BIRD, Lucknow Visit of BIRD Team to the CSR Interventions of Dalmiya

Visit of BIRD team to the CSR interventions of Dalmiya Bharat Group – Sitapur district, UP

A team of Faculty Members led by Smt T S Raji Gain, Director, BIRD visited various CSR interventions of Dalmiya Bharat Group in Sitapur district of Uttar Pradesh on 6 April 2019. Dalmiya Group has a Sugar Mill of around 6500 TCD at Ramgarh Village of Sitapur district. Sri Vishal Bharadwaj, CEO, Dalmiya Foundation; Sri Samir Sharma, COO, Dalmiya foundation along with their regional heads provided us the insights into their operations. Dalmiya Bharat Group through its CSR foundation - Dalmiya Foundation are implementing a number of projects in different parts of the country and have also partnered with NABARD under Watershed and Tribal Development Programs in AP & Karnataka.

1. In Sitapur district, the Dalmiya Foundation has set up a Skill Development Center viz., Dalmia Institute of Knowledge and Skill Harnessing (DIKSHa), wherein they are providing training to rural youth on different skills – Home Health Workers, Electricians, BPO, Security

guards etc. Under the Skill India Mission, the training is provided free of cost and trainees are linked with relevant industries agencies like Schneider Electric, Hospitals, BPOs etc. Around 80% of the trainees are employed with the user industries and the rest are self employed.

The foundation is also into water conservation and had facilitated clearning and desilting of four water harvesting / storage structures in the village Keshavmau. These structures are interconnected and the water source is a feeder channel of the local irrigation network. The

water harvesting / storage structures do provide critical irrigation in times of need. Director interacted with some of the beneficiaries of the project on the intervention as well as cropping in the area and observed that it was highly useful for providing the much needed critical irrigation.

3. The foundation has also started a Common Service Labs in Ramgarh Village to provide

computer literacy with the help of Hewlett Packard (HP). The center also hosts a first aid center to provide medical services and a doctor regularly attends to the patients. The entire facility is run on solar energy. We also probed the possibilities of conducting a 2-3 day

program for PRI officials on Digital, Financial and Climate literacy in collaboration with Dalmia Foundation.

4. An innovative Solar Mini Grid (22.7 kWp capacity) has been established in Village Ramgarh to cater to the energy needs of irrigation (water Pumps) as well as homes. Two borewells have been constructed with 7.5 HP sub me rsible motors and the system is irrigating 62.5

acres on pay per use system. All the fields are connected with main pipes and electronic valves. Water has to be purchased (1000 liters of water is charged ₹ 3.5) through a smart card. The system is working fine and the excess electricity is directed towards lighting of homes and charged a flat rate of ₹ 160/month for lighting 2 bulbs, a fan and a mobile charger.

5. The foundation is also working with NABARD, Regional Office, Lucknow and is constructing a rural haat with a grant assistance of ₹ 10.00 lakh from NABARD. The gram panchayath has contributed ₹ 6.5 lakh and the rural haat is close to completion.

6. Women in the area are encouraged for skill development and the foundation has formed a Moonj Craft Producer group, which is producing various utility items using the locally available raw material. The products are being marketed online and they have good demand.

7. The foundation has tied up with BAIF for providing AI services at the doorstep of the farmers. The foundation has established 4 mobile AI centers and is providing sexed semen with over 96% female calf births in the area. The cost of sexed semen is subsidized by the foundation to the extent of ₹ 1000 per dose while the farmer pays only ₹ 200/insemination. The plan is to make Ramgarh village as a dairy hub and they are in the process of renovating a old structure to host a procurement center in the near future.

8. Another interesting project being implemented in the area is ‘Seekho and Sekhao” which aims at imparting English language to primary school children through stories and other medium. All these projects are being implemented in Ramgarh village and the local Pradhan is totally involved in the projects.

At the end of the visit, the team also spent some time in Dalmiya sugar factory to understand

the support provided by them to sugarcane farmers. Press Mud, Ash from Co-generation plant etc., were given free of cost to the farmers. The visit provided a great learning to the faculty members on the type of initiatives that can be taken up under CSR portfolio of a company.