Social initiatives are our way of giving back to the community – Rati Forbes

We have always been concerned with the welfare of the community beyond our factory’s gate. Since the inception of the company in 1958, sustainable social initiatives have been the key drivers of our philosophy to contribute and give back to the community in which we operate. Over the years, our stakeholders in the community have participated in and benefited from our initiatives.

Some of our initiatives are:

The Shehernaz Medicare Centre — a multispeciality 30-bed hospital with an OPD catering to neighbouring communities
3 Akanksha centres, one each in Bopkhel, Kasarwadi and Morwadi, focussing on English
12 Prerna centres for primary schoolchildren in the Kasarwadi community for language and maths skills, covering more than 100 children.
5 Balbhavans in the PCMC area covering more than 200 children . The School Library Project with Swadhar and Door Step School in 101 PCMC Marathi medium and Urdu medium schools. This project covers more than 25,000 students from the standard I to IV. • Tarang — A life skills education programme in PCMC and private schools and committees with CYDA, covering more than 5,000 students
The Phulora project with Swadhar for girls in the age group of 14-24 years for life skills and information on health, hygiene, legal rights and so on.
125 self-help groups with a development support team covering 2,500 women, 25% of whom have started their own small scale business.
Our social responsibility footprint extends to the communities in Kasarwadi, where our oldest factory is located; Morwadi an urban slum close to another factory and Bopkhel, an erstwhile village now termed a fringe suburb, situated a few kilometres away from the factory at Kasarwadi.

All our CSR initiatives are equally important and we are particularly proud of them. We have many success stories of children and women, where involvement in our activities has positively impacted their lives and those of their families. Our focus is on sustaining the activities themselves.

—Rati Forbes, director, Forbes Marshall

Interview – DNA