Claro Energy’s area of work and quality of implementation complements and fulfills most CSR mandates as specified in the Corporate Social Responsibility Act (2014), as per Section 135 and sub-sections (1) and (2) of section 469 of the Companies Act, 2013.
CLARO Energy is a social enterprise. We have spent 7 years working on bringing energy access and access to water, to India’s under-developed rural areas. Our network of localized engineers and sales and after-sales personnel are connected to the pulse of these geographies, and the people who live here. Our experience has given us insights on not just the problems faced by this agriculturist population, but also the impact of development on their livelihoods. The Claro team is focused on ensuring reliable solar water pumping services and solar mini grids for rural electrification. Our objective has been to ease unfulfilled water needs, not just for irrigation but for drinking and other daily requirements, and also bring a reliable source of rural electrification to rural communities.
While all this development activity addresses economic and lifestyle issues, it should be noted that this has a positive impact on the environment as well. Using solar energy to power rural development activities can help steer villages clear from the pollution problems currently being faced by urban areas – air pollution, annual increase in average temperature etc. In fact, villages can become a model for a more sustainable social setup, using renewable energy methods for powering livelihoods.
Focusing resources on reliable development activities, through data monitoring, is ideal for any CSR programme. Claro ensures a transparent development process, with complete accountability for installations and system performance.
CSR PROJECT FACILITATION
Our CSR Partners can contribute to a project by providing complete/partial funding for the cost of machinery and installations required in the project. The organization may consider associating with us from concept to completion, and monitoring thereof, or we can also work with their existing NGO partner and execute the projects as desired.
Claro takes responsibility for managing the project, including the following aspects:
Deploying CSR funds in focused areas, for under-developed societies
Designing the project / supporting the associated NGO in project proposal
Project location selection
Allocating dedicated manpower for Installation of the project
Reliable post-installation services
Training the end user about maximum utilization of resources
Efficient operation of the project
Before and After Impact Survey
Areas of CSR
Drinking Water
Problem Area:
Some of the most remotely located people in India face the acute problem of water scarcity. These people have to either travel significant distances every day, to collect fresh water, or end up using water that may not be fit for consumption. Adults have to forgo profitable and productive activities in order to fetch a few litres of water from distant locations, while children miss out on school time, as they are sometimes given the responsibility of fetching water.
Goal: Easyaccess to clean and fresh ground water for rural communities
The Indian agriculture sector accounts for 17 per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) and engages almost 50 per cent of the country’s workforce. However, the majority of our farmers does not have access to reliable electricity and are either dependent on rainfall for irrigation or on diesel engines to power the pumps. The situation is even worse for small scale and marginal farmers who cannot afford expensive diesel and, many a time, stay without cultivation or end up improperly irrigating land, which leads to a low produce. This, along with the ever rising threat of global warming, provides enough cause for concern and impetus for us to make the move towards sustainable agricultural practices.
Goal
To empower farmers with solar pumps for irrigation and reduce their dependency on expensive and/or unreliable options
Lack of water availability and sanitation place many hurdles to education in the rural sector. Most rural schools lack toilet facilities; and even if they do have these facilities, they don’t get proper water supply for sanitation to keep these toilets running. Lack of clean toilets has often been attributed to as a prime reason in discouraging children from attending schools. It is needless to mention, in this situation the girl child is the worst affected.
Goal
To reduce the number of ‘absent’ school days for children, which are caused by a lack of clean water for sanitation.
India has set itself an ambitious goal of achieving high-quality electricity supply for all households by 2019. While decent progress has been made in increasing the number of households covered by grid, the quality and reliability of electricity service to rural households is still dismal. There are still thousands of villages where grid connectivity can’t reach, and where it does reach the power supply is erratic or inadequate. For households, this means staying plunged in darkness for days on end. For farmers, this means that they have to look for alternative, more reliable, sources of energy to power their irrigation needs. More often than not, they turn to the expensive and polluting option of diesel. Despite being more reliable, the high cost of diesel limits the scope of farmers’ cultivation efforts. Needless to say, diesel adds to the degradation of the environment.
Unreliable electricity or simply a lack of electrification can lead to a lack in employment opportunities, which eventually leads to migration, over-dependence on urban resources and the urban economy. Even children’s education gets hampered, and entrepreneurship opportunities don’t get to see the light of day. The desired progress never happens.
Goal
To set-up mini grids in electricity impoverished areas, and provide dependable and adequate power to rural households and to provide farmers with access to water for irrigation.
