DPCL is a joint venture Company of Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro. Widely recognised and admired for their corporate and social initiatives, both these companies have set distinct and high benchmarks for the corporate world. Continuing this tradition of serving the society while simultaneously focusing on its core business, DPCL has the genuine advantage of a legacy that it plans to take ahead.
The Company associates with other eminent and international organisations like IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), NEAA (National Environmental Appellate Authority), Ministry of Shipping & Transport and IDA (International Dark Sky Association), making visible efforts towards the betterment of society in Dhamra Port Area as well towards addressing the concerns of environment and preserving the natural habitat in the region. DPCL has launched several Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives in the area with the view to usher in a spate of progressive changes in the periphery villages of Dhamra Port.
Catering to the needs of people in every walk of life, be it economic or social, the initiatives launched by DPCL comprise comprehensive and concrete measures in sustainability. The spectrum of periphery development activities under implementation include –
- Promotion of IT literacy
- Encouraging higher education among meritorious students of the area
- Welfare of differently-abled people and distressed children
- Personality development trainings to local youth
- Educating women on health and hygiene
Some of these have been discussed below.
Initiatives in Education
DPCL Merit Scholarship scheme - This has been launched by Dhamra port authorities for the meritorious students of periphery villages. As a New Year gift, financial assistance is provided to meritorious students scoring above 75 percent marks in the HSC (+2) examination of Board of Secondary Education (BSE), Orissa. Selected candidates are provided scholarship of Rs 1000 per month for a period of two years. In the first batch itself three girl students have availed this facility.
DPCL Rural Knowledge Centre - A significant step in promoting IT literacy among the displaced persons, this facility has been set up at Dosinga village, near the port. Ten students from the displaced families received Microsoft Unlimited Programme (MSUP) Certificates, which is jointly provided by Microsoft India, Nasscom Foundation and FIDR. The programme, the first of its kind introduced by DPCL in the project area, aims to familiarise rural students with computers, laptops and various basic IT programmes.
This programme has been well received by the school-going higher secondary students and college students. DPCL Rural Knowledge Centre has been set up with five systems, free learning materials and a professional instructor.
Initiatives for the differently abled
Concerned about persons with differential abilities and distressed children in the project area, The Company has donated tri-cycles to polio-stricken disabled youths, Braille sticks and special glasses to persons with impaired vision.
On ‘Utkal Divas’ (1 April), DPCL organised various competitions and distributed prizes among 50-odd poor children at the Helen Kellar Residential School for Deaf, Dumb and Blind, Charampa in Bhadrak district.
Skill improvement and personality development measures
In its periphery development programme, DPCL also attaches priority to skill improvement and personality development of rural youths, particularly those from the project-displaced families. Personality development trainings have already been imparted to about 100 youths of Bhadrak district.
Initiatives in Healthcare
Since good health of a family depends mostly on women members, particularly the mother, DPCL has taken the responsibility to educate them on better hygiene, nutrition, food and the importance and benefits of cleanliness in kitchen, living rooms and bathrooms. As a measure in that direction, two training sessions were organised in the month of April and May 2010, each attended by 15 women from the displaced families.
Environment Initiatives
Eco Club - To spread awareness on environment protection and plantation, an Eco Club has been formed comprising ten students of Dosinga High School in the Dhamra Port project periphery. The student members of this club planted twenty saplings of different varieties inside their school campus and subsequently, they were given the responsibility of planting at least five saplings each every month in different parts of their village. Taking the process forward, about ten more ‘Green Clubs’ are planned to be formed in the periphery schools in the near future.
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