Building a sustainable tomorrow - DS Group

The DS Group (Dharampal Satyapal Group) is a Multi-Business Corporation and one of the leading FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) conglomerates with a strong Indian and International presence. Founded in the year 1929, the Group is guided by a clear set of values and built on a strong foundation of collective good. The Group endeavours for the sustainable well-being of the stakeholder communities by addressing economic, environmental, and social issues and challenges.

The Group works on projects across the country to achieve the aforesaid objective focusing on critical areas such as Water, Livelihood, and Education. The projects of the Group are designed on the principles that indigenous knowledge, academic inputs and technological advancement are essential for sustainable development. The Group works in multi-dimensional approaches with the objective to do impactful work with the communities bringing together critical stakeholders like local Government Institutions, recognized Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs/INGOs), esteemed Educational Institutions, and domain experts for conceptualizing robust CSR projects.

“As responsible corporate citizens, it is our duty to protect our planet and preserve it for future generations. We endeavour to create positive social change and contribute towards building a more equitable society where we empower individuals to reach their full potential and lead a better quality of life. We believe that sustainable practices are not only good for the environment but also essential for the long-term success of our business. By integrating sustainability into every aspect of our operations, we strive to create a better world for our stakeholder communities and for those who will inherit it in the future.” said Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman, DS Group.

The Group’s CSR work has been recognized and conferred with many notable awards by various organizations & institutions including the National Water Awards by the Ministry of Jal Shakti and most recently FICCI Corporate Social Responsibility Award.

Water Conservation

According to the World Bank report, 40% of the world’s population lives in water-scarce areas. Climate change has increased the incidences of drought and floods across the globe including India. In the last 20 years, climate change has had sweeping changes in Monsoon which has impacted countries like India which are heavily dependent on seasonal rains. These changes have led to a reduction of water recharge in the streams by 35% causing severely decreased irrigation potential, agriculture productivity, and undermined livelihoods, and food security. Focusing on water conservation and restoration, DS Group has ongoing Water Conservation projects in 6 states of India, namely Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Gujarat.

Therefore the construction of recharging and storage structures, renovation of existing defunct and underutilized water bodies, and soil conservation measures are taken on under this project. The Group is also forming and nurturing two-tier community institutions, water user groups for regulating water utilization at the source level, and the village development committees.

The Group conceptualized the ‘Water Economic Zone, an integrated watershed development project in 2018 to enhance natural resources, particularly water and soil for supporting an agriculture-based economy. Through this project alone, the DS Group’s CSR programme has reached out to more than 23000 people from 26 villages, mostly from the tribal background. The project has treated an area of around 11000 hectares in Alsigarh and Kurabad areas of Udaipur.

Prior to the intervention, the area was characterized by low productivity, rain-fed farming, severe soil erosion and degraded land and forest. Alternative practices like drip irrigation, rain guns based on Solar Pumps, which reduces the practice of flood irrigation and use of fossil fuel based-pumps focus on water preservation and usage of green energy. Besides this, the Farmers were trained on Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for existing crops.

This project is now being replicated in 3000 ha. Area in Khandwa and 1700 ha area in Betul districts of Madhya Pradesh.

Under the water conservation initiatives, 900+ water harvesting structures have been constructed or renovated with a cumulative storage capacity of around 80 Lakh cubic metres till date, bringing more than 2300 hectare area under irrigation.

Livelihood Enhancement

The Group supports a range of projects, which are focused on strengthening the enabling environment for existing livelihood opportunities by providing backward and forward linkages, inculcating improved practices, value addition in products, introducing new technology, facilitating environment and imparting skills for sustainably enhancing incomes. The associated community is also endowed with market-oriented skills and vision to explore diverse avenues to utilize the opportunities in the emerging job market.

Agriculture, Livestock, Entrepreneurship and Skill Development have been the core sub-thematic areas of Intervention. In agriculture, Sustainable and Comprehensive Agriculture for Livelihood Enhancement (SCALE) is a one of its’ kind project where farmers are being provided with end-to-end support to encourage large-scale production so that they can directly supply to institutional buyers. The Group is also supporting Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) for these projects.

The CSR interventions of the DS Group have already impacted livelihoods of 29,263 households across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Assam, and Tripura. The Group directly works with more than 25,000 Farmers on improved agricultural practices, diversified crop patterns, organic farming, post-harvesting practices, market linkages, and livestock management. As of today, approximately 250 households have been supported by the Group through acclaimed Civil Society Organisations (CSO), working in this sub-thematic area.

Education

Initiated in the year 2015, the Group has undertaken a wide range of initiatives to promote quality education through Formal, Non-formal & Remedial methods. The projects are largely focused on bringing development in cognitive and affected domains of the children. The group is running - schools to provide formal education to underserved communities and supporting a school in the tribal area of Sheopur district in Madhya Pradesh. For Non-formal and Remedial education the group has partnered with CSOs that expose students to methodology. Through these projects, the group has served more than 20,000 tribal and urban slum-dwelling students in the age groups 3 to 22 years.

Apart from this, through a very unique project called “Creative Adda”, the group also encourages skill based education for the students. The students are facilitated to explore their learning interests and co-create and design their own learning path.

Other Interventions

The Group also actively undertakes various other CSR interventions which contribute towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). These interventions include setting up mid-day meal kitchens, promoting Swachh Bharat Abhiyan by constructing toilets & spreading awareness, providing basic medical services, renovating schools, supporting orphans, setting up mobile medical units, disaster relief works etc.