Corporate Social Responsibility

As enunciated in its mission statement, Equitas seeks to improve the quality of life of its members. Equitas recognizes the need for a comprehensive approach towards this purpose.

Equitas Gyan Kendra (Vocational training centre) 

At Equitas Gyan Kendra, members are provided vocational training to help augment their income levels. Each centre will train 2000 clients in various skills like making candle agarbathi, phenyl, detergent, tailoring, Embroidery, masala powder, pickle, jam making etc in Cities and Towns and Agri based activities like bee keeping, Mushrooms, rabbit-rearing, basket making , fibre extraction in these training centres. In addition to Equitas Gyan Kendra skill development Training is imparted in Semi urban and rural areas. In a short span Equitas has imparted training to 59264 members. As a next step, Equitas is exploring the potential for providing market linkages to such training programs. A pilot on market linkage for clients is currently on in manufacturing raw agarbathis.

Equitas Shiksha 

Through Shiksha, Equitas proposes to provide quality supplementary education services to the children of members who have availed micro credit from Equitas Microfinance India Ltd. Shiksha is currently being piloted at 8 centres - 4 in Chennai and 2 each in Hyderabad and Pune. Each Shiksha Centre has a Headmistress and part time teachers who cater to the child's educational support needs as is demanded of them for each of the classes individually. The assessment procedures are well structured and each week the child undergoes an assessment. The feedback of the assessment is given first to children wherein a good amount of error analysis is done. Once a month, the parents are called in for a parent teacher meet where the assessment sheets are given to the parents along with the report card. The Sunday classes held for 2 hours on sunday mornings exclusively for Shiksha students and helps students to update on their awareness of current affairs, developing appropriate handwriting and provide them with career guidance programs life skills etc in a phased manner.

Equitas conducts eye, dental, veterinary and health camps by partnering with Rotary clubs and medical service providers such as Shankar Nethralaya, Aravind eye Hospitals, Vasan Eye care, Agarwal eye care, Rajan Eye care, Uma Eye Care, Deepam Group of Hospitals, Chettinad, Ekam Trust for Pediatric care & Voluntary Health Services (VHS), Hindu mission, etc. Apart from screening for general ailments, eye-check-ups and cancer screening, these camps also help improve health and solid waste management to improve hygiene & living conditions. Within the past year, Equitas health check-up camps have reached out to 1,69,869 members; including 22907 members who received spectacles and 5859 members had cataract operations performed.

Equitas Health Helpline 

Healthcare is a source of significant financial stress for Equitas members. A particular problem afflicting members is the lack of access to quality healthcare; especially for critical illnesses. Equitas has installed an inbound call centre to serve as a helpline for members to obtain information on treatment of serious illnesses by quality health-care providers at a subsidized cost. Equitas has established partnership with healthcare service providers; who will provide their services either free of cost or at reduced prices for Equitas members. This facility is being piloted at Chennai and has helped patients obtain prompt access to healthcare at the right hospital; and at a reduced cost. The initial success of this initiative is set to be bolstered by a larger network of hospitals that will be empanelled in the next few months; and the expansion of this service to areas other than Chennai as well.

Other Social Activities 

Conducted awareness camps on eye donation and collected 11283 forms from women members and our Staff including the MD Mr P N Vasudevan pledging their eyes to Rotary Rajan Eye bank,T Nagar.

Eye Donation:

Successfully obtained two pairs of eyes from our fold

1. one pair to Rotary Rajan Eye Bank, Chennai 
2. one pair to Arasan Eye Hospital , Erode

Employment Oppurtunities 

In another proactive step, Equitas is working to enable employment opportunities for members’ relatives. Equitas is in the process of constructing a web portal for linking employers to these potential employees.

• CSR Summary Cumulative for Month Ending MAR 2010

• What Customers have to say about Equitas

In addition to these CSR activities of Equitas, it has established a not-for-profit trust named Equitas Development Initiatives Trust - EDIT. The following eminent personalities from a cross section of the society serve as the trustees:

• Dr. C K Gariyali, Retd IAS

• Mr. M B Nirmal, Founder Exnora International

• Mr. P N Vasudevan, M.D Equitas Micro Finance Ind. Pvt Ltd

• Mr. S P Mathur - Retd IPS

• Ms. T.V. Jayalakshmi

The Trust was launched on 25th February 2008 in Raj Bhavan, Chennai in the august presence of His Excellency, the Governor of Tamilnadu, Shri Surjeet Singh Barnala. The Equitas Micro Finance Company is committed to contributing 5% of its annual profits as donations to this Trust. The Trust has two main focus areas: Education for the poor children and Community Development. This multi-pronged approach from Equitas is expected to lead to a wholesome impact on our members’ lives.

A host of other social interventions are also currently being developed. Watch this space for more details on Equitas’ CSR activities!