Mumbai: The Godrej Group stands in solidarity with the people of India and our Government’s efforts to overcome the unprecedented coronavirus pandemic, which is impacting the lives of millions of people, and countries across the globe. We will try to the best of our capabilities to serve our customers, employees, communities and country, and especially support health personnel, government workers, and everyone working tirelessly to curb the spread of this pandemic.
To start with, we are earmarking a fund of 50 crore rupees for community support and relief initiatives in India. This is an initial outlay and we hope to supplement it over time.
The fund will back some of the following initiatives underway focused on public health and essential supplies, as well as additional efforts in the months ahead.
Medical equipment and protective supplies
We have started our work in Maharashtra, which is among the most affected regions in our country, with roughly 21% of total cases. We will extend this support to other states as well.
• Buying and supplying medical equipment and protective supplies for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)
• Donated 5 crore rupees to the BMC
• Donated 115 hospital beds to Maharashtra government hospitals
• Helped set up a 75-bed quarantine center at the Seven Hills hospital, Andheri
Product innovation and supplies
As the second-largest maker of soap in India, we will do our best to ramp up innovation and supplies to serve our country.
We recently launched the #ProtektIndiaMovement, a nationwide multi-media and multi-channel campaign to promote mass awareness around handwashing and public health. As part of this, we have:
• Supported the free distribution of 1 million packets of Godrej Protekt Mr. Magic powder-to-liquid hand wash (the world’s most affordable hand wash) in Maharashtra through partnership with the BMC and Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC)
• Partnered with communities linked to our CSR programmes to support 1.12 lakh beneficiaries across 8 states with hand wash, sanitisers and soap
• Donated sanitisers to the Mumbai police force
• Begun ramping up capacity to meet the demand for soap, hand wash and sanitisers
• Initiated outreach through various networks and hand wash education programmes
Our leading furniture brand in India is doing a lot of innovation in health care and hospital furniture, to create ergonomically designed healing environments. We are directing specific efforts to help secure the health and safety of our nation. The BMC has enlisted us as providers of essential services and given the green signal for commencing factory and warehouse operations. We are actively collaborating with them to ensure we meet the demand requirements.
We are also exploring how we can leverage our medical refrigerators business, construction capabilities to build quarantine rooms, and expertise in mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems for hospitals, to serve our country at this time.
Support at factories and construction sites
We are committed to supporting our contract labour and workers at factories and construction project sites.
As one of India’s largest real estate players, we are particularly concerned about the acute problems being faced by migrant labourers. Towards this, we have initiated focused efforts:
• Ensured that our project sites across 8 cities are being sanitised frequently, and have health screenings and adequate food and hygiene supplies
• Set up isolation facilities at our labour accommodation and closely monitoring the needs of our people to ensure quick responsiveness
We will continue to build on these efforts with safety, compassion, ideas and hard work (even if it is from afar), so that we can come out stronger on the other side.
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