Creating Change in Peoples' Lives

Suresh Kr Pramar


India’s largest producer of steel, set up in 1973, the Steel Authority of India, strongly believes in the motto of making a difference in people’s lives. Its vision statement very clearly sets out its objective to gain respect as “a respected world class corporation and the leader in the Indian Steel Industry in quality, profitability and customer satisfaction.” The vision statement says “ we value the opportunity and the responsibility to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives.”

The company’s social obligations include

“Providing concepts of national integration in its broadest sense, through community services, developing and assisting domestic institutions and generally ensuring that the company as a whole and its employees act on the ideals of social justice without discrimination.

Providing know-how and assistance, and encouraging talent and growth among members of the community through assistance towards the establishment of co-operative institutions.

Carrying out programmes for peripheral development and supporting educational, charitable and welfare institutions, within and outside the steel township; and

Undertaking programmes in steel plants for controlling air pollution, water contamination and disposal of solid wastes aimed at environmental preservation.”

Since inception SAIL has undertaken several innovative corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives in the area of education, access to drinking water, medical and health care, sanitation, communica-tion, roads, sustainable live-lihood, income generation. It has been active in the promotion of women’s empowerment, tribal welfare, environment preservation, sports, repro-ductive and child healthcare, heritage preservation, cultural and recreational activities, etc.

To provide access to education the company has established 133 schools where more than 80,000 students receive quality education. These school have a teacher strength of 3,000 and maintain a girl-boy ratio of 1:1.


In addition the company provides assistance to over 250 schools with more than 1,00,000 students of around 400 villages in the periphery of its units. Assistance in provided for the construction of additional rooms, boundary walls, toilets, provision of stationery, and sports equipments. Scholarships for bright children belonging to weaker section of society have also been provided.

SAIL is setting up separate schools for economically underprivileged children at Bhilai, Durgapur, Bokaro, Rourkela and Burnpur in order to provide free education, stationery items, uniforms and nutritious midday meals. It has made a commitment to support the Chhattisgarh government to set up a technical university A sum of Rs 50 crore has been set side for this project

To improve the health status of the people the company has taken steps to improve the available health facilities Since its units are located mainly in backward areas, were health facilities were almost not available the company took steps to create better and healthy living conditions for both its employees as well as people living in the periphery.

It has set up 20 hospitals including 4 state-of-art hospitals throughout the country. These health centres have a total strength of around 4000 beds for the employees, their dependents and the peripheral population. These hospitals are manned by trained medical staff of around 4400 people.So far over 20 million people have benefitted from thiese facilities
SAIL was the first corporate entity to collaborate with NACO to help generate greater awareness on AIDS in 1999-2000. The all company’s hospitals implement the RCH programme. It is also participating in National Health Programmes like TB Control, anti-Malaria, Leprosy etc.


Every year the company organizes health camps in villages. Those with major ailments are referred to the main plant hospitals for treatment. To increase awareness and sensitise people on health related issues the company organises special events such as World Health Day, World Blood Donor Day, New Born Week, etc.

To help fight against water-borne disease like hepatitis, choleric fever, etc. SAIL has undertaken a number of scheme to provide safe drinking water not only to its townships but also for people living in neighbouring villages. Each plant has ensured that the nearby villagers within the radius of 20 Kms of its township have access to potable water.

The company has installed 1,831 water sources, including bore-wells with hand-pumps, overhead tanks, ponds and taps, as well as by laying pipelines for transportation of water. These facilities are provided within a radius of 1-2 kms of the targeted households and provide a minimum of 20 litres of water per day to more than 2 million people.

To promote the Small Family Norms SAIL has introduced a scheme under which an incentive of Rs. 400 is being provided for a tubectomy operation; Rs. 500 for a vasectomy operation and Rs. 50 to family planning motivator for each case. These incentives are available to both employees and non-employees. These are incentives over and above thoseoffered by the Government. There is also a scheme for employees with two or less children, in which Rs. 2000 are given to an employee ( or spouse) for a sterilization operation.

At its plants, units and mines, SAIL townships comprising a total of 140,000 houses, well-equipped hospitals and lush green parks. These not only benefit the company’s employees and their families but also the community at large.

An innovative scheme taken up is the develop-ment model steel villages in the states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu Chhattisgarh, and Madhya Pradesh. The Company has plans to build 79 steel villages. Of these 12 have been completed and will be inaugurated soon.

To be known as ‘Model Steel Villages’ they will be provided with necessary amenities to bring about all round improvement of the villages. Beginning with the peripheral areas around the company’s plants, SAIL will gradually cover the areas populated by the SCs, STs and weaker sections of the society.

Tribal welfare is a thrust area of SAIL’s CSR activities. Bokaro Steel Plant has adopted several children of the nearly extinct Birhor tribe of Thakurani. Bhilai Steel Plant is providing free education with free boarding and lodging to SC/ST children. Special provision is made to train Tribal children with sporting talent at its four sports academies

To preserve the environment in and around its plants and mines, SAIL has has undertaken several steps to maintain the ecological balance. About 13.5 million trees have been planted As part of the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol, several other projects have been taken up.These are in addition to the the regularly afforestation in areas denuded due to mining activities.

SAIL’s endeavours in the area of CSR are aimed at enriching lives and ensuring a strong future for the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries are provided help in developing skills that will help them lead a better life. The company regularly organises workshops and skill enhancement training programmes.

People living in the peripheral area of SAIL’s units are taught skills that will promote promote rural savings and credit, natural resource management, village infrastructure development, increased agricultural productivity through better management of resources and intensive cropping, and skill development and enhancement of the community.

Promotion of sports has been an integral part of the SAIL’s corporate philosophy. The objective is to provide the employees a holistic lifestyle. It provides opportunities to develop physical skills and pursue hobbies. These activities make sports a major channel for creating better citizens and inculcating team spirit. Every year SAIL employees’ wards are awarded sports scholarships on the strength of their achievements at the national and zonal levels.

SAIL formed the Steel Plant Sports Board in the 1960s in association with TISCO. The Board aims at to promoting the spirit of competition within the steel industry through inter-plant events.


In its effort to promote sports the company has set up sports academies at its major plant locations: These include a hockey academy at Rourkela, an athletics academy for boys at Bhilai, an athletics academy for girls at Durgapur and a football academy at Bokaro

These academies scout and select talented young boys and girls for enrolment. The selected trainees are put through a strict training schedule by well-qualified coaches in each of the discipline and groomed to higher levels of competence.

SAIL has also started Day Scholar Training Centres in different disciplines It has set up a Sports Excellence Centre at Ranchi with a qualified sports physician for performance review and corrective measures.

The company conducts sports events round-the-year at its Bhilai, Rourkela, Durgapur and Bokaro plants . All the The townships have well developed sports infrastructure. There are facilities for the handicapped, grounds, indoor and outdoor courts, tracks, pools, gymnasia and stadia conforming to national and international standards in some of these.

As an organisation, SAIL sponsors various major sporting events ncluding the Durand Cup and Davis Cup Tennis Tournament. It supports sportspersons including Leander Paes, Nisha Millet, Saheli Dhar Barua, Shiv Sunder Das, Satya Dev who have done the country proud in international events. .

SAIL is providing strong support for the preservation the country’s cultural heritage. It spends almost 1.5 crore on conserving, preserving, restoring, maintaining and landscaping five ancient monuments at Lodi Gardens in the Capital. The Lodi Gardens in the heart of New Delhi was originally a village surrounding monuments surviving from the Sayyid and Lodi dynasties (15-16th century). 

The company has played a major role in developing ancillary industries. Starting with 31 units it has been adding 45 units ever thus creating employment opportunities for nearly 800 people each year. SAIL provides land, water and other infrastructure facilities. The units are regularly informed about the requirements of the company through printed material, special exhibitions etc.
The ancillary units do not have to pay EMD, security deposit etc. SAIL also provides handling equipment to these industries on hire basis, testing facilities providing available raw materials for manufacture, etc.

The company’s ancillary promotion programme has been recognised widely through out the country.In recognition the Government of Madhya Pradesh had conferred the prestigious ‘Sahayak Udyag Mitra’ award on Bhilai Steel Plant in 1997. Bhilai was the first organization to be honoured with the award.

Mahila Samities play an important role in all SAIL plants. The members of the Samities are spouses of the employees, including spouses of MDs, EDs etc. These Samities are involved in various activities to promote the empowerment of women. These activities includes: women empowerment and development, community welfare activities, assistance during natural calamities, manufacturing products for general use in plants, providing assistance to women belonging to economically weaker section etc, providing vocational training to women, facilitating access to education for needy girl children


CSR at SAIL is implemented with well-articulated socio-economic objectives towards. The company’s Credo specifically highlights its commitment towards society at large which states “We value the opportunity and responsibility to make a meaningful difference in people’s lives”. The management and workers proudly proclaim “there’s a little bit of SAIL in everybody’s life.”

He who dares wins. Over the years SAIL has dared to tread the less beaten path. It has chalked up substantial goodwill because of its activities as a Corporate Citizen. Society has rewarded the company with many awards and accolades

Last year SAIL was the deservng winner of the Business World-FICCI Award for its CSR activities. Notable among the others are the SCOPE Gold Trophy for Excellence & Outstanding Contribution to Public Sector Management for 2006-07, India's Employer of Choice Award 2007 by CNBC-TV18 and Watson Wyatt, Prime Minister's Shram Awards to 10 employees, Vishwakarma Rashtriya Puraskar to 41 employees etc.

On February 15 the company was awarded the FICCI Award for Rural and Community Development Initiatives for 2007. The Award was given for its work over the past years in the field of agriculture including the application of science and technology, animal husbandy, rural industry, rural infrastructure, rural education, rural health and family welfare (CRBiz March 2008)

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