Project Connect is aimed at leveraging employee volunteerism to address the community’s need for quality education, especially for classes 8th to 12th in Science, English, and Mathematics. Initiated in 2016, the project provides an engagement opportunity for its employees to teach underprivileged students. About 200 students are being reached through this initiative.

In FY'21, with the onset of Covid 19, e-modules were developed for students in classes 8th to 12th. We also launched a mobile application & YouTube channel (Shiksha Mitra) for online study.

The project is currently being run in partnership with Sarthak Jan Vikas Sansthan.

The surging Indian economy requires considerable manpower to maintain the momentum of growth, especially from rural India. The Korba region of Chhattisgarh predominantly has a tribal population, with more than 60% of youth engaged in traditional jobs with unstable income. Aiming to address this need gap, BALCO, in collaboration with Learnet Skills Limited, established Vedanta Skill School in 2011 at three locations - Korba, Mainpat, and Kawardha.

This is a centralised skill school that aims to impart vocational training free of cost to rural youth and link them with employment opportunities. The training module has been designed as per the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) guidelines, with the youth being trained in 6 different trades- welding, fitter, hospitality, SMO, solar PV technician, and electrician. In addition to training, food, accommodation, and transportation are also provided free of cost to the trainees. So far more than 9,000 youths have been trained with 70% placement.

The project is currently being run in partnership with Learnet Skills Limited.

Project Aarogya is a comprehensive health initiative that aims to support the community with interventions in Primary Health Care and awareness on various seasonal and non-seasonal diseases. Special emphasis is laid on Malaria, TB, HIV, Maternal & Child Health to create a community which is free from diseases. In FY’21 we reached out to more than 24,000 people through this project.

The following activities are centered around BALCO’s plant location covering 31 communities:

• Rural Health Post (RHP) - 5 Rural Health Posts were established in 2009 to make Primary Health Care services easily accessible for people from 117 surrounding villages. Annual footfall in these RHPs is around 6,000-8,000.
• Health Camps - Periodic health camps help reach out to the remotest of areas and cater to the community's healthcare needs.
• HIV - As Korba is an industrial hub, migrant workers come here from all parts of India and many engage in unsafe sexual practices. Hence, we have deployed an awareness campaign for HIV prevention & testing. Under this campaign, we also conduct community meetings, canopy camps, and mass-scale camps on HIV Day to ensure that the message reaches a wide range of audiences, especially the high-risk groups.
• TB - Awareness on TB prevention, testing, and medication are done through group meetings in the community through IEC material. People are also connected to TB testing and the DOTS (Directly Observant Treatment Short Course) center for the treatment of TB.
• Maternal & Child Health - Coordination with local health workers such as Mitanins & ANMs, to connect pregnant ladies with pre-natal vaccinations. Institutional deliveries are also promoted along with infant care.

The project is currently being run in partnership with the Social Revival Group for Urban Rural & Tribal (SROUT)

Menstrual health is an issue around which there are a lot of stigmas and dogmas in the community. BALCO’s Menstrual Health Management project is designed to generate awareness on hygienic menstrual practices amongst women and adolescent girls. In FY’21, we reached out to 24,000 women and adolescent girls through door-to-door awareness programmes and sensitization activities. To ensure active participation and support in bringing about behavioural change in the community and the sustainability of the project, we created two groups - one group comprised of adolescent girls and the other group comprised of local stakeholders, SHG women, local health workers, etc. Overall, communities in villages have been sensitized through group meetings, rallies, Nukkad Nataks, and so on.

The project is currently being run in partnership with Sarthak Jan Vikas Sansthan.

This objective is being achieved by assisting these women in creating an effective framework of self-help groups that will enable them to access micro-finance services, engage in remunerative and sustainable livelihood activities, and empower them economically and socially. The project is designed to mobilise these women SHGs and handhold them to grow through various stages of organisational strengthening and capacity building for co-designing and co-developing local enterprises, creating sustainable livelihoods for themselves.

Initiated in 2016, Unnati constitutes 393 SHGs with a membership of 4,292 women from 29 villages. Project Unnati is a mission to empower rural women to make use of the choices, opportunities and spaces available in the economic and social spheres. Another part of this project is Income Generation Activities (IGA) to provide sustainable livelihood opportunities to these women. In addition, we have also established Mushroom Unit & Textile Production where 1,510 women have been engaged.

The project is currently being run in partnership with Drishtee Foundation.

Agriculture is the backbone of the economy in most of our neighboring communities. Given the pre-eminence of agriculture for sustainable local livelihoods, the flagship Land & Water Management Project was launched in 2012 to ensure sustainable livelihood through integrated water and farming systems.

This project mainly focuses on improving the surface water management with existing resources, augmenting irrigation facilities, equipping farmers with latest farming techniques & promoting multi-cropping. This has reduced the dependence of communities on rainfall for agriculture, secured the Kharif crop, and also helped to grow cash crops in the Rabi season. Overall, the project has contributed to increasing the farmer's produce.

The project was implemented in three phases:

• Phase 1 - Project Jalgram - was implemented between FY’13-FY’16. It focused on improving surface water management with existing resources and augmenting irrigation facilities.
• Phase 2 - Project Climate Change - was initiated in FY’17 to equip farmers with the latest farming techniques.
• Phase 3 was initiated in FY’20 and is directed towards promoting multi-cropping, diversification of crops, and institutionalizing.

The project is currently being run in partnership with Action for Food Production (AFPRO).

COVID 19 has affected all spheres of life in the country and the world at large. Despite all challenges, BALCO committed itself to the national cause and reached out to communities to help them meet their immediate needs in terms of meals, dry ration, preventive health care, etc. BALCO has been at the forefront of the battle to combat the COVID 19 pandemic. The first stage of engagement included awareness generation and relief measures against COVID 19. The second stage included protection against the virus and cure for those affected.