Reliance's CSR initiative in SEZ battles cynics

The programme is being executed by NGOs with the company staying in the background, sning the cheques

SREELATHA MENON

Wanted: A gynecologist to work in a mo­bile van. Salary: Rs 50,000 per month. Place of Post­ing: 12 villages in and around '°Gurgaon Any takers? So far there has been none. The employers, the Rehabilitation and Resettle­ment( R and R) department of Reliance Industries, has been looking for people willing to work with it.

The department is running a health care pro­gramme in the 45 villages cov­ered by the Haryana Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of the company through a mobile van.

This is a part of the com­pany's corporate social re­sponsibility (CSR) drive which is helping it reach out to villages who have given it their land or are expected to give it in the future. It is being execut­ed by NGOs with the compa­ny staying in the background, signing the cheques.

The mobile van patrolled the villages of Jhajjar till last week. There was a dentist most of the time, and a physician too. It needed a gynecologist, but could never find one will­ing to workout of a  moving clin­ic, R and R officials say. The van is moving to 12 vil­lages in the Gurgaon district and efforts have been doubled to get a gynaecologist in the hope that proximity to the city will make the job attrac­tive. The dentist in the van, Su­lakshana, who earns around Rs 30,000 per month is cheer­ful as she fills a cavity in the tooth of a villager in Fateh­pur in Jhajjar. This is probably the last tooth she will fill in Jha­jjar in her nomadic existence over the last year.

While she will continue to work out of a mobile clin­ic in Gurgaon villages, she can at least go back to her home in the city  occasionally The services are being run by an NGO started by the Jagdish Anand group."The NGO runs the show, but we foot the bills," said a Re­liance official.

The villagers of Fatehpur most of whom had to part with land to RIL are cynical about the services and are taking the help of­fered by the clinic with a pinch of salt.The services are perceived as temporary by the villagers and an ulterior motive is often as­cribed, at least by some of the villagers. Chandu, a village close to Fatehpurin. Jhajjar district, in the SEZ is not enamored by the mobile van. "The van used to pass by our village daily But nev­er once did it stop here and of­fer us medicine and succour.

They are catering only to those who give them land," says a vil­lager from the Chandu village. The village has refused to give any land and is now bitterly waiting for the inevitable ac­quisition by the government. Reliance officials, however, de­ny that services are in any way linked with the acquisition of land to the company "The services are open to all and the health clinics are here to stay," an official said.

The NGO coordinator, VijayTanwar, says that services are provided in 12 villages as only these have been identified by the company. Reliance has been tying up with NGOs for most of its CSR activities. The special relationship with the villages makes the task tough for Re­liance which has been ac­quiring land from all of them. land has even been acquired for Rs 22 1akh an acre.

The NGO connection in a way has also helped the com­pany reach out to the people. In Gurgaon's 23 villages falling un­der the SEZ, the company is run­ning Drishtimitra, an eye care programme along with an NGO Niramaya, an outfit of the Ahuja eye hospital, a well known name in the area.

Villagers are being given eye check ups by doctors of Nira­maya and glasses and surger­ies are sponsored by Reliance. Hitender Ahuja, medical di­rector, Niramaya Charitable Trust said that one village has been fully covered so far, since the project started a month ago. He said the target was to cov­er 48 villages in two years. He added their next stop would