Tata Motors’ CSR Initiatives transform 1 million lives in FY24

Throughout the year, Tata Motors has focused on synergizing efforts across government, non-government, and private sectors to drive impactful social programs.

Tata Motors, India’s leading automobile company, has released its 10th Annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report, marking a decade of transformative community initiatives. Titled “Building Together a Million Dreams,” the report highlights the company’s sustainable impact on over 1 million lives, emphasizing the vital role of partnerships in this journey. Over 40% of the beneficiaries belong to SC and ST communities, with Tata Motors extending its reach to 94 aspirational districts across 26 states and 8 union territories, significantly expanding its CSR footprint beyond neighboring communities.

Vinod Kulkarni, Head of CSR at Tata Motors, expressed pride in the milestone, stating, “Transforming over one million lives through our dedicated CSR initiatives is a remarkable achievement. Our innovative ‘More for Less for More’ strategy has enabled us to enhance efficiencies, leverage technology, optimize resources, and scale up programs, allowing us to reach farther and make a deeper impact nationwide. This success reflects the steadfast support of our partners and the trust of the communities we serve. Moving forward, we are committed to addressing critical social issues and integrating government schemes to foster sustainable development in education, health, employability, and environmental conservation.”

Throughout the year, Tata Motors has focused on synergizing efforts across government, non-government, and private sectors to drive impactful social programs. These initiatives span Health (Aarogya), Education (Vidyadhanam), Employability (Kaushalya), and Environment (Vasundhara), with special attention to water conservation and integrated village development.

Key highlights of Tata Motors’ CSR report for FY24

Advancing Water Security: Through a partnership with NAAM Foundation, MGNREGA Department, and the Government of Maharashtra, Tata Motors has rejuvenated and developed 106 water bodies in rural Maharashtra under the Government of India’s Amrit Sarovar Mission. This initiative to date has created a capacity of 1,860 million litres of water across Palghar, Pune, and Satara districts, enhancing agricultural productivity, raising water tables, providing access to potable water, and ensuring year-round irrigation.

Enhancing Rural Livelihoods Through Integrated Community Development: Tata Motors adopts a holistic approach to engage with rural communities with a specific focus on strengthening local governance. The Integrated Village Development Programme (IVDP), which began in the tribal block of Jawahar in the Palghar district of Maharashtra, has now been replicated in proximate communities of other plant locations like Pune, Sanand, Jamshedpur and Lucknow.

Expanding its engagement to five-gram panchayats in Jawahar, IVDP has reduced migration from 45 percent to 25 percent, increased average household income by 60 percent, and ensured year-round availability of water in this tribal belt. Tata Motors has transformed the barren hamlet of Navapara in Ahmedabad district, inhabited by an underprivileged tribal community. With year-round access to potable water, 190 of the 230 households have adopted fishery as the key source of income. Migration of the community has reduced by 40 percent and there is a 10 percent decline in the rate of school dropouts

Creating a Greener and More Sustainable Environment: In collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra and the BAIF Institute under the Mahatma Gandhi NREGA scheme, Tata Motors has planted 1.7 million saplings across Palghar district in Maharashtra, benefiting 13,000 farmers and converting 13,000 acres of unutilised farmland to productive use.

Tata Motors’ Urban Forestry initiative, in partnership with the TERRE Policy Centre, has planted 125,000 trees over a cumulative area of 200 hectares in and around Pune. These urban forests absorb 300,000 kg of carbon annually, protect biodiversity, and improve air quality.

Empowering Students through Enhanced Educational Support: The Engineering NEET Admission Bridge Accelerated Learning Engagement (ENABLE) Programme, in collaboration with Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti, Avanti Fellows, and Ex-Navodaya Foundation, supports over 550 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas with coaching, live classes, and mock tests for JEE and NEET exams. Annually, ENABLE coaches and counsels 18,000 science students of Std XI and Std XII via a digital platform to prepare for medical and engineering entrance examinations. In 2023-24, 27 percent of students from the ENABLE online programme qualified for IIT JEE while 79 percent qualified in the NEET exams.

Building New Career Paths for Youth: Learn, Earn and Progress (LEAP), a flagship social responsibility programme, imparts auto trade skills in Motor Mechanic Vehicles (MMV) to youths from underserved communities, especially school dropouts who lack the skills to be employed. Partnering with ITIs, Skills for Progress (SKIP), and Tata Motors dealers, it provides three months of theory training followed by nine months of On-Job-Training (OJT). With its footprint in 16 states, LEAP trains around 1500 youth annually, ~80 percent of whom get placed within or outside the Tata Motors ecosystem. A significant segment of LEAP’s beneficiaries are first-generation learners.

Improving the livelihood of the tribals’: Despite having first and natural rights over forest produce, tribal families from Junnar and Ambegaon talukas in Pune district of Maharashtra were not permitted by the government to undertake commercial purchase or sale of hirda berries. In 2020, a Farmers Producer Group (FPG) was established under the guidance of Tata Motors and Shashwat Sanstha to train and employ local youth for the procurement and sale of hirda.

The FPG has grown from 300 families in 11 villages to over 5,000 families across four talukas. The real-time, fair pricing provided to the farmers has resulted in generating INR 4 crore in revenue over four years. This initiative has enhanced family incomes, arrested migration, and promoted sustainable agricultural practices.

Holistic Health Initiatives: In 2023-24 the Malnutrition Treatment Centre (MTC) in Jamshedpur, in partnership with Parivar Kalyan Sansthan (PKS), extended its healthcare services in remote areas and increased capacity-building programmes for the Anganwadi workers. MTC, which treats 5,500 children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM) annually, achieved more than two-fold growth in its outreach.

Building on this success, Tata Motors has expanded its efforts to combat malnutrition by collaborating with the Institute of Social Development (ISD) and the Child Development Department in Uttarakhand to establish the Parvarish Kendras and improve the quality of life of vulnerable communities.

Strengthening Employee Volunteering: Tata Motors undertook transformative measures to fortify volunteering as an organisational culture. The company reported the highest-ever employee participation of 59 percent as they volunteered 1,17,000 hours for community service.