Aditya Aluminium Committed For Women Empowerment

Bhubaneswar: As part of Aditya Aluminium’s commitment towards women empowerment, the company spawned by Aditya Birla Group has taken innovative initiatives towards the progress of women.

To enhance the leadership qualities and intervention capacities of women and integrate community development in its plant areas, Aditya Aluminium, has been taking innovative CSR initiatives.  These centers around promoting self-help groups (SHGs) and helping rural women start ventures like pisciculture, poultry farming, horticulture, phenyl production, and tailoring in the Sambalpur district of Odisha.

Bibhu Mishra, the COO of Aditya Aluminium, said, “We continue to work untiringly towards furthering empowerment of women in villages at the periphery of our plant, by facilitating the formation of as many as 49 women SHGs in the last three years we have encouraged women to explore income generating activities .  Today, nearly fifty percent of these 49 SHGs the opportunity to earn a livelihood .  Most of them have got bank linkages and government benefits”.

The pisciculture project by Nikhil SHG in Bhuliadihi Village has led to earning a profit of Rs 1,26,000 per annum. Members Laxmi Naik and Susama Meher of the SHG have invested their share of profits in providing better education to their children.

Likewise, phenyl production by Maa Laxmi SHG of Pondaloi is fetching their members Rs.6,000 per month.  This SHG has worked to improve employment opportunities and an increase in their participation in economic activities.

Besides, Aditya Aluminium is also supporting rural SHGs in creating area-specific and need-based livelihood programs. Women of the locality who were earlier engaged in hazardous jobs like bidi making due to compulsion are now suitably engaged through these SHGs.

Aditya Aluminium, in association with the district administration and NGOs, has been organizing training programs on health, social, economic and livelihood issues for the local women to help them comprehend their capacity to modify the system for the next generation. Programmes like mega SHG meets and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan are organized at regular intervals to educate people on various socio-economic and health issues.

Lauding the initiatives taken up by Aditya Aluminium for the social and economic upliftment of the local community, Rengali CDPO Chhabirani Mohanty said, “Aditya Aluminium has approached the rural women livelihood issues in very strategic manner.  They have achieved many milestones by streamlining them into varied businesses and making them sustainable in income generation.”

“Steps taken by Aditya Aluminium for women empowerment through awareness, education, livelihood programs are impressive and we deeply appreciate the move,” commented Bomaloi Panchayat Sarpanch Shubhadra Bag.