MAHINDRA & MAHINDRA LTD. | Integrated Annual Report 2022-23

76 MAHINDRA & MAHINDRA LTD. Integrated Annual Report 2022-23 The impact of some of the CSR projects your Company invested in for the Financial Year 2022-2023 are shown below: – Project Nanhi Kali supported the education of 1,86,041 underprivileged girls through 7,674 Academic Support Centres across 22 Districts in 9 States of India. Of these, your Company continued to support 52,658 girls, which includes an additional 14,562 girls enrolled in FY 22-23, while the Mahindra Group in total supported 85,778 girls. Given the high dropout rates and learning gaps amongst teenage girls in India, Project Nanhi Kali also introduced training programmes in Life Skills and Digital Skills to empower underprivileged girls in this age group. Over 31,908 additional girls were trained under these initiatives across 2 states. Of these, the Mahindra Group supported 25,600 girls which included 15,000 girls supported by the Company. – Mahindra Pride Classrooms: Mahindra Pride Classrooms continued to enhance employability skills of women through Mahindra Pride Classrooms conducted in Government colleges, ITIs and Polytechnic Institutes across 19 states in India. In FY23, the Mahindra Pride Classroom intervention transformed from a youth focussed initiative to a 100% women beneficiary programme and supported skills enhancement of 1,66,666 women in 1,697 colleges. Out of the total women, 1,03,699 women were supported through your Company. The programme also supported 1,256 men, leading to a total beneficiary count of 1,67,922 supported by Mahindra Group. – Women based farm livelihood: PRERNA Under Prerna intervention, your Company continued to support 11,111 women farmers by training them in effective farming practices and advisory services including soil health, access to gender friendly farm equipment, linkages to Government welfare support initiatives, resource efficient agriculture methodologies, and increasing crop productivity. The intervention was undertaken across 6 states with predominant focus on rural community. – WomenEconomicEmpowerment throughRegenerative Agriculture: The main objective of the programme was to enable women farmers to use regenerative agriculture as a technique to transform the soil on their land, increase productivity and earn profits throughout the year, in addition to ensuring food and nutrition security for their families. Through this project sponsored by your Company, 45,529 women farmers from Moga, Tarn Taran (Punjab), Shravasti (UP) and Wardha (Maharashtra) were provided knowledge in regenerative organic farming practice. This intervention helped women farmers reduce their agriculture input cost and increase income from sale of crops. – Women Economic Empowerment in ITES and Apparel Sector: In alignment to your Company’s commitment to Women’s Empowerment, new pilot projects were initiated to skill and provide employment opportunities for women in ITES and Apparel Sector. The objective of these pilots was to explore the potential job opportunities for women in these Sectors. Under this initiative, 7,076 women have been trained in the respective domain skills in the States of Telangana and Tamil Nadu, of these 6,232 women were trained by your Company. – Project Hariyali aims to increase the green cover, arrest the rising ecological imbalance, protect the biodiversity and in the process support the livelihood of marginalized farmers. Through this intervention, the Mahindra Group planted 2.21 million trees in FY23. Your Company contributed towards plantation of 1.59 million trees, out of which 1.31 million trees were planted in the Araku Valley, which besides greening the environment also provided livelihood support to 3,275 tribal farmer families. Project Hariyali has been further extended in Northern India in the States of HP, UP and Punjab. With the plantation of more than 19 varieties of fruit, forest and shade trees, farmers are ensured a diversified source of income from these species of saplings planted. The farmers have been trained in global organic farming protocols which rejuvenate the soil, increase water retention and soil organic carbon. To date, 22.86 million trees have been planted through Mahindra Hariyali, of which 14.90 million trees have been planted in Araku which supports the livelihood of 26,000 tribal farmer families. – Water Conservation: Your Company continued its efforts on Watershed Development Fund (WDF) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) Projects with NABARD in two locations:- (1) At Hatta, District Damoh, Madhya Pradesh for developing National Priority Areas of Aspirational District (2) Development of River Basin in Igatpuri Block, Nashik District, Maharashtra covering 34 villages with land area of 18,000 hectares. During FY23, your Company supported 7,939 farmers through various interventions of soil and water conservation works, crop diversification measures, livelihood training / support and drudgery