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Helping students transform their tomorrow in India

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Posted on January 12, 2010 by Raquel Córdoba

Helping students transform their tomorrow in IndiaHow many production sites does ArcelorMittal have in India? For the moment, none. This does not mean, though, that we are not active in the country. Here are a couple of good CR examples…

As a student at the Rajnagar High School, 16 year old Tarini Shankar Behera diligently goes through textbooks and study material in preparation for his upcoming Board Examinations. His chances of excelling in these exams have greatly improved thanks to a new coaching centre set up by ArcelorMittal India, which offers extra tutorials to local students.

“I study at a government school and there are not enough teachers to guide us. When I learnt that ArcelorMittal India is running a tutorial centre in my village, I immediately enrolled. Now, I get extra coaching in English, Math and Science and this has given me new confidence,” Tarini tells us.

ArcelorMittal India has been operating tutorial centres in its project villages in Keonjhar since February 2009 (you can see a lesson in the picture). Over 135 students have already enrolled.

Many more are benefiting from another project supported by our Group in India: children studying in 200,000 schools are learning about important environmental issues and what role they can play in fighting climate change. The ‘Pick Right’ campaign was launched by the President of India, Smt. Pratibha DeviSingh Patil and initially targeted 100,000 schools; however, with ArcelorMittal’s support, the campaign was able to double the number of schools.

Collaboration: Sunanda Sanganeria, ArcelorMittal India Communications, and Tobin Postma, CR Communications



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5 comments


  • January 12th, 2010 by josephus munu

    thanks to mr mittal.

    but why are the children sitting in the floor and the teacher without shoe in his foot? are they all waiting for mr mittal to buy chairs and shoes? no nooooo man. can any body explain to me why is like that in indian? we are moving ahead , so mr mittal is moving with people that ready to move.



  • January 13th, 2010 by francoise TONNELLIER

    “why are the children sitting in the floor and the teacher without shoe in his foot?”

    Extra tuitions might take place after regular school time i.e. in the afternoons. Certainly a hot time in India: The floor is then the coolest place of a room. Inferring from the posture of the students, it looks as if they were used to sit this way (They look a lot more gracefull than me doing the same!) Moreover, thus any available, shady and quiet place is suitable for tuitions.
    I’m wondering if the fact that girls are sitting in the front means that, over there, girls are a tiny bit more studious than boys -like in Europe…



  • January 14th, 2010 by raquel

    This is an interesting discussion! We have talked about it with our CR colleagues on the spot. They tell us that development of infrastructure is poor in large parts of rural India including in our project site where students do not have access even to basic facilities like chairs and tables. This will also improve with our intervention but over a period of time. Our immediate concern is to control the school dropout ratio and ensure that students appear for their examinations.

    Interestingly, in some parts of India including Keonjhar, teachers and students don’t wear shoes to the classroom. It is a cultural mindset in rural India – where schools are akin to places of worship.



  • January 18th, 2010 by SUBHAS CHANDRA KAR

    Thanks for the encouraging comments by Raquel. Inspite of the shortcomings the students are happy to come to the coaching classes and they dont mind sitting on the floor. I wish the students all the best to succeed to the fullest in their life and become example for others.



  • January 18th, 2010 by francoise TONNELLIER

    This is indeed in several regards an interesting discussion.
    Our conception of “progress” (Latin for “moving forward/ahead”) might be too much influenced by an euclidean geometrical vision: straight away! Why not a beaming process ? looking backwards, analysing, reconsidering, improving but also overtaking for ex. environment-adapted traditions like… wearing no shoes which is a way of cooling one’s body via foot soles (and sitting on the floor too) Some of us here also do that during very hot summers. This helps to cope with not having air conditioning and saves thus energy. Remember ? These students are studying about environment.

    What’s wrong about sitting on the floor ? Japanese also do this at home. It keeps you young to have to stand up from the floor. The “zero” figure was invented by people sitting on the floor and donated to people sitting on stools.




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