Schaeffler India expands rural CSR in Savli with boys hostel built for Rs. 3 crore

In line with its commitment to support community development, Schaeffler India, a leading industrial and automotive supplier, held an inaugural ceremony of the newly constructed Boys Hostel for Lok Vidyalaya school in Lamdapura village near Savli.

The objective behind this CSR initiative, which is fully funded by the company is to provide much safer and healthier educational environment to the underprivileged boys and to expand their overall educational opportunities. This is in line with their flagship CSR initiative ‘HOPE’ and its vision of building a nation that is self-sustaining and prosperous by creating a pool of equal opportunities for the young children.

The Lok Vidyalaya School is a residential Grant-in-Aid Tribal Secondary School located in the village of Lamdapura in Savli, Gujarat, which was adopted by Schaeffler India back in 2016. Under the HOPE CSR programme, the company provides complete infrastructure and educational support to the school to encourage differently-abled & lesser-privileged students in the rural villages to pursue education and fulfill their dreams.

More than 93% of the students of Lok Vidyalaya School belong to marginalized communities (SC/ST/OBC) with nearly 40% of the students being girls. As a result of the company’s continuous efforts towards providing holistic education for all, the corporation has been investing in improving the school facilities, including the construction of a state-of-the-art girl’s hostel at the school premises.

Since the involvement of Schaeffler India, the effect on student enrollment has really inspired the student retention ratio to increase to 90% with a male-female ratio of 60:40. In fact, before the boys hostel Schaeffler India had previously built a girls’ hostel. The CSR project also recently received the ‘Diamond’ awards – the highest award for “Par Excellence Performance” at the Third HR / CSR Virtual Convention 2020-21 organized by the Vadodara chapter of the Quality Circle Movement in India (QCFI).

The inaugural function took place at Lok Vidyalaya School and was inaugurated by Harsha Kadam, CEO and President, Industrial Business and Santanu Ghoshal, Vice President – Human Resources & Head – CSR. The Lok Vidyalaya school was adopted by the company a few years ago and the newly built Boys’ Hostel can accommodate approximately 156 students.

The facility is built providing facilities that are at par with any modern urban schools. The hostel facility includes bunk beds for students with individual storage cupboards, a common dining hall, well-equipped kitchen and store rooms and proper common toilet facilities on each floor.

Sharing his thoughts on the same, Santanu Ghoshal, Vice President – Human Resources & Head – CSR, Schaeffler India added, “Along with our business operations in the region, we deeply believe in contributing and making a positive impact in the societies around us in which we serve. These people of these villages have become like a second family to us at Schaeffler India. While we had already previously built a girls hostel at the Lok Vidyalaya school, it gives me immense satisfaction to inaugurate this new facility for the boys as well. We hope that this will bring about an even further improvement in the number of enrollments at the school.”

Disclaimer: This media release is auto-generated. The CSR Journal is not responsible for the content