~ Third in series of regional meets to catalyse dialogue kicks off ~

The third regional meet of Samvaad 2018 kicked off in Udaipur, Rajasthan today. The Samvaad 2018 regional meets, organised by Tata Steel’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team, support the rich and incalculable heritage of India’s tribal communities by providing a platform to share ideas and perspectives over two-day events focused on this year’s theme -- ‘Coming Together for Social Change’.

The meet at Udaipur focuses on deconstructing concerns and identifying solutions across a range of subjects including access to education, prevalent health concerns and forest-based livelihoods. Underscoring these discussions is the awareness and profundity of our tribal communities.

The third regional dialogue of Samvaad in Udaipur is being organised in collaboration with the Centre for microFinance, Astha Sansthan, Aajeevika Bureau and Tata Trusts. The event has brought together 139 people belonging to 19 tribes from 21 districts of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Mr Sourav Roy, Chief, CSR, Tata Steel, said: “Samvaad, Tata Steel’s foremost outreach programme to understand and support tribal communities, is now in its fifth year. After the tremendous participation at our recent events in East and South India, the response from the tribal communities at this event in Udaipur underscores the importance of Samvaad. Tata Steel has been working ahead of the curve to engage with indigenous peoples and support and encourage their way of life.”   

Earlier this month, the first two regional dialogues were held in Odisha (Gajapati) and Tamil Nadu (Madurai) that reached out to 285 participants from 66 tribes in the Eastern and Southern states of the country.

The regional Samvaad meets are a series of six community-sourced dialogues among tribal communities, culminating in the main conclave from November 15-19, 2018 at Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. The remaining regional Samvaad meets for this year are planned in Nagaland, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. 

About Samvaad:
‘Samvaad’ is a platform for the tribes to exchange ideas, thoughts and share their concerns. It encourages tribal communities to take the lead in initiating discourse on issues that govern their social sustenance and development.

Samvaad is now fast growing as an eco-system where tribal thoughts and voices manifest in various forms – be it a discourse, a work of research, music, food and cuisine collaboration or even documentaries.

The concept of regional Samvaad was initiated in 2016 with the objective of reaching out to more tribal communities in the hinterland and factor unheard voices therein. Since its inception, Samvaad has witnessed a flurry of discussions and activities under identified themes including Preservation, Protection and Promotion of Tribal languages (2015), Tribal Health Systems (2016) and 'Aspirations of Tribal Youth & Leadership for Future' (2017).

About Tata Steel                  
Tata Steel Group is among the top global steel companies with an annual crude steel capacity of 27.5 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) as on March 31, 2018. It is one of the world's most geographically-diversified steel producers, with operations in 26 countries and a commercial presence in over 50 countries. The Group recorded a consolidated turnover of US $20.41 billion (INR 133,016 crore) in FY18. Tata Steel Group is spread across five continents with an employee base of over 65,000. Tata Steel retained Industry Leader position in FY18 and ranked second overall in the DJSI assessment, 2017. The Company has been recognised as the Climate Disclosure Leader in ‘Steel category’ by CDP (2017). Besides being a member of the World Steel Climate Action Programme, Tata Steel was felicitated with several awards including the Prime Minister’s Trophy for the best performing integrated steel plant for 2014-15 and 2015-16, Best Risk Management by CNBC TV18 (2018) and ‘Corporate Strategy Award’ by Mint (2018). The Company also received the ‘Most Ethical Company’ award from Ethisphere Institute for the sixth time (2018), Steel Sustainability Champions (2017) by the World Steel Association, Dun & Bradstreet Corporate Awards (2017 & 2018), Golden Peacock HR Excellence Award by Institute of Directors (2017) as well as 'Asia's Best Integrated Report' award by the Asia Sustainability Reporting Awards (2017), among several others.

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