Vedanta to look after anganwadi children in Orissa

The Hindu, July 6, 2008

Bhubaneswar (PTI): In a bid to widen its corporate social responsibility, the Vedanta group has embarked on a mission to look after more than 40,000 anganwadi children in some of Orissa's most backward areas.

Vedanta Aluminium Ltd has entered into an mou with the Orissa governmen and Sterlite Foundation for adopting 400 anganwadis in Kalahandi district, where its alumina refinery has started trial production at Langjigarh, Vedanta group spokesman C V Krishnan told PTI..

The same process was being implemented in Kalahandi and would be replicated in Jharsuguda.

"As every anganwadi has 40 children, the company will be looking after the welfare, food and healthcare requirements of more than 40,000 children," Krishnan said.

The decision to adopt the anganwadis, he said, was taken on the basis of the company's experiment of running 100 child welfare centres in different places of the country.

As part of the arrangement, every pre-school child aged betwen three and six years would be provided a hot cooked meal of 300 calories at noon, said another Vedanta official.

The company also proposed to look after the health of the children. There would be regular health checkups and the children would be dewormed as part of the programme, he said.

Krishnan, giving a detailed account of the company's child welfare programme, said "Vedanta believes in giving back to society what it has given us. Making money is a means and not an end."

The company was also undertaking beautification of the anganwadis adopted by it. It was whitewashing buildings and erecting green boundaries around them and provided seesaws and slides for children.

Incentives were also being provided to anganwadi workers.

While workers received Rs 250 per month each, each helper was given Rs 150 per month. The total expenditure on child welfare activities in the two districts would be over Rs 15 crore, company officials said.

In order to ensure that everything went as per plan, the process would be reviewed by a committee headed by the district collector. The local MLa and chairman of panchayat samities would be its members, they said.

Vedanta was also working to strengthen infrastructure in the backward Kalahandi district and Jharsuguda by increasing the electricity network, constructing roads and developing educational and healthcare facilities, Krishnan said.

While about 2000 people had got direct employment at the refinery in Lanjigarh, over 2000 others were getting indirect income generating opportunities, he said.