- Supported 600 beneficiaries in West Bengal to become self-reliant and earn better
- Second phase of intervention targets 4000 more women in Kolkata, Patna, Udaipur, Raipur & Bhubaneswar
National, May 31, 2017: Continuing its commitment towards women empowerment and skill-building, IndiGoReach, the CSR arm of IndiGo, India’s largest and fastest growing carrier, and Bandhan-Konnagar, one of world’s leading non-profit organisations, today celebrated the success of the first phase of ‘Targeting the Hard-Core Poor’ (THP) Program. Started in 2015 in association with Bandhan Konnagar in West Bengal, the program targeted women-headed families with limited or no means to livelihood. The event celebrated the success of 600 beneficiary women and their families who were able to enhance their income and livelihood through sustained intervention of the THP programme over twenty-four months by way of business skill development training and on-site assistance. In its second phase, the program aims to help 4000 more women in Patna, Udaipur, Kolkata, Raipur & Bhubaneswar.
THP, an internally-acclaimed livelihood-generating model of Bandhan Konnagar, has been validated by leading economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Ms. Summi Sharma, Vice-President, ifly – who also leads the company’s CSR programme – IndiGoReach, said on the occasion, “We are ever so grateful to Bandhan Konnagar for giving us this opportunity to partner with them for a programme that’s centred on women empowerment. Having been associated with IndiGo for over a decade where empowerment is practiced across all levels, my small contribution towards these women will be memorable. We have successfully culminated the first phase of THP where 600 women and families were impacted. We are now planning to enter into second phase of THP and our endeavour is to enhance the lifestyle/livelihood of 4000 underprivileged women based different parts of the country.”
Mr. Debasish Raychoudhuri, CEO Bandhan Konnagar expressed a note of thanks to IndiGo team and said, “It has been an honour to work with IndiGo on THP Programme. Their commitment in the areas of child education and women empowerment is a significant support to organizations such as ours that are consistently working towards bringing economic, social & inspirational changes in the lives of the poorest & marginalized women”.
The THP program has been operational in the Deganga Region of North 24 Parganas of West Bengal. After identifying 600 beneficiaries through Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), the program provided consistent support to them for twenty-four months. As these women graduate today, they will be self-sustained and mainstreamed to enjoy the socio-economic benefits with their family members. Through targeted intervention, significant enterprise asset growth amongst the beneficiaries has been observed to increase to more than Rs. 20,000/-While improvement in income was one of the chief indicators, these women were also educated on the importance of saving. Almost 78% women saved over Rs 20,000 within the duration of this program.
IndiGo runs dedicated women empowerment and education programmes. Some of the ongoing programmes include our intervention with Pradan for the project- Women collectives led Action Towards Environment Rejuvenation (WATER) where we are working with 37,000 women in rural slums of Ranchi. To read more about Bandhan programme – please visit IndiGo website and refer to the IndiGo CSR report – 2015-2016.
About IndiGo
IndiGo is India’s largest airline with a market share of 41.4% as of April 2017. IndiGo is one of the fastest growing low cost carrier in the world (source: CAPA). IndiGo has a simple philosophy: offer fares that are always low, flights that are on time, and a travel experience that is courteous and hassle-free. IndiGo, with a Technical Dispatch Reliability of 99.86%, has one of the best On Time Performances in India. With its fleet of 135 Airbus A320 family aircraft, the airline operates 934 daily flights connecting 46 destinations.
IndiGo is led by its President and Whole-time Director, Aditya Ghosh and is promoted by InterGlobe Enterprises and Mr. Rakesh Gangwal, an aviation industry veteran and entrepreneur. InterGlobe Enterprises is a leader in aviation, hospitality and travel related services‚ growing the market through innovation and service leadership. We build businesses and represent global brands that deliver quality and value. Established in 1989‚ with headquarters in Gurgaon‚ today InterGlobe has a network of 126 offices across 59 cities globally. InterGlobe employs more than 20,000 professionals across its businesses which include IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation), InterGlobe Technologies‚ InterGlobe Air Transport‚ InterGlobe Technology Quotient‚ InterGlobe Hotels and InterGlobe Education (www.interglobe.com)
About IndiGoReach
IndiGoReach is an initiative under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program of IndiGo. Through the initiative, IndiGo sensitizes its employees and stakeholders to work towards its focus areas – Children and Education, Women and Environment. The vision and mission of IndiGoReach is to consistently contribute towards the betterment of under privileged sections of the society for economic prosperity, social development, environmental integrity and sustainable development of the nation.
About Hard Core Poor Programme
In May 2015, we started working with Bandhan Konnagar to support their Hard Core Poor Program. The program targets poor families, where a male earning member is missing, there is no regular source of income and the family is unable to afford 2 square meals for themselves. The families identified have an income of Rs.1000 per month. The program provides household level counselling to improve the self-confidence & attitude of the women who head these families. This program aspires to facilitate village level committees to provide community guardianship to these beneficiaries and help facilitate public entitlements & main-stream benefits for these families. IndiGo is currently working towards making an impact to 600 beneficiaries. As a result of our intervention, these women and their families will be able to enhance their income and livelihood assets through their new enterprises for meeting the minimum requirements of the family- say, in the range of INR 8000 to INR 10,000 per month on an average.
About Bandhan Konnagar
Bandhan Konnagar is a not-for-profit entity registered under the West Bengal Societies Act, 1961. The main thrust of the organisation is to alleviate poverty and empower women. Bandhan Konnagar was founded in 2001 by Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, who continues to be its Creator-Mentor. It was in that year the organisation had begun with a micro-crerdit operation. In 2006, Bandhan Konnagar launched the THP program. As the non-profit intervention made progress, the micro-credit operation was segregated from Bandhan Konnagar and placed under an NBFC in 2009.
Following this, the development work continued under the stand-alone banner of Bandhan Konnagar and the micro-finance operation became a separate entity that later merged with Bandhan Bank. Today, the THP program has reached out to more than 54,000 women-headed households in 9 states of India. Apart from THP, Bandhan Konnagar offers an entire suite of development programs in the areas of education, health, market linkage, skills development, financial literacy and renewable energy. The organisation hand-holds people belonging to the lowest stratum of society to help bring about their socio-economic turnarounds and has been constantly expanding the scope of services it offers, in keeping with best global practices in the development sector.