NTPC Kudgi's empowerment drive upskills girls from 5 villages

Time of India

7 days ago

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Vijayapura: National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), Kudgi has rolled out its Girl Empowerment Mission (GEM) 2025 in five project-affected villages—Kudgi, Masuti, Golasangi, Telagi, and Muttagi.
The initiative will benefit 76 girls, aligning with the central govt's 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao' programme, and aims to foster gender equality and holistic development.
Akshay Hujare, CSR executive, NTPC Kudgi, informed that the workshop commenced on May 21 and will conclude on June 21. "We have selected 76 girl students studying in class 6 from 14 schools in rural areas. Over the course of the workshop, participants will engage in an immersive experience that includes academic sessions, life skills training, yoga sessions, sports, and various co-curricular and extracurricular activities.
We are inviting achievers in the region to interact with these students so that they can get motivated. It is not just a workshop, but a transformative journey. By offering a safe, inclusive, and enriching environment, the initiative continues to inspire young girls to grow into confident, capable, and future-ready individuals," he claimed.
Hujare said that basics of the students' school subjects will also be covered in the workshop.
Bidyanand Jha, executive director, NTPC Kudgi, told TOI that GEM is a flagship CSR project launched in 2018 in the vicinity of NTPC power stations across the country. "It was conferred as the first runner-up in the prestigious 2014 UN Women India (Women's Empowering Principles) award in the 'community engagement and partnership' category. This initiative is implemented in NTPC Kudgi since 2021 by conducting a month's residential workshop for rural girl students.
This mission aims to educate, inspire, and empower our young daughters to dream big and achieve even bigger. Through this mission, NTPC aims to contribute to building a more equitable and progressive society," he added.
He also asserted that some talented and interested employees of NTPC are also engaged in this workshop.
Workshop participants Poornima, Khairunbi, Basamma, Basheera, and other students said that they came to the campus with just the clothes they wore.
"As soon as we arrived here, we got a kit with all daily need materials - right from footwear to hair clips. We are also getting benefits of medical, menstrual care, and dental check-up camps. At home, we were least bothered about eating and were deprived of nutritious food.
Here, we are getting sufficient and nutritious food. Moreover, our lifestyle has improved with habits like waking up early in the morning. We were never away from our parents and hence we were homesick in the beginning. However, caretakers ensured that we synchronised with the new environment and now we feel like this is our own home," they shared.