In wake of the national lockdown due to COVID19 pandemic, Maruti Suzuki India Limited has been undertaking several initiatives to support employees and communities around its manufacturing facilities in Haryana. These efforts are aligned with the local government guidelines and directions to fight COVID19. The Company is fully committed to use its resources to support the health challenge, as per government advisories.
The Company has been using its in-house canteens to prepare hygienic meals for the temporary workmen and student trainees staying in village communities around the Gurugram and Manesar plants. Maruti Suzuki has been distributing over 5,400 such cooked food packets every day for both lunch and dinner in the nearby communities. So far, the company has distributed over 120,000 food packets in the last three weeks.
In addition, the company is supporting the Gurugram administration by providing nearly 500 kits of dry ration every day in association with the Indian Red Cross Society. These dry ration kits are distributed in the nearby villages and include daily use items like rice, wheat flour, cooking oil, sugar and soap. The Company has distributed nearly 10,000 such packet in last three weeks.
To maintain a clean and hygienic environment, the Company is carrying out waste collection and also supporting the sanitization activities in these villages. Besides, fresh and clean drinking water is available from Maruti Suzuki’s 17 Water ATMs installed across 16 villages. The access to the water ATMs is open to all and water is dispensed with strict social distancing norms at a nominal 35 paise/litre.
Supported by the village community leaders, the consumption of water at the ATMs has increased by 4-5 times than previous months. It is estimated nearly 4,500 litres of clean water is dispensed daily at Aliyar village and 3,800 litres in Dhana Village at Manesar. Built on self-sustaining model, water ATMs have a capacity to generate over 1,000 litres of drinkable water per hour. For 100% adherence of quality standards, the water ATM is fitted with a Water Quality display screen. The Water Quality display screen shows the purity of water in terms of TDS (Total Dissolved Solids), temperature and ph level for the users.
Speaking on these efforts, Mr Rajesh Uppal, Member Executive Board (HR, IT & Safety), Maruti Suzuki India Limited said “We are aligned with Government of India’s directives to fight the COVID19 pandemic and are working towards the safety and well-being of our employees and communities around our manufacturing units. Regular communication is being undertaken with all regular and outsourced employees through established employee communication channels. In a unique initiative, we are also connecting with family members of employees through video conferencing to engage and motivate them during lockdown days.”
Using technology tools, the company has also launched an online Family Connect program to reach out to employees’ families over video conferencing. The unique online outreach program is being utilized to engage the families with continuous communication and motivate them during the lockdown.
