Coimbatore : In line with its corporate citizenship commitment, Alstom, collaborated with United Way of Bengaluru (UWBe) – a FCRA registered non-profit organisation to kickstart ‘Rural Rising’– an integrated rural development program at Selakarachal Gram Panchayat, Sultanpet Block in Coimbatore, in January this year. The objective of this initiative is to improve the overall condition of the gram panchayat in line with the indicators defined by the Mission Antyodaya survey of the Government of India.

Alstom and United Way of Bengaluru team worked with the Government departments, the panchayat leaders, and the community to complete important development activities in education, environment, and sanitation.

Under this program, two Anganwadi Centres have been strengthened with new services, facilities, and infrastructure to make these centres safer and conducive for children. A government primary school has been supported with a newly constructed kitchen and a refurbished toilet. Over 200 Anganwadi children and 150 school students will benefit from this intervention. All the initiatives are aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and address 7 such goals directly.

In addition, a complete Community Sanitary Complex (community toilet) has been constructed with easy access for the differently abled citizens as well. This initiative will increase awareness around sanitation among the community and improve the health and hygiene situation of around 500 families in the area. The building will also be upgraded with solar systems in the coming year to make it environment-friendly and sustainable.

The handover event was graced by Kandasamy V.P. MLA, Sulur Constituency; Navamani, Block Development Officer; K. Kavitha, Project Director, District Rural Development Agency, Coimbatore District Panchayat; Sensei Muthuraju – BDO Regular; A. Subbulakshmi – BDO – GP; E. Francis Charles, Assistant Educational officer; K. Karuppasam, Cooperative President; V. Shanthi – Zonal Deputy BDO; S. Salma, Child Development Project Officer; P. Murugeshwari, District Programme Officer; E. Maragathavadivu Karuppasamy, Panchayat President; S Selvakumar, Site Managing Director at Alstom and Sriram Ananthanarayanan, Project Director at United Way of Bengaluru.

“At Alstom, through our CSR initiatives, we have been making consistent efforts to provide quality education, encourage hygienic practices and improve access to healthcare services for the underprivileged people, while creating a sustainable environment around areas of our operations. For this initiative we worked along with UWBe on the pain points and prioritized & synergized with Panchayat on next steps. We are devoted to supporting socio-economic development, enhancing community relationships while encouraging citizenship and engagement among Alstom employees’’ S Selvakumar, Site Managing Director at Alstom.

Earlier this year, a tractor was handed over to the local panchayat that helped improve effective solid waste management in the region, benefitting around 1000 families in 5 villages of the panchayat.

During the World Environment Day 2022, around 600 saplings were planted as a response to saving the environment with support from the forest department as well. The entire plantation was done by the volunteers from Alstom’s Coimbatore factory. The panchayat contributed by ensuring a complete drip irrigation system set up to maintain the saplings. To mark International Women’s Day, Health and Nutrition Kits were distributed to over 500 women in the community. This was a very colourful event with entertainment performances organized by the women in the community.

“United Way in partnership with Alstom embarked on this journey with a mission to demonstrate effective partnership with Government and panchayat in meeting the development needs of the community. The idea is to ensure that every activity is sustainable, and the community takes ownership of utilisation and maintenance. Thanks to all the officials and the panchayat leaders that we were able to complete these tasks and we see a great possibility for doing more in this area.”, said Sriram Ananthanarayanan, Director-Projects, UWBe.

In the 2nd year of the ‘Rural Rising’ initiative (2022-2023), the focus is to improve the quality of education in Anganwadi Centres & schools by providing necessary capacity-building trainings for the teachers and educational materials for the students. Making the panchayat energy efficient is also one of the key focus areas.