CSR governance at Ambuja Cement

As per section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 which pertains to the CSR law for the companies, we have constituted a Board-level CSR & Sustainability Committee with Independent Directors. We have also formulated a CSR policy which clearly mentions the CSR activities carried out as per Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013.

We primarily allocate our CSR implementation through our social development arm the Ambuja Cement Foundation (ACF) working mainly with communities around the manufacturing sites across 11 states. We also run five English medium schools under our Ambuja Vidya Niketan Trust providing quality education to benefit local communities around the plant areas. We also maintain a multi-speciality hospital in Ambujanagar (Kodinar), Gujarat through the Ambuja Hospital Trust to provide quality health treatment to the local communities.

The major focus of our CSR spend is invested in the host communities impacted around the manufacturing sites with thorough needs assessment conducted with the communities. Based on the need assessment and to largely enhance prosperity, six verticals have been identified: water resource management, livelihoods (agro‑based and skill and entrepreneurship development), health and sanitation, women empowerment and quality education. We ensure people’s participation by creating village-level institutions with capacity building invested for these institutions so that projects carried out by the people are self-sustaining.

ACF has formed a data management and research cell to monitor all ongoing projects with mid-course evaluation to ensure strategic social investment. All mature projects are subject to evaluation and impact assessment. External consultants and institutions support in carrying impact assessment of critical projects.

Key community intervention areas
Over the years, ACF has helped formalise the structure for our interventions (through farmers’ clubs, farmer producers’ organisations, women’s federations, water user groups, among others). The Foundation has also created village-level leaders to coordinate the programmes effectively and holistically help households thrive.

Water
Water has been the key focus area for Ambuja Cement since the beginning. India is faced with unprecedented water crisis where demand has outstripped supply. The primary aim of ACF is to address the water scarcity issues faced by the community by way of promoting water harvesting and conservation, river interlinking, safe and adequate drinking water availability and judicial water use. The water resource management programme has grown in dimension, in keeping with local needs across locations. ACF also focuses on water-saving techniques through promotion of sprinkler and micro irrigation system for efficient usage of water.

ACF carries out its water conservation efforts with the support and active participation of relevant government bodies, NGOs and the community itself. Our efforts have been instrumental in bringing positive changes in people’s lives and biodiversity across regions of our operations, especially in water starved areas. We ensure that no water source or protected area (nationally or internationally) is disturbed for water withdrawal. We encourage sustainable withdrawals, water efficiency, responsible water harvesting and groundwater recharges to ensure continuous supply to address water scarcity; and bring down the number of people affected by water scarcity considerably.

Performance in 2020

• Developed and revived 83 water harvesting and recharge structures and 14 dams, amounting to storage capacity of 0.60 million m³, taking the total count to 14,060 water harvesting and recharge structures, 458 check dams and 59.24 million m³, respectively
• Developed 3,134 Ha of watershed through water and soil conservation
• Three river lift irrigation projects were undertaken resulting in 125 Ha of area under double crop
• Installed and revived 318 hand pumps across locations

Agri-based livelihood initiatives
Agro-based livelihood generation remains a major focus area for ACF to improve the productivity of agricultural lands for improved yields and economic prosperity. This is done by building capacities of farmers and introducing scientific farm practices with greater use of technology for sustainable production. Agro-based livelihood initiatives are being implemented in 17 locations across nine states covering more than 2 million farmers. The initiatives besides working for enhanced practices for sustainable agriculture, comprises other allied initiatives such as animal husbandry projects, including dairy, poultry, aquaculture and goat rearing.

Performance in 2020

• Animal husbandry projects were extended to 15 locations covering 8,500 families
• 154 low-cost polyhouses built in Sankrail to help enhance income
• ~1,079 Ha of area covered under micro irrigation
• 3 new farmer-producer organisations were formed during the year, taking the total to 14, covering 2.1 lakh farmers
• More than 30,000 women farmers participated in various training initiatives conducted by the Foundation
• Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) was extended to 1,418 more villages during the year, benefiting 1.69 lakh farmers

Skill-based livelihood initiatives
To contribute to nation-building ACF set up the Skill and Entrepreneurship Development Institute (SEDI) to provide meaningful alternative employment opportunities to the country’s youth. More than 33 SEDI centres are operational across 10 states in the country, with more than 65,000 people placed in various roles. ACF has partnered with other corporates to widen the scope of training as well as provide placement opportunities.

Performance in 2020

• A new SEDI centre was initiated in Ajmer, Rajasthan
• More than 65,000 people were trained during the years with 74% of the graduates placed in different organisations. Women made up 42% of the total number of candidates against 41% in 2019
• Inspite of lockdown, SEDI centres still continued training the rural youth using innovative distance and virtual technologies
• Capacity building of trainees and improving their skills led to more placements, increase in retention rate and better job delivery, despite COVID-19
• During the national lockdown, Kodinar (Gujarat), Chandrapur (Maharashtra) and Roorkee (Uttarakhand) SEDIs were recognised for providing their General Duty Assistant trainees to hospitals in urgent requirement of staff
• SEDIs were also able to train 4,743 students and ensure job placements to 3,472 students during the lockdown

Health and sanitation
Communities residing in secluded and distant regions around our plants lack access to basic healthcare facilities. Besides, it impacts our plant workforce as the majority of our workforce come from the nearby communities. Hence it is imperative to ensure the well-being of communities and the neighbourhood around our plants. The healthcare interventions by ACF helps in ensuring appropriate healthcare for our neighbourhood communities.

Performance in 2020

• Our village health functionaries (Sakhis) helped in expanding our Maternal and Child Healthcare (MCH) interventions in villages, reducing maternal deaths, neo-natal mortality, still births and reached institutionalised delivery of 87% in our impact villages. The MCH interventions reached additional 15 villages covering 28,573 families
• Community clinics supported by village panchayats and village development committees were initiated in seven more villages during the year. A total of 1,260 patients were treated through each of the nine clinics in nine villages during the year
• ACF was among the first to initiate HIV/AIDS prevention measures for truckers through its Health Care Centres (HCC) and reach 33,471 truckers during 2020 across four locations. More than 4,591 truckers were counselled through four integrated counselling and testing centres. Around 377 Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) and 12 HIV cases were identified during the year. We initiated condom distribution to educate and prevent incidences of STI
• With evidence that rural India is badly impacted by non‑communicable diseases, especially hypertension and diabetes, a focused programme using village leadership has been initiated to address this issue

Women empowerment
Women are the central agents in rural development for Ambuja Cement. Key programmes such as health and animal husbandry were strengthened owing to the increasing participation of women. Key projects around the areas of drinking water supply and health and sanitation are aimed at empowering rural women and engaging them in social and economic activities to ensure overall rural prosperity. Past studies conducted by the Foundation in the areas of maternal and child health or allied agriculture interventions highlighted that irrespective of programmes, engagement of women in development activities results in a higher level of confidence among them and an aspiration to do better.

Performance in 2020

• ACF promotes women-led Self-Help Groups (SHGs) to build capacity in managing accounts, credit rotation and income generation. The Foundation is supporting more than 2,413 SHGs, with 26,513 members managing a total corpus of `20.46 crores
• Currently, there are five women federations which are formed as an apex body to help women achieve financial independence while training them to address mainstream issues like linking to various government schemes, sanitation and domestic violence
• With financial institutions releasing schemes for women, ACF assisted 525 SHGs apply for the COVID Sahay Loan to receive `4.26 crores as livelihood support. Women trained in tailoring under the livelihood enhancement programme have made 4,52,000 face masks and sold to health authorities, medical stores and even to Ambuja Cement
• Under the livelihood generation programme, 500 women in Sankrail, West Bengal and Punjab were involved in the opportunity of vegetable cultivation in kitchen gardens during lockdown with produce being procured by local traders and sold in local markets

Performance in 2020

• Introduced smart classes in 10 schools

Extending support to communities during COVID-19
The outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown had deep impact on the community. We, at Ambuja Cement, initiated a host of initiatives through ACF. The initiatives included awareness creation, Information, Education and Communication (IEC) material distribution, emergency services, basic healthcare services, creation of a dedicated Single Point Of Contact (SPOC) in every village and enhanced engagement with the health systems. These steps resulted in responsible behaviour in the community.

Strategic interventions

Support initiatives

• Assisted 14,770+ families, returned migrants and labourers in the villages with ration kits
• Contributed 15 ventilators, 14 oxygen concentrators and five oxygen cylinders for COVID care centres
• Provided PPE kits, pulse oximeters, medical and infrastructural equipment
• Created livelihood opportunities – 4.5 lakh+ masks made and sold by women, a livelihood fund created for different locations, provided `4.26 crores loan to 526 SHGs applying for COVID-Sahay loans
• Participated in government campaigns in Gujarat and Rajasthan
• 183+ staff participated across locations for online training programme on COVID-19
• Online mental health training session covering 3,300+ people

As a step ahead, ACF is working on measures to aid government’s COVID-19 vaccination programme. It has initiated vaccination awareness programmes across villages and is liaising with respective health departments for behaviour change communication interventions and helping the frontline workers in the vaccination process.