Empowering rural women through skill development 

In honour of the International Day of Rural Women (October 15), Cairn India celebrated remarkable women from the area and recognised their critical role in economies of the region. “Rural women are main agents for achieving the transformational economic, environmental and social changes required for sustainable development.

The company has been consistently working towards initiating programmes for creating opportunities for their overall socio-economic enhancement.” Sudhir Mathur, Acting CEO of Cairn India Ltd, said. In this regard, the Ministry of Women and Child Development and Vedanta signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build 4,000 next generation anganwadis called ‘Nand Ghar’, a first-of-its-kind public private partnership.

The project will help uplift the communities on a national scale by educating children, eradicating malnutrition and developing vocational skills among women in India. Surasaniyanam is a remote village in East Godavari district in coastal Andhra Pradesh. “Absence of requisite education and skills resulted in unavailability of sustainable livelihoods, increased migration and socio - economic challenges in the area.

The Ravva JV onshore terminal, operated by Cairn India, is the village’s first and only tryst with industrialisation. Here a unique initiative has been started called ‘The Suraksha Project’,” informed Mathur. “Under this project, micro units of women self-help groups produce articles of daily use.

About 120 poor households area are tied-up with this brooms unit as raw sticks suppliers. The Suraksha brooms and Suraksha Agarbatti making unit is touching the lives of community members in villages,” he said.