Csr Activities of Hul

VIRAJ TAMHANE _____________________________________________________________________________________________ HINDUSTAN UNILEVER LIMITED Meeting Everyday Needs of bulk Everywhere _____________________________________________________________________________________________ CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) Corporate Social business (CSR) in Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is rooted in its Corporate Purpose the tone that to succeed requires the highest standards of corporate behavior towards our employees, consumers and the societies and world in which we live.HULs CSR school of thought is embedded in its commitment to every(prenominal) last(predicate) stakeholders consumers, employees, the environment and the society that the shaping operates in. HUL believes that it is this commitment which entrust deliver sustainable, profitable growth. HULs key CSR foremosts argon undertaken with a long-term view. Initiatives that argon sustainable have long-term benefits and an curr ent business purpose linked to them is accorded priority focus.As early as in the 1950s, HUL focused on import substitution when balance of payments was an issue. Since the 1980s, most of HULs investments have been in designated backward knowledge domains and zero-industry districts, spreading industrialization. HUL has revived sick industries and has develop local entrepreneurship Furthering this rich tradition of contributing to the fellowship, HUL is foc employ on health hygiene raising, women authority, and urine man eldment.In addition to these important platforms, HUL is similarly winding in a be of community nutriment activities, resembling providing audio-visual packages for basic education in primary schools, education and rehabilitation of picky or underclass(prenominal) children, c be for the destitute and HIV-positive, and unsophisticated development. In recognition of these initiatives, HUL received the prestigious TERI-CSR modified Award for the gra de 2002-03 from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). As is well-kn own, TERI, which was conventional in 1974, is world famous for its commitment to and initiatives in every human face of sustainable development.Among HULs major CSR initiatives atomic number 18 PROJECT SHAKTI Changing Lives in f branching(prenominal) India Project Shakti is HULs unsophisticated initiative, which targets small villages with population of less than 2000 people or less. It seeks to empower underprivileged rural women by providing income- generating opportunities. Project Shakti alike aims to purify the standard of living of the rural community, by providing health and hygiene education. In general, rural women in India are underprivileged and need a sustainable source of income. NGOs, governmental bodies and different institutions have been passing to improve the locating of rural women.Project Shakti is a pioneering effort in creating livelihoods for rural women, organized in Self-Help stems (SHGs), and improving living standards in rural India. Project Shakti provides critically indispensable additional income to these women and their families, by equipping and training them to become an extended arm of the compeverys operation. Started in 2001, Project Shakti has already been extended to about 20000 villages in 196 districts in 11 States Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan and Maharashtra.The respective province governments and several NGOs are actively involved in the initiative. Project Shakti already has about 6200 women entrepreneurs in its fold. A typical Shakti entrepreneur earns a sustainable income of about Rs. 1, 000 per month, which is double their intermediate household income. Project Shakti is hence creating opportunities for rural women to live in modify conditions and with dignity, while improving the overall standard of living in their families. In addition, it involves health and hygiene programmes, which inspection and repair to improve the standard of living of the rural community.The formulates ambit already covers about 15 million rural populations. Plans are also being drawn up to bring in partners involved in agriculture, health, insurance and education to catalyze overall rural development. HULs slew for Project Shakti is to scale it up across the country, covering degree centigrade,000 villages and touching the lives of 100 million rural consumers by 2005. LIFEBUOY SWASTHYA CHETANA Health & Hygiene Education Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetana is the ace largest rural health and hygiene educational programme ever undertaken in India.Its objective is to educate people about basic hygienic habits. It has been actual around the insight that people mistakenly believe unmistakable lightsome is safe clean. The programme establishes the existence of invisible germs and the associated risk of infection. In India this is important, bec ause diarrhea, caused by invisible germs, is the second largest cause of death among children below the age of 5. The project will help reduce incidence of such diseases, by raising awareness of preventive hygienic practices. The campaign has been divided into mingled phases.In the initial phase, a Health Development Facilitator (HDF) and an assistant initiates contact and interacts with students and influencers of the community, like village community representatives, medical practitioners, school teachers etc. A number of in any casels like a pictorial story in a toss out chart format, a Glo-germ demonstration, and a quiz with attractive prizes to reinforce the message are used. The Glo-Germ demonstration is a unique as well asl to buzz off unseen germs visible and empha size of it the need to adopt hygienic practices. The prototypal interaction with students is then replicated with the rest of the community.Subsequently, follow-up visits and communication are undertaken at periodic intervals which reinforce the message and learnings. Started in 2002, the programme has as of now covered about 15000 villages in 8 states Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra it has already touched about 70 million people, imparting hygiene education to over 25 million children. The vision of this on-going project is to make a billion Indians feel safe and secure by focusing on their health and hygiene needs.FAIR & LOVELY FOUNDATION Economic Empowerment of Women The beauteous & Lovely Foundation is HULs initiative which aims at stinting empowerment of women across India. It aims to achieve this through providing information, options, inputs and support in the areas of education, career and enterprise. It specifically targets women from low- income groups in rural as well as urban India. picturesque & Lovely, as a brand, stands on the economic renowned Indian women, from diverse walks of life, as its adviso rs. Among them are educationists, NGO activists, physicians.The Foundation is implementing its activities in association with state governments. In India, low-income families, albeit unwillingly, tend to discriminate against girl children, in providing opportunities for education and enterprise, because of resource constraints. The support provided by Fair & Lovely Foundation will help girl children avail opportunities of higher education and acquires skills in appropriate professions. Launched in 2003, Fair & Lovely Foundation seeks to impact the lives of women. This will be through through scholarships and enterprise initiatives.For career guidance, it seeks to touch millions of aspiring women and students in an on-going programme, currently covering three states and all main metros in the country. discolour BARRENS Water Conservation and Harvesting HULs Water Conservation and Harvesting project has two major objectives a) to reduce water consumption in its own operations and r egenerate sub-soil water tables at its own sites through the principles of 5R reduce, reuse, recycle, restore and renew b) help adjacent villages to implement appropriate models of watershed development.Water scarceness is one of the biggest crises facing India in terms of spread and severity. Water conservation and harvest al-Qaidaing in HULs own operations will help economise and regenerate this scarce resource. An attendant benefit will be decline in the consumption of energy that would have been spent in converting and using that water. The support to communities in developing watersheds will help in the economic development of areas adjacent to HUL sites. Water management is a focus area for all HUL factories. Water conservation has been made one of the key execution of instrument indicators of an HUL factory.Through a series of technology innovations and novel processing routes HUL has reduced its filth water consumption by over 50%. HUL has also utilise technologie s that recycle effluent water after treatment 70% of HUL sites are now zero discharge sites. There are many other measures Reverse Osmosis Plants and Solar Evaporation Ponds to name a few. A co-occurrent benefit is saving in energy that otherwise would have been consumed in drawing, pumping or converting water into steam HULs energy consumption per unit of output signal has come down by 61% since 1996.Since 2003, all HUL sites have begun to harvest rain water. Rain water falling on factory set forth is accumulated in ponds, thereby renewing sub-soil water tables. HUL is also move to extending its efforts on water management to the larger community, and has engaged in community projects in water adjacent to manufacturing sites. The Khamgaon soap factory is located in a dry and arid region of Maharashtra and gets limited rainfall. Seven eld back the factory started a pilot on Watershed perplexity on a 5-hectare plot to prevent soil degradation and wield water.The efforts hav e resulted in the creation of a green belt, which is the only visible green patch in the area. The 5-hectare green belt is now a veritable forest of about 6300 trees, including over 1400 ornamental defines and over 600 fruit- heraldic bearing plants. There has also been a remarkable improvement in the caliber of soil, and prodigious conservation of water. This has been documented in a booklet, Greening Barrens, so that industry, government bodies and communities adopt this widely.Encouraged by the results, HUL has extended the model to a neighbor village, Parkhed, in association with the TERI and the Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation. The community at Parkhed has already constructed 37 examine dams. More than 20,000 saplings have been planted during the 2003 monsoon. For the first time, villagers were able to collect water and utilize it for irrigation post monsoon. The initiative received appreciation at the Johannesburg populace Summit on Sustainable Development.In assoc iation with an NGO, Vanrai, HULs Silvassa manufacturing hub (in the Union Territory of Dadra & Nagar Haveli) too has embarked on a long-term project of water harvesting, which aims to dramatically diverge water availability, taking it up to year-round availability from 4 months at present. At Karchond village, near the Silvassa site, the community has built 18 bunds. Seven of them are on a river running through the village, and 11 smaller ones at different water run-off points. This has enabled the community to sow a second crop, thereby significantly increasing their incomes.Through an Integrated Village Development Programme, the projects ambit also includes alternate income-generating activities through SHGs, forestry management, education of children, nutrition. HULs vision is to continuously innovate technologies to yet reduce water consumption and further increase conservation in its operations. Simultaneously, HUL sites will progressively help communities, wherever required , to develop watersheds. HAPPY HOMES Special Education & Rehabilitation Under the Happy Homes initiative, HUL supports special education and ehabilitation of children with challenge. ASHA DAAN The initiative began in 1976, when HUL supported Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity to set up Asha Daan, a home in Mumbai for abandoned, challenged children, and the destitute. Subsequently, Asha Daan has also become a home to the HIV- positive. The objective in supporting Asha Daan was and continues to be to share the originations achievementfulness in supporting the Mothers mission of serving the poorest of the poor.Asha Daan has been set up on a 72,500-square feet plot belonging to HUL, in the heart of Mumbai city. HUL bears the roof and revenue expenses for maintenance, upkeep and security of the premises. The destitute and the HIV-positive are provided with food, shelter and practice of medicine for the last few days of their lives. The needs of the abandoned challenged chi ldren are also met through special classes of basic skills, physiotherapy and, if possible, corrective surgery. At any point of time, it takes care of over 300 infants, destitute men and women and HIV-positive patients.ANKUR In 1993, HULs Doom Dooma Plantation Division set up Ankur, a centerfield for special education of challenged children. The center takes care of children with challenges, aged between 5 and 15 years. Ankur provides educational, vocational and recreational activities to over 35 children with a revolve of challenges, including sight or hearing impairment, polio related disabilities, cerebral palsy and severe learning difficulties. These physically and mentally challenged children are taught skills, such as cookery, painting, embroidery, bamboo crafts, weaving, stitching, etc. epending on their aptitudes. The center has rehabilitated 10 children, including self-employment for 6 children by providing them with shops, and 3 girls have been provided employment as cre che attendants. It has also moved to formula schools 18 children. Since inception it has covered about 80 children. Ankur received the Lawrie Group World aware Award for Social Progress in 1999 from HRH Princess lofty in London. KAPPAGAM Encouraged by Ankurs success, Kappagam (shelter), the second center for special education of challenged children, was set up in 1998 on HUL Plantations in in the south India.It has 17 children. The focus of Kappagam is the same as that of Ankur. The center has 17 children, being taught self-help skills, useful vocational activities like making of paper covers, greeting cards, cover papers, fancy stationery, and napkins, b populates made out of coconut leaves, candles, and also some home care products. About 12 of the children have become relatively self- exacted by earning through crafts learnt at the center. Since inception, it has covered about 28 children. ANBAGAMYet some other day care center, Anbagam (shelter of love), has been started in 2003 also in the South India Plantations. It takes care of 11 children. Besides medical care and meals, they too are being taught skills such that they can become self-reliant and simple studies. Over 20,000 individuals have benefitted from the Happy Homes initiatives since inception. HUL is wholeheartedly involved with all quadruplet centers and will continue to be involved in the future. Among HULs other significant CSR initiatives are YASHODADHAMHUL has reconstructed a village in the Bhachau Taluka of Gujarats Kachchh district. The village, which has been named Yashodadham, was dedicated to its 1100 residents in December 2002. The residents belong to Nani Chirai village, which was completely bust up by the devastating temblor of January 2001. Yashodadham, spread over 25 acres, comprises 289 homes. HUL has also provided a school building, an grievous bodily harm playground for children and a multi-purpose community center, including a creche, health center, and community roo m and village administration office.All the structures are earthquake and cyclone-resistant. Space has been left all along the village for parks and public squares, where villagers subsequently will plant trees. Each house is of 400 sq. ft. built-up area, with running water and electricity, in a 1600 sq. ft. plot. As desired by the villagers, the design and foundation of houses and the plot size is such that they have the scope to build extra rooms in the future. HUL has constructed both an underground reservoir and an overhead tank for water.HUL, which had launched immediate embossment after the quake in areas adjacent to its Kandla Exports factory, subsequently decided to reconstruct a village, which was completely wrecked. The objective was to help a completely wrecked village, because such settlements had the greatest need for help. Forty such villages were inspected, around Kandla factory, and Nani Chirai was chosen. VINDHYA valley In 2002, the company took up a project in Ma dhya Pradesh, which will impact the entire states rural population.The mainstay of Madhya Pradeshs economy is agriculture. Prosperity gum olibanum means increasing the income of farmers and small town and village entrepreneurs engaged in agro-processing and cottage industries. This is where HUL is contributing its expertise. It has helped the state government create Vindhya Valley, an umbrella brand, and support software for its marketplaceing, manufacturing and distribution. The state government has been substantially investing every year to finance small town and village entrepreneurs.But the lack of marketing skills and market access denied them the desired success and eventually resulted in most of these ventures sightly unsustainable. The launch of Vindhya Valley, with support software from HUL, is helping overcome the impediment. It is a sincerely yours unique and sustainable form of livelihood generation. This has resulted as of now in the establishment of 20 small units, based in rural areas, providing direct engagement to about 1000 families involved in the production of spices, honey, papad, pickles, agarbatti etc.The success of Vindhya Valley has been recognized by various state governments. HUL has recently begun work with the Karnataka Government in similar projects to improve the income and quality of life of rural communities. An umbrella brand, Stree Shakti, is being created for Self-Help Groups (SHGs). The initiative will generate higher sales and higher returns for the SHGs. In its business operations and in its principles and practices, Hindustan Lever thus straddles the Indian corporate world, single-mindedly identifying itself with Indian aspirations and needs in every walk of life.