CSR is an integral part of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited’s (BPCL) business. In its quest for greater social inclusion, BPCL has been crafting, deploying and supporting a host of initiatives, largely in five core areas – Education, Water Conservation, Health & Hygiene, Skill Development, and Community Development. With its CSR initiatives, the corporation looks forward to establishing long term relations with various communities.

Education: There is no denying the fact that education is one of the most fundamental enablers for realizing India’s demographic advantage. Lack of access to quality education is a huge obstacle to development of an equitable society and a sustainable economy.

BPCL’s various education projects endeavor to increase access to quality education in Rural Areas through project “Akshar”, which focuses on improving learning levels of children in language, science and mathematics while leveraging technology wherever possible. The project has successfully reached out to more than 4 lakh children, being implemented in Nandurbar an aspirational district in Maharashtra and Sagar in Madhya Pradesh. In total, under Education BPCL has touched the lives of more than 7.15 Lakh Students.

Skill Development: Under the Skill India Initiative of Government of India, BPCL has taken the lead in setting up a state-of-the-art Skill Development Institute (SDI) in Kochi and also participated in and contributed towards other SDIs in Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Raebareli and Guwahati.

These SDIs have been set up to enhance the employability quotient for the Oil & Gas Industry as well as for other Industries requiring skills of similar nature. In skill development projects, the corporation has reached out to more than 12,000 people by focusing on placement/employment-linked skilling of women, unemployed youth and the disabled especially in rural areas and aspirational districts.

BPCL under its skill development project has trained around 42 thousand youth, women and underprivileged sections since 2014 and have set-up an ITI in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu.

Water Conservation: Importance of water has risen from micro issues to macro and therefore BPCL has initiated project “BOOND”-a water conservation project through rain water harvesting.  The key objective of this initiative is to transform villages from water scarce to water positive. BPCL has successfully reached out both directly and indirectly to communities in more than 230 villages through the desilting of supply channels and by linking channels in the chain, desilting the tanks, strengthening of bunds, check-dams, village ponds, repair /reconstruction of structures for water regulation, setting up roof rain-water harvesting thereby increasing the availability of water. This has increased agricultural yield and horticulture produce which has resulted in reduced migration.

Health & Hygiene: Health and Hygiene has been an important thrust area of BPCL’s CSR initiatives. The corporation has several projects for tribal maternal and child healthcare programs, Cancer care and cure programs, operating mobile medical vans for easy access to the most vulnerable communities who are deprived of primary health services, as also projects that reach out to cancer affected, provide free surgeries and also strengthen the existing healthcare infrastructure across the remote parts of the country. BPCL also has mobile medical units running in the most rural and remote places and the Life-line Express (Hospital on Wheels) which has reached the interior rural areas. The corporation has covered more than 1.18 Crore people under its Health Initiative.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan: BPCL has enthusiastically participated in ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’, the flagship movement of Government of India. BPCL has been relentlessly working towards making Bharat ‘Swachh’ through various clean/green initiatives. The corporation aims and contributes in creating an ‘Open Defecation Free’ country through the construction and renovation of around 3300 toilets/sanitation blocks in schools and communities especially in backward districts and rural areas to create a safer space for women and enable young girls to continue their education. BPCL has also provided 12 ‘Bandicoot’ robotic manhole cleaning machines to Indore, Coimbatore, Dhule and Mumbai Municipal Corporations for cleaning of manholes and dignifying the lives of manual scavengers. Furthermore, as a part of the Swachh Iconic places movement the corporation is supporting Madurai Meenakshi Temple in Tamil Nadu and the Sri Adi Sankaracharya Janmasthan in Kalady-Kerala. BPCL has covered more than 7 Lakh people under Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan.

Community Development: BPCL has undertaken various Community Development initiatives focused on rural development and slum development. BPCL has constructed community halls, supported transformation of Slums and their beautification, construction of sports Infrastructure, etc. BPCL carried out integrated development activities in the Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra encompassing sustainable livelihood for small and marginal, construction of Malgujari tanks for water harvesting, provision of safe drinking water in schools and setting up of libraries in schools under the ‘Parag’ project and instituting a central kitchen to feed school children for the complete economical and intellectual development of the community.  BPCL has also supported and reached out to around 2.7 Lakh people with this initiative.