Tata Steel Foundation rolls out Project Sabal-Swavalamban

Program aims to integrate persons with leprosy with socio-economic activities and ensuring a life of dignity

Jamshedpur: Tata Steel Foundation initiated an integrated socio-economic development programme for persons with leprosy of East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, today.

The project, christened Sabal-Swavalamban, would be implemented through the non-government organization, Sasakawa-India Leprosy Foundation (S-ILF).

The programme was formally inaugurated at the Jamshedpur center of SABAL in the presence of Chanakya Chaudhary, Director, Tata Steel Foundation and Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel, Dr Vivek Lal, Chief Executive Officer, S-IFL, Sourav Roy, Chief Executive Officer, Tata Steel Foundation and Chief, Corporate Social Responsibility, Tata Steel, and members of both entities.

Addressing the gathering, Chanakya Chaudhary, Director, Tata Steel Foundation and Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel, said: “SABAL-Swavalamban is our endeavor to reach Persons with Leprosy and their families across East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand through socio-economic development programmes. This stems from our philosophy of being inclusive, ensuring dignity and creating empathetic relations.”

The project will focus on leprosy colonies in the East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. Based on a demand-driven concept, it will respond to the aspirations of the people affected by leprosy and their families who are willing to set up small businesses for their economic sustainability and therefore lead a dignified life.

The project will undertake a baseline survey and mobilization and orientation training to establish a benchmark for measuring the impact of the project at a later stage. During the course of the project tenure, a series of orientation training on SHG management and practices, colony governance, gender concept and practices and health, hygiene & environment will be organized.

The project will look at creating self-help groups to demonstrate community’s collective action. It will focus on capacity building of the people who engage on this, which will be followed by setting up of micro enterprises from 100 families from the selected colonies. In addition, group and individual enterprises will be supported in each colony wherein eachg each group enterprise will engage maximum five persons in its fold.

The selected persons under SABAL-Swavalamban will receive a financial grant of Rs 50000/- per potential entrepreneur. For effective monitoring and assistance, a Colony Development Fund (CDF) will be set up in each project intervention colony to generate a small corpus through repayment of money given to the selected persons for initiating micro enterprises into a CDF. This fund will be managed by colony representatives and overseen by S-ILF for further use by a new set of persons for livelihood purposes in the colony.

The project will provide consistent mentoring, handholding and supportive supervision to enable beneficiaries to manage their business with technical expertise and with a sense of pride. An end line survey will be undertaken to do a comparison with baseline for an understanding of the impact of the project.

The project will ensure financial inclusion and self-reliance for 100-people affected by leprosy and their families in leprosy colonies of East Singhbhum, livelihood generation through SHGs, enhanced capacity of beneficiaries/community groups to manage micro enterprises, developed suitable enterprise models for sustainable livelihood, promotion of skill development and self-employment training.

Over a period of three years, the project aims to enhance livelihood opportunities and enable economic security for selected persons.