As part of Essar's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policy formulated by the Essar Foundation, education is one of the major intervention areas identified to enhance the quality of life of people in and around the project's operational areas. This has been the thrust of programmes conducted in the villages near the Dabuna beneficiation plant of Essar Steel in the tribal dominated Keonjhar district of Odisha. Besides our ongoing interventions in enhancing learning through the provision of community teachers, teaching and learning materials and school uniforms to students, Essar Steel has been extending support to annual sports events for children studying in local schools from the peripheral villages.
The CSR team of Essar Steel in Dabuna helped a group of schools to organize their 12th Annual Sports event on January 24-25, 2012 on the premises of Gupteswer High School, Dabuna.
The event was inaugurated by the Founder of Gupteswar High School Anand Sarangi of Purunadihi – a CSR focus village. More than 200 students from three local schools (Gupteswar High School, Indira Smruti Vidyapitha, and Camp UP School, Dabuna) participated in the annual sports event.
There were many categories of games and sports competitions organized for both the junior and senior levels. For each activity there were three prizes and in total 106 prizes were distributed. The inaugural ceremony started at 12 noon on January 24, 2012. All participating students arrived from their respective schools in groups forming a rally and lightened the games torch. The inaugural ceremony included the hoisting of the Sports Flag by Chief Guest for the occasion – Mr Sarangi. 
The Dabuna CSR team was present at the event and cheered the students while watching them participate with passion. On January 25, Mr Sarangi distributed prizes to students who won competitions in various categories.
The event was witnessed with enthusiasm by the villagers, parents, students, local opinion makers and many prominent persons of the locality gave high praise to Essar Steel for helping the schools organize the event. This will certainly contribute to create further goodwill for the company's sincere endeavours to enrich people's lives in different ways.
Story filed by Manoj Dash with inputs from Niladri Bhusan Parhi and CSR Team, Dabuna
