Bhubaneswar/ Kalinga Voice : The PPP (Public-Private-Partnership) mode has taken on an altogether new dimension in Hirakud in Sambalpur District, especially at a time when healthcare is on top of the government’s policy checklist. Hindalco, the flagship of the Aditya Birla Group, in partnership with the Govt. Hirakud Hospital Sambalpur has taken a number of immunisation initiatives to ensure better and more meaningful lives for locals. Till date, this combined initiative has benefitted around 14,000 people of adjacent 12 villages of Hirakud.
Besides, this partnership with the Hirakud hospital, has been very successful for conducting family planning operation camps and cataract surgeries for senior citizens in Hirakud and adjoining areas of the Sambalpur district. The programme thus far has seen close to 150 vision care camps and over 300 health camps at the Hirakud Hospital during the past 3 years. At health camps the need for looking at children not merely as bundles of joy but also a responsibility to raise them, ensure their health and education. Several couples gained from the insights given on how to plan families.
The joint initiative of immunization has benefitted each and every child of the area. Every Friday, babies are administered immunisation in the immunisation cell attached to the company’s Community Health Centre (CHC). The basic idea behind all this is simple: A healthy baby is a precursor to a healthy society. And Hindalco swears by this truism.
A case in point is Puspa Bag, the mother to a baby girl, all of 9 months, from Silipathar in Hirakud. She doesn’t now have to travel to the nearest medical Centre for her daughter’s vaccination. In other words, healthcare comes to her doorstep – and the whole process is done from the comfort of her home!
Speaking on this, Dr Manoj Nanda, Medical Officer, Government Hospital, Hirakud, says “I acknowledge the gesture of Hindalco for providing conveyance facilities for the immunisation team. This has enabled them to provide their services to the poorest in interior parts and slums smoothly.”
“Earlier, the team found it very hard to reach the rural centres as there was no organised transport to these places and they used to wait for long to get there and return from these centres. But after the intervention of Hindalco, things have become smooth,” adds Dr Nanda.
In a sense, the programme has proved to be a boon for local villagers. Rajesh Gupta, the Head of Hindalco Hirakud Cluster, gives some context: “As people in and around our area of operations are either farm workers or daily wage labourers, they face difficulty in getting their babies for immunisation because of conveyance issues as well as the fear of loss of wage. Concerned about this, we in association with the government hospital have made arrangements of taking the immunisation staff, along with medicines, to 12 different villages and slums every Wednesday for administering immunisation to the babies.” He adds: “We cover more than 250 left out babies every month through mobile immunisation programmes.”
As a responsible corporate citizen and driven by the constant motivation to give it back to society, in Odisha, the Aditya Birla Group reaches out to more than 5 lacs people touching more than 2 lacs people’s lives in the 128 villages of five districts. The Group’s CSR programmes are being driven by Mrs Rajashree Birla, Chairperson, Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development whose vision is to actively contribute to the social and economic development of the communities in which we operate. In doing so, build a better, sustainable way of life for the weaker sections of society and raise the country’s human development index”
