GKEL wins CSR Award for Women Empowerment
GMR Kamalanga Energy Limited (GKEL) emerged as winner of the Best CSR Practices Award-2015 for undertaking transformational women empowerment activities among communities residing in the neighborhood of the its 1050 MW thermal power plant at Kamalanga in Dhenkanal District, which supplies power to Odisha, Haryana and Bihar.
The award to GKEL acknowledges the GMR Group’s holistic approach in raising the capacity thresholds of females through their life cycle so that they are sufficiently empowered at every stage. Right from decreasing the mortality rate through mother and child health care to literacy of the girl child, skill development and income generation in women, GKEL that is charged with accomplishing the social development commitments, has worked tirelessly on programs that maximize impact in improving the quality of life of females in the nine villages neighboring the power plant in Dhenkanal District over the last eight years.
Female volunteer teachers have been positioned in government schools so that children, including girls, are not deprived of quality education in subjects like mathematics and science that provide students the competitive advantage. School infrastructure improvements have included construction of toilets for girls. Developing market-oriented skill-sets to open up new employment and self-employment opportunities has been the hallmark of vocational courses targeted at women. Women have also been provided earning opportunities through mushroom cultivation, kitchen gardens, plantations, livestock (poultry and goat) rearing, among others.
Mr. Dilip Kumar Kar, Program Leader, CSR, received the award from Mr. Charudutta Panigrahi, Founder, FIDR, Gurgaon, and Mr. Ashok K. Das, Director Sankalp TV, Odisha at a glittering ceremony forming a part of the Conclave on “CSR: A New Definition and A New Agenda for Action,” organized by Think Media Inc., at Bhubaneswar on 20 February 2015.
Congratulating the GKEL-CSR team for winning the Best CSR Practices Award for the second year, Mr. R. Raveendranathan Nair, Director & Chief Operating Officer, GKEL, said, “I am confident that GKEL will bring a radical transformation in the quality of life of people in and around its power plant through positive transformational social upliftment interventions in education, health, livelihood and community development. This year our most significant CSR achievement was in helping farmers bring more than 500 acres of fallow land under groundnut cultivation, which has given a big boost to farm incomes. This and the previous award will inspire us to serve our neighborhood communities with greater vigor.”