Tune in to watch Anup Vikal, CFO, Head of Legal & CSR, Nayara Energy, talk about Sustainable Steps For Healthy Communities.
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00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 While there will be no data to support what I'm going to say,
00:15 but in my limited view, the nutrition status
00:18 has actually improved a little bit.
00:21 You can infer this from the fact that the pandemic has mandated
00:25 people to stay indoors.
00:27 And likewise, for nutrition, this
00:29 has become an area of focus and emphasis.
00:32 More and more people are eating at home.
00:34 More and more people prefer eating home-cooked meals.
00:38 They've been cutting down on junk food,
00:40 as well as people have been embracing healthier lifestyle
00:42 choices--
00:43 exercise, yoga, breathing exercise, stress-relieving
00:46 exercise, et cetera, et cetera.
00:50 Likewise, the nutrition intake of children
00:51 has been a big focus as well, because it's
00:55 become a major measure to fight the pandemic.
00:58 The unavailability of the midday meal scheme
01:00 has made families substitute this
01:02 with healthier home-cooked meals.
01:05 Recipe booklets have assumed a new form of importance,
01:08 with them becoming the reference point for coming up
01:10 with a variety of dishes, even with a limited number
01:13 of ingredients.
01:14 Immunity has taken center stage, and healthier lifestyle
01:19 has not just become important, but it's now
01:21 crucial to the very survival.
01:23 And therefore, the focus has shifted from service delivery
01:26 to awareness generation.
01:28 Digital outreach has become the order of the day.
01:31 Helplines and telecalling services
01:33 are being availed of more than ever now.
01:36 At Nyara, we see that our nutrition and mental health
01:41 lines that we set up have become very, very popular
01:45 in the communities that we operate.
01:47 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:52 Dependency on any one exclusive service delivery medium
01:57 or mechanism is sure to burn this whole thing out.
02:01 Besides, it will make it grossly inadequate.
02:03 Thus, for me, I would say public-private infrastructures
02:07 provide the best complementary elements
02:11 to make a success of any programs, especially
02:14 nutrition-related programs.
02:16 We can effectively use both of their strengths
02:19 and leverage this for best delivery.
02:22 Public infrastructure, which we know
02:24 is far better as far as quantum is concerned,
02:27 accessibility for the people at the grassroot is concerned,
02:31 and so can be used to reach out to masses.
02:33 Likewise, private infrastructure can be better
02:36 for off-section of the community,
02:38 where there is much more precise and precision-based delivery
02:42 that is required.
02:43 A defined delivery mechanism will
02:45 ensure that both are able to reach out
02:47 to relevant population sections, and services are
02:50 utilized to the optimum level.
02:53 Private providers can tie up with CHCs and PHCs
02:57 to provide low-cost quality service in required areas.
03:00 And services like that of 108 Ambulance
03:04 can additionally cater to the urban area,
03:06 thereby providing them with low-cost quality services.
03:09 With both of them having deeper outreach in different forms,
03:13 the complementary nature of both can
03:16 be utilized to benefit the population as a whole.
03:19 Moving on to the systematic health care challenges
03:21 that plague the nation at large, we
03:23 can best sum it up as the limited natures of five A's--
03:28 awareness, accessibility, adequate manpower, affordability,
03:32 and accounting.
03:33 Studies on awareness are many and diverse,
03:36 but the lacuna in awareness appears
03:38 to cut across the lifespan in our country.
03:42 Moving on to a study in India in 2012
03:44 found that in rural areas, only 37% of the people
03:48 were able to access health care facilities
03:51 within a five-kilometer distance.
03:52 Just imagine.
03:53 The ones who lived further from the town, their accessibility
03:57 had much more issues.
04:00 A 2011 study further estimated that India
04:02 has roughly 20 health workers per 10,000 population,
04:07 with allopathic doctors comprising 31% of the population.
04:11 While private sector accounts for most of the health
04:14 expenditure in the country, the state-run health sector
04:17 is the only option for much of the rural and semi-urban areas
04:21 of the country.
04:23 According to rural health statistics,
04:25 the government of India in 2015 was about 10.4%
04:30 of the sanctioned posts of auxiliary nurse or midwives
04:34 were actually vacant, which rose to 40.7% of the posts
04:39 for male health workers.
04:41 27% of the doctor posts as PHCs were vacant,
04:45 which is more than a quarter of the sanctioned posts.
04:48 Similarly, almost 75% of the health care expenditure
04:52 comes from pockets of households,
04:54 and catastrophic health cost is an important cause
04:57 of improbable issues and other related nutritional issues.
05:01 Added to this is the problem of regulation
05:04 in the private sector and consequent variation
05:07 in quality and cost of the services.
05:10 Lastly, in turbulent times that we live in,
05:13 stress, which is a client-provider axis,
05:16 is most severely affected.
05:18 While unreasonable expectation may
05:20 be at the bottom of much of this stress,
05:22 it is time for ethics in health care to come to the forefront.
05:27 Building synergies and constructive partnerships
05:29 across domains, whether they are private, public,
05:32 and civil society, would definitely
05:34 be helpful in addressing some of the challenges
05:36 Mr. Lippa brought.
05:39 Mostly, it would lift some of the burden off
05:41 from the health care machinery.
05:42 And number two, it would really demarcate the arenas
05:46 where each of the above party has a role to play
05:49 and can play a role.
05:51 This, in turn, would help multiple issues being
05:54 addressed simultaneously, while creating
05:56 a very, very symbiotic relationship,
05:59 providing communities with the much needed access
06:02 to systems and services.
06:05 [MUSIC PLAYING]
06:08 From the Ayara Energy point of view,
06:13 we are clearly committed to carve out long-term changes
06:16 in health and nutrition in our communities and in the country.
06:20 That's a hard, fast commitment that we make to ourselves.
06:26 While the blow to the economy is not really unfair,
06:29 but we are unwavering when it says to the same cause.
06:33 Likewise, our board has been extremely accommodating
06:36 in this very difficult time by allotting a budget
06:40 over and above the existing one in order
06:42 to cater to COVID-related relief.
06:45 This has not only sped up the COVID relief process,
06:49 but it also ensured that no CSRM initiatives, especially
06:53 to do with our nutrition-related journey,
06:55 are hampered or shadowed because of any unforeseen expenditure
06:59 on the pandemic.
07:01 Thereby ensuring unhindered implementation
07:04 of our health and nutrition programs in districts
07:07 and states as per our plan.
07:09 In fact, on a more generic front,
07:12 I believe that the companies have rather
07:14 expanded their expenditure on CSR
07:16 instead of cutting it down in spite
07:19 of any economic challenges that may or may not
07:22 be felt by various companies.
07:26 Almost all companies now are working on COVID relief
07:29 as well as contributing financially substantially.
07:33 Apart from CSR, the companies are also
07:36 providing COVID-centric employee benefits
07:38 in terms of additional insurance, advanced payments,
07:41 fundraising, supporting education, health
07:44 care of the children, paying salary to families
07:47 of deceased employees.
07:48 Just a few examples, but there's so much more
07:51 that all companies are doing.
07:54 We've also seen a change in the work culture
07:56 with almost everybody embracing work from home.
07:59 Times have been tough, but the measure
08:01 taken for employees' welfare as well as CSR are significant.
08:06 On our part, we have made some really credible and long-term
08:10 support investments into our communities led by COVID.
08:15 We put up a 50-plus, 50-100-bed COVID center
08:19 with full oxygen facilities, medicines,
08:21 and doctors in our district in a village called Jakhar.
08:25 We put up ambulances, all of them fitted with oxygen.
08:31 We've tied up with UNICEF to implement large oxygen
08:35 plants in our district and many more.
08:38 So I would say with the impact of economy being felt or not
08:43 felt by various different companies,
08:45 CSR and COVID-related measures have actually
08:49 seen an increase rather than any kind of stop or start.
08:54 [MUSIC PLAYING]
08:58 Like I said, health and nutrition
09:02 are very, very long-term commitments
09:04 that Nayara Energy has been working on,
09:07 but actually way, way back before even the pandemic
09:09 started.
09:11 Programs like Community Health and Tuishti
09:13 since the last three years have been instrumental in addressing
09:16 and putting in place some very, very stringent and strong
09:20 mechanisms of preventive and curative health care
09:23 in place.
09:24 Besides, we managed to connect rural communities
09:27 to run the health care services and bridging the access gaps.
09:32 Similarly, we've had nutrition toolkits
09:35 provided to TB patients in our district,
09:38 thereby supplementing the efforts of the district
09:41 tuberculosis department in fighting the prevalence
09:44 as well as stigma associated with the disease.
09:48 Recently, we have set up a COVID care center, as I mentioned,
09:51 in one of our villages, providing 24 by 7 health care
09:55 facilities to all patients who come in
09:58 with mild symptoms of COVID.
10:01 We clearly understand that healthy communities
10:05 are the backbone of any society, and that focusing
10:09 on robust health care systems and facilities
10:13 would directly as well as indirectly
10:15 impact the social and economic fabric positively.
10:20 I always like to tell everyone that doing community related
10:26 support work is a license for us to do business,
10:30 and that's very important.
10:32 We operate on the land that we have,
10:34 which is nearly 2,500 hectares of land,
10:38 has been acquired from 15 villages
10:40 in and around our refinery.
10:43 I strongly believe as villagers and residents of this village,
10:47 our primary duty is to take care of a family, which
10:51 is this extended family of over 50,000 residents
10:54 in this village.
10:56 Our health care programs are similarly
10:58 designed holistically with many components,
11:02 each seamlessly feeding into the other
11:04 to address all of these communities
11:07 and beyond right up to the city of Jamnagar
11:11 and take care of any issues that we have.
11:15 When we talk of TUSHDI program, specifically,
11:19 we counsel pregnant and lactating mothers
11:21 in health and nutrition needs, because that's
11:23 where it all starts as a part of this initiative.
11:27 But apart from that, we also have a nutrition telecounseling
11:30 center where people can call up and free of cost
11:33 get counseling services and health and nutrition.
11:35 And this has seen an uptick now in COVID,
11:38 with people coming and making much more calls,
11:40 checking in much more about nutrition.
11:44 All of this supplements the effort
11:46 and completes the full cycle of health and nutrition delivery.
11:50 Our ability to respond in unprecedented situations
11:53 like this is actually what keeps us going.
11:57 We feel a sense of responsibility
11:58 towards our community and the nation.
12:01 As a company, we realize that situations like these
12:06 calls for us to rise, step up, and do
12:09 more than what we would have done in normal scenarios.
12:13 I'd ask the question, if not us, then who?
12:15 At the end of the day, pandemics and other human-centric
12:20 emergencies have human resources at the receiving end.
12:24 And if they are impacted, then how do companies operate?
12:28 So the first, and in the midst of the second wave,
12:31 the dedication and commitment of the frontline workers,
12:34 even at the cost of their own health,
12:36 has been and will continue to be a massive source of inspiration
12:41 for us here in Nayara Energy as we continue to deliver service.
12:45 Equally inspiring is the government,
12:48 which has stepped up to the scenario,
12:49 ensuring that the nation continues
12:51 to fight the battle against pandemic diligently
12:54 without compromising on anything.
12:57 As long as our country is battling with this pandemic
12:59 so successfully and so well, Nayara Energy
13:03 is clearly committed.
13:04 Since we are fully committed to ensuring
13:07 that all our initiatives positively continue to deliver
13:11 and clearly help the initiatives of the government.
13:15 (upbeat music)
13:18 you