Access to basic services

SDG 1.4Access to basic services

UPES organises training and outreach that bring health care, clean water and sanitation, energy, education and digital skills to villages and families around its campuses.

UPES delivers most of this work directly, through its own staff, students and clinics. It also supports services indirectly, by placing first-year students with NGOs that work in poor communities through the Srijan Social Internship.

Health

• Health care at the doorstep. Since 2008 a free medical mobile van run with Sewa Bharti has taken a doctor and medicines to nearby villages, and UPES holds free health camps in villages such as Misraspatti, Kharakhet and Dhaulas. Source: DSO Community Engagement & Social Impact Report (PDF).

  

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• Project Lakhon Khawahishen. Run with DivIn Pro, the project gives reusable menstrual cups, training and follow-up support to about 1,200 women from the university's ground staff and 13 nearby villages. Source: DSO Community Engagement & Social Impact Report (PDF), How UPES is building a better world through its CSR initiatives.

  

  upes.ac.in (PDF)

  

• Nutrition and donation drives. UPES has assessed nutrition across three districts of Uttarakhand, and holds blood and eye donation camps; a three-day blood drive in April 2024 collected 1,303 units. Source: How UPES is contributing to the SDGs, DSO Community Engagement & Social Impact Report (PDF).

  

  upes.ac.in (PDF)

  

Water, sanitation and energy

• Cleaner villages. Through Project Swachhata, students and staff keep neighbouring community areas clean as part of the Swachh Bharat Mission, and NSS volunteers take part in the national cleanliness campaign. Source: How UPES is contributing to the SDGs, UPES student engagement and NSS.

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• Watermills for hill incomes. Project UK is reviving and modernising small traditional watermills in Uttarakhand to raise rural incomes, and is building a network of experts to find sustainable solutions. Source: How UPES is contributing to the SDGs, UPES SDG report: watermills project (PDF).
• Off-grid power. UPES students designed a non-tracking solar tree with LED lights, USB ports and a socket for charging devices away from the grid. Source: How UPES is contributing to the SDGs.

Education

• Village schools. Under EDUDHURMA, which has reached over a hundred families, Projects Raftaar, Bodh and Vriddhi support nearby government schools. Since 2022 a smart class at Government High School, Upper Kandoli, run with the Lotus Petal Foundation, has built English literacy in Grade 9. Source: Purpose: UPES social initiatives, UPES social impact, DSO Community Engagement & Social Impact Report (PDF), UPES CSR reshaping lives of young students.

  

  

  upes.ac.in (PDF)

  

• Project Payal. A UPES social impact project that supports the education of underprivileged, meritorious girls from neighbouring villages, so that they develop all round. Source: UPES social impact, Project Payal.

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• Srijan Social Internship. First-year students spend a mandatory six to eight weeks full time with social organisations, working on issues from poverty and hunger to health, education and women's empowerment. Source: Srijan Social Internship, UPES faculty highlight role of CRRCs (Garhwal Post).

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• LearnShala centres. Learning centres in government primary schools in Kandoli, Misraspatti, Donga and Phulsani, where student volunteers run activities and maths and science camps. Source: How UPES is building a better world through its CSR initiatives, UPES vision for community empowerment (TheCSRUniverse).
• Project Samvedna. Education, day care, mid-day meals and school uniforms for the children of migrant construction workers on UPES campuses. Source: UPES CSR reshaping lives of young students, UPES social impact.

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Digital skills and livelihoods

• DigitalDhaam. Computer and internet training for teachers, middle-school students, homemakers and others in villages near campus. Source: How UPES is building a better world through its CSR initiatives, UPES vision for community empowerment (TheCSRUniverse).
• UPES Skills Academy for support staff. The Skills Academy trains security, housekeeping and other support staff in computer skills and English communication, starting with a first batch of 20. Source: How UPES is building a better world through its CSR initiatives, UPES vision for community empowerment (TheCSRUniverse), DSO Community Engagement & Social Impact Report (PDF).
• Project Vikalp. Since 2015, the Rural Women Technology Park has helped women from nearby villages make recycled-paper products and ICT-assisted craft designs, grow medicinal and aromatic plants, and market what they make. Source: Project Vikalp.
• A second chance. In 2017 UPES trained inmates of Dehradun District Jail in computer hardware and networking, and provided ten laptops, to improve their job prospects after release. Source: DSO Community Engagement & Social Impact Report (PDF), How UPES is contributing to the SDGs.

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• Legal awareness. The Legal Aid Clinic of the School of Law and the CSR team held “Good Touch and Bad Touch” sessions for students of government schools in Kharakhet, Misraspatti, Kandoli and Harriawala, and a week-long POCSO workshop reached five government schools. Source: Good Touch, Bad Touch awareness, Legal Aid Clinic (LinkedIn), UPES CSR reshaping lives of young students, Legal Aid Clinic awareness camp (LinkedIn).

  

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