HDFC Bank has extended its HRDP, or Holistic Rural Development Program, to 750th village in the country, Umpathaw in the north east India. Some 550 inhabitants of the village will now have access to potable water and their children, a smart school with clean toilets. The bank intends to cover 1000 villages by 2019. The initiative has so far impacted the lives of over 10 lakh people in 16 states across the country. HRDP is a flagship CSR initiative of Parivartan, the bank’s umbrella brand for all its social development programs. It seeks to better village life by focusing on improvements in 5 key areas of education, skills training and livelihood enhancement, natural resources management, water and sanitation and financial literacy and inclusion. The program includes a thorough assessment of the village to understand its developmental needs and long-term solutions in partnership with an NGO and the local community. Paresh Sukthankar, DMD of the bank, said the bank believes that for India to achieve inclusive growth, the villages must grow in tandem with cities. Through HRDP, the bank is doing just that by creating sustainable communities in remote pockets of the country, he added.
