MORE POWER

TO THE PEOPLE
W
hen the National Capital Region opted to privatise
power distribution, many didn’t know that in addition
to quality power, the lives of the less privileged would
be made much brighter. The unbundling of the erstwhile Delhi
Vidyut Board (DVB), led to the birth of Tata Power Delhi
Distribution Ltd Tata Power- DDL in July 2002, a joint venture
between Tata Power and the Government of the National Capital
Territory (NCT) of Delhi with the majority stake being held by
Tata Power Company. In line with the Tata Group’s mission - to
improve the quality of the life of communities around its business
through long-term stakeholder value creation -Tata Power-DDL
has been working in JJ (jhuggi jhopadi) clusters and resettlement
colonies, which are home to over one million people, in its power
distribution areas of north and north-west Delhi.
 Power Moves
E xplaining the Company’s philosophy on corporate social responsibility, Praveer
Sinha, CEO and Managing Director, TATA Power-DDL, says that the programmes
for the betterment of society are called Social Innovation Programmes (SIPs). “In line
with the ethos of Tata Group, we are very passionate about giving back to the society.
Ours is a unique case, as we have chosen to look into the welfare of that underprivileged
faction of society who also happen to be our consumers.” These community development
and welfare initiatives fall under our umbrella CSR programme named Saathi, run by
TATA Power-DDL for the education, employability, entrepreneurship, health services,
environment and empowerment of the marginalised societal sections and communities
in distress are aimed at bringing about a transformation in the lives of the people –
giving them a platform through which they can realise their dreams.

The Company has created an annual event, which serves as a festival for those
that have gained a better opportunity to go about their livelihood through their newly
acquired skill sets. In February 2016, over 2,000 women beneficiaries participated in
the Sangam–NGO Meet, the theme of which was ‘Empowering Women - To Build the
Nation.’ Here, the best women literacy centre (WLC) with the best brand ambassadors
and women associated with ‘Earn While Learn’ initiative were honoured with gifts
and tokens of acknowledgment for the great work done by them towards community
development under the various CSR initiatives run by TATA Power-DDL. All the 20
partnering NGOs were felicitated as well.

Language of Literacy: TATA Power-DDL’s Women Literacy programme named Unnati

has helped around 50,000 women so far and touches nearly 17,000 women annually.
About 292 Self Help Groups were formed at these centres during the financial year
2015-16 to address the issue of unemployment and infuse a spirit of entrepreneurship
development in women. Dileep Kumar, General Manager, CSR, TATA Power-DDL
recounts that it all started in 2005, when the CSR department was established. “I remember
we had called for a reputed third party to conduct a need assessment survey to discover the
real social issues that could bring about a qualitative change in the lives of our consumer
base, especially the unprivileged and economically weaker sections (EWS). We noticed
that women in the EWS strata were hardly given any respect. Through our consistent
women literacy initiatives, many women learnt basic arithmetic, elementary reading and
TATA Power-DDL’s
writing skills and above all gained the confidence to be employable,” says Kumar.
Women’s Literacy
Programme has helped
around 50,000 women so Vocational Courses: TATA Power-DDL’s 14th vocational training centre in Timarpur,
far and touches nearly Delhi is being run in partnership with PHD Family Welfare Foundation and its
17,000 women annually knowledge partner Nanak. The centre that imparts training to nearly 240 beneficiaries

94 JL LAKSHMI CEMENT TATA POWER-DDL 123

 runs advanced computer courses and beautician courses for the youth allowing them to
learn and generate employment for themselves. Centres at other locations offer courses
like tally, stitching and tailoring, office assistant courses, electrician training, hospital
assistant and retail chain courses to women and children. Till date these centres have
benefitted over 10,000 people. Realising that those with special needs also want to be
part of the nation’s growth story, the Company opened the SHAD Learning Centre
to extend a helping hand to the development of differently-abled children. Run in
association with the Bansuri Charitable Trust in Rohini, the training centre not only
provides them special teaching to improve their daily life skills but also provides
customised teaching through certified medical practitioners.

Other Initiatives
Any Time Water: In another innovative initiative aimed at creating self-employment in
a collaborative manner, TATA Power-DDL started the first Any Time water RO Plant
at a Delhi government school in Shalimar Bagh. The first RO plant in association with
the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Limited (DMRC) was installed at Kashmiri Gate
Metro station. The RO plant that has a capacity of 500 LPH (litres per hour) will cater
to thousands of commuters at the very nominal cost of rupee one per glass. The day-
to-day operations of the RO plant are managed by women of the Self Help Group who
have been trained by TATA Power-DDL. Going forward, the Company will install four
more RO plants at DMRC stations. TATA Power-DDL in association with the Delhi
Jal Board has also installed Any Time RO plants at 5 JJ clusters to provide access to
clean and safe drinking water to around 2 lakh JJ residents.

Going Green: Early in January 2016, the Company deployed many of its women
literacy centre brand ambassadors (Abha) - in Sanjay Basti, Keshavpuram, Basant Dada
Patil Nagar, Chuna Bhatti, Outram Lines, and other susceptible clusters – to educate
hundreds of JJ residents on electrical safety. Armed with proper training these women
are now also adept at spreading the word about the benefits of building solar panels on
roof tops. One of the many important contributions made by these brand ambassadors
has been their ability to convince people to stop stealing power. “We also arrange and
support the plantation of nearly 20,000 trees annually across various parts of north
Delhi. We conduct audits on the survival rate of our plantation drives. Building a
sustainable environment is of utmost priority to us. It’s crucial to teach young leaders An advanced beautician’s
of tomorrow the importance of energy efficiency and of a sustainable environment. We course in progress at
have been instrumental in introducing the concept of establishing Energy Clubs in 340 TATA Power-DDL’s
schools (260 government and 80 private schools), under our Club Enerji programme vocational training centre
where information regarding energy conservation, climate change and the need to in Timarpur, Delhi
reduce one’s carbon footprint is shared with the children,” says Sinha n

124 TATA POWER-DDL TATA POWER-DDL 125

INTERVIEW
Praveer Sinha
CEO and Managing Director, TATA Power-DDL

What is your CSR philosophy?

In line with the ethos of Tata Group, we are
passionate about giving back to society. We
have successfully implemented our Social
Innovation Programmes in over 220 JJ colonies,
covering nearly one million people in north
Delhi. We are committed to extending our reach
further by the end of 2016 to cover at least 300
such clusters and facilitate the transform- ation
of many more lives the way we touched upon Young aspirants practicing on computers in TATA Power-DDL’s Timarpur vocational training centre
close to 3.5 lakh individuals in FY 2015-16.

What are your chief focus areas?

Empowering women is one of our chief focus
areas, because they then encourage their
children to study and their husbands to become
more frugal in addition to earning additional
resources for the family themselves. Our
women literacy and vocational training centres
impart skill training with courses in tailoring,
beauty, computers, personality development and
retail apart from remedial tutorial classes for
their school going children. We provide support
and guidance to nearly 3,000 students per year
exclusively from scheduled castes and tribes by
providing them books, stationery, scholarships,
tutorial classes and guidance for employment.
How do you sustain these programmes?
The thrust on programmes aimed at social
upliftment should never lose focus. There is
no point doing CSR unless one puts his/her
soul into those initiatives. At the moment
we have earmarked ` 8 crore annually as our
CSR budget.
Eye Witness
Vocational Training: One room in TATA Power-DDL’s Timarpur vocational centre was
full of young aspirants who had submitted their files post completion of the certificate
course and were practicing in pairs on over a dozen computers. Many said that they were
on their way to becoming financially independent. A live hair-dressing session was being
held in another room which was attended by about 20-25 girls, who had also completed
their six-month training. Explaining her reasons for joining the beautician’s course,
Preeti Sharma said, “There are various types of beauty products, styles and consumer
demands that is why the training at the TATA Power-DDL vocational training centre
will help me. The faculty here is very helpful. They have taught us creative concepts and
educated us on the use of genuine and safe cosmetics.”
Women Literacy: The atmosphere in a women literacy centre in a JJ cluster was electric.
A new batch of about 20 women in the age group of 14-65 were glued to a computer
system. They were being taught basic arithmetic. We heard an interesting anecdote where
a senior citizen was motivated to study in the women literacy centre, as her daughter-
in-law refused to read the old lady’s holy text to her. Maya Devi, a middle-aged woman,
shared that the women literacy centre had helped her to operate a mobile phone and also
withdraw her monthly pension from an ATM. An excited Bhuran Devi, the oldest amongst
the women in the session, scribbled her name on a paper. “To be able to grasp the alphabet
in one’s old age takes patience and courage, especially for women in the economically
weaker sections of society,” explained Swastikha Upadhayay, Manager, WLC.

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