Vedanta Lanjigarh Conducts Weeklong Breastfeeding Awareness Programs

11th August 2021

Lanjigarh, Kalahandi District, Odisha; 11 August, 2021: Vedanta Limited, Lanjigarh unit, India’s premier producer of metallurgical grade alumina, observed the World Breastfeeding Week to sensitize pregnant women and lactating mothers on the importance of breastfeeding for children’s nutrition and overall development. A series of programs were conducted across seven gram panchayats around Vedanta’s Alumina Refinery in Lanjigarh, with nearly 250 women attending the awareness sessions.

Medical professionals from Vedanta Hospital, Government Hospital, and Child Development Project Officers (CDPO) from Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Department interacted with the women, imparted important information about the need and benefits of breastfeeding, and distributed information booklets and iron supplements to them.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. GG Pal, Dy. CEO – Alumina Business, said, “Ensuring collective health and wellbeing of our communities is a key focus area of our social development initiatives. We have undertaken several health interventions in the region, including ensuring quality doorstep healthcare services to people in over 50 remote villages through Mobile Health Units. Our state-of-the-art Vedanta Hospital, which provides specialized medical services to the nearby communities, sees a daily footfall of over 200 people. Our health interventions have also resulted in significantly reducing the incidence of malarial deaths in the region. With these projects, and many more health interventions, we are committed in our efforts to improve the quality of life of our local communities.”

Notably, Vedanta Lanjigarh has won Silver Award at the 5th CSR Health Impact Awards: Covid-19 Edition, organized by IHW Council under the category Rural Health Initiative (Below 1 Cr) for Project Aarogya. The project covers multiple healthcare initiatives taken by the company, such as Vedanta Hospital, Mobile Health Unit, Community Healthcare Awareness, etc., towards helping communities tide over the pandemic.

Appreciating the initiative, Smt. Jyoshana Rani Mishra, ICDS Supervisor, Lanjigarh, said, “I appreciate Vedanta’s exemplary work in sensitizing the community towards the importance of breastfeeding. My special thanks to the team for distributing information booklets and iron supplements to pregnant ladies and lactating mothers.”

In line with the company’s objective of improving the health conditions of local communities, Vedanta provides a wide spectrum of basic and specialized health services, which include mobile health units (MHU), basic health services with childcare facilities, multi-specialty health camps, and many more.

Vedanta’s social interventions in the domains of sustainable livelihood, women empowerment, health, quality education, water and sanitation, bio-investment and community infrastructure reach out to about 60 villages in Lanjigarh and nearby areas, benefiting about a lakh people in a year. It empowers more than 3000 women from 305 self-help groups (SHGs), provides healthcare services to about 60,000 people annually, gives educational support to more than 2800 students, has planted more than 5.4 lakh trees in the community, and built 500 plus infrastructural projects at a community level.

Vedanta is the largest producer of aluminium in India and remains the premier manufacturer of metallurgical grade alumina. The company operates a 2 MTPA (million tonnes per annum) capacity alumina refinery in Lanjigarh (Kalahandi district, Odisha), India since 2007 and an associated 90 MW captive power plant. With its world-class Aluminium Smelters, Alumina Refinery and Power Plants in India, the company fulfils its mission of spurring emerging applications of aluminium as the ‘Metal of the Future’ for a greener tomorrow.

About Vedanta Limited:

Vedanta Limited, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Limited, is one of the world’s leading Oil & Gas and Metals company with significant operations in Oil & Gas, Zinc, Lead, Silver, Copper, Iron Ore, Steel, and Aluminium & Power across India, South Africa and Namibia. For two decades, Vedanta has been contributing significantly to nation building. Governance and sustainable development are at the core of Vedanta's strategy, with a strong focus on health, safety, and environment. Vedanta has put in place a comprehensive framework to be the ESG leader in the natural resources sector. Vedanta is committed to reducing carbon emissions to zero by 2050 or sooner and has pledged $5 billion over the next 10 years to accelerate the transition to net zero operations. Giving back is in the DNA of Vedanta, which is focused on enhancing the lives of local communities. The company’s flagship social impact program, Nand Ghars, have been set up as model anganwadis focused on eradicating child malnutrition, providing education, healthcare, and empowering women with skill development. Under the aegis of the Anil Agarwal Foundation, the umbrella entity for Vedanta’s social initiatives, the Vedanta group has pledged Rs 5000 crore over the next five years on social impact programmes with a thrust on nutrition, women & child development, healthcare, animal welfare, and grass-root level sports. Vedanta and the group companies have been featured in Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and was conferred Frost & Sullivan Sustainability Awards 2020, Golden Peacock Award for excellence in Corporate Governance 2022 and certified as a Great Place to Work 2022. Vedanta Limited is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange.

For more information, please visit www.vedantalimited.com

About Vedanta Aluminium Business:

Vedanta Aluminium, a business of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest producer of aluminium, manufacturing more than half of India’s aluminium i.e., 2.29 million tonnes in FY23. It is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications in core industries. Vedanta Aluminium ranks 1st in the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment 2023 world rankings for the aluminium industry, a reflection of its leading sustainable development practices. With its world-class aluminium smelters, alumina refinery and power plants in India, the company fulfils its mission of spurring emerging applications of aluminium as the ‘Metal of the Future’ for a greener tomorrow.

For more information, please log on to www.vedantaaluminium.com

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This press release contains “forward-looking statements” – that is, statements related to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address our expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “seeks,” “should” or “will.” Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain. For us, uncertainties arise from the behaviour of financial and metals markets including the London Metal Exchange, fluctuations in interest and or exchange rates and metal prices; from future integration of acquired businesses; and from numerous other matters of national, regional, and global scale, including those of a political, economic, business, competitive or regulatory nature. These uncertainties may cause our actual future results to be materially different than those expressed in our forward-looking statements. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements.