It aims to impart appropriate employable skills and create sustainable livelihood opportunities to the rural youths. We are incorporating physical classes, and as per market demand, we provide skill training in Self Employed Tailoring, Data Entry Operator, & Wearhouse Picker course.

The Government of India has launched the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan to revive every sphere of the economy from demand, supply to manufacturing, in the mission to make India self-reliant. In the same spirit, we provided financial assistance and support to 15 SHG’s to help them become self-reliant through income generating activities like cage fishing, inland fishing and more. This programme is benefitting 165 families.

Water & Watershed Management

All eight Model Villages and focus villages have access to pure and safe drinking water through Water ATMs, benefitting 14,700 community members. The community as well as panchayat members are self-reliant in managing the Water ATMs.

A world without water is becoming a grim reality at an accelerated pace. In such a scenario it becomes imperative that we do all that we can to prevent water loss. In this regard, the integrated watershed programme aims to manage and utilise runoff water for useful purpose, enhance groundwater storage, increase crop intensity in watershed areas and improve the socio-economic status of farmers. In FY23, the watershed programme helped save/ recharge around 47,864 KL of water, benefitting 16,681 community members. Other than awareness sessions on water conservation, the following programmes were commenced to conserve water and improve agricultural yields.

Rainwater harvesting units were established in two government schools at Mayaganahalli and Marsur Villages. The collected rainwater would primarily serve the purpose of handwashing, toilet flushing, and irrigating kitchen gardens. The implementation of these systems is a significant advantage for these schools as it reduces their reliance on bore wells. This initiative has benefited 400 children.

Digitalisation

Odisha Programme:

Two Village Information Centres were set up in Janla Panchayat. The villagers now have access to a range of digital requirements like online travel ticketing, online bill payment, keeping village records, employment records, photocopying, printing and more. The Centre is aiming to create 100% digitally literate villages and is benefitting 7,289 community members.

Karnataka & Tamil Nadu Programme:

Digitalisation is key to ensuring that rural and underserved urban communities are not left behind as we progress into the future. To address these concerns and equip rural communities to be digitally savvy, ABFRJKT has established Village Information Centres in four villages. These centres come with computers, printers, WIFI, etc. and are run by a knowledgeable ‘Digital Champion’. The centres support community members to avail e-schemes, e-banking, online courses, e-library, job portals, printing services, and health insurance etc. 17,984 community members have benefited from these services.