Our Projects
Lighting up villages
We have come a long way from long power cuts to providing electricity to every household in the country. However, in a large proportion of villages in India, community-level lighting is still inadequate.
Realising this problem existed in large parts of the country, we have often advised our clients to set up solar street lights in villages as it’s a low-maintenance, high-impact project.
An extensive need assessment study is required in such projects along with close monitoring of the project. It’s often the case that in India, at any given point, elections are being held somewhere and the Election Commission of India has put the model code of conduct in effect which means contractors cannot install the lights during that time. Apart from these challenges, it must be kept in mind that theft of these lights used to be a common issue earlier; but now we have made households take responsibility of the lights in front of their house.
Social Footprint, in collaboration with its corporate donors and implementing agencies, has installed more than 1500 solar street lights across 75+ villages in the country.
Village-level tuition centres
Working closely with a large financial house and an expert implementing agency, we launched 100 tuition centres at the village level to bridge the gap between the haves and have nots. While the urban rich have always had access to after-school tuition centres, the underprivileged children in villages did not have that facility.
We wanted to bring education closer to them, at a time convenient for them. We wanted to use innovative learning material to enhance their learning outcomes. The tutors, college-going students, were trained regularly at various TOT programs (Training of Trainers). Our implementing agency also introduced “good touch and bad touch” training for the trainers so they can create awareness on child sexual abuse at the village level.
We achieved great results at the end of two years. The project was closely monitored and learning levels were measured every quarter. Most importantly, project was made sustainable because after two years of tuition centres’ success, from third year onwards the parents were willing to give fees to the local tutors. Earlier, their monthly salary was supported by the corporate partner; and if the local tutor was about to get married and move to another village, she would train another tutor from the village and ensure that the centre keeps running!
School infrastructure
Dual desks, toilets, compound walls, digital library
When we took a CSR manager with us on a field visit to a government school in one of the southern states of India; he was shocked that even today, children in class 9 were sitting on the ground and studying. There were no desks in the classrooms and both boys and girls were sitting on floors and studying for long hours. He immediately decided to sponsor dual desks for all the high schools in the region, as per their requirements. This project served two purposes – students were able to sit comfortably and study and the inmates at nearby prison manufactured the dual desks and received compensation for the same!
Lack of infrastructure remains a large problem in govt schools in India. In every single visit of mine to a govt school, the Headmaster has requested for either dual desks, tables for teachers, toilets or compound walls. And with CSR funds, we have been able to arrange all these items. However, there is a huge requirement and immense scope for work to be done in this area.
We have also worked closely with partners that enable digital libraries and edtech at school so students can take up extra classes during their spare time and get accustomed to technology and computers. Often, most of them don’t have access to any technology apart from their parents’ mobile phones.
Though we have raised crores of rupees and provided more than thousands desks, hundreds of toilets, many compound walls to hundreds of schools, there is no end to the list of items required.
Healthcare –
Diagnostic devices
The Social Footprint team was approached by a young IAS officer who wanted to bring innovation to the healthcare space in his district. We had heard of and seen these small diagnostic cubes that provide quick diagnosis at 1/4th the market rates.
We quickly arranged a CSR partner for the project with whose support the project was launched and implemented in the district in a matter of 2 months. We appointed Lab Technicians, initially funded by the CSR partner, who later made the entire model sustainable by earning through the diagnosis tests. The CSR partner provided for the diagnostic machines, the first few batches of consumables and first few months’ remuneration of the lab technicians.
This project greatly benefitted rural men and women, whose villages were far away from the primary health centres (PHCs). During the need assessment phase, it was found that daily wage workers would not skip a day of wages to travel to PHCs and their problem would remain undiagnosed. These portable devices, carried around by lab technicians, made the entire testing process easy and convenient. Door-to-door campaigns were organised in villages with package tests. The rates were decided and monitored through the district health office.
Whenever we start planning a project, the first question we ask ourselves is whether the idea is sustainable or not. Because no CSR partner will continue funding the project indefinitely and they will have to divert their funds at some point. Therefore, sustainability is the most important factor. Here, we empowered the lab technicians to carry forward the project themselves.
In fact, it was such a success that after few months, the young IAS officer who had approached us, decided to test entire district’s children for anaemia. He purchased additional devices and employed 20 more lab technicians for screening of entire student population!
Career guidance for class 10 students
If you ask any rural youth about their ambitions or what they would like to become when they grow up, there would be 3 standard answers – Collector, Police or Doctor/Engineer.
One of our CSR partners found this highly troubling - the lack of awareness around different career options that are available to today’s youth. For instance, an office accountant or a hotel executive. We also noticed that after class 10 or class 12, many students did not know the scholarship and hostel options available to them.
So in partnership with one of the experts in the career guidance space, we launched a drive where we distributed career guidance books to each 12,000 class 10 students in the region.
The next year, the teachers of these schools themselves contacted the District Education Officer (DEO) whether the books will be distributed again as students last year found it extremely useful. The District Magistrate was kind enough to sponsor the books from his discretionary funds in the subsequent years.
Animal Husbandry
Several regions in India are drought-prone and face constant distress migration to other cities or states. In such areas, even though a high percentage of population is involved in agriculture, it is not the most viable option and alternate sources of income are required.
Keeping this in mind, the Social Footprint team worked closely with a PSU-CSR partner and one of the biggest names in the animal husbandry space to launch a livestock intervention project, thereby improving productivity of local cattle and providing alternate source of income to the farmers. The combination of livestock and crops is quite prominent in rural India, holding an important place in socioeconomic and cultural life. However, the system has not been effectively utilised. If leveraged well, it can lead to rural self-employment and alleviation of poverty.
The multi-crore, multi-year project positively impacted lives of thousands of farmers in the region and was made sustainable through fees collection. Initially, there was apprehension and not many farmers would pay for such a service – artificial insemination (AI) and upgrading the cattle breed. However, as farmers saw the benefits of the services, they started paying for it, which also provided employment to the local youth, in charge of the AI centres.
Appliances for differently abled persons
Leveraging a central government scheme
This project was implemented before Social Footprint was set up, when our Founder Harshvardhan Sharma was working with Hon’ble Member of Parliament Mr. Jithender Reddy in Mahbubnagar, Telangana.
The team leveraged a unique government scheme under which aids and appliances were provided to all the different abled persons in the constituency of the MP. The appliances are procured and distributed by ALIMCO (Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India), a unit of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
The team first held assessment camps to identify all the different abled persons in the constituency. Given the traveling constraints, the camps were held in all the blocks at regular intervals so maximum beneficiaries can be identified.
Due to consistent efforts of all the concerned officials, almost 1500 beneficiaries were identified and aids and appliances worth approx. Rs 1 crore were to be distributed to them free of cost. In fact, Hon’ble Union Cabinet Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment, Mr Thaawarchand Gehlot himself visited Mahbubnagar for the distribution ceremony.
