Water & Livelihood Security Initiative in Maharashtra by YES BANK

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  • Partners with Buldana Urban Co-operative Society
  • Installs 100 Water Purification Systems to provide safe and clean drinking water access to communities across Maharashtra

Pune, March 8, 2016: YES BANK, India’s fifth largest private sector bank, in partnership with
Buldana Urban Co-operative Society launched the installation and deployment of 100 water purification systems; penetrating deeper in the following prime community locations of Pune with its Water & Livelihood Security Initiative.

  1. Gramin Rugnalay Hospital, Chakan

YES BANK in partnership with Buldana Urban Cooperative Credit Society conducted demonstrations of water purification system and interacted with the beneficiaries to encourage usage of clean and safe drinking water. The event witnessed inauguration of a 300 lph water purifier for 700 patients and staff members of the hospital.

  1. Buldana Urban cooperative Credit Society Headquarter at Prabhat Road, Pune                        YES BANK has successfully installed 100 water purifiers in different cities of Maharashtra including Sangli, Satara, Kohlapuri andPune. At Buldana Urban cooperative Credit Society there was a real time launch and live camera telecast of inauguration at 10 locations that signified a momentous moment of making safe drinking water accessible at these remote locations.
  2. Dada Maharaj Natekar School and Old Age Home, Chikhali

As a part of this initiative, YES BANK conducted distribution of 100 lph household water purification systems to 10 families of school children and organized a session on ‘Importance of safe and clean drinking water’ for them. A 300 lph water purification system was also launched for the supplying clean drinking water to more than 300 school students and old age home residents.

Shri Amar Sable – MP, Rajya Sabha and member standing committee on water resources along with Shri Mahesh Landge – MLA, Bhosari region, Maharashtra presided over the launch at Dada Maharaj Natekar School and Old Age Home, Chikhali.

YES BANK CSR initiatives are ardently driven by the Board of Directors. In line with this practice, Ms. Radha Singh – Non Executive Chairperson, YES BANK and Mr. Vasant Gujarati, Independent Director, YES BANK visited these communities in Pune to provide them with water filters along with Ms. Namita Vikas – Chief Sustainability Officer, YES

Speaking at the launch, Ms. Radha Singh – Non Executive Chairperson, YES BANK, noted “This is a phenomenal CSR initiative which is focused at water availability and livelihood security. The Bank has modeled this partnership program in a manner that can be scaled PAN India, benefiting a number of communities across the country.”

Ms. Namita Vikas, Group President and Country Head, Responsible Banking, YES BANK said, “Access to clean drinking water is fundamental to human health and overall well being. Water-related diseases not only impact physical health of a family, including stunted growth in children, but are also proven to have an adverse impact on livelihoods resulting in loss of future economic opportunities.  This initiative towards providing clean drinking water in the Maharashtra region is a pivotal step towards our COP 21 commitments”

In addition to this YES BANK will install water purification systems at 150 community locations identified by the Inclusive and Social Banking team in Maharashtra along with a deployment of 1,558 household water purification systems in partnership with Swades Foundation.This initiative is in line with YES BANK’s commitment at the COP 21 summit in 2015, to mobilize USD 5 billion towards climate finance in India by 2020. One of the undertakings in this commitment is to touch 100 million lives through safe and clean drinking water program which will further reinforce India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), by 2020.

In the last financial year, the Bank has impacted 62,500 individuals through this CSR project of ‘Water and Livelihood Security’. This included successful deployment of 9,000 domestic water purification systems and 5 community water systems.   YES Bank has also joined hands with the Indian Railways to provide safe and clean drinking water at 1000 railway stations across India by 2019. In the first phase of the project, the Bank has installed such water filters across D’ and ‘E’ category railway stations in the Konkan belt including Madgaon and Majorda Stations and other parts of Maharashtra.

With an aim to bring positive socio-economic impact in India’s rural hinterland, YES BANK, through its flagship CSR intervention will target geographies including Konkan railway stations, Maharashtra railway stations (Nashik, Bhusawal and Solapur region), Raigad and other community locations in Maharashtra.