Vedanta Group, diversified Natural Resources Company, today announced the inauguration of the 500^th Nand Ghar at Chaksu Block in Jaipur and has reached out to more than 17,000 children and 15,000 women, through this programme, aimed to lead the way for early childhood development in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Proposed investment of Rs 800 crore in setting up 4,000 Nand Ghar

Inaugurated 500^th Nand Ghar in Jaipur district

Vedanta has planned an outlay of Rs 800 crore for setting up 4,000 Nand ghars across India over next few years.

In line with Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision of Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao, National Nutrition Mission, Swachh Bharat, Women Skill Development, Digital Literacy and Improving Maternal and Child Health, this initiative intends to create a “Model Anganwadi”, not only in terms of infrastructure or services, but also how the community interacts and engages with this critical resource on-ground.

Speaking on the occasion, Anil Agarwal, Founder and Chairman, Vedanta Group, said, “We strongly believe that a nation can only progress by investing in the future of women and children. In line with this ideology, Vedanta Group in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India is creating 4,000 Nand Ghars across 11 states, which would eventually lead to the transformation of 14 lakh Anganwadis, thus impacting 8.5 Crore children and 2 Crore women.”

He further added, “Our primary focus is to start at the grass root level with the holistic development of children and women, who form the future of our nation. The project addresses issues relating to pre-primary education, health care, nutrition for children, and economic empowerment for women in rural India”.

Paving way for a better India, the Nand Ghar program aims to further impact 4 lakh community members, every year, by making use of Nand Ghars as community resource centers. Through these 500 Nand Ghars, Vedanta is committed to ensuring a better future for children and women.

Nand Ghars are equipped with a bright, colorful classroom, a safe playground, e-learning, provision for nutritious meals, solar panels and mobile healthcare vans to ensure welfare and progress to not just the children and women but the community too. They are also equipped with clean toilets to ensure safe sanitation and inculcation of good hygiene practices from an early age.

The core services provided at Nand Ghars are early childhood education and nutritious meals for children, skill development training for women and primary healthcare through mobile health vans for the entire community. In addition to this, nutritious meals are provided to over 11,000 children every day. Aside, over 15,000 community members are benefitted by the more than 20 health services provided through mobile health vans.

In the latter part of the day, Nand Ghar is utilized as a center of skill development for women of the community. They are trained to develop business acumen along with learning trades for income generation. More than 8,000 women have been covered through the program, leading to an average incremental income of INR 3,510 per month. They are also provided with micro credit for starting their own business.

Over a short span of 2 years, the program, in line with Anil Agarwal’s  pledge to give back 75% of his wealth to the society, has showcased its commitment towards the women and children of India by constructing 500 Nand Ghars across Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Nand Ghar initiative not only aims to create a demonstration of an integrated service delivery model, which addresses some of the core challenges of government’s flagship Integrated Child Development Services program (ICDS), but also tries to showcase this at a large scale and geographic diversity.