Nuvoco Vistas Corp Ltd (formerly Lafarge India Limited), one of the country’s leading building materials manufacturers, bagged the FICCI CSR Award for 2017-18 in the Women Empowerment category at the 17th edition of FICCI CSR Awards ceremony held in New Delhi. They were awarded for their project ‘Aakriti’, which has brought about economic empowerment of women in the community by engaging them in sustainable sources of livelihood.

The project has been implemented in the Nimbaheda block of Chittorgarh where, over time, 400 women from neighbouring villages have been trained in tailoring and associated skills. The project runs across five villages of Mangrol, Bhawaliya, Unkhliya, Arniya Joshi, Nimbaheda in Chittorgarh. Project Aakriti has managed to transform the lives of women and their respective households by empowering them. Their  financial independence has led to them have a stronger voice in dometic decision-making; while additionally improving the overall quality of life through better access to education, nutrition intake and asset creation. The project started as a pilot in 2014-15 when Nuvoco upgraded the stitching training centre to a ‘Production Centre’.

Speaking on the win Joydeep Chatterjee, chief of projects, CSR & corporate affairs, Nuvoco, said, “Aakriti has been one of our most challenging projects as it required changing highly conservative mindsets while also identifying a sustainable source of livelihood that was also considered acceptable for women in that milieu.

It is also one of our significant initiatives in enterprise development, which is thriving and self-sustaining. Viewed against this backdrop; the FICCI Award is an important validation of our efforts.”