Lupin foundation aims to make 3 districts poverty free by 2022

Lupin Foundation, the CSR arm of pharma company Lupin Ltd, today said it will adopt three districts -- one each in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh -- to make them poverty free by 2022.

"We will adopt Dholpur in Rajasthan, Nadurbar in Maharashtra and Vidisha in Madhya Pradesh under district development programme to make rural area of these districts poverty free by 2022," Sitaram Gupta, Executive Director, Lupin Welfare and Research Foundation, told reporters here.

He said the districts have been identified by Niti Ayog "Transformation of Aspirational Districts" and assigned to Lupin Foundation for their development.

When asked about the money that Lupin Foundation plans to invest in these three districts, Gupta said the company may invest beyond regulatory requirement and for additional funds, if required, it will raise loan from National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).

"The investments will be sourced from Lupin's overall CSR budgets. In a scenario, where the funds required are over and beyond the overall budget allotted, we are open to approaching external agencies like NABARD to meet the demand and ensure the success of the initiative, Gupta said.

Lupin Foundation claims to have already made rural part of Bharatpur district poverty free by making 20,000 employable by imparting them skill development training and working to train another 30,000 youth.

"7,000 youth of Bharatpur have been employed as mason after we trained them. They contributed in making toilets under Swachch Bharat Scheme and are being employed for PM Awas Yojana. Now we are going to make urban area of Bharatpur poverty free," Gupta said.

Lupin Foundation has identified 8,000 families in Bharatpur that are below poverty line. It will impart skill development training to them and make them employable.

Gupta said he is confident of making the new three districts poverty free within stipulated time frame as the organisation already has experience vicinity of two districts- Dholpur and Nandurbar.

"Under government's Transformation of Aspirational Districts programme, we have to work on 6 parameters including education, health, rural infrastructure, skill development, etc; but in addition to these we will also focus on women empowerment," Gupta said.

He said Lupin Foundation has partnered with over 10,000 women self-help groups across 4,171 villages to expand its rural development programme.

At Sindhudurg, Lupin Foundation assisted 60 small scale entrepreneurs in cashew processing and set-up centre where women entrepreneurs prepare local cuisine for passengers of Indian Railways.