Eye camp and awareness drive by 'Pehal' initiative

HEALTH / SOCIAL

A 'Pehal' initiative of United Technologies and United Way of Delhi

Eye camp and awareness drive on 

health and hygiene in Chakarpur 

village Gurgaon

As part of ongoing 'Pehal' initiatives among community of migrant labourers inhabiting Chakarpur village, Gurgaon, United Technologies (UTC) in partnership with United Way of Delhi, organized an eye camp and an awareness drive on health and hygiene for the community. The initiative is part of sustained interventions under 'Pehal' to improve education, healthcare and habitat of over 2,000 families of migrant labourers, 10,000 people in all, living in makeshift houses in Gurgaon. The labourers have migrated to Gurgaon from various parts of India and are daily-wage earners.United Technologies has a manufacturing facility in Gurgaon for commercial air-conditioning systems. 

The following activities were conducted among the 

community under the eye camp and awareness 

drive on health and hygiene

        Eye testing for all members of the community, and advice on keeping healthy eye sight. Also, good spectacles for everyday wear were provided at a nominal rate to those prescribed eye lenses.

        

Primary health check-up for all children living in the community.

         An interactive session on personal hygiene through 

simple everyday habits, including regular hand washing, 

nail cutting and hair cutting.

         

Sports activities for children, Sharing of experiences 

among community members on the change in their way of 

life and outlook since start of 'Pehal'.

Under 'Pehal' various other initiatives have also been undertaken, such as the following 

        An awareness drive, covering over 12 slum clusters at Chakarpur village, on proper sanitation and healthcare as a prerequisite to building the capacity to participate in economic opportunities. The activity included UTC India employee volunteers joining Pehal project officers and members of the migrant labour community to manually clean the neighborhood, setting an example for the inhabitants to follow. Under the drive, 21 toilets in the community have been refurbished to render them usable to all community members at all times.

         Opening of a healthcare centre at Chakarpur village to provide curative and referral services from a qualified medical practitioner. The healthcare centre operates in the evenings to deliver medical care to the greatest number of labourers during their non-working hours, and can

cater to over 7,000 patients a year.

         A job fair that connected the community youth with prospective employers, which also apprised the youth of the skills and habits to develop for the jobs they aspire to have. Organizations such as Costa Coffee, Domino's, Pizza Hut, Sodexho and Vaango participated at the fair. The fair was attended by 58 community youth, 21 of whom received offers for employment with salaries of up to Rs 144,000 annually. The youths hail from households in the community where average income is Rs 60,000 annually. Employee volunteers of UTC subsidiaries in India have assisted the community youth develop life-skills that have helped the youth join the economic mainstream.

Also under 'Pehal' a financial literacy program for the members of the community has been organized for them to channelize their financial resources productively, women self-help groups constituted, awareness and use of low-cost water filter propagated for hygienic drinking water, among other initiatives. 

Pehal was started in July 2012 and aims at holistic development of the target community of migrant labourers, through active volunteering by employees of United Technologies subsidiaries in India. Pehal is tailored for sustained betterment of the living conditions of the target community and aims to benefit more than 10,000 individuals across 20 slum clusters in Chakarpur village, Gurgaon. Pehal initiatives would also include a bridge course for children deprived of formal schooling to catch up on education and learn basic life skills, and plantation of over 1,500 saplings by women and youngsters to improve their habitat, among others.