Anand is a leading manufacturer of automotive components and systems in India. With a sales turnover of $634 million, it has the widest range of auto components, supplied to virtually every vehicle and engine producer in the country.

In 1961, Mr. Deep C Anand, Chairman of Anand Automotive Systems, founded the Group's flagship company - Gabriel India in Mumbai for the manufacture of shock absorbers. Today, Anand comprises 16 companies spread in nine states of the country. It has also built up a sizeable export market, currently about 20% of the total sales of existing products, targeted to reach 30% in the next few years.

SOCIAL COMMITMENT of Anand Automotive Systems

Adjacent to its business activities, the Group firmly believes in contributing to the development of the community at large and has allocated a budget of Rs.14 million per annum for welfare activities.

Anand was the first business house in the 70's to start an industry in Parwanoo, then a 'notified backward area'. With the establishment of its facilities, the Group set the pace for industrial development of the township, which also helped in providing employment to the local people.

Over the years, the Group's social responsibility wing – SNS Foundation has set up development centres throughout the country in places where its facilities are located. The development activities include elementary education with emphasis on the girl child, sexual and reproductive health, environmental issues and vocational training to help in job oriented skills development. These activities are conducted with active participation of the Group employees and their families.

SNS Foundation has also been interacting and networking with several business enterprises in India and abroad to bring them into the fold of developmental activities. Owing to its efforts, the Foundation has received support from its collaborators. Henkel of Germany has been financially supporting the mobile general and oral health programme and the Girl Child initiative consistently over the last nine years.

HIV/AIDS Interventions:

To reduce the impact of HIV/AIDS epidemic among the various high risk groups by sensitising, creating awareness and advocating availability and accessibility of better health services for the community, various programmes have been initiated. The ongoing programs are described below.

Life Enrichment HIV/AIDS Awareness Programme: It is a programme supporting 1400 workers of Punj Lloyd Group in collaboration with Give India (under the Indo-US Corporate Fund for HIV/AIDS) as managing partners and SNSF as an implementing partner.

The programme started in Jan 2007 among 1200 shop floor workers and 200 employees associated with Punj Lloyd at there construction site located in Medicity, Gurgaon district, Haryana. With a cascading approach of mentors, ambassadors, peer coordinators and influencers trained to share and educate co-workers about ways to protect oneself from sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS, the project focuses on building knowledge and skills. The objective is to promote correct understanding of the mode of spread of HIV, control its spread and manage morbidity. Further, project aims to institutionalise the program by involving enthusiastic employees and opinion leaders in the workers' community as volunteers.

The project uses wide variety of communication tools such as one to one interaction, one to group interaction, street plays, video shows, quiz etc to enable them to make correct decision about the behaviour that protects them against the HIV/AIDS. At regular intervals health checkups are organized to provide the services accessible at door steps.

The project has resulted in 12 peer coordinators, 120 Peer Educators, 20 ambassadors and 5 mentors emerging from within the 1400 workers/employees of a single work site, trained to disseminate critical information using street theatre, self-made and improvised education materials, holding workshops and even function as project managers for initiating similar activities in new project sites of Punj Lloyd. Due to access provided for regular medical consultations, yoga therapy and counselling through a fully equipped wellness and Medicare room, incidence of reproductive tract infections are fast coming out in the open and responding well to treatment while condom use practice is universal among workers. 128 voluntary blood testing has also been achieved, thankfully with nil positive. The importance of prevention of stigma and discrimination is currently theoretical information as no cases requiring treatment has been thrown up.

This project is now on an expansion mode with the project reaching out to an additional 750 workers/employees of the pipe-line project in Vashi, Greater Mumbai. An estimated Rs. 5.6 million has been set aside by Punj Lloyd for this initiative over 3 years.

An Integrated Approach towards Prevention of Parents to Child Transmission (PPTCT) of HIV through Safe Motherhood Initiatives

The program is been executed at Solan District of Himachal Pradesh State among the rural and urban slum population with the goal of creating a safe and supportive environment for PPTCT of HIV through safe motherhood initiatives. The project is being provided technical support and financial support from MAMTA with AUSAID as main funding body. The project mainly focuses on raising community awareness regarding PPTCT and mobilization to utilize safe motherhood services, sensitization and capacity building of the safe-motherhood service providers and other key stakeholders in the government sector, and to integrate PPTCT and safe motherhood through advocacy efforts. Intervention such as individual and group meetings, identification of community inducers, street plays, identification and strengthening of pressure groups and health functionaries at village and block levels through trainings and workshops are the key highlights of the project.

The project reached 43579 beneficiaries and there had been increase number of pregnant women accessing safe motherhood and institutional delivery services. In addition, women opting for voluntary counselling and testing services along with their spouses had also been increased.

HIV /AIDS Target Intervention among migrants

The said Programme is carried out among the migrant workers in urban area of Solan District with support from Himachal Pradesh State Aids Control Society since September 2007. The program primarily addresses the issue of reducing the risk behaviour through multiple interventions such Behavioural Change Communication, STI treatment, condom promotion and enabling environment. Communities are reached with HIV/AIDS preventive messages through one-on-one, one-to-group, street plays, magic shows, and puppet shows etc. Further clinic is set up for providing treatment of STIs/RTIs.Also regular health camps are organised to serve the ureached population. Condoms are promoted through informative and entertaining games and are also made available through establishment of condom outlets. The project sensitised 9000 migrants and 1200 migrants were treated for STI/RTIs.Increase in demand for condom has been a remarkable feature.

As per the govt. requirement, sentinel Surveillance was also done in the targeted area.

HIV/AIDS Work Place Intervention programme

The program is carried out in Mumbai, Maharashtra with support from Avert Society in collaboration with USAID for the Industrial Workforce of MNC's of MARG (Mutual Aid Response Group) Industries between Mulund to Kurla since November 2005. The program emphasizes on building the knowledge and skills of the workforce so as to prevent them from HIV/AIDS. At the companies' management level, project also advocates for preparing HIV AIDS workplace policies and to generate a sense of CSR among various units. Creating awareness through group meetings, individual meetings, counselling, health camps and clinics, establishment of white box (kind of condom outlets), condom vending machines and workshops for workplace policy initiatives are the thrust areas of intervention.

The efforts resulted in creating awareness among 9000 workforce of identified 56 industries, 5 companies has initiated the activities related to work place policy. "Pink Program - a program designed for addressing female health issues" has been identified as best practice.

On 1^st Dec. 2006, SNS Foundation received UNAIDS award for the efforts made in Work Place Intervention programme that was intervened for the Industrial Workforce of MNC's of MARG (Mutual Aid Response Group) Industries, Mumbai.

For more information contact:

Mrs. Indira Varadarajan
Executive Director,
SNS Foundation
88-89 Industrial Development Colony
Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road
Gurgaon-122001
Landline: - (0124) 2333851, 2333129, 2321665
Mobile: - 09810743570
Email id: indira@snsf.org
Website: www.snsf.org