From an inadequately educated and backward family of Chandia village, to a reputed voice based BPO of Hyderabad, Ramachandra has made the journey with much hardship, and Tata Steel played a catalyst in the entire process of his training and placement. Through Tata Steel the tribal youth had undergone ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services) training at Bangalore, after which he was absorbed in TBSS, a voice based BPO at Hyderabad as a “call services attendant”. This BPO handles the calls addressed to Tata Sky, Tata Indicom and other leading companies.
One who knows Ramchandra a year back will certainly be surprised today. His command over not only Hindi but English has been remarkable. The family of Ramachandra was among the several other tribal families displaced for the Six million ton integrated steel plant of Tata Steel at the Kalinganagar Industrial Complex. While his younger brother Laxman Jamuda has got a job in Tata Growth Shop at Jamsedpur, and his mother Sabita Jamuda has become self-sufficient too with the help of Tata Steel. Sabita runs a sewing unit in Danagadi in Jajpur District.
Initially with lots of hardship, Tata Steel could win over the confidence of the tribal ladies and convinced them to stand on their feet. Thereafter, the company provided training and sewing machines and now they are supplying school uniforms to several residential schools in Jajpur district.
Ramachandra’s success story is an inspiration to many more people of his age, who are languishing in the remote villages of the state without proper education, knowledge of the outer world and, of course a well wisher like Tata Steel, who can show them the right direction and do the necessary skill up-gradation.
When we often talk of fast rate of development in present day India, there are large number of brilliant tribal students in the rural Orissa, who are denied an opportunity to prove their ability. To overcome this problem has been a major challenge before us, even as the government has undertaken several projects to find a solution. It is praiseworthy that a number of industrial houses have joined hands with the government in this process.
The astounding impact that Tata Steel made to the life of the Jamuda family has been evaluated through a set of 52 indicators mapping the qualitative and quantitative improvements in the lives of the rehabilitated and resettled Tata Steel Parivar members, called QoL, which has shown brilliant results.
The QoL has been developed on the base of the Human Development Index, the Tata Index for Sustainable Human Development and the Happiness Index from His Highness, The King of Bhutan. The indicators has been pilot tested and will now be developed on the Tata Business Excellence Model to make it into a ready to use measurement tool for QoL related activities.
This mechanism finds out, if the stated objective of Resettlement/ Rehabilitation or the discharge of social responsibility is improving the quality of life of the impacted communities.
At kalinganagar, Tata Steel is faced with the challenge of creating a model where Resettlement & Rehabilitation is perceived not as a property compensation process but a process of creating sustained well being. The tangible development that the Jamuda family has achieved is al follows.