Vedanta Chairman, Anil Agarwal’s dream - Project Nand Ghar is the flagship CSR project under the aegis of the Anil Agarwal Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Vedanta Group, one of the world’s leading metals and mining conglomerates.
Set up in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development, Nand Ghars are modernized “Anganwadis” working around nutrition, early childhood education, primary healthcare & skill development for women. Vedanta has committed to develop 4000 Nand Ghars across India. The project aims to transform the lives of 7 crore children and 2 crore women in the 13.7 lakh Anganwadis in India.
With Nand Ghar, Vedanta is bridging the urban and rural divide by leveraging technology, upgrading to state-of-the-art infrastructure, capacity building of front-line functionaries, digital real time monitoring making significant improvements in the overall service delivery of anganwadi ecosystem.
Agarwal himself says, “Nand Ghar is the closest to my heart. It gives me immense joy to see the project achieving the milestone of 3000 across 12 states in India and making a significant impact at the grassroots, strengthening the foundation of our nation that are rural women and children. With this important milestone, we are marching towards realizing Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of eradicating malnutrition, providing healthcare services, education and skill development for rural women, becoming an imperative project for social development.”
In the last 20 months of the pandemic, Nand Ghars ensured the last mile delivery of services to beneficiaries, repurposing itself for creating greater impact. With regular activities making a paradigm shift, Nand Ghar molded its service delivery method accordingly. With education moving from classroom to home-based learning, Nand Ghar swiftly rolled out alternative learning methods through WhatsApp and IVRS for continuous education.
Nand Ghar has ensured doorstep delivery of Dry and Take-home rations for its beneficiaries. Additionally, more than 3300 nutrition gardens were developed in Nand Ghar premises and community areas to ensure steady supply of nourishment to the community members.
It has also generated local employment by training women to stitch masks and prepare items of local needs, significantly raising their household income by ₹4000.
With the pandemic, healthcare became a key priority. To ensure wellness of the community members, Nand Ghar deployed an integrated healthcare model which comprised of Mobile Health Vans, Telemedicine facilities and paramedic on wheels for preventive and curative care providing the consultation of MBBS/Specialist doctors, dispensing medicines and conducting non-invasive tests, all free of cost.
