ITC Ltd has launched an in-house
campaign to create awareness about the company’s rural development initiatives.
In a 28-page booklet to employees with a
message from company chairman Y C Deveshwar, ITC outlined five critical areas of
intervention in rural development.
The areas are web-enablement of farmers to
access knowledge to enhance productivity, forestry to generate income in hinterlands,
watershed development to provide irrigation, empowerment of women as agents of social
change, and primary education to enhance employability.
Deveshwar says in the booklet, "The
inter-dependence between ITC’s agri-based business and the farm sector has provided
the company a sustainable platform to make an impactful contribution to rural India".
The booklet titled "Transforming lives
and landscapes," says the e-choupal network would be extended to over one lakh
villages and 10 million farmers in 15 states.
It would create a direct marketing channel,
eliminating intermediaries and reducing transaction cost.
The forestry campaign has planted 35
million saplings and will plant 600 million in the next 10 years over one lakh hectares of
wasteland.
Irrigation has been provided to 7,000
hectares in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, with 50,000 hectares to be covered in the next
10 years.
Women have been constituted into micro
credit groups. The target is to raise the number of groups to 2,000 with 50,000 members in
10 years from 400 groups and 9,000 members now.
Thousand supplementary learning centres and
an equal number of assisted schools would be set up, the booklet says.
