Rajasthan (18), Odisha (35), Chattisgarh (10) and Tamil Nadu (12) – 2500 rural deprived children to benefit…

Vedanta has a clear focus towards the care for the underprivileged children in India, the education should reach in deep rural areas. The company has been engaged in promoting various programs for the underprivileged children. In the same focus, Vedanta launched its child care awareness campaign, “Khushi”, in 2012, which has the objective to spread the message towards care for the underprivileged children, their education, nutrition and health, and give them a life of dignity. With more than 35,000 members on facebook, this project of Vedanta has now moved ahead and adopted 75 child care centres in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Chattisgarh. The campaign uploads success stories on the blog which is touching about 500,000 page views. The campaign connects people of similar minds and thoughts.

“The Khushi – Vedanta Child Care Centres” are located in deep rural areas and the intervention by Khushi project of Vedanta will bring awareness and motivate about 2500 rural children. The children are less and are not exposed to schools. Motivating these children to come to Khushi – Vedanta Child Care Centre will take a lot of efforts. Khushi has currently adopted 12 child care centres in Tamil Nadu, 18 centres in Rajasthan, 10 centres in Chattisgarh and 35 centres in Odisha”, said Pavan Kaushik, Head of Corporate Communication, Vedanta Group.

The children are below 6 years of age and would be provided nutrition, regular health check-up and will be taught through play-way method. These centres will also become a place for common immunization and knowledge sharing on health, nutrition and education issues.

“These children need to be exposed to colourful books, colourful posters, toys, cleanliness in terms of sanitation & hygiene, besides finally upgrading them to join formal schools”, says Pavan Kaushik.

The world largest child population lives in India and it is also true that nearly one third of the malnourished child population also lives in India. The country also accounts for largest child deaths and school dropouts. The condition of girls is even worse. Taking cognizance of the issue, Government of India has sanctioned Rs. 129,000 crore in the current plan to be spent under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) within 3 years.

“Khushi” will also focus on enrolling as many girl children in the centres. “Khushi” is looking to have a minimum 50% girl child in each Centre and will ensure they are attended on priority. Each centre is expected to enroll about 30 children and right from the weight measurement, the height, an overall growth chart will be prepared of each child. The Centre would also keep their parents involved so that within the process they also learn the importance of education, health and nutrition in family.

These child care centres have been named as “Khushi – Vedanta Child Care Centres” and the community relations executives of the company are working door to door in villages for sending the children in the centres.

Recently, Vedanta’s “Khushi” has joined hands with NDTV and Priyanka Chopra for a campaign “Our Girls Our Pride” that has focus towards girl children in India. This event has also ensured education for about 2200 girl children. Vedanta has also adopted about 150 schools in Rajasthan to improve their infrastructure, provide teaching aids and other equipments. The company has already provided computers in schools and also associated with about 5,000 Anganwadi Centres in Rajasthan, Odisha, and Chattisgarh.