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HDFC Bank’s flagship CSR initiative ‘Holistic Rural Development Programme’ has touched 750 villages, with a tiny hamlet Umpathaw in Meghalaya becoming the 750th village under the programme that aims to improve access to potable water and provide a smart school to village children.
Through HRDP, the hamlet’s 106 households have got potable water at their doorsteps, the first time since Independence, the lender said.
Speaking at the launch event, Paresh Sukthankar, Deputy Managing Director, HDFC Bank, said this initiative was a “microcosm of our attempts to change rural communities”.
“If India has to achieve inclusive growth, our rural areas have to grow in tandem with cities. Our interventions are aimed at creating sustainable improvements in rural areas,” Sukthankar said. Nusrat Pathan, Head-CSR, HDFC Bank, said plans were afoot to undertake ‘water audits’ to see if the desired outcomes are achieved or not.
HRDP is a flagship CSR initiative of Parivartan, HDFC Bank’s umbrella brand for all its social development programmes.
Sukthankar said HDFC Bank was “on course” to cover 1,000 villages under its HRDP by 2019.
CSR spend
Sukthankar said HDFC Bank was “confident” of achieving the targeted CSR spend of ₹365 crore this fiscal. This was higher than the ₹304 crore spent by the bank towards CSR in 2016-17 and ₹248 crore in 2015-16.
(The writer is in Shillong at the invitation of HDFC Bank)
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