Indus Valley Times

By Dr Gourang Charan Rout

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 29; On Christmas Eve, Vedanta Aluminium, India’s largest producer of aluminium, undertook an innovative safety sensitisation campaign at its plant and township with ‘Safety Santa’. The company’s safety personnel dressed up as Santa Claus and visited various plant sites and homes of employees to reiterate the core tenets of safety at work and safety at home in an engaging manner.

Safety awareness is a key priority, and these sessions are a useful tool in Vedanta Aluminium’s safety repertoire towards building a robust safety culture. The company endeavours to make its employees, business partners and their families aware about safe practices as an integral part of life, not just at workplaces.Towards this end, the company explores compelling and creative methods to impart safety knowledge – from adopting virtual and augmented reality tech, to using Santa Claus to spread the message.Conducted at regular intervals, such safety awareness sessions help to sensitize people towards making safety a necessary habit, rather than a mandate.

Besides spreading festive cheer, Vedanta Jharsuguda’s Safety Santas conducted safety awareness sessions, which included safety stand downs, fire-fighting training, adherence to Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), and the dos and don’ts of electrical & household safety, while also encouraging everyone to be alert no matter what task they engage in.

Speaking about the company’s unique safety initiative, Mr. Sunil Gupta, CEO – Vedanta Ltd., Jharsuguda,said,“At Vedanta Aluminium,the safety and wellbeing of our community, employees, and business partners is of critical importance to us. We are committed to upholding the highest safety standards at our workplace and extend this culture of safety & care to our community as well. Innovative initiatives such as ‘Safety Santa’ help us instil the message of safety-first amongst our workforce, families and communities in a fun but meaningful way.”

Vedanta Aluminium is working extensively towards creating a safer workplace and community by constantly assessing and augmenting its Safety Management System with cutting-edge technologies, robust processes and unrelenting focus on ensuring behaviour-based safety.Some notable safety practices undertaken by the company are:

–       Sankalp, a Safety Culture Transformation Programme implemented by Vedanta Aluminium across all its operations

–       An all-women fire-fighting team ‘Agnivahini’ at Jharsuguda, who have been meticulously trained to act efficiently and effectively in event of an emergency, offering off-site response support to the local administration and community

–       Safety Stand Down, a programme wherein leadership teams engage with employees and business partners on various facets of health, safety and environment, to build a holistic safety-first culture

–       Regular Mock Drills & Safety Awareness Sessions organized in collaboration with National Disaster Reduction Force (NDRF) and Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA)

–       ‘Pehchan’ safety induction program that seeks to build a safety-first culture amongst new recruits and introduce them to robust safetymanagement systems

–       Fire Stewards initiative wherein fire safety personnel sensitise business partners on firesafety, onsite emergency plans and the basics of firefighting

–       Fire, electrical & household-safety training sessions for school students and community members by employee volunteers of the company

Sanjib Kumar Jena,one of the employees who participated in the session, said, “The session conducted by Vedanta Aluminium was very engaging and informative. Families of employees, particularly children, are far more receptive to imbibing safe practices, which are otherwise quite serious in nature, when they are relayed in memorable ways such as these. I thank the company for conducting such awareness camps which makes us understand how simple safety measures and practices help in keeping us safe.”

Vedanta Aluminium, a business of Vedanta Limited, is India’s largest producer of aluminium, manufacturing more than half of India’s aluminium i.e., 2.26 million tonnes in FY22. It is a leader in value-added aluminium products that find critical applications in core industries. Vedanta Aluminium ranks 4th in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) 2021 world rankings for aluminium industry, a reflection of its sustainable development practices. With its world-class aluminium smelters, alumina refinery and power plants in India, the company fulfils its mission of spurring emerging applications of aluminium as the ‘Metal of the Future’ for a greener tomorrow.