Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT), India’s largest paper manufacturing company and part of the US$ 3 bn Avantha Group, today announced the launch of its Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) centre at the existing district hospital in Koraput. The centre was inaugurated by Mr. Gadadhar Parida, IAS, District Collector - Koraput. Launched as a collaboration between BILT, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and CII, the ART centre will provide drugs as well as CD 4 and other testing facilities to HIV positive patients who reside in Koraput and the adjoining districts. It will be the first of its kind in Orissa, and will work as a private-public partnership. This is the second ART centre established by BILT, the first being successfully run in Ballarpur, Maharashtra.
Launching the project, Mr. Ajay Gupta, Unit Head, Unit Sewa, BILT, said, ”BILT has always worked for the socio-economic development of the regions we operate in. In continuation of our efforts, we have opened the ART centre to provide treatment, testing facilities and counselling for HIV positive patients. We are thankful to the district administration and our other partners for their support. We are confident that this will help tackle the issue of lack of adequate medical facilities for HIV positive patients.”
“In India, there are an estimated 5.7 mn HIV positive people (UNAIDS, 2006). Of these, around 5 lakh need Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART), and the numbers are expected to grow in the coming years. In the absence of a complete cure, the ART helps the sustainability of a patient. However, a patient who starts the therapy has to take it lifelong under supervision. Accessibility to an ART centre is, therefore, crucial for HIV positive patients. Today about two lakh patients have initiated ART through the 174 centers established all over India. This indicates that the patient:centre ratio is highly skewed. Hence, we strongly believe that corporates will have to step up efforts not only to establish more ARTs but also to invest towards spreading education and awareness about HIV,” said Ms. Yashashree Gurjar, Chief General Manager and Head Corporate Social Responsibility, Avantha Group
The ART centre will function on ‘out patient’ basis. Patients requiring hospitalisation will be referred to the district hospital. The centre will function in collaboration with NACO, New Delhi, and will receive technical support and partial funding from CII, New Delhi. NACO will provide testing kits and ART drugs, as well as drugs to treat opportunistic infections like TB, pneumonia, diarrhoea, etc., in HIV positive patients.
The ART centre will provide counseling to HIV positive patients and their family members on an ongoing basis. It will also conduct pathological tests like CD4, blood count, urine, blood sugar and tests for the diagnosis of sexually transmitted infections. The centre will also impart training on home-based care to family members, and will refer patients to larger hospitals, besides linking them with the HIV positive network and starting support groups. Patients will be charged nominally for testing The centre will be managed by a trained doctor and a counsellor.
“With an approximate population of 12 million, Koraput district has, over a period of time, become a ‘medium prevalent’ district from a ‘low prevalent’ district. Some of the adjoining parts of the districts have a large number of HIV positive people. The district currently has over 700 positive cases (out of the 11,156 cases reported in Orissa) with no access to an ART centre. The opening of this ART centre will provide the much needed support to HIV positive patients,” said Ms. Yashashree Gurjar.
Avantha recognizes that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is a global crisis and constitutes one of the most formidable challenges to development and social progress. The Group also believes that this challenge needs to be addressed at a corporate level. In September 2005, BILT launched a programme on Prevention of Health and HIV/AIDS in the all six manufacturing units across four states in India. BILT’s manufacturing units are located in remote areas, with large numbers of migratory population. The project has partial funding from International Finance Corporation and technical support from International Labor Organization, NACO and State AIDS Control societies. The project has reached out to 15,000 employees, their families, and approximately 10,000 truck drivers and cleaners who visit the locations.
The highlight of the project is that it has involved employee volunteers from all cadres to act as peer educators and facilitators to disseminate relevant information to the people. A trained professional is appointed at each location to implement the project.
BILT has won several awards for its CSR initiatives.
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About Avantha:
The US$ 3 bn Avantha Group is one of India’s leading business conglomerates. Its successful entities include BILT, Crompton Greaves, The Global Green Company, Avantha Power & Infrastructure, Solaris ChemTech, Salient Business Solutions, and Avantha Technologies. International subsidiaries include Pauwels, SFI, Intergarden, Ganz, Microsol, Sonomatra, MSE Power Systems and Puszta Konzerv.
The Group has business interests in diverse areas including power transmission and distribution equipment and services, paper and pulp, energy and infrastructure, food processing, farm forestry, chemicals, IT and ITES. Led by Gautam Thapar, Avantha demonstrates strong leadership globally and emerges as a focused corporate, leveraging its knowledge, leadership and operations, adding lasting value for its stakeholders and investors.
About BILT
Ballarpur Industries Limited (BILT), part of the US$ 3 billion Avantha Group, is India’s largest manufacturer of writing and printing paper. Subsidiaries include Sabah Forest Industries, Malaysia’s largest pulp and paper company, and BILT TreeTech Limited (BTTL), which runs BILT’s farm forestry programme in India. Ranked among the global top 100, BILT has seven manufacturing units.
In India, BILT has a dominant share of the high-end coated paper segment, with over 50% of the coated wood-free paper market, 85% of the bond paper market and nearly 45% of the hi-bright Maplitho market.
CSR at BILT
As part of its CSR, BILT works with more than 200,000 people living in remote parts of the country on a wide range of issues including livelihood enhancement, health and education. Formation and strengthening of community-based organisations like self help groups and youth groups, andcapacity building thepanchayat members are an important focus of the programme. The company offers skill training and also helpscommunities set upsmall enterprises through the provision of micro finance at the village level. BILT’s CSR initiatives have been widely recognized, and have been conferred with various awards, including TERI Award for CSR (2003-04), Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) Award for CSR (2005-06), Businessworld FICCI- SEDF CSR Award (2005-06), Asian CSR Award (2005-06), Golden Peacock Global Award for CSR in Emerging Economies (2007), Intel - AIM Corporate Responsibility Award (2007) and TERI Corporate Award for Business Response to HIV/AIDS (2008).
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