Saloni Meghani

When management trainees at Tata Steel conducted a dipstick survey among 1,000 people in Jamshedpur recently to judge the efficacy of the company’s programme on the Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV) and the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), they found that a whopping 85 per cent of the youth had the necessary information. One youngster also stated that he always carried his own blade to the barber.

This is the kind of example that agencies involved in the battle against the epidemic can sigh in occasional relief over. And Tata Steel is leaving no stone unturned to turn it into a commonplace phenomenon in and around Jamshedpur.

Follow the leader

Ben Plummley, the executive director of the Global Business Coalition (GBC) on HIV/AIDS gave Tata Steel’s effort a huge pat on the back in a letter after his visit to the steel city in January 2003. "My trip to India was a life-changing experience and the Tata element was a key to it," he wrote. "Tata Steel epitomises the kind of corporate interaction with local communities that is the goal of the GBC. If only we could get other companies in other countries to follow your lead"

A few months later, on June 11, Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata collected the prestigious GBC award for the best initiative in AIDS awareness at Washington DC on behalf of Tata Steel. The company is now the worthy winner of an honour previously given to the likes of Chevron Texaco, DaimlerChrysler, Pan Pacific Hotels and Unilever.

The GBC has been founded to check the HIV/AIDS menace before it gains a stranglehold on the planet. It believes that the business community has the necessary communication and marketing skills, management and training techniques, and the logistics and distribution infrastructure to check the spread of a disease that can only be prevented not cured. Research indicates that one person becomes HIV positive every 15 seconds in the world. By the end of 2002, 42 million people were suffering from it.

Containing the menace
Tata Steel has been a founding signatory to the GBC, an alliance of over a 100 major international companies dedicated to combating AIDS, since 1993. This is not surprising considering that the company is no newcomer to the philosophy of blending corporate citizenship with sustainable growth.

Says A. N. Singh, deputy managing director (corporate services), and the chairperson for the initiative: "That Tata Steel has chosen the path of corporate social responsibility is no fluke. With us, this is a key business process. We decided to wake up to the AIDS threat 10 years ago, when it wasn’t even a buzzword, and this has paid rich dividends. Our surveys suggest that we have been able to contain the menace." Jharkhand is among the states with a relatively lower incidence of AIDS in the country.

Tata Steel’s proactive approach in this area has contributed to the incidence of AIDS being capped at 1 per cent of the population vis-à-vis the national average of 9 per cent. "In the case of AIDS, we have no answer to consequence management," says Shakti Sharma, who heads the social services and family initiatives division and is the convenor of the AIDS awareness programme. "Neither government health services nor the private sector can afford to bear or subsidise these expenses. A patient could cost the system almost Rs 2.5 lakh per annum. Who pays for that? So awareness building and prevention are the only options."

The long-term view
Dr H. K. Gardin, the programme manager who has been with the initiative since its inception, points out that companies have been compelled to look at the economics of AIDS. An HIV positive employee could mean not only absenteeism and a big drop in productivity, but also the additional cost of advertising, recruiting and training a replacement. Since the incidence of AIDS is highest in the productive age group of 15-49, the long-term impact on a family left without a breadwinner and the future of this family’s children have become all too obvious to ignore. "No company can overlook the fact that the organisation can survive better only if its community is healthy," he says.

Jamshedpur is particularly vulnerable because it is an industrial town. "We have a large part of what is called the bridge population, which carries the virus and spreads it," says Dr Gardin. "There are business visitors, truck drivers and their khalasis, migrant labour and police personnel. Also, the per capita income in the city is high and that leaves individuals with more money to indulge in activities like drugs, alcohol and unsafe sex."

Tata Steel has created a web of activities with the help of a core group that comprises people from various departments: personnel, public health, education, corporate communications, community development and social welfare, the Tata Steel Family Initiatives Foundation, the Tata Steel Rural Development Society and the Tribal Cultural Society.

Reaching out
Says Mr Singh: "We started with the employees but have now spread our activities to non-employees in urban, suburban and rural areas." The initiative has penetrated not only the main works in Jamshedpur and the neighbouring mines and collieries, but also to the population around the city and over 600 villages that Tata Steel regularly reaches out to.

The champions of the cause use all the media at their disposal to communicate and reinforce their message. While the intranet and internal magazines are used consistently for employees, handouts, bookmarks, hoardings, wall paintings, translites, audiovisuals, video vans and films are used for the population at large. The company trains and orients workers for the dissemination of HIV awareness and also organises melas and poster and slogan competitions.

Such contests are part of the reason why the level of alertness in school students has shot up from about 68 per cent to over 86 per cent in the past year. Workshops are held with students passing out every year. The programme has laid special emphasis on sharing knowledge with this pocket as it has the most lasting impact. "This is where you can actually effect a behavioural change," says Ms Sharma.

Sugar-coated pill
Tata Steel, which is also involved in the social marketing of condoms, had mounted a large inflated dummy of the contraceptive on a vehicle and taken it to various parts of the city in December 2002 to encourage openness about AIDS prevention. "People stopped, participated and availed of the giveaways. In fact, we ran out of condoms," says Ms Sharma. She also says that the offtake of the contraceptives that are crucial to arresting the spread of HIV has gone up in the city.

Tata Steel has set up six condom-vending machines in the city at locations like public toilets and bus stands, where there is a large flow of the target traffic. For instance, there is one such machine at Transport Nagar, which sees the maximum number of truck drivers. At this spot Tata Steel has also set up a clinic that provides free check ups to truckers and also imparts information on AIDS.

In 2003, Tata Steel joined hands with the Orissa Aids Control Society to run a ‘safe highway’ programme on a 60-km stretch in Orissa. Communication exercises were effectively carried out at dhabas and other truck halts.

Tata Steel often uses a spoonful of sugar to make the bitter pill go down. The Nukkad Nataks, or street plays, staged at various locations and occasions have always found a receptive audience. These plays, in the local languages of Hindi, Santhali and Bengali, draw people with music or magic and then enact scripts on AIDS. "We take the main message and weave a story round it," says Ghulam Mohiuddin, who has been involved with conducting such theatre in the township gatherings, bastees and rural areas since 1989. "The jamoori (narrator) helps the audience interact and participate with queries, comments and doubts.

The message and the medium
While there can be no over communication, as enough can never be said about AIDS in the current scenario, the people involved with spreading the message are keen not to communicate incorrectly. "The information should not add to the taboo or fear and make people hide their problems even more," points out Ms Sharma. Dr Gardin says that special care is taken to ensure that only trained personnel give out the message. All messages, irrespective of the medium, are screened and monitored.

The communication barriers are fewer than those that would be encountered by an agency carrying out a similar programme elsewhere. This is because Tata Steel has gained a certain expertise in its interaction with its community over the years. "We are far more acceptable in the target groups than we would have been had we started now. We enjoy a certain credibility," says Mr Singh.

Not only does Tata Steel use the right mix of media and activities, but it also ensures that the message is flashed out consistently. "The AIDS awareness programme has been merged with all the other health programmes, like those run for school children or the domestic management workshops for housewives," says Ms Sharma. For instance, the spouses of the CEOs of all local companies help in creating awareness among the female population. Also, the Jamshedpur Blood Bank screens every unit of blood donated and counsels those who test positive.

Making a real commitment
All these activities gain a special momentum in the city on December 1, World AIDS Day, every year. Annually, a theme is selected for special focus. In 2003, the core group decided to work against ‘stigma and discrimination’, a befitting topic for Tata Steel, which has a stated policy on AIDS that assures medical guidance and counselling to patients and their families, and treatment without discrimination.

The Tata Main Hospital (TMH) and other hospitals, medical centres and clinics provide support to patients without making them feel any different from those down with other illnesses. In fact, TMH, which has an AIDS cell, admits cases that are denied treatment elsewhere. The company has taken on the onus of ensuring that even HIV positive people within the company are treated equally by improving the level of awareness among employees.

The effectiveness of a large-hearted programme like the one Tata Steel is executing depends hugely on the commitment of the organisation and the involvement of its top management. The company, in this case, has both in abundance. Top-rung people in the social services sector of the company are occupied, hands-on, with increasing AIDS awareness on a war footing. This work is not delegated but is carried out internally. "This is exactly how we would like the model to be replicated elsewhere," says Mr Singh, proud leader of an outstanding social project.

Uploaded on August 4, 2003