HINDUSTAN ZINC CONSTRUCTING 30,000 TOILETS IN RURAL RAJASTHAN

80 villages in Rajasthan to become 'Open Defecation Free’

The company has started the construction of these toilets in Bhilwara, Chittorgarh and Udaipur districts of Rajasthan and so far the construction of 8,000 toilets has been completed. The company is constructing 2 ‘Leach Pits’ below each toilet to facilitate disposal of waste.

Only one ‘Leach Pit’ will be used at a time. Each ‘Leach Pit’ is estimated to be full in about 5 year. As the first ‘Leach Pit’ is full the second ‘Leach Pit’ will be opened.  Within 5 years the waste in the first ‘Leach Pit’ will be converted into manure to be utilized by the farmer for agriculture purpose.

These newly constructed toilets will also minimize the risk of contamination of drinking water sources thus reducing the health related problems in rural India. Under the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, cost of construction of each toilet is Rs. 8,500/-, where Rs. 4600 per toilet is being paid by government, Rs. 3000 by Hindustan Zinc and Rs. 900 by the beneficiary.

Lack of Toilets facilities in rural areas for females has always been a matter of concern, especially during the late hours. Toilet in each house-hold provides comfort, convenience with a sense of security and dignity to each member of the house, particularly the female members. 

The project is also expected to improve good hygiene practices and create awareness towards health & sanitation.

This project of constructing toilets has been undertaken by Hindustan Zinc with an objective to provide clean and hygienic house-hold toilets to the BPL families and discourage and eventually eliminate open defecation practices in the villages. Hindustan Zinc would be spending about Rs. 8.6 crore towards construction of these 30,000 toilets.

According to UNICEF report, today only 48% of rural Indian population has access to good toilet and sanitation facilities. When more than 50% of Indian population defecates in open it leads to improper disposal of the waste, sanitation issues and cause of many harmful diseases. With Rajasthan in particular, 60% of population defecates in open.

Hindustan Zinc, a Sesa Sterlite company in Zinc-Lead-Silver business has signed MoU with the State Government of Rajasthan to build 30,000 rural toilets for BPL families under the 'Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan'. The construction of these toilets will be completed in 3 years. This initiative will make 80 rural and tribal villages in Rajasthan “Open Defecation Free’.

The company has started the construction of these toilets in Bhilwara, Chittorgarh and Udaipur districts of Rajasthan and so far the construction of 8,000 toilets has been completed.

The company is constructing 2 ‘Leach Pits’ below each toilet to facilitate disposal of waste.

Only one ‘Leach Pit’ will be used at a time. Each ‘Leach Pit’ is estimated to be full in about 5 year. As the first ‘Leach Pit’ is full the second ‘Leach Pit’ will be opened.  Within 5 years the waste in the first ‘Leach Pit’ will be converted into manure to be utilized by the farmer for agriculture purpose.

These newly constructed toilets will also minimize the risk of contamination of drinking water sources thus reducing the health related problems in rural India. Under the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan, cost of construction of each toilet is Rs. 8,500/-, where Rs. 4600 per toilet is being paid by government, Rs. 3000 by Hindustan Zinc and Rs. 900 by the beneficiary.

Lack of Toilets facilities in rural areas for females has always been a matter of concern, especially during the late hours. Toilet in each house-hold provides comfort, convenience with a sense of security and dignity to each member of the house, particularly the female members.  The project is also expected to improve good hygiene practices and create awareness towards health & sanitation.

This project of constructing toilets has been undertaken by Hindustan Zinc with an objective to provide clean and hygienic house-hold toilets to the BPL families and discourage and eventually eliminate open defecation practices in the villages. Hindustan Zinc would be spending about Rs. 8.6 crore towards construction of these 30,000 toilets.

According to UNICEF report, today only 48% of rural Indian population has access to good toilet and sanitation facilities. When more than 50% of Indian population defecates in open it leads to improper disposal of the waste, sanitation issues and cause of many harmful diseases. With Rajasthan in particular, 60% of population defecates in open.

BIMLA IS NO MORE AN ORDINARY RURAL WOMEN...

Bimla is no more an ordinary rural women...

Her husband Baldev did not have a proper land... her three children were struggling with education and not getting proper guidance. Bimla for the whole day was into her house-hold work and used to get tired. 

Bimla always wanted to do something good in life. She always thought of doing something of her own, her own small business. She would think and smile and cherish her dream.  Days passed. She got married and has 3 children now. Her dream remained unfulfilled. 

Her husband Baldev never encouraged her rather he insisted Bimla should only do house-hold work.

One day Bimla met with her old friend, Meena. Meena was well dressed and had a mobile in her hand. She came in auto-rickshaw. She was carrying some home-furnishing items like bedsheets, pillow covers and other decorative items. When Bimla asked Meena how this all change happened, Meena narrated her story. 

Meena told her that she with the help of Hindustan Zinc became member of "Sakhi" self-help-group and Hindustan Zinc provided her training in home-furnishing, tailoring and cutting and other creative items. The training gave her a lot of knowledge and confidence. She now has a small rural enterprise and earns about Rs. 4500/- per month. 

Bimla decided to do the same. Meena introduced her to her group where Hindustan Zinc gave her training in stitching and tie & dye.

Today, Bimla runs her own "Sakhi" group which has about 13 members and she has tied-up with market vendors to sell her products. She has a mobile phone and runs all modern application to get in touch with the purchasers of the products her group makes. She is now planning to buy a 'scooty'.

Bimla is an independent woman, a rural entrepreneur and a confident person who is supporting her family, children and house.

6000 Rural & Tribal Women join “SAKHI”

Hindustan Zinc campaign “SAKHI” developing Rural Women as Entrepreneurs

It is said, when you empower a rural and tribal women, you in-turn make a complete family socially and economically independent, thereby energizing the whole village and ultimately contributing towards the progress of a nation. 

The rural women in India have been proving their mettle and strength in every sphere of life; be it house-hold work, agriculture, traditional crafts or liberal arts, rural women of India have always been in forefront and have even dominated the global fashion industry with their creativity and understanding of traditional art & craft skills. These rural and tribal women are now more confident and determined to manage their finances through banks while educating their children and supporting families.

Hindustan Zinc, a Sesa-Sterlite Limited company in zinc, lead, silver and wind-energy business, realized the potential of these women and decided to engage with them in different interest areas that are also feasible for them. 

The company started a campaign to bring social and economic empowerment amongst these rural and tribal women, particularly those who were residing near its business locations in Rajasthan. The initiative aimed at bringing about 10-15 women of similar creative minds, behaviour and temperament under a single platform of ‘Self-Help-Group’. Once part of the group these women are groomed through intensive vocational training that includes tailoring, stitching, tie and dye, meenakari, terracotta, embroidery, artificial jewellery making, beautician,  home-furnishing etc. Adult education camps are also organized to make these women literate.

Eventually, these rural and tribal women have come up as rural women entrepreneur.

Hindustan Zinc recently launched a national campaign “SAKHI” that recognizes the success of these rural and tribal women and has brought together these more than 6,000 rural and tribal women of Rajasthan and weaved them into about 475 “SAKHI” self-help-groups to make them as Rural Women Entrepreneurs.

The rural system has its own customs and traditions but the biggest has been the social system. It was never easy to convince these women towards joining the “SAKHI” self-help-groups and spare about 4-5 hours almost daily for learning different vocational traits. The support of family members was imperative and to convince the family was a challenging task. Hindustan Zinc’s CSR representatives spent hours together to convince the families and make them understand the socio-economic empowerment “SAKHI” initiative will eventually bring.

“SAKHI” campaign has given Hindustan Zinc a unique opportunity and edge to further scale-up and strengthen self-help-groups and encourage millions of other rural and tribal women to come forward towards their socio-economic empowerment.

The campaign has been launched through a blog www.vedantasakhi.blogspot.in, which uploads the success stories of these women and other important information/extracts of reports. The other platform, Facebook www.facebook.com/vedantasakhi is a knowledge sharing platform and promotes the cause by organizing discussions and deliberations. 

"SAKHI" has brought these women under a single umbrella as a collective force. Now they have started sharing their experience, knowledge, vocational traits, which has also considerably improved their communication skills.  Most of these women have bank accounts and they manage them independently. The “SAKHI” self-help-groups also have a market coordinator who on their behalf negotiates the prices of their products in the market and generates orders.

The objective of “SAKHI” is also to impart trainings to these women in other professional streams, strengthen vendors base and suppliers base, bringing market competitiveness, ensure finishing & quality output, and eventually enhance their social & economic status by improving monthly returns.

Recently, “SAKHI” organized its first interactive workshop that saw participation by over 350 rural and tribal women entrepreneurs from Rajsamand, Chittorgarh, Bhilwara, Ajmer and Udaipur districts’ self-help-groups.

Prof. Anuja Sisodia from Indian Institute of Crafts and Design, Jaipur took the workshop that gave these women an insight on designing, colour combination, finishing & quality checks, customer analysis, and market trends.  The workshop also had interactive sessions on garments and home-furnishing market, development of handicraft industry, production as per current fashion trends and pricing of the products. These rural women also expressed their concerns about the availability of raw material, need for upgraded training programs and new markets for selling the products. Hindustan Zinc has taken the responsibility to strengthen the market linkages on behalf of these women.

Each “SAKHI” (as these women entrepreneurs are addressed) has a success story to narrate and every success story gives birth to hundreds of more success stories. “SAKHI” is a voice of these rural and tribal women and the campaign is destined to improve their social and economic life.

Join "Sakhi" Campaign at www.facebook.com/vedantasakhi .....