HERE'S a corporate that propelled the economic growth of modern India. A corporate that can rightly claim to be ‘present, a little bit, in everyone's life.' Steel Authority of India (SAIL), a corporate that began with developing the area within its operational periphery, has now undertaken the challenge of mapping the development of 79 villages across India. Each of these targeted villages has a population of more than 1,50,000, of which 17% are scheduled castes and 27% scheduled tribes.
There are 13 model villages that have already been developed in the last fiscal and the remaining 46 shall see completion by the end of 2009. Pipparchhedi, a hamlet that even Google search refuses to identify, got a little bit of steel in its life last month. It witnessed the inauguration of a health centre, community centre, vocational training school and above all, a 700m-long concrete road. Ever heard of Bansgora, Gutgutpara, Goralbari, Chikatmati, Yousufpur? These are few of the other hamlets across Chattisgarh, West Bengal, Orissa, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar that had a brush with development recently.
SAIL does seem to go that extra mile. And that's why it has been the proud recipient of the FICCI Annual Award 2006-07 for Outstanding Achievement in the category of Rural & Community Development Initiatives and the Businessworld-FICCI-SEDF Corporate Social Responsibility Award, 2006. "We have been working on social welfare for over five decades. In the current financial year SAIL is spending Rs 100-crore on social responsibility. The amount would be definitely augmented in future. We have already spent Rs 1.30 crore for the peripheral development of Kalta and by the end of this fiscal we'd spend another Rs 25 lakh on it," G Ojha, director, personnel and in-charge of SAIL's Raw Materials Division shared while inaugurating the Steel Village at Kalta Basti, Orissa.
Aside from setting up model villages, SAIL had also set up a residential Archery Academy at Kiriburu in Jharkhand last month. The project is budgeted at Rs 2.36 crore, and will be spent over the next four years. "The Academy would open frontiers before local talent, who otherwise rarely have any opportunity to hone their skills," says Ojha.
Archery, a popular tribal game, will certainly get a boost as the Academy will provide four years of standard training, free education, stipend and other facilities to the trainees. Around 20 aspiring archers in the age group of 13-15 years would be inducted under the guidance of renowned archer and Asian Champion Rajendra Guiyan.
While archery will keep the youth busy during the day, studies will be taken care of in the evenings. That seems like a good plan for well-rounded development.
Email this Page