Corporate Social Responsibility

Projects Under Corporate Social Responsibilities

Lafarge worldwide gives prime importance to sustainable development for sustainable economic performance . Lafarge is committed to the communities where it operates . In India Lafarge has undertaken  a no. of initiatives under its corporate social responsibility programme . The major initiatives are Project Employability , Project Low Cost Housing , Project Education.

Project Employability

Project Employability focuses on creating sustainable livelihoods for local communities. The concept of the project is to build communities that are more skilled and capable of sustaining themselves independently by capitalizing on the company’s expertise, knowledge and competencies, rather than merely providing continued financial support. It directly provides solutions to the critical community problem of unemployment, through a method, which is “development” oriented and lays the foundation for long term success of the society. In brief, the objective is to equip the community members with skills and knowledge that make them employable.

In order to achieve a healthy growth rate in the Indian Construction sector of around 8% - 10% per annum, we need more skilled manpower. Most of the masons operating in the sector are unqualified and semi-skilled . These masons are often required to assume the roles of the architect, structural engineer as well as buyer of building materials. Homebuilders also have to put up with high construction costs and on-site wastage due to poor workmanship.

Project Employability provides professional training in masonry to the illiterate and unemployed youth in these communities making them employable.

Project Employability is a two month full-time certified training program implemented by Lafarge India in partnership with The Institute of Engineers, India (IEI), a reputed technical training center. The course consists of theory and practical sessions. The candidates are required to build a low-cost house upon completion of the program. Certificates of qualification are awarded after candidates successfully clear an evaluation process based on a grading system. In the current year we trained 124 students across 3 plant locations and all of them have found stable employment with large builders and contractors.

Project Low Cost Housing

The objective of Low Cost Housing is to promote and enhance the use of cement in houses in order to provide safe and comfortable habitats. Since a large part of India (70%) lives in rural areas, the project is largely geared to meet rural housing needs.
 
The current use of cement in the rural population is abysmally low. An overwhelming majority of rural homes are "kaccha" in nature and are built of mud, thatch, bamboo etc. The Indian census 2001 has revealed that less than 12% of roofs and 22% of floors in the rural areas are made of cement/ concrete.
 
Project Low Cost housing, which we initiated during 2004 incorporating modern technology, has become our priority area. The goal of the project is to design safe houses, which are replete with basic amenities and provide a platform for its replication across geographies.

Project Education

Lafarge at present is conducting Computer Education classes, free of cost, for over 1500 girl children in about 10 middle schools in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.  Lafarge also has plans to broaden the scope and escalate the activities of Project Education further under the aegis of Nidhee (Trust) by entering into partnership with other leading NGOs having the right kind of expertise and resource.