This article is part of the series that is highlighting the SABERA TROPHY awardees in various categories working arduously in the ESG domain. They have been selected by a robust and transparent 2 tier process by senior leaders representing a cross-section of industries constituting the Jury Board each year from 2018 to 2022. सबेरा SABERA is not tied to any one majority interest or funder, which allows it to set a truly independent Awards process. The majority of the funding comes from entry fees and sponsorship.
The first in the series we focus on S or Social which includes stakeholder engagement, gender diversity & inclusion, and overall social Impact. This is a list of the winners having a substantial positive impact on community development through livelihood, education, healthcare, inclusion, engaging with vendors and effectively managing effluence to name a few. Through their unique innovative strategy, these winners have managed to create a successful prototype that can be, if required, replicated and executed in the most ethical and transparent way across different parts of the country. The listing is in alphabetical order under the two subheadings listing the Businesses and the Non-Profits and includes all 3 toplines of under 40 Lakhs, under 5 crore, and above 5 crore topline.
Corporates, PSU’s & Social Enterprise
Atyati Technologies Private Limited 2020 winner enables the Delivery of financial services to customers in remote and rural areas that are difficult to service using a ‘digital-cum-physical assistance’ model through a partnership with individuals who operate as agents, operating from end locations. Atyati has served customers residing in around 50,000 villages spread over 26 states in the country.
Auspice Social Network OPC Private Limited – Auspice- Social Innovation for Food 2021 winner provides hands-on training and skill development to adults with autism. The training program ranges from three weeks to six months depending on individual needs and culminates with employment at Auspice Social. It is designed keeping in mind the limitation of Autistic individuals to focus on a task for not more than 30 mins to 2 hours, breakout times are assigned to address this issue in which the trainees can listen to music, play indoor games or do other recreational activities.
Avcom Infotech Private Limited winner of 2021 Promising Responsible Business is a pure women entrepreneurial venture providing opportunities for skill development & facilitating job placement for the underprivileged. It has been actively engaged with Mehar Chand Mahajan Vidyawati charitable trust to provide financial assistance to the widows in the BPL category. To date over 5000 girls have benefited from the vocational training programs at the various centers located in the village Kangra in Dharamshala.
Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (BALCO) winner of 2021 for their outreach in the Chhatisgarh community among others. Vedanta Skill School Imparts vocational skills to the rural youth linking them with employment opportunities; Project Unnati (Women’s Empowerment) works with SHGs engaging women from 29 villages and also impacting the Health of Water & Sanitation with Project Menstrual Health management. Finally, Project Arogya benefits the people by making primary healthcare services affordable and accessible.
Bhaktivedanta Hospital & Research Institute – A Sri Chaitanya Seva Trust winner of 2021 works on the philosophy of No Patient Goes Away without treatment. With a dedicated outreach through the pandemic, they have also developed the Ayurcoro-3 a clinically proven immunomodulatory kit to combat the infected patient’s symptoms.
Bosch Limited winner in 2020 has a CSR endeavor known as ‘Bosch India Social Engagement’that aims to make a difference in the communities in which Bosch operates. BRIDGE is one such program for underprivileged youth that imparts training, and development and helps with placement after completion of the program.
Bharat Petroleum Company Limited winner all through 2018- 2021 has a strategic alignment combined with continuous engagement with communities creating social value across Education, Water Conservation, Skill Development, Health & Hygiene through projects like Akshar providing education and health care to children through the project “Hospital on a train” reducing the burden of avoidable disability in rural communities and Boond helping in rural agriculture outreach. BPCL further supports an affordable cancer care facility in Darrang District in Assam.
Castrol India Limited was a winner in 2019 for their Sarathi Mitra initiative has benefitted truck drivers in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal & Delhi, by increasing awareness of financial literacy & Road safety, through education on fatigue management & driving under stress.
Dabur India Limited winner of 2021 Dabur established a Rs 21 Crore fund to protect lives and livelihoods in the community during the Covid pandemic. They’ve engaged close to 9000 farmers across 10 states in the cultivation of medicinal plants resulting in a 25% increase in their income. Renovated schools in 5 states besides training rural girls in vocational crafts.
Ecohoy winner of 2021 Promising Responsible Business, with the integration of Technology & Research, strives to make environmentalism more participatory, efficient & effective. They provide an online marketplace for all things green, by discovering sustainable alternatives for all the daily use products, providing sustainable office supplies as against conventional products. They also conduct workshops and training to create organizational awareness by analyzing each product’s impact on the environment across its lifecycle.
GSK Consumer Healthcare Ltd. . 2018 winner for mission Health for partnering with organizations with a strong technical understanding of healthcare, serving nutritious meals to children in government schools; conducting parent-teacher meetings regarding awareness of nutrition and conducting training on food safety among others.
Hindustan Unilever Limited – HUL Stands with the Nation 2021 winner HUL committed 100 crores at the onset of the pandemic towards societal work to complement the Government’s work on dealing with COVID-19. Through the India Protectors Alliance, HUL initiated a corporate alliance of over 25 private sector leaders that partnered with the Government to support 4.5 lakh lives across the country. Also a winner in 2022 for Suvidha Centres
Hindustan Zinc Limited‘s 2020 winner’s philosophy is to leave a lasting positive impact through their varied projects. Project Jeevan Tarang shows a change in deaf schools’ children becoming confident. Project Shiksha Sambal – Improved quality of education. Project Khushi – Increased enrolment through its Focus on cognitive development & Nutritious food Project Unchi Udaan provides free education to students especially girls continuing higher education.
IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute Foundation – Gender Impact Studies Center 2021 winner IMPRI is an ethical pro-active independent and non-partisan policy-based research think tank committed to generating dynamic evidence, deepening public debate, and catalyzing transparent and accountable governance. The themes of these talks include gender justice – with the focus squarely on mapping the way forward for and through policy.
Indraprastha Gas Limited 2018 winner for Commercial Driver Gender Sensitization
making public transport safe for women travelers. Conducts a program for auto-rickshaw drivers, and taxi and bus drivers of Delhi, Noida, and Gurugram to inculcate sensitivity towards women travelers.
L&T Finance Holdings – Digital Sakhi Project winner in 2022 The Digital Sakhi project identified women within communities and trained them in Digital Financial Literacy (DFL) leadership & technology skills. The Project transformed women who were underconfident and hesitant into change agents impacting the lives of thousands of women entrepreneurs and benefitting lakhs of community members.
Maruti Suzuki India Limited Winner 2021 is an amalgamation of a Japanese approach with an Indian soul making this a unique value system. 3.7 million drivers have been trained over the last 20 years and benefitted from their Road safety initiative. It has also set up two Japan-India Institute for Manufacturing for training students besides upgrading facilities of Government-run ITIs, setting up water ATMs, constructing household toilets, sewer lines, village roads, and a Solid Waste Management plant capable of processing 5 tons of solid waste every day.
National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) 2020 winner through their CSR Partner Haqdarshak, Uses a tech-enabled platform and mostly female ground staff, to successfully unlock government schemes impacting citizens. Including enabling beneficiaries from the community to get ration cards, access to MGNREGA jobs, and connect with government or private organizations offering relief, including food.
PepsiCo India – Sustainable Inclusive Farming winner 2022 PepsiCo has been empowering women farmers to create a gender-inclusive supply chain and enabling them with new skills and knowledge under the Sustainable Farming Program in the potato value chain in West Bengal India. The training programs focus on the best irrigation and crop rotation techniques, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship. Over 1000 women farmers have been trained through this initiative so far.
Radio Mirchi, Entertainment Network (India) Ltd. 2018 winner for Mirchi Caresadvocates inclusivity and accessibility for the blind, providing audio content for films, restaurant menus, storytelling sessions, and support in museums. It thrives on volunteers, Mirchi Jocks, and employees from sales, marketing, and other departments.
Sarathi Development Foundation – Saloni Model 2021 winner for having innovative participatory methodologies such as integrated village planning, community-based behavioral change, collective actions, and advocacy systems, mainstreaming government services and policies – to impact children, women, and communities in 1600 villages and 430 slums.
SBI General Insurance Limited Winner in 2021 is aligned with grassroots NGOs who work in rural India in the sectors of mental health, road safety, sanitation, education, sustainability, livelihoods, and sports especially impacting differently-abled youth and empowering girls. Further, in adapting to climate change 250 marginal farmers across 10 villages have been engaged in sustainable agriculture practices and livelihood enhancement.
Small Industries Development Bank of India winner in 2020 for Swavalamban community engagements. The Swavalambansilai schools encourage each homepreneur to enroll other women creating a multiplier effect. The Swavalamban Connect Kendras (SCKs) were established in 100 districts of 5 states. The SwavalambanMela organized trade-fair events providing the microentrepreneurs with a platform to showcase their skills and enable their access to design (connecting with students of design institutes). Further, the Mahila Udyami Sashaktikaran Programprovidesmarketing platform to sell their products.
STEM LEARNING Private Limited – Mini Science Center Winner 2022 STEM inculcates basic concepts of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics at the school level in an innovative way. Mini Science center, DIY activities, National Stem Program and Tinker lab are the offerings through this initiative. 10000+ teachers have been trained to improve their pedagogy style in 2000 + schools across 25 states in India.
Sterlite Technologies Limited – Jeewan Jyoti Women Empowerment Program 2021 winner for empowering women not just with vocational skills but also to become agents of change by providing them with a holistic support ecosystem. From starting off with just 93 students across 40 villages the program today has empowered over 3500 women across 100+ villages in 3 districts
Sustainable Advancements (OPC) Private Limited winner of 2021 Promising Responsible Business, is a women-owned micro-enterprise that envisions promoting the Sustainable development Goals(SDGs) through a two-pronged approach – Advocacy and Implementation. Under Advocacy they conduct training and consultancy services Under Implementation, they have two verticals – ALNA, the arm of the responsible product that works with and for vulnerable and rescued women of trafficking; ‘Earth Restore’ creating an urban forest with the Potential to sequester over 200 tonnes of carbon.
The Coca-Cola Company – Thums Up – #TaanePalatDe 2022 winner Coca-Cola curated a campaign that embraces diversity and inclusion and celebrates our heroes, the para-athletes. The campaign was a collection of personal stories of these heroes and how they wore lifelong ‘Taane’ as medals to break the glass ceiling in sports. The campaign has 47.5 million impressions and 10.8 million views on social media.
TVS Raider – Fight For What is Right 2022 winner An informative model was curated to educate the youth: about deep-rooted societal inequalities to help identify gender-based violence in various forms and also provide steps and resources to combat it. The campaign has 8.75 million organic views, and 20 workshops based on the Module have been curated.
Vedanta Limited – Nand Ghar An initiative of Anil Agarwal Foundation winner in 2022 Nand Ghar is a model Anganwadi for which the support of the community members and the support of local government stakeholders is garnered across all 4 verticals: nutrition education, health, and skill. Nand Ghar presents an opportunity to uplift the status of Anganwadi in terms of infrastructure, operations, service, and delivery, and as a resource center, in general, to cater to the dynamic needs of society. A total of 1000 Nand Ghars developed this year, making a cumulative of 2302 Nand Ghars.
WNS Global Services Private Limited – WCF CyberSmart Winner in 2021 focuses on free access to age-relevant and gamified cybersecurity awareness that empowers children on navigating the internet judiciously. It hosts content through short and easily consumable videos in English and 9 regional languages followed by a quiz to assess learning. The portal can be accessed by 50 000 users simultaneously.
Non Profits
Anugraha Drishtidaan – Project Drishti 2020 & 2021 winner focuses on eradicating curable blindness in 23 states of India which include remote and tribal areas like Dibrugarh Lakhimpur in Assam Maharashtra Jharkhand Uttrakhand and Rajasthan.
BansiVidya Memorial Trust 2021 & 2022 winner for the initiative Leukemia Crusaders, with the objective of financially supporting the treatment of children affected with Leukemia (Blood Cancer),
Bharti Foundation – Satya Bharti School & Quality Support program 2021 & 2022 winner for bringing about a transformation in the education as well as the living condition of children and youth in rural India. The programs give a special emphasis on educating the girl child while giving employment opportunities to teachers from rural India.
Cancer Awareness Prevention and Early Detection Trust – Cervical Cancer Mukt Bharat 2021 winner for spreading awareness and knowledge about cervical cancer among communities, facilitating screening for women from marginalized communities, and empowering them to take action regarding their own health.
Chhattisgarh Mitwa Sankalp Samiti – Third Gender Advocacy winner in 2022 A community-based organization working towards the betterment of the Third Gender Community. The organization focuses on advocacy in different departments of Central and State Government so that change happens at the grass root level, the organization approached the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and constructed the Transgender Act 2019 and Transgender Rules 2020.
Children’s LoveCastles Trust – CLT e-Patashale 2021 winner for taking up the challenge of providing quality education to students of Government schools and being a pioneer in setting up digital classrooms in rural India.
Cyrus and Priya Vandrevala Foundation – Emergency Mental Health Support 2022 winner provides emergency mental health support service that provides free psychological counseling and crisis intervention for anyone feeling anxious, depressed, stressed, lonely, suicidal, or simply for people struggling to cope. Counseling services are offered in all major Indian languages.
Deaf Cricket Society 2018 winner of the deaf Cricket tournament dedicated to serving the cause of persons who are deaf and mute. With 8 state-level associations and players affiliated at various domestic cricket-level tournaments in India. The Deaf cricket society helps youth to rehabilitate with a purpose in life which fosters adapting to team spirit, giving them a sense of pride.
Empower Foundation 2018 winner for Kiran empowering women, making them aware of the forms of exploitation& suggest possible solutions. Creating an opportunity to freely express their difficulties and have the skills as well as courage to face them.
IIMPACT – Learning Centres 2020 winners for their Girl Child Education model establishes a single-teacher-led Center imparting Primary-level education using a Multi-Grade, Multi-Level approach.
IMPRI Impact and Policy Research Institute Foundation – Gender Impact Studies Center 2021 winner is an ethical pro-active independent and non-partisan policy-based research think tank committed to generating dynamic evidence, deepening public debate, and catalyzing transparent and accountable governance.
The themes of these talks include gender justice – with the focus squarely on mapping the way forward for and through policy.
Joint Women’s Programme 2018 winner for Mera Sahara Centre in Nithari Village, Noida ensures a safe place for children of domestic workers, rickshaw pullers, construction workers, etc in the locality. They get the opportunity to learn when their parents cannot attend to them during the day from 8 am to 4 pm.
Kranti – Kamathipura Red Light area 2020 winner empowers girls from Mumbai’s red-light areas to become agents of social change. Enrolling them through formal education institutions and extra-curricular skill training classes as per their interest. Kranti girls have become the first from India’s red-light area to study abroad in educational institutions of London, Rome, Chicago, Washington, and Los Angeles besides earning scholarships from prestigious universities in India.
MOHAN Foundation – Organ Donation 2019 winner of DeceasedOrgan Donation, stands to ensure that every Indian who is suffering from end-stage organ failure is provided with the ‘gift of life’ through a life-saving organ. Efforts of MOHAN have led to the development of an organ donation movement creating a “feel good” factor.
National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People – NCPEDP-Javed Abidi Fellowship on Disability winner 2022 A three-year immersive leadership development program for youth with disabilities looking to build a career, particularly in Disability Rights and Inclusion with a focus on policy and practice. The fellowship program seeks to give an opportunity to youth with disabilities to delve into and voice issues faced by persons with disabilities at the grassroots with the support of local civil society organizations across India. 25 candidates are selected at the beginning year and the finalized candidates amongst them successfully complete the three-year fellowship.
Noida Deaf Society winner in 2019 for Empowering the Deaf & mute, intervenes through its customized training and offers an opportunity for employment. Their graduates have been employed in the retail, hospitality, and education sectors.
PRAGATI – Marginalised Education in Millenium City2020 winner provides free primary education in association with the Haryana Government Education department, to the children from the marginalized section in the millennium city of Gurgaon.
Prashanthi Balamandira Trust – Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Gurukulam Group of Institutions 2022 winner provides free education, nutrition, healthcare, and other socio-economic necessities to needy children. Trust has grown in its capacity to operate in over 27 campuses over the last 10 years. About 5 000 children are receiving free values-based education at these campuses spread across 20 districts in Karnataka one in Telangana and one in Tamil Nadu.
PVR NEST – Pink Centres 2022 winner PVR NEST the CSR arm of PVR, works via Public Private Partnership models. Pink Centres serve as safe and inclusive spaces in 20 locations across Delhi for sanitation, grooming, resting/reading, changing, breastfeeding, and accessing menstrual hygiene products with a user footfall of 5 Lakh users.
Samarpan Foundation 2018 & 2019 winners for Hasti Basti and Kishangarh School respectively provide education to the underprivileged in the urban Delhi slums. Students are also provided with proper nourishment in school which shows a positive impact within six months of joining. Girls who were erstwhile taking care of siblings also attend since a crèche takes care of younger children. Early marriage of girls has also been reduced through their proactive intervention.
Sambhav Foundation 2018 winner for Saadhya reaching out to differently-abled children through projects including help for specially-abled children, adolescents, and youth; vocational training programs for women; imparting skills to empower men, women, and youth; and collaborating with the state and the central government for implementation of various schemes.
Sanjeevani Life Beyond Cancer – CanSaarthi 2020 & 2021 winner covers the entire Cancer patient cycle from prevention to rehabilitation, by providing comprehensive care and preparing them for a sustainable life. Impacting lives of underprivileged cancer patients across 12 states through innovative models like CanSahyogi – Counselling & Handholding; CanSaarthi – Skill Development; Satori – Holistic Healing and CanChetna – Awareness Initiative
Save the Children Winner in 2021 for Bal Raksha Bharat which upholds children’s rights through mechanisms at the community policy and public level. Amidst other initiatives, They’ve innovated in the field of Education to create ‘Scribbling Space’ play-based learning at home & ‘Gulmohar’ a parent-driven home-based learning module. In Health they piloted the Cost-of-diet Software – which enables users to estimate local food resources that are the most nutritious and least expensive.
SBI Foundation – Centre of Excellence for PwDs winner 2022 Centre of Excellence for Person with Disabilities, a flagship program of the SBI Foundation works toward creating workplace inclusion and equal income opportunities for PwDs. The program introduced training and workshops for Persons with Visual Speech & Hearing Impairment in the BFSI sector.
Sinhayana Foundation – Dance Out of Poverty winner 2022 The free-of-charge dance-based education program coupled with practical life skills to foster underprivileged children’s ability to become skilled, employable, confident individuals. The programs serve children and youth aged 6 to 22 who are from disadvantaged households and are enrolled in low-income schools. The program has impacted 3000+ youth, and also provided 100+ employment opportunities to youngsters by making them employable through skilled training.
SOCIETY FOR ACTION IN COMMUNITY (SACH) winner 2022 has been engaged in furthering its vision of “creating self-reliant communities” by transforming the lives of rural and urban slums over the last three decades. The organization has transformed over 58 villages covering more than 6000 households through comprehensive & multifaceted interventions. Holistic Rural Development Project in Ri-Bhoi district Meghalaya covering 15 villages has impacted 3000 families with livelihood opportunities. They have transformed 21 Government schools in the Ludhiana district through composite support like clean sanitation facilities for Boys and Girls, educating female teachers and girls on Menstrual Hygiene Management, bicycle stands, classrooms, a library, labs, and a comprehensive digital classroom.
Society for Public Education, Cultural Training and Rural Education, Alwar, Rajasthan – Integrated Livelihood Development Winner in 2021 for focusing on involving the community in identifying challenges leading to successful outcomes like increased financial and social return on investment.
S M Sehgal Foundation 2021 winner for rural development to strengthen community-led development initiatives in order to achieve positive social, economic, and environmental change. They work in areas of Water Management, Agriculture development, and sustainability.
Sushena Health Foundation – Dhaatri Mothers Milk Bank winner 2022 Work on operationalizing Mothers Milk Banks in Govt Hospitals across states so that Infant disease, death, and disability in neonates can be reduced. So far they have established Milk banks in Hyderabad, Bhopal, Indore, Lucknow and Kakinada The foundation has helped treat more than 35000 mothers and helped the survival of more than 13000 preterm neonates besides motivating and inspiring thousands of others. Close to 5 lakh milliliters of milk was collected in the last year.
Swades Foundation – Rural Empowerment 2021 winner for focus on rural empowerment through holistic development impacting over 2700 villages. Swades empowers community members through Village Development Committees (VDC) that are created at the hamlet.
Tarachand Ramnath Seva Trust – SAIYAM (संयम) 2022 winner Self Awareness In Youth for Anti-Addiction Motive’ (संयम) is a collaborative initiative by the Tarachand Ramnath Seva Trust along with Knowledge Partner Jnana Prabodhini’s Institute of Psychology to ensure addictions are stopped before they take root. 3676 students and 1000 + parents benefitted from the program so far.
The Golf Foundation 2018 winner for Golf for underprivileged is the only privately funded institution in India that provides support – both financial and in-kind – to children of Golf Caddy’s amongst other underprivileged talented young golfers. The beneficiaries have gone on to become successful professional golfers including 3 national champions, making their indelible mark on Indian and international golf, thereby making a living out of the sport.
UDYAMA – Pradeep Mahapatra 2022 winner implementing Science-led Livelihoods in collaboration with ICRISAT & Government of Odisha for lasting nature-based solutions to farmers. 3500 -Micro-models on water projects have been implemented, and 20000 hectares-adopted resilient-farming. 2500-Home-solar-lighting-system has been supplied
VASAVYA MAHILA MANDALI 2022 winner VMM is committed to building a gender-equitable society with a safe inclusive environment. Through the pandemic, they have provided relief and rehabilitation of COVID Widows by skilling/reskilling in fashion designing and providing commercial sewing machines. They also trained women in financial and business management. Besides this, they have been providing consistent counseling to come out of the trauma faced through the pandemic.
Youth4Jobs Foundation 2019 winner for Skilling PWD in the rural workforce with the message of “Ability in Disability”. They are the largest organization in India focusing on imparting skills to vulnerable rural youth with disability and placing them in organized sector jobs or local SMEs. They further train the youth to appear for government examinations or opt for higher education.
WinPE Development Forum – Gender Diversity in Investing
*The above listing includes winners from 2018 to 2022 in Category A & B barring the subcategories of Environment & Agriculture. These may feature in the Environment listing along with the SABERA trophy winners in the Environment subcategory based on the work they’ve executed.
All SABERA TROPHY awardees from 2018 to 2022 can be accessed here along with their work
The list is dynamic and will keep building with every year’s jury selection. The wins are also mentioned along with the year they were chosen.
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