About Us

Background of the Project:

Sponge Iron is alternate route to steel making where India is the global leader and the state of Orissa is the country leader.

With abundance of iron ore deposits in the north-western part of Orissa, lot of sponge Iron units have been set up in different districts viz., Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Jharsuguda etc. of the state.

How the Industrial waste from Sponge Iron Plants Affects Environment:

• Pollutes the atmosphere with high SPM (Solid Particulate Matter) gaseous mission.

• Discharges solid waste like iron dust,  coal dust and char in atmosphere.

• Dumping of char here and there affects environment and society and also creates ill death.

• Creates land degradation which disturbs the sentiment of the farmers

• Mobility of heavy vehicles affects road condition and creates unusual traffic jam which disturbs the local inhabitants

RAC facilitated local institution building for developing small, informal women Self Help Groups (SHG), leading to community management of the briquette manufacturing  unit by the process of managing producing, marketing and benefit sharing in a sustainable manner.

Series of capacity building programmes were undertaken for developing skills

 In book keeping, production records maintaining, marketing and developing

 Guidances for management of the unit.  This also empowers the local men and Women.

RAC made several advocacy programmes to build a common vision between different stakeholders. The benefits and use of briquette as an alternate energy fuel wood was demonstrated through street plays.

Different entry point activities such as Children’s programme, Farmer’s orientation programme, Health check up camp, Women self help group formation, Tailoring and toy making training center and cultural programmes etc. were carried out to build up confidence and local ownership in the project.

A community oriented smoke less briquette manufacturing unit has been set up at Village

 Banua near MSP Sponge Iron Plant which manufactures briquette from char.

Several meetings have been held among different stakeholders i.e, district Collector, Sponge iron Plant owners, Departments of Forest, Agriculture, Horticulture, Industries etc.  A District Advisory Committee (DAC) has been

Set up to overlook the project.

Impact of the Project:

• Briquette manufactured from the Char is used as alternate fuel source replacing the fuel wood in the local area.

• It facilitated in restoring nearby forest and saved drudgery and wastage of manpower in fuel wood collection.

• Widespread marketing of briquette created better livelihood opportunities for the local communities and utilized industrial waste effectively.

• The process of local institution building facilitated the empowerment process of rural women groups. Two federations have been formulated by 35 Self Help Groups consisting of 434 members by the facilitation of 7 Self Help Promotion Institutions.

RAC with the support of National and State Government sponge Iron units viz., Orinon Ispat Ltd., Shree Metaliks Pvt. Ltd., Grewal Associates, Kusum S.I.Plants, Shree Jagannath and UNDP GEF SGP & CEE has initiated the process of  replication of the programme in four different locations i.e. Ramachandrapur, Lodapada, Markambeda,

Kutugaon and Khaparadiha of Keonjhar district. This is the replication of the pilot project through Public Private Community Participation (PPCP) model by multi stakeholders approach