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TOI Social Impact Awards: They make India a better place

Sept 20, 2011
In over 1,000 villages of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Himachal, SST empowers rural women for getting loans to start small businesses like making lantana furniture, agarbattis, or running dairies. Some 4 lakh people have gained from these initiatives.

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Partners In Progress - Of Milk And Honey

June 16, 2011 OUTLOOK BUSINESS
On its part, the TVS Group is undertaking development programmes on a much grander scale. Group companies TVS Motor and Sundaram Clayton have come together to form the Srinivasan Services Trust (SST). The trust, which has been focusing on community development programmes since 1996, is working in around 1,000 villages in four states: Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh.

"We have five focus areas—health, education, women’s empowerment, infrastructure and environment—and they are all equally important to us," says Ashoke Joshi, Chairman of SST. "If you can take care of all these, I presume that you would be able to bring about changes in the lives of everyone in the community," says Joshi, a retired IAS officer.



Initially, the Trust conducts an exhaustive survey in each village. Details of the villagers—their names, occupation, health details, income levels and other particulars—are collected and filed.

Based on these data, the trust members design and implement projects to improve the community. “For example, in some tribal communities where honey-collecting is a profession, we trained them and taught the correct methods of collecting it from the hives. Now, they can collect honey every three months as opposed to the earlier practice of once a year,” says KS Krishnan, a consultant of SST.

The trust involves the community in project design and implementation. This way, Joshi says, the people take ownership of the projects and learn to become self-sustainable. “There should be no dependence on us. We have to mentor them for a while. As they grow in confidence, we will drop out,” he explains.

Shenbagathoppu, located at the foothills of Javadhu Hills in Tiruvannamalai district, is one of the villages adopted by SST. Known as ‘mountain-dwellers’ in Tamil, these tribals are steadily getting exposed to modern ways of living. Satellite dishes can be seen atop three different houses. “A few years ago, if we saw someone wearing trousers entering our village, we would be scared,” says R Lakshmi, with a toothy grin. It has been five years since her self-help group was formed with SST’s help.

The Shenbagathoppu self-help group members are involved in an interesting economic activity: wickerwork from a weed called Lantana. This weed is considered to be ecologically harmful and grows in abundance in and around the village. The villagers use it to make furniture and handicrafts.

SST has helped Lakshmi and the other tribals embark on the journey towards economic independence. Earlier she would earn about Rs 17 a day, cutting and selling wood. Now, thanks to the self-help group, she earns about Rs 2,400-3,000 a month through the furniture and handicrafts business. “Earlier, we used to take loans at higher rates of interest. Now, we don’t take loans…. We have some savings," she says.

The villagers of Somanahalli, Kharach and Shenbagathoppu are a testament to how much India Inc can achieve when it adopts a village.

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Pilot project for technology transfer

Feb 22, 2011
Srinivasan Services Trust, a Corporate Social Responsibility arm of TVS Motor Company Limited implements pilot project for technology transfer, credit counselling, and market advocacy at Thirukurungudi recently for increasing agricultural productivity

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A taste of India

June 21, 2010
The Chennai-based Srinivasan Services Trust (SST), an NGO of the TVS group which is using its resources for the uplift of hundreds of villages spread across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh (Solan) and Maharashtra — and management students from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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Tsunami Rehabilitation Relief

Dec 26, 2004
Siemens along with the German Business Community in India joined hands with Srinivasan Services Trust, a reputed NGO and adopted 4 villages in the affected regions of Nagapattinam and Kanyakumari districts for Tsunami Rehabilitation Relief.

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