With a clear vision to touch the lives of one in every five, the Ashok Piramal Group has been proactively associated with social responsibility and community upliftment programs throughout the villages of Western and Central India.
The Piramal family has been successfully running educational institutes in Bagar, Rajasthan, and have also espoused the cause of the girl child and the backward class in remote villages of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra
Taking forward the legacy of Piramal Seth, who had initiated a fight for the betterment of the untouchable community, Ms.Urvi Piramal has established the Urvi Ashok Piramal Foundation, a no-profit, non-governmental organization for furthering her social activities. The Foundation ensures that at each step, the people are actively involved in taking forward the efforts, thus, empowering them to lead the community in the future.
Wheeling a change via Healthcare.
‘Aayushi’, the flagship healthcare program run by Urvi Ashok Piramal Foundation is spearheading a major change wave in the villages of Raigad, Thane, Nagpur District in Maharashtra and Jhunjhunu District in Rajasthan, India. To provide quality healthcare to a population of 30,000 in a belt that shelters 125 villages, there are employed 10 deployed Mobile Health Units. Equipped with a qualified doctor, a nurse and counsellors, it ensures that the villages avail regular health check-ups, primary health issues treatment, basic diagnostic tests and distribution of quality medicines. The foundation has partnered with the Tribal Development Department of Government of Maharashtra to provide on a daily basis primary health services in 32 schools covering 16000 children. Twice in a year all the children undergo general screening, Haemoglobin testing and treatment and simultaneously deworming treatment for all the children.
The foundation also provides primary health services in the villages situated in the buffer zone of Umred Karandla and Bor forest, Nagpur. This project was initiated on request of the forest department and the service is also extended to forest officials.
To address the issue of ever-increasing Cataract cases in the remote areas, the foundation has partnered with Sight Savers International and has initiated ophthalmology services in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district. The project, “Ophthalmology on wheels”, covers the entire district with a focus of creating awareness on preventing blindness, treats refractive errors and perform cataract surgeries with a tie up at a base hospital. Women ‘Asha” workers are trained by Sight Savers to identify medical cases and report them to the foundation. In the last 3 years, 2139658 population covered, 310 panchayats reached out to, 42616 people screened, 12673 spectacles distributed and 4300 cataract surgeries performed.
A stepping-stone to community upliftment.
We at the Ashok Piramal Group believe that education is the way to recreate and re-establish a better community. In this wake, The Seth Primal Boys Higher Secondary School at Bagar, Rajasthan is imparting quality education through minimal monetary requirements.
Over 50 students across the reach of the Urvi Ashok Piramal Foundation are awarded scholarships each year to be able to fund their study of choice.
The foundation with its presence in tribal areas is now improving basic infrastructure in some of the Ashram schools in Raigad District, Maharashtra. Books, stationery, and educational materials are periodically distributed to all the children in four Ashram schools and the teachers are now more proactive and willing to walk an extra mile to educate the tribal children.
The best way to empower local communities is by empowering people’s economic capacity and by the generation of self-sustainable livelihood options.
The foundation has imparted hand block printing skill to rural women in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, a traditional art which was non existent in Jhunjhunu District. History has been created by the foundation and today over 35 women are in printing and product development unit. The products once developed, are marketed in various exhibitions. Along with technical skills, the emphasis is to empower women, so that they take charge of their lives and achieve holistic development. So far with the effort of the foundation over 2000 youth have been trained in various skills and this has enabled them to become self-sufficient largely.
The key to conserving nature is via community involvement.
The Urvi Ashok Piramal Foundation supports Conservation Wildlands Trust (CWT) that works with a mission to protect and conserve sensitive habitats through community participation. It works in the Central Indian landscape of Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR), Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. The focus being education, health, and livelihood as the key verticals of engagement, CWT works with the communities residing in the buffer zone of PTR.
Harnessing the people power for community development.
The Urvi Ashok Piramal Foundation believes in the power of community and elicits joint action in all the social initiatives. While the activities have always had a people-centric focus, they have also benefited the environment and the society at large. The foundation is actively involved in soil and water conservation that has benefitted over 2,000 residents. Moreover, in one of the adopted villages in Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan, a water tank has been constructed through the active participation of villagers to improve the groundwater level and resolve the water scarcity issue.
Not just livelihood, the Foundation looks after the overall development of its young and the elderly too. ‘Ashok BalVatika’, a park created in the village has a walking track, benches and play equipment. It is now handed over to the villagers who take care of its daily maintenance.
The Municipal Corporation at Bagar is now creating regular awareness on cleanliness and the foundation has donated the ‘Hopper Tipper’ vehicle for house-to-house garbage collection. The town is also illuminated with Solar and LED lights with the efforts of the Foundation.
For more information, log on to www.uapfoundation.org