Jammu & Kashmir Bank Ltd (JKB) and PNB MetLife India Insurance Company Ltd (PNB MetLife), a leading private player in the Indian life insurance space, today announced the launch of their Corporate Social Responsibility programme in the state.

• Ties up with CRY – Child Rights and You, a leading National NGO
• Jointly takes on projects in Baramullah, Bandipora, Budgam, Ganderbal and Srinagar
• Supports the agenda of education and development of close to 14,000 underprivileged children in the state to begin with

Srinagar, August 7th 2014: Jammu & Kashmir Bank Ltd (JKB) and PNB MetLife India Insurance Company Ltd (PNB MetLife), a leading private player in the Indian life insurance space, today announced the launch of their Corporate Social Responsibility programme in the state. The initiative was launched by Honourable State Finance Minister, Mr. Abdul Rahim Rather; Mr. Mushtaq Ahmad, Chairman & CEO, JKB; Mr. Christopher Townsend, President Asia, MetLife, Inc. and Mr. Tarun Chugh, MD & CEO, PNB MetLife in the presence of Mr. Parvez, Executive President, JKB; Mr. Abdul Rauf Bhat, Sr. President, JKB and Ms. Puja Marwaha, CEO, CRY. The CSR programme will focus on education and development of underprivileged children in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The two identified projects are with CRY - Child Rights and You,through project partners Jammu & Kashmir Association of Social Worker (JKASW) and KOSHISH. JKASW works across 1,823 households in the districts of Baramullah, Bandipora and Srinagar impacting 4,800 children. KOSHISH will work with 9200 children in 5100 households across 25 villages in the district of Budgam and Ganderbal. In addition, 15 more villages are being evaluated for this programme.

Mr. Mushtaq Ahmad, Chairman & CEO, Jammu & Kashmir Bank said, “We are delighted to announce the launch of the CSR programme through this platform along with PNB MetLife, our bancassurance partner for last 13 years. United in spirit, today we jointly announce our programmes to work towards education and development of underprivileged children in J&K.”

He added, “From matters of health care, heritage preservation to poverty alleviation, promotion of education to eco-conservation; our CSR policy has been to instill a sense of relief and protection among the most vulnerable sections of society. Now that the scope of such policy has widened immensely we have also broadened our CSR agenda for deeper impact in the societies we operate in. This is just one of the initiatives that we are launching in the state under the agenda”, he added

Speaking on the initiatives, Mr. Christopher Townsend, President Asia, MetLife, Inc. said, “MetLife has always had a strong global focus on Corporate Social Responsibility. We have many projects across the globe focused on supporting and empowering local communities via the MetLife Foundation in areas like Financial Inclusion. Continuing our proud history of community development and support, I am excited to be here today to launch PNB MetLife’s CSR programme in the state of Jammu & Kashmir with our long-standing partner JKB, supporting education and development of underprivileged children.”

Talking about the programme, Mr. Tarun Chugh, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, PNB MetLife, said “This is indeed an exciting day for us as we leverage the local expertise of JKB to launch our CSR programme in the state. This is the first step and we are evaluating projects across the country on education and development of underprivileged children. We arrived at the agenda of child education after researching and evaluating the need of the local communities we were setting up projects in. We hope to make a sustainable difference to the society with our projects with CRY in J&K.”

He added, “We have had a successful relationship with JKB over the last 13 years and we have secured lives of over 200,000 customers and settled close to 1100 claims worth Rs. 24 cr.”

Talking about CRY’s experience in the state, Ms. Puja Marwaha, CEO, CRY – Child Rights and You said, “Working in J&K has its set of unique challenges. However, working with our local partner since 2005 we have gathered a deep understanding of the on-ground realties that are barriers to children’s rights, especially education. Lack of access to schools and discrimination of girl children are few of the issues faced by children here. We work on mobilizing the communities, its leaders and in tandem with government systems to bring about positive and lasting change in the lives of these children.”

“We are glad to be partnering with PNB MetLife and JKB to reach out to more number of children in the state and ensure they go to school, receive quality education and healthcare that will enable them to realize their full potential.”

PNB MetLife is the largest private life insurer in Jammu & Kashmir with 13% market share. Some of its top selling products are Met Suvidha Participating, Met Endowment Saving Plan, and Met Money Back Plan among others.

CSR Project Details:

Jammu & Kashmir Association of Social Worker (JKASW): They are the execution partner with CRY for the project. The project works across 1823 households in the districts of Baramullah, Bandipora and Srinagar. The project reaches out to girls and children as a whole to address issues that they face and ensure holistic child rights and development –Survival, Participation, Development and Protection. By working with influencers like families, communities, local governance structures as required; changing attitudes and activating government services, the project ensures that children’s rights are upheld and there is a permanent sustained change in their lives.

Plan for 2014-15:

• Work with 387 drop out children including 199 drop out girl children and help to connect them back to education
• Work specifically with 157 children including 113 girls attending the bridge centers
• Connect 271 children including 194 girls who have never been to school – to education
• Monitor 20 existing schools within the intervention area to ensure they function as per the norms set out by the RTE
• Monitor existing health centers
• Ensure birth registrations for 140 new born children including 54 new born girls
• Monitor 28 Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) centers in the intervention area
• Work across protection issues like child labour, child marriage, among others
• Develop and strengthen children’s groups to help them take up relevant issues and have a voice in issues affecting them.

KOSHISH: This project has been in existence in 25 areas across Ganderbal, Budgam and Srinagar working in the area of child education and development. With the fresh round of funding from this CSR programme, the project will expand to 15 new villages in the district of Budgam, in the coming months.

Plan for 2014-15: 

• Research in the new project area, building relationships, identifying leaders within the communities, mobilizing the community to form groups and of course extensive base line data collection to get an exact sense of numbers and hence, plan the strategy ahead
• 1,186 Children (0-6 years) for enrollment in ICDS and malnutrition tracking
• 2,199 Children (6-14 years) for school enrollment
• 870 Children (14-18 years) for school enrollment
• 236 Child Labourers to be rescued and rehabilitated
• 90 Children (0-1 years) to be immunized who are remaining from last year