UltraTech Cement Limited’s Maihar Cement Works has helped upskill 110 local youth including men and women from low-income families in the areas of tailoring, beauty services, electrical and electronic, and diesel engine and tractor repairing.
The upskilling of local communities is aligned with UltraTech’s purpose of supporting and providing sustainable livelihoods through its various Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. ‘Project Swavlamban’, a CSR initiative at its integrated unit Maihar Cement Works plant in Madhya Pradesh, aims at helping local youth to be self-reliant. As part of the project, a Vocational Training Centre (VTC) has been set up by the unit which became operational in 2021 offering professional training in various areas.
Thirty-eight-year-old Pinkey Sen’s husband was the sole earning member. Pinkey got to know about the employment opportunities from the training provide at VTC and enrolled herself into the stitching course. Speaking about her journey, Pinkey says, “the training received at Maihar Cement Works’ VTC provided moral support and gave a new direction to my life that has boosted my confidence and self-esteem.”
Twenty-three -year-old Pawan Singh Markam, from Amgar village at Bhadanpur South, situated in the proximity of the unit’s mines who became an electrician, skilled in repairing of televisions, fans, coolers, and other electrical appliances for an expanding clientele in his own village expresses gratitude for the training and says, “This training changed my life. I was given the opportunity to learn a technical skill and find out work right within my own village.”