Family Initiatives : Tribal & Harijan Welfare : CHIC : Rural Development : A Ray of Hope
Civic facilities in Jamshedpur get phenomenal ratings

Family Initiatives

The good work towards family initiatives has been continuing for wellover half a century now. Tata Steel embarked on an AIDS Awareness program late 1998. This program has now become an integral part of all training programs within Tata Steel. 450 programs were conducted which covered 37,000 persons from a cross section of society.

The integrated maternal child health and family welfare program of tata steel serves the heterogeneous employee/nonemployee community through 9 family welfare centres in the town, 9 child clinics in the peripheral and interior areas and 6 community based clinics. Routin activities comprise Mother and Child Health Care, Immunisation programs, performing sterlisation operations (male and female), etc.

Tribal & Harijan Welfare

The Steel Company's tribal and harijan welfare activities are carried out under the aegis of Tribal and Harijan Welfare Cell (T&HWC) by the Tribal Cultural Society (TCS). This effort is now in its silver jubilee year. A total of 52 villages and 4 bustees(urban Slums) are covered by the dedicated TCS team. The society undertakes programs on education, health, women's development, drinking water, culture and sports activities among the tribal and harijan communities.

Centre for Hearing Impaired Children (CHIC)

Of the non-profit centres assisted by Tata Steel, CHIC was founded by Mrs. Meher Vakeel in Bombay and was launched in Jamshedpur at the ENT Department of Tata Main Hospital in 1987. In 1990, Tata Steel sponsored the Jamshedpur branch of Educational Audiology and Research Society as it was called then. As for now, CHIC has a centrally air conditioned Audiology Unit, a state of the art Ear Mould Laboratory and a school building with sound treated classroom. The children who come here are both hearing and speech impaired, and sometimes as little as six months. According to the teachers the earlier this disability is detected, the sooner the children can pick up talking and hearing with the help of a hearing aid.

Rural Development

Starting with 32 villages in 1979, the Tata Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS) now reaches out to over 700 villages in the vicinity of the Company's diverse business operations in the States of Bihar and Orissa. The numerous programmes launched by the Society in the initial years have now been virtually "taken over" by the villagers as self sustaining schemes. This is as it was meant to be. TSRDS has made rapid progress in strengthening the socio-economic fabric of the rural community by adopting and designing programmes aimed to assist the poorest, and most underdeveloped and underprivileged regions of the country. The programmes, which teach villagers the benefits of multiple crop farming, water management, reforestation, and poultry and animal husbandry procedures, is breaking through rigid caste and social structures and establishing rapport between inhabitants of two and country. TSRDS is also helping communities to improve their quality of life by implementing a number of relevant programmes that they themselves are taught to run and manage. Educational, medical and sanitation services; family planning, drinking water, irrigation, agriculture, animal husbandry, adult literacy, afforestation, vocational training and the encouragement of rural industry, entrepreneurship and handicrafts, are, thus, thrust areas common to all the centres being run by the Society. TSRDS has been the recipient of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's (FICCI) award for outstanding acheivements in rural development in 1983, 1989 and 1997-98. It's special initiatives in 1997 were once again recognised when Hong Kong Foundation International award was conferred upon it by Rehabilitation Coordination India (RCI) for outstanding performance in the service of persons with multiple handicaps.

A recent and unique initiative taken by TSRDS, in collaboration with Impact India Foundation and Indian Railways, is the sponsorship of the Life Line Express (the world’s first hospital-on-rails). This has enabled it to reach out to some of the remotest and most inaccessible villages and provide them medical and health care facilities to treat ailments such as polio-deformities, cataract and other eye-related disorders, and hearing disabilities. Since the inception of this concept in the country, Tata Steel has supported five such projects - a record in the corporate sector.

TSRDS has also undertaken programmes for the promotion and preservation of rural arts and crafts and handicrafts. The Gram Shree Melas (organised by the Society annually in association with the Council for Advancement for People’s Action and Rural Technology) and other exhibitions organised by TSRDS, help to provide direct access to the market to skilled craftspersons and thereby eliminate the intermediaries, with their mark-ups.

A Ray of Hope

Project Uday is the result of collaboration between TSRDS (Tata Steel Rural Development Society) and Humana People To People India (affiliated to Humana to Humana Movement based in Zimbabwe). This project aims at consolidating the villages into various organisations of people and extending help to enhance their capabilities, which will affect their development in the long run.

The villages covered in the projects are about 60, majority belonging to the Jamshedpur cluster & the rest to Noamundi (captive iron ore mine) and West Bokaro (captive collieries). Project Uday aims at providing health &hygiene which includes immunization, eye care services, provision of safe drinking water, construction of low cost toilets, safe disposal of garbage etc.

Empowerment is basic to the success of the project, which seeks to achieve empowerment of women in the villages. Income generation being important feature of the project is being achieved by introduction of micro irrigation projects, establishment of cash crop demonstration plots, floriculture, poultry, got rearing units, etc.

Project Uday was launched on 9th November to target Saharbera village in Jharkhand. Here it aims to improve irrigation facilities and to accomplish this, the project is expected to irrigate 55 acres of cultivable land annually. This area being a monocrop area, depending completely on the monsoon does not support multiple cropping. This project aims at providing an opportunity to 34 households to increase their yearly income by Rs 10, 000 to 15,000 per family within a year of implementation of this project.

Civic facilities in Jamshedpur get phenomenal ratings

It is not without reason that the company's Town Division claims that it provides among the best civic facilities in the country. Recently a Customer Satisfaction Survey was conducted by ORG-MARG among those who utilise the civic facilities provided by Tata Steel. The Division got a phenomenal 4.1 points on a scale of 5 for two essential services, water and electricity. Out of a total of nine categories, the Town Division got a rating of 3.5 or more in eight categories. Residents of the companies housing areas gave the Division the highest overall ratings for these facilities, while those in encroached areas rated it the lowest.

The purpose of the research was to understand consumer perception regarding the quality of services provided and their level of satisfaction with these services. Nine services were selected, of which one- civil maintenance- was assessed within the company's housing areas.

To improve these facilities further the Managing Director, Dr Jamshed J Irani decided to accept some long standing demands of the residents and to go a step further and give them a special gift to remember year when the company had done exceedingly well. During the year, the Division took up several special projects in the town to improve the civic facilities. These included an RCC approach road to the railway station, construction of a new RCC road overbridge at Burmamines, repair of Kharkai Bridge and reconstruction of the footpaths, installation of high mast lighting for illuminating Kharkai Bridge, the development of Gandhi Maidan at Mango, an outer peripheral road and today the focus of everyone's attention, Jubilee Amusement Park. This special gift is a treat for the children of Jamshedpur especially since they to wait to experience the pleasure of a ride in an amusement park when they visited the metros. Now, there is no reason to wait. It is right here.

Sliding down 75 metres in seven seconds, whirling in the wind, dashing cars, rolling till the moon, boating on water, children dancing and jumping on castle, riding on derby, boarding the train, going round on a caterpillar - it is all there at the first amusement park of Jamshedpur and the state of Jharkhand, Jubilee Amusement Park.

The Park has been built M/s Nicco Jubilee Park Ltd, a joint venture between Tata Steel and associates and NICCO and Associates at a total cost of Rs 4 crores.

On June 2, 2001 the Amusement Park was inaugurated by the Managing Director Dr Jamshed J Irani, 33 days ahead of when it was expected to be completed. But in only 67 days one hundred and fifty tonnes of steel structurals were erected, land was levelled, concrete pathways were made, the office building, store, toilets blocks, food courts were constructed, the lake was dug, an overbridge was erected - all of it was done.

The park is open to public, who can at a cost of only Rs 50/- gain entrance and enjoy all the rides for free. The park has been designed so that it provides entertainment for all. It has a wonderful ambience, with a lot green around it, hillocks, a water body and an attractive food court It promises to make entertainment vastly different in the steel city.

As if to say that not only does it wish to make living in Jamshedpur more pleasurable but also coming into to the township a dream come true, Town Division laid out a RCC concrete road over a 1.1 kilometre stretch. Extending from Tatanagar Railway station to within the notified area of the township, the bituminous tar road was constructed by the company because of the tremendous difficulties faced by the commuters who have to frequently travel on this stretch, especially during the monsoons. Soon after the first downpour, the road on this stretch would break.

Ground breaking for the road was performed by the Managing Director Dr Jamshed J Irani on October 15, 2000. The road has been constructed with vacuum dewatering technology which gives high strength to the concrete surface and ensures longevity. The new RCC road has ensured better flow of traffic in a previously congested stretch.