UMPATHAW (Ri Bhoi): Sorben Khamdait, the headman of this tiny, remote village couldn’t speak in English. But his expressions said a lot about his relief, thanks to a marked transformation brought about by “Parivartan”, the umbrella brand for HDFC Bank’s social development programmes.
As this reporter interacted with him in Hindi, with a Khasi “interpreter” by his side, Khamdait, attired in formals, said before March this year, we had to hinge either on a PHE tank or walk more than a kilometre to the Umpathaw river to bring water. “Now, all the 550 inhabitants (113 households) have access to clean drinking water throughout the day, thanks to six water tanks set up by the initiative,” Khamdait said.
Not just drinking water, Umpathaw, about 35km away from the district headquarters of Nongpoh, did not have access to basic facilities like sanitation and clean toilets. But after the bank initiated the Holistic Rural Development Programme (HRDP), a flagship CSR initiative of Parivartan, in March this year, things changed for the better.
The bank has so far transformed lives in 750 villages across 16 states in the country under HRDP. Under the programme, a thorough assessment of the village is carried out to understand its developmental needs.
To address these needs in a sustainable manner, the bank creates long-term solutions in partnership with an NGO and the local community. The beneficiaries of HRDP include small farmers, youth, landless labourers, children and women.
The bank has partnered with close to 50 NGOs for the initiative. Meghalaya and Assam are the two northeastern states under the programme.
Umpathaw now has two schools with smart classrooms where students till Class VIII have access to digital tools of learning.
As of today, about 114 students are enrolled in the two schools.”The school dropout rate has come down drastically from the previous years as students understand the concepts better through the digital boards and smart classes,” said a lady teacher at Umpathaw Presbyterian Secondary School. Besides, unemployed youths and school dropouts are given an interest-free loan of up to Rs 15,000 to set up shops where they can sell their farm produce, among other items.
“The bank has a board mandate to cover 1,000 such villages by 2019. This initiative has so far impacted the lives of over 10 lakh people,” Paresh Sukthankar, deputy managing director, HDFC Bank, said during a function organised here on Thursday afternoon.
HRDP seeks to improve village life by focusing on improvements in key areas of education, skills training and livelihood enhancement, natural resources management, water and sanitation and financial literacy and inclusion.
“At HDFC Bank, we believe that for India to achieve inclusive growth, our villages must grow in tandem with cities. Through HRDP, we are doing just that by creating sustainable communities in remote pockets of the country,” Sukthankar said.
In Meghalaya, the NGO partners for HRDP are SACH and Aroh Foundation. “Our NGO partners play an instrumental role in planning and executing projects. We also work closely with local communities who participate in the projects through ‘Shramdaan’ to make the initiative sustainable in the long run,” said Nusrat Pathan, head of CSR at HDFC Bank.
Piggery, poultry and pisciculture, among other economic activities, have started flourishing in the village.
“There are village water management committees and village development committees who are responsible for maintenance, including collecting a nominal amount every month from each household for the purpose,” she said.
The bank that is carrying out CSR activities in about 16 villages in Umling block of Ri Bhoi and five in Jirang block, plans to expand to at least five more villages soon.
