As part of its initiatives to empwer rural women, Tata Steel BSL has started a new tailoring training centre for women of villages near its plant at Narendrapur in Dhenkanal.

After COVID-19 lockdown, the CSR wing of the company has opened a new training centre in Raghunathpur village under Nuagaon Panchayat for the members of Self-Help Group (SHG)s under its Women Empowerment and Entrepreneurship (WEE) which was formally inaugurated by Mr Dibyahas Ray, Head, CSR, Tata Steel BSL. This 3- month long training programme will equip the 25 members of 7 SHGs with basic skills on tailoring as well as knowledge on market linkage to help them make livelihood from this.

This initiative was started in December 2019. By now 133 women from six villages including Itap, Kurunti, Kusupanga, Nuagaon, Sibapur around the plant have already been trained. From them 36 members spread across 23 SHGs of 9 villages under the umbrella of Gruhalaxmi cooperative have prepared 74,000 masks during the pandemic and worked as community COVID warriors by supplying masks to the villagers as well as to Tata Steel BSL.  Now they are procuring 35 deluxe automatic sewing machines in a subsidised rate so that they can foray into commercial stitching in a competitive way.

The success of these projects is expected to have a long-lasting impact on the local communities that have been severely affected by COVID-19 pandemic.  

About Tata Steel BSL 

Tata Steel BSL Limited, formerly known as Bhushan Steel Limited ( BSL), is India's fifth largest flat steel producing company with an existing steel production capacity of 5.2 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) as on March 31, 2020. Tata Steel BSL has recorded a gross revenue of USD Million 2,414.13 ( INR 18,199.14 Crores) in FY 20. The organisation is spread across India with an employee base of over 5,700. 

On May 18, 2018, it was acquired by Tata Steel Limited through its wholly-owned subsidiary Bamnipal Steel Limited.  Tata Steel BSL has been felicitated with several awards including for best practices in Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) by CII, Odisha State Council  2020, Odisha State  Energy Conservation Award (Energy conservation initiatives  and carbon abatement projects) under CPP, 9th Icon SWM Excellence Award 2019 for industries  (Overall environment excellence award –Category waste management), 15th CII- EHS Award Odisha Chapter (Overall excellence in Environment, Health and Safety, National Energy Management Award 2019 by CII for its  Khopoli unit as Energy Efficient Unit.