Social infrastructure is indispensable for progress; L&T, as India’s leading builder of major infrastructure projects, is committed to promoting initiatives that enhances the quality of life of communities. This includes Water conservation and Distribution in water stressed locations, Providing sanitation facilities, Education and Health services, skill training and community empowerment with equity and inclusion.
Building India’s Social Infrastructure – Our Goals & Activities
Focusing on many social challenges in the communities, we propose to work towards the following outcomes from our Social Infrastructure programs, based on need assessment, commitment from the community and feasibility.
Water & Sanitation
Ensuring availability of safe drinking water and water for agriculture in water stressed locations across India; constructing and ensuring use of toilets; promoting sustainable agricultural practices livestock rearing practices and livelihood; enabling communities to navigate impact of Climate Change, ensuring nutritional food intake to prevent malnutrition and building capacities of communities for sustainability.
Education
Helping improve access to education by increased enrollment in pre-school, children attending neighborhood schools and community learning centres; facilitating a learning environment at school and homes of children by encouraging parents’ participation and involvement; improving quality of learning through better school infrastructure and capacity building of teachers for better teaching-learning processes; introducing and promoting use of technology and hands-on learning processes for preparing students with 21st century skills and promoting scientific rigour among students specifically in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
Health
Helping improve access to quality health care by expanding infrastructure of health centres and outreach services
Skill building
Through our Construction Skills Training Institutes (CSTI), Multi Skill Training Centre and Skill Training Academy. Building capacity of the Skill Ecosystem within the nation. Enhancing employability of youth through increased training capacity, improved infrastructure of skill development centres, as well as vocational training courses for facilitating their contribution to the economy.
We also work to build a collaborative eco-system comprising L&T, the community, our employees, their families, NGOs, government agencies, chambers of commerce and academic institutes to fulfil a larger social commitment.
Integrated Community Development Programme
L&T's Integrated Community Development Program (ICDP) was initiated in 2014-15 with the goal of enhancing water availability. The programme addresses water scarcity issues in water-stressed locations in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.
The ICDP is initiated with a need assessment of the area, and then proceeds with a structured approach. This entails rallying individuals around the issue, establishing committees for monitoring and village development, promoting awareness of water conservation, constructing infrastructure to facilitate soil and water preservation, ensuring community maintenance of these structures, facilitating sanitation initiatives with community involvement, promoting sustainable and climate-resilient agricultural practices, and empowering local communities with the skills to utilise resources responsibly.
Interventions include:
- Building Infrastructure for Water Conservation with community participation. Construction of structures such as check dams, anicuts, contour trenches, farm bunds, and farm ponds in addition to reviving defunct water holding structures and recharging defunct borewells. The participatory approach is effective in ensuring ownership and long-term sustainability of the interventions. As a result of the increased ground water table farmers are now able to grow two crops in a year.
- Capacity Building involving community training to facilitate optimum, equitable and efficient water use and implement other agricultural methods and technology to increase the yield. Farmers are trained in agricultural practices that require minimum use of water and in preparing low-cost organic manures to retain fertility of the land. Training also includes crop demonstration, organic farming, vermi-composting, seed bank and Horticulture Development.
- Promoting Sustainable and Climate Resilient Agriculture. Practices such as crop rotation, intercropping, mulching, and organic farming are promoted in the project area to help to improve soil fertility and moisture retention, while reducing the need for synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.
Farmers in the project area are adopting drip irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, or other efficient irrigation techniques to reduce water usage and increase crop yields. This is also helping reduce the risk of waterlogging and soil erosion. With the help of micro irrigation, farmers can now irrigate their crops efficiently and ensure that the saved water lasts for twelve months every year. As a result, the area under horticulture has increased, and farmers have started cultivating crops even in the summer months, which was not possible earlier without proper irrigation.
- Drinking Water and Sanitation in Schools. Lack of water and sanitation facilities often results in poor attendance in schools and eventually children dropping out. The initiative to provide clean drinking water was in response to inadequate water and sanitation facilities in schools around L&T Campuses and project sites. In addition to adequate Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) infrastructure in schools the programme also focuses on spreading hygiene awareness among students and providing training on keeping their school environment clean.
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