2. Our integrated performance
  3. Social and relationship capital

Social and relationship capital

Translating our success into
community prosperity

We are committed to achieving inclusive growth by supporting the development of the communities around us. The HOPE initiative, defines our focus areas in the domain of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

H

Healthcare

O

Occupational skill for better employability

P

Preservation of national heritage, art and culture

E

Empowerment of the society

Healthcare: Mobile health units

  • We manage three mobile healthcare units, which cover 78 villages in Vadodara and Talegaon (Pune). Since inception in February 2014, we have provided health consultations to over 3.07 lakhs patients through these units.
  • Through these units, we have screened and treated many children and adolescent girls for anaemia and malnutrition.
  • Special health camps were conducted in 2019 to cover issues around gynaecology, paediatrician, ophthalmology, oral and dermatology.

Occupational skill for better employability

  • Under the Nitara project, we focus on imparting livelihood training programmes to differently-abled girls from weaker sections of the society.
  • Our beauty and wellness academy has trained about 155 beneficiaries since 2017 and two-third of them have been placed successfully.
  • In 2019, we engaged with reputed industry professionals in the beauty and wellness space to introduce programmes aimed at building leadership, teamwork and self-reliance among students.

Case Study: Schaeffler Technical Enhancement Programme (STEP)

Objectives

In our quest to improve employability of the underprivileged youth and bring them into the mainstream, we initiated STEP in 2018. The automotive industry lacks talent pool with relevant skillset. STEP focused on upskilling our youth and helping them as well as the Indian automotive domain. We started our journey in Pune with a strategic partnership with Don Bosco and extended the programme to Hosur with SkillSonics. Students are awarded with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) certificate after successful completion of the course.

Key initiatives implemented in 2019

  • A STEP project was initiated in Hosur on May 31, 2019, to provide industry-aligned skills such as CNC machinist and mechatronics to underprivileged youth and make them readily employable. About 150 students have been trained so far.
  • We set up three technical labs in the areas of CNC Programming, CNC Simulation and Hydraulic and Pneumatic at the Chakan centre. So far, 81 students have been trained and 90% of them have been recruited by 20 organisations.
  • We inaugurated an Autotronics Lab in Chinchwad and trained 19 students in the first batch.
  • We have partnered with reputed organisations such as Volkswagen and Vidyut Motors, among others, for placement of students.

Preserving the national heritage, art and culture

  • Through our project Quest on Wheels, we intend to provide students with guided tours to museums and palaces in and around Vadodara and to the ISRO exhibition centre in Ahmedabad.
  • We have conducted 290 trips since 2016 for over 12,000 children from government schools and shelter homes, along with differently-abled children and senior citizens.

Mook Dhwani School
We provide financial support for running the operations of the school, which teaches students who have hearing or communication difficulty. During the year, began classes for 11th and 12th standard Commerce students and appointed expert teachers for Maths and Science to upskill the existing teaching staff. We are facilitating annual meets with parent support groups. We appointed professional audiologists to conduct audiometric tests audiometric tests of all the students and also provided them with consultation and customised digital hearing aids.

Empowering the society

We have partnered with three schools to help them build their infrastructure so that they can empower maximum children, year after year.

Lok Vidhyalaya School
The school had classes from 1st to 5th standards at subsidised fees for underprivileged children. During the year, classes from 6th to 8th standards were started for the academic year beginning June, 2020. We also contributed to building a girls’ hostel to accommodate 50 students and are building a boys’ hostel for 150 students. 371 students have already enrolled for the upcoming academic year.

Student retention ratio has improved to 90% with a male-female ratio of 60:40.

Koitewasti School
Since 2017, we have undertaken multiple initiatives to strengthen this Zilla Parishad school in Koitewasti village (near our Talegaon plant). These include constructing classrooms with proper sanitation facilities, providing clean drinking water, and so on.

The school's student count today is 135, having increased 5 times from 2017.