Bangalore, January 25, 2021.

In line with its commitment to support the growing healthcare needs of the local communities, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) today held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new Community Health Centre (CHC) at Bidadi, near Bangalore. Dr. CN Ashwathnarayan, Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister and Dr. K Sudhakar, Hon’ble Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Karnataka, and Mr. A Manjunath, Hon’ble MLA of Magadi constituency graced the occasion along with senior Government officials and TKM senior official Mr. K V Rajendra Hegde, General Manager, EA(State), CSR, BIA, and PR.

The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project was conceived following the appeal to corporates by the Ramanagara District Health Office for building healthcare infrastructure to cater to the increasing local demand for quality healthcare. CHCs are facilities run by the Government of Karnataka to provide affordable and comprehensive primary and preventive medical, dental and mental healthcare. TKM is investing INR 120 million for constructing a new two-storied building within the existing CHC premises in Bidadi on the Bangalore-Mysore highway. Construction of the new CHC is likely to be completed in the next 24 to 30 months. The new CHC facility, when ready, will benefit more than 120,000people from the local communities besides highway accident victims. 

Apart from constructing the new CHC facility, TKM will invest in building outpatient rooms for paediatrics, OBG, an aesthetics and dental specialities. The CSR project involves creating injection, optometrist, X-ray, recovery and immunizations rooms, wards, different laboratories, pharmacy, staff rooms, meeting hall and OPD registration counters etc. TKM will provide furniture, fixtures, and electrical systems as well for the proposed CHC. While TKM will develop and construct the new facility, it will be maintained by the Health Department, Government of Karnataka following a handover from TKM under a public-private collaboration effort.

Commending TKM on relentless efforts towards the betterment of the society, Dr. C N Ashwathnarayan, Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister, said, “Healthcare facilities are of utmost significance as individuals belonging to all age groups and backgrounds need these facilities. The Government of Karnataka has placed top priority on providing citizens access to good health care infrastructure. We are glad that responsible corporates like Toyota have been consistently supporting the creation of quality healthcare infrastructure to serve the community in rural Karnataka. Efforts like these will help in bridging the gap in the healthcare system thus preventing chronic illnesses and promote a healthy lifestyle.”

Sharing his thoughts on the public-private partnership, Dr. K Sudhakar, Hon’ble Minister of Health and Family Welfare, said, “On this occasion, I would like to reiterate the Government of Karnataka’s commitment to provide availability of good quality health care to all our citizens. The primary contribution of Community Healthcare Centre is providing easy access to avast range of medical services such as affordable medical and dental centres, medicines, medicare in rural Karnataka. A healthy lifestyle leads to a healthy community, ecosystem and environment. With this initiative, i would like to applaud TKM’s effort for extending its support to contribute to the local community of Ramanagara”.

Commenting on the occasion, Mr. A Manjunath, Hon’ble MLA of Magadi constituency, said, “We aim to meet the growing needs of medical services across all the strata of the society and hope that the new CHC will improve the overall health outcomes of the community leading to better quality of life. Further, we are glad that corporates like TKM have been consistently initiating and completed projects in vital spheres such as health, education, skilling, environment, and road safety. These measures are much needed in the rural areas of Karnatakawith immense benefit to the community.”

Talking about the project, Mr. Vikram Gulati, Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Governance said, “The initiative is a great example of Government, local authorities and a corporate coming together in understanding and catering to the critical needs of the local communities. It also underlines TKM’s strong emphasis on contributing to the creation of self-reliant and sustainable communities. We believe health and hygiene are two areas that are essential to achieving this goal. Hence, we have directed our energies in these two focus areas. It gives us immense pride to note that more than 800,000 people have benefitted from TKM’s CSR-led health and hygiene initiatives since 2001.”

“The new CHC project comes at a time when there is increased focus on strengthening the public healthcare infrastructure to deal with the current and future pandemic situations. Furthermore, given its location on the highway, it will also function as an accident and trauma care centre catering to the injured within the golden hour.”

From 2001, CSR has been an integral part of TKM’s philosophy. The voluntary initiatives taken up by TKM and our employees focus primarily on scalability and sustainability. The activities revolve around five main themes of Education, Environment, Hygiene, Health, Road Safety and Skill Development.

In the areas of Hygiene and Health, TKM has taken series of initiatives to enhance the sanitation facilities in government schools and improving the awareness among schoolchildren. TKM has pledged its support to the ‘Swachh Bharat campaign.’ Under this initiative, TKM has constructed 795 school sanitation units in Ramanagara district in Karnataka [includes 124 units are in Varanasi and 94 units in Vaishali in Bihar].  Around 31,604 girl children benefitted from this program. Recognizing the need for a new approach, TKM also initiated the ABCD (A Behavioural Change Demonstration) Project with a focus on bringing in a behavioral change. The project implemented in 1004 schools aims at achieving 100 per cent school sanitation by increasing awareness. Under this program, more than 13518 individual household sanitation units were constructed.

Further, under its Shaale Arogya project initiated in the FY 2019, TKM in collaboration with Education and Health department of Karnataka carries out screening of schoolchildren for malnutrition, anemia, and eye diseases. A total of 14,248 school children have been covered from 109 schools in Ramanagara district. We intent to cover additional 5,000 students by March 2021 under this initiative. Moreover, TKM has so far constructed eleven schools while two more schools are ready for inauguration benefitting 2362 school children.

To improve healthcare infrastructure, in 2018, TKM constructed Primary Healthcare Centre at Byramangala in rural Karnataka with the state-of-the-art medical equipment and healthcare services benefitting over 20,000 patients. TKM has also began installing RO water purification units in and around Bidadi since 2012. So far, 41 RO units are installed benefiting 2.6 lakh villagers and covering 258 villages.