The 2019/20 Annual Report was launched in September, highlighting the achievements of the Foundation over the last 12months, and once again an e-version of the report was distributed online to all key stakeholders.

Health and Safety (H&S) is of great importance at Ambuja Foundation and across programmes, H&S is carefully adhered to. Ambuja Manovikas Kendra, a school in Ropar, Punjab that caters to children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities, takes H&S seriously going over and above basic requirements (like wheelchairs, ramps and railings) to ensure health and safety is taken care at the institute:

Did you know that 72.4% of India's workforce lives in rural areas? And that agriculture supports nearly 70% of this rural workforce? But with small land holdings and an over dependence on the monsoon, these livelihoods are often unsustainable. Couple that with outdated farming methods, lack of irrigation, and difficulty in accessing markets, and agriculture-dependent households quickly spiral down into a kind of poverty which is hard to break out of.

Women's role in India has typically been limited to 'the home' thanks to a patriarchal society and a 'permission culture' which, according to an IDHS survey, sees 79.9% of women having to ask for permission from a male family member to seek medical care, and 58% of women reporting that they needed permission to visit the local kirana (grocery store)

Ambuja Foundation's lift irrigation work in Farraka, West Bengal, has been featured in Village Square - a public interest communications initiative, focusing on rural India. The story outlines how Ambuja Foundation helped farmers expand from growing just 1 crop a year, to growing 2-3 crops per year.

Pearl Tiwari outlined the opportunity for skilling to enhance off-farm livelihoods in the Times of India Blog this month:

All through the COVID-19 pandemic, Ambuja Foundation supported skilling centres (SEDI) have continued to equip rural youth with vocational skills, using the online medium.

In order to assess the overall performance of the organisation, and get a rating on it, Ambuja Foundation commissioned an external 'due diligence' conducted by CRISIL Ltd.

Ramesh and Nitu, both ex-trainees of SEDI Rajasthan have been conferred with the Skill Ambassador Award and the Skill Icon award, respectively.

Ambuja Cements has won the CII-ITC Sustainability Award recently for 3 locations: Bhatapara, Chandrapur, and Farakka for excellence in CSR, Policy, Practices, and Impacts.

Chandrakant Kumbhani - GM-Community Development at Ambuja Foundation is a seasoned professional in Rural Development with more than 20 years of experience under his belt.

It is a common, yet misplaced assumption that rural Indians lack the skills and the education to manage their affairs, and hence require constant intervention from external agencies.