CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY(CSR)
At Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, we firmly believe that the success of our business lies in its positive
impact created on the society. With this belief, we ensure a strong corporate culture, emphasising the
integration of CSR values with business objectives.
We stand by our motto, 'Build a Better Life'.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES
- COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES
- DISASTER RELIEF ACTIVITIES
- COVID PREVENTION AND RELIEF PROGRAMS
- PROJECT SWACHH NEIGHBORHOOD
Community development initiatives
Serving the unserved and the underserved of the country has always been at the heart of everything we do at Ujjivan Small Finance Bank. With Community Development being a key focus area and a vital part of our CSR initiatives, we specialise in Infrastructure Development and Aid programs. Under these initiatives, we have prioritized key areas, such as Education, Healthcare, Preventive Healthcare, Health Awareness, Sanitation, providing safe drinking water facilities etc. along with feeding the needy among others.
Please find below some of the projects we have done under community development initiatives:
Chotte Kadam projects
At Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, we always aim to create a positive impact on the society. Our Promoter, Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd. started the Community Development Program, Chotte Kadam back in 2017 with an objective to give back something meaningful to the communities, based on their needs.
Through Chotte Kadam, our aim is to serve unmet community needs of the unserved and underserved. This community development program focuses on delivering projects that are selected and then executed on the basis of requirements and decisions of the community. We give attention to broad categories of public infrastructure facilities (bus stops, drinking water facility, street lighting), education (upgrading schools), healthcare (improving health centers) and environment (renovating parks and public areas).
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank has a strategic partnership with Parinaam Foundation to carry out social welfare efforts. The bank volunteers worked along with Parinaam Foundation for a better and well-built India. Having successfully concluded 24 projects (and with 100 projects in the pipeline) in 12 states which has benefited over 4,76,700 individuals, Chotte Kadam is a movement that endeavors to make lives better, every day, in every way.
Healthcare infrastructure for CMC Vellore
Lack of timely medical care and quality facilities have always been a prime concern to the country, especially during the pandemic. As part of our healthcare initiatives, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank partnered with CMC Vellore, and provided 4 ICU units to their facility, especially designed to cater to a large number of COVID-19 affected patients. The units have been procured and have become operational, slated to impact about 500 lives a year.
Food aid program through Calcutta Social Project
At Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, we understand that building a better life becomes possible when our most basic needs are met. To further that Ujjivan Small Finance Bank partnered with the Calcutta Social Project, an NGO working in the slums of Kolkata. The partnership is intended to help more than 1200 people from the weaker communities of Kolkata through dry ration support for a duration of 3 months. Through CSP, we have also supported the online education program for underprivileged children and vocational training for the Girls Craft Centre run by the Calcutta Social Project.
Reaching out to rural children through e-Vidyaloka
While the world is going digital, the benefactors have mostly been the privileged, with the unserved and the underserved of the society left in the lurch. Taking this into cognizance, we at Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, partnered with – e-Vidyaloka, where we were able to enable access to quality education to the unserved by using digital technology. 420 video modules have been created for mobile app and broadcast as of 31st March 2021. e-Vidyaloka has also enrolled 3 NGO partners in Tiruvannamalai district of TN, reaching out to 35 children who are now availing the benefit of these classes.
The classes in Tamil have also been broadcasted on television through local cable networks reaching a massive 5.01 lakhs viewership. In Karnataka, 1 NGO partner has been enrolled to cover Dharwad, Bagalkot, Gadag and Belgaum districts, with 58 children benefitting from these classes directly. The classes in Kannada were also broadcasted through local cable networks reaching over 3.09 lakh viewers.
Cheshire Disability Trust
We at Ujjivan Small Finance Bank, firmly believe that everyone has the right to ‘Build a Better Life’, regardless of one’s ability. By partnering with – Cheshire Disability Trust, we drove this philosophy forward by supporting the Livelihood Enhancement Program to persons with disabilities. The participants would be trained on computer skills and other soft skills to make them more job-ready.
Food aid for inmates of Sumanahalli Society
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank has also supported the efforts taken to ensure timely nutritious food supply to 75 inmates of the Sumanahalli Society affected with Leprosy for a duration of 6 months starting from February 2021.
Health awareness through St. John’s Hospital
Dispensing accurate and timely information can make a world of difference, especially during the pandemic. To ensure that health-related education reaches out to over a 1000 people arriving daily at the St. John’s hospital, we supported the hospital in the procurement of 5 unique digital information kiosks designed to display health-related information throughout the day.
Disaster Relief Activities
When a natural calamity occurs, people in that region become helpless, lose their belongings, and suffer terribly. In 2019, one such unfortunate calamity occurred, where an exceeding amount of rainfall caused floods in many parts of India and ruined people’s lives. To help our fellow countrymen, the Ujjivan leadership team and the branches stepped into the field.
COVID Prevention and Relief Programs
The Covid-19 pandemic has upended the world, disrupting the health and economy making things worse for those struggling to make ends meet. However, the primary threat was to people’s health. Ujjivan Small Finance Bank partnered with the non-profit organization – Give India Foundation to supply 5500 PPE kits to hospitals in Mumbai, to support doctors, nurses and hospital support staff members in addressing the issues faced by the end beneficiaries across India.
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank contributed Rs.10 lakhs under its CSR program, and the direct cash transfer helped 200 visually challenged families. Through this aid, families were able to arrange their daily needs such as food, medicine and other essentials.
Further to our efforts in extending better healthcare, Ujjivan Small Finance Bank has directly carried out support activities across 19 states in the country. We mobilized the regional executive committees of the bank to execute COVID-19 relief activities through the branch network. Through this network, we supported the front-line workers from healthcare, the police, municipality/panchayat workers, including bus drivers. Various relief material was distributed to the unserved and underserved public, such as PPE kits, dry rations, masks, gloves, sanitizers, sprayers, spraying vehicles, etc. The result was tremendous, impacting over 8,39,500 lives.
As part of the COVID-19 Education Initiative, over 3,57,000 people, including customers were trained on basic protocols to prevent the spread of COVID-19, with a host of benefits made available to them. The program also saw over 2,60,000 masks distributed and resulted in the enabling of 55,000 Arogya Setu App downloads.
Project Swachh Neighborhood
Ujjivan Small Finance Bank believes that charity begins at home. In adherence to our belief, we initiated our activities towards the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, where we took the initiative to clean our neighbourhoods.
The Project started as a cleanliness pilot campaign covering areas near our Koramangala branch in Bengaluru. The initiative was later scaled to many more locations during the FY19-20, actively involving employees and communities in The Swachh Neighbourhood project.
Our objective was to build a sustainable model by educating the local community members on maintaining a clean neighbourhood.
As the first step towards cleanliness, we identified the dirtiest streets and areas in the locality. After that, we cleared the debris, garbage dumping areas, and littering spots. To further ensure that these clean spots don’t turn into a sorry state again, we painted the walls. We went hand-in-hand with the local community and the municipal bodies to monitor the clean areas and assure that it doesn’t turn into a garbage dumping spot again.
In addition to that our bank's employees reached out to local schools and involved little children in our cleanliness campaign. Involving children in this social cause raised awareness in the little ones, and they realised the importance of maintaining a clean environment. Many schools supported the drive and even organised awareness marches with placards designed by their students.
[*Data points mentioned above are considered projects which were executed between April, 2019 to March, 2021]
