Children’s development: a work in progress for RSP

Rourkela: Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) has been making relentless efforts towards holistic development of the children of the steel city as well as periphery areas as part of its corporate social responsibility.

The Steel Plant is currently running seven schools with about 2400 students and spends about Rs 10 crores annually.

Now, the number of schools run by it in the Steel City is more than 30 with provision of various infrastructure or financial support. Many alumnae of these schools have excelled in the Indian Civil Services, IIT and IIM examinations and international level competitions. Many of them have also made it the top and prestigious positions in prominent organizations.

RSP has introduced an array of schemes to promote educational excellence in the peripheral neighbourhood. The Steel Plant gives scholarships to 100 underprivileged students and has been awarding scholarships to meritorious students for excellence in the High School Certificate and M E School examinations. The company has so far given scholarships worth Rs 42.23 lakh. Every year 10 SC/ST students, pursuing professional courses, are being given a scholarship of Rs 1 lakh each. Till today, 36 students have availed the benefits of the scheme.

RSP has also provided additional class rooms, and computer education facilities in various schools and colleges covering more than 100 villages.

RSP is also continuing its bid to enhance scientific temper of the students by organizing inter-school science exhibitions for the last nine years. The sheer range of ideas, the gamut of creative thinking, concern for the environment and above all the innate urge of the young scientists to stretch the frontiers of creativity through initiative and innovation finds its expression in these exhibitions.

For intellectual development of students, RSP has been organizing the Steel City Best Young Orator competition, which has been an immensely successful venture of the company in inculcating creative thinking and oratory skills among the students. Several quiz, debate and essay writing competitions are also being organized frequently for them to mark various important days and celebrations.

Ethics Clubs have been launched in four schools of RSP so as to instill morals, values and ethics in them when the slate is clean.

Awareness programmes are also organized at regular intervals to create awareness among the students about environment, different social and health related issues, etc.

Beside, RSP is sponsoring a number of cultural programmes and competitions round the year, bringing to the fore the artistic talents of the children.

Sports and games feature very prominently in the curriculum of all the schools in the Steel City, with all of them having large playgrounds. In the various school-level sports championships as well as the summer coaching camps, the students from the periphery villages are encouraged to participate. Rural Hockey and Kabaddi competitions are organized regularly to bring to the limelight the talented youth.

In order to fulfill the aspirations of the underprivileged children of Rourkela to study in a good school and have all the facilities enjoyed by their counterparts from the superior strata of the society, RSP has set up the Deepika Ispat Siksha Sadan. The responsibility of managing the school has been given to Deepika Mahila Sanghati, a leading philanthropic organization of Rourkela. The facilities given to the students in the school are at par with any standard school of Rourkela.

The children studying here are not only given free education but also provided with school uniforms, winter clothes and shoes. Healthy lunch prepared by ‘Indian Coffee House’, a reputed organization in this field, is also being given to the children.