The communities around our plants are our key stakeholders. They are a key element of how we conduct business and the development of our medium and long-term plans and strategies at local, divisional and group level.
Our work with the communities is defined through a framework and is customised based on the nature of thebusiness cycle – from an R&R in green field projects to begin with to a more focused and encompassing approach in brown field projects. Our approach is two thronged – with an intensive intervention in select villages identified through indicator driven process designated as the Integrated Village Development Program and an extensive approach in the remaining villages that we work in.
Our CSR and site management teams assess local needs and prioritise them. We then design and roll out comprehensive and extensive development plans in partnership with the government, NGOs and the community into an integrated village development plan. Ongoing internal reviews and social audits every 2–3 years facilitate transferring autonomy to the villages and expanding our reach.
Our community policy, which is applied across all of our Group companies, is to:
be a significant contributor to addressing social needs within the communities in which we operate.
create partnerships for sustainability
strive to actively enter into dialogue and engagement with our stakeholders
strive to achieve and drive forward industry best practice in our social stewardship.
comply with all applicable legislative and statutory requirements.
be a responsible and good local neighbour
Three of our Group companies are signatories to the UN Global Compact (Hindustan Zinc, BALCO and MALCO).
PERFORMANCE
Our community performance indicators include:
stakeholder engagement and partnership for need identification and sustainable planning;
planned and result-oriented approach with base line study, monitoring and evaluation parameters impact measurement;
community development programmes (such as measures relating to our Integrated Village Development Programme);
social audits; and
development and training statistics.
Detailed information concerning our social performance will appear in our forthcoming Sustainable Development Report. Highlights include:
our reach: 383 villages and 2.5 million lives;
we have 70 villages (from 15 in 2006–7) involved in our Integrated Development Programme of which 32 have been audited by ORG India;
around 1,450,000 people were accessed by the health outreach projects in which we participated (around 1,000,000 in 2006–7);
our mobile medical health camps in Zambia have motivated more than one million people to bring about a positive change in their own health and their awareness of the health of others. In particular our door to door campaigns have increased awareness on HIV related and other infections;
55,350 students within our local communities have studied in the computer education programmes in which we participate;
we have successfully encouraged women’s empowerment within the local communities with the development of over 781 self help groups with 10,055 members and hold a cumulative savings base of 17.4 million rupees. (Up from 550 in 2006–7);
our Biogas projects (collection of manure to generate bio-fuels) have provided a valuable source of energy in our local communities, improved local sanitation, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and encouraged community cohesion and village development. This year BALCO has constructed 90 Biogas plants in partnership with Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Authority (CREDA);
we now partner with 72 NGOs (up from 48 in 2006–7) to jointly participate in a variety of local community projects; and
93 full time personnel and 624 cluster champions and volunteers.
