Despite stiff opposition of the locals to its 6 million tonne steel project at Kalinga Nagar in Orissa, Tata Steel is inching forward to commission the first phase of its project in 2013.
The company has cleared encroachments from 2,200 acres out of the registered area of 3,000 acres and successfully shifted 930 families out of 1,200 families identified to be relocated, thanks to focused and concerted action on rehabilitation and resettlement (R & R) front.
Branded as Tata Steel Parivar, the rehabilitation scheme at Kalinga Nagar runs on the concept of treating each displaced family as the family member of Tata Steel.
The programme, driven and monitored by the top management of the company led by managing director HM Nerurkar, aims at enhancing the quality of life of the displaced families through focused interventions.
The interventions by the company are mostly in the field of education, health, empowerment, alternate livelihoods and skill up gradation of the displaced persons and have resulted in significant increase in the standard of living of those families in the post–displacement period while ensuring all round socio-economic development.
While in case of healthcare, zero infant mortality, zero maternal mortality and 100 percent institutional delivery has been ensured, in education, 100 percent net enrollment ratio in primary education with improved literacy rate at 67 percent has been achieved.
More than 500 boys and girls of rehabilitated families are being imparted skill up-gradation training and more than 26 SHGs (self help groups) are involved in alternate income skills as a result of which the share of women in non-agricultural sector has increased from 5 to 200 in last five years. These initiatives have resulted in average increase in growth of income levels by 96 percent and that of asset value by 300 percent over a period of 5 years.
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Tata Steel rehabilitation process had started with mapping the concerns and needs of each displaced family, resettled in three modern townships at Trijanga, Sansailo and Gobarghati, with the help of “Ho Tribal Members” of Tata Steel communication team. Apart from offering benefits beyond the RR policy of the state government, the rehabilitation scheme veers around a people-centric development policy and not just compensation for the property acquired for the project.
“The success of the Tata Steel Parivar policy is because of the fact that it was conceived and formulated by the top management of Tata Steel led by managing director, H M Nerurkar. As this team also monitors its implementation at regular intervals, this contributed to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals of United Nations by those families” said an official of the company engaged in the process.