The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are interconnected and invariably accelerate one another. For example, JSW’s work to achieve goal 2 is working to provide a nutritious food supply, which aids goal 3’s overall health and well-being. With JSW’s footprint across Himachal Pradesh to Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan to West Bengal, challenges across all regions vary and require unique analyses and solutions to the problems of water shortages and food security.
Sustainable agriculture is the key to ensuring food security. JSW Foundation helps through a multipronged strategy which includes strengthening institutional capacities and enhancing market capacities by rehabilitating existing value chains, supporting integrated farming systems and strengthening value chain development, thereby contributing towards the improvement of livelihood of farmers and other rural communities. By 2024, the Foundation strives to reach out to 100,000 farmers while focusing on ‘4 Vs’, ie, minimising Value loss, maximising Value creation, maximising Value capture and Value-added services
The concerted efforts put in by the Foundation are likely to touch goals 2.3 and 2.4 that vie to ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices and double the agricultural productivity and incomes of small-scale food producers.
Well-being for all is one of the key goals under the SDG framework. JSW Foundation is steadfast in its commitment to strengthen the availability and accessibility of affordable healthcare services ranging from outreach services to static primary health clinics and state-of-the-art multispecialty hospitals in rural areas. In addition, it supports existing government healthcare facilities. It strengthens health and nutrition services by forging strategic partnerships with government and international public health organisations while reaching out to women, children, the elderly and other vulnerable groups.
Touching upon goals The key strategies include strengthening preventive and curative health care services by improving public health facilities, setting up multi-speciality hospitals and clinics, conducting outreach health camps and supporting supplementary nutrition at Anganwadi centres. The Foundation’s interventions directly touch upon goals 3.1, 3.2 and 3.8 while working to reduce maternal mortality, curb preventable deaths of new-borns and children under five years and achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential healthcare services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.
Various independent studies in India put the below-average quality of education under the spotlight. The Foundation works with Anganwadi centres and schools to contribute its bit to improve the situation by providing for infrastructure & basic facilities. The focus has been on ensuring students have access to quality preprimary education, as well as complete, equitable and quality primary and secondary education.
Building and upgrading education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and providing safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all is extremely important, as is expanding the number of scholarships for enrolment in higher education. The availability of qualified teachers should also be increased. With its current focus, the JSW Foundation strives to touch upon goals 4.1, 4.2, 4.6, 4a, 4b and 4c.
The Swachh Bharat Mission launched by the government of India is an endeavour in the right direction. The Foundation is aligned with this mission and has chosen to do its bit by reducing and eliminating the practice of mixed waste from its townships and DIZ villages. Efforts began in 2015 in Vijayanagar and from 2018 have expanded to cover seven more locations.
The JSW Foundation, through its dedicated training centres ‘JSW Skill Schools’ has been relentlessly working to fulfil its ambition to raise strong cadres of a trained workforce
The Foundation believes forging partnerships and leveraging government schemes is the key to hasten the process. Therefore, a dedicated intervention called ‘Margdarshak’ is being implemented to connect the needy to the applicable social entitlements.
The programme is being implemented across 12 locations of JSW and has been able to reach out to over 182,000 individuals through close to 300 volunteers with benefits received in more than 135,000 cases. Key sectors focused on include social inclusion, healthcare and livelihoods through various insurance schemes, Mediclaim, pensions, scholarships, subsidies, cash transfers, loans, housing, etc.
All of the preceding objectives contribute to the achievement of No Poverty Goal 1.
The JSW Foundation has initiated various livelihood generation programmes in its areas of operation – for example the setting up of rural women only BPO and generating mainstream business for the same; facilitating farmers’ interest groups and production companies and actively linking them with markets while focusing on best practices for cultivation, harvesting and post-harvest handling; and promoting traditional crafts and fast-moving consumer goods through self-help groups and linking the same to the markets.
In order to augment the employability of young people, the JSW Foundation, through its dedicated training centres ‘JSW Skill Schools’ has been relentlessly working to fulfil its ambition to raise strong cadres of a trained workforce which would cater to the requirement of the industry in India and abroad.
The interventions, in the longer run, would serve to lift thousands out of poverty thereby contributing to the larger goal represented by the SDG framework.