At Salboni, in Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal, a proposed 10-million tonne steel plant is to be executed by JSW Steel’s subsidiary, JSW Bengal Steel. Earlier in September 2008, JSW Steel received Government of India’s approval to develop a SEZ for the Steel plant at Salboni. The foundation stone of the project was laid on November 2, 2008. The total proposed area for the plant is 5000 acres which has already been acquired.

Demographic profile
The plant site at Salboni includes 19 villages and 24 mouzas under two Gram Panchayats. Around 95% of the land for the project is fallow barring a few acres in two mouzas, mainly inhabited by tribal. School dropout rates are high in the region, which depends on one seasonal agriculture. The men are mainly farmers and work as agricultural labourers. Some men work as migrant labourers and helpers in construction work. The rate of migration is high due to employment opportunities in cities where they are paid daily wages. Women are involved in Sal leaf plate making where involvement of middlemen stops them from earning optimum benefit. Most of the villages are situated away from the main road, which causes a major difficulty for the villagers to commute to health centers, markets etc. due to the need of transportation. Electricity has still not reached most of the villages. The region is mainly arid with low levels of vegetation since water is a scarce supply. Hand pumps are present but most of them do not function. The villagers live under impoverished economic and social condition.

CSR Activities

The mobile healthcare clinic of JSW Foundation started in the year 2007 prior to commissioning of the project work. The team comprised of a MBBS doctor, a Pharmacist (B.Pharma), a lady nurse (GNM) and a driver for the Ambulance purchased by JSW Foundation. The clinic operates 5 days a week from two central villages and once a week camps are held at tribal villages. On an average 70 to 75 patients from various age groups attend the clinics from affected and surrounding villages. Approximately 25000 villagers are contiguous to our project site. Most of the patients are from poor socio-economic background and free consultation near their home and free medicine supplied by JSW and free pathological tests being conducted made it possible to access modern healthcare. Children below 9 years predominantly suffer from RTI, GI infections, scabies and worm related complicacies. Children in the age group 9-14 years, in addition to the abovementioned diseases, suffer from malnutrition. People in the age group 15-30 years primarily have GI infections, vague pain in various parts of the body and nutritional deficiency such as anemia and thyroid related problems. Few patients suffer from goiter. Hypertension and vision problem due to cataract is another area of concern in the upper age group.
Timely implementation of mobile medical service has been very successful and widely accepted by the villagers, who are increasingly availing of these services. The clinic has earned popularity and trust amongst the villagers far and wide due to the excellent service, medication and consultation provided by the Foundation’s medical team.

Livelihood

Exhaustive survey has been conducted by Women Interlink Foundation (WIF). Systematic study done in 34 villages to assess (a) prevailing situation of women and children and (b) identify existing need and product oriented skills among women & adolescent girls.
They have product oriented: food processing, bamboo craft, promotion and production of sal leaf plate making etc,
Service oriented: Beautician, aya/sebika training, catering, computer (for literates only) laundry and photocopying (electrified villages only)
Skill Oriented: Tailoring, spice grinding, candle and incense stick making.
Central government has allocated 300 ITIs all over India under the Public Private Partnership scheme out of which JSW has adopted 13 ITIs at every plant location in West Bengal. JSW has also adopted Two ITIs at Jhargram and Medinipur under the ASSOCHAM banner.

A core committee has been appointed to develop an ITI. It is planned to provide better technical education to the students of the institute and also market their products to encourage them a better option of livelihood.

Institute of Chartered & Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) carried out survey in 2386 households in 47 villages with approx 15,000 populations to determine socio-economic profile of the residents. This is part of our compensation package. They categorised skills in different sections for future employment in the proposed plant and its ancillary businesses training modules are being developed.