Nuvoco Vistas Corp Ltd (formerly Lafarge India Limited), one of the country’s leading building materials manufacturers, recently bagged the 5th CSR Impact Awards 2017-18 in the Women Empowerment category. Nuvoco’s Project Samridhi won the award for bringing about economic empowerment of women in the community by engaging them in sustainable source of livelihood.
The award was handed over to the team by Anant Kumar Hegde, Union Minister of State for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India.
The CSR Impact Awards is an initiative of NGOBOX to encourage companies, CSR foundations and CSR implementing agencies, to deliver high impact through CSR projects and adopt multi-stakeholder approach, leading to excellence in project outcomes. This initiative focuses on identifying high impact CSR projects in 14 categories at a pan-India level.
The awards seek to appreciate project specific impacts made by the organisations in particular thematic areas, to set benchmark in projects planning, identification and delivery of results.
Speaking on the win Joydeep Chatterjee, Chief of Special Projects, CSR and Corporate Affairs, said, “As a socially responsible Corporate, Nuvoco has always been driven to bring about holistic development in our surrounding villages and their marginalised communities.”
“Through Samridhi (mushroom cultivation project), we have been able to make the women ‘Saksham’ in terms of economic and social empowerment, and have brought them at par with their male counterparts. This award is a recognition of how, even small but meaningful initiatives can lead to significant and long-term transformations,” Chatterjee said.
Project Samridhi supports over 120 women across five villages, namely Barbaid, Deuli, Latiyaboni, Machhbanda, and Nidhirampur. It is being implemented in the Gangajalghati block of West Bengal’s Bankura District. Through this initiative, Nuvoco aims to make women an equal contributory member of the family, and Samridhi has already managed to change the lives of many households by giving women financial independence, and as a result, a stronger voice in domestic decision making. Additionally, it has also helped in improving the overall quality of their lives through better access to education, nutrition intake, and assets creation. With an overall increase in earnings by 40% in the household, this income gives the women of the village an equal footing with their male counterparts. Being a self-sustaining business plan, the cultivated mushrooms are marketed and sold by the villagers themselves.
