About HDFC Life

OUR APPROACH

At HDFC Life, we have wholeheartedly embraced the culture of social responsibility, which permeates through the organizational fabric. We have aligned our CSR initiative, under the umbrella of 'Swabhimaan’, to support the evolving needs of the most vulnerable sections of the society. Our aim is to empower communities for the resurgence that will steer them through tough times, into a new era of hope and positivity.

• We believe that sustainable business growth is achieved when it goes hand-in-hand with social responsibility. Under HDFC Life, Swabhimaan, our CSR initiative, we reach out to communities and enable them to shift from a vicious cycle of disadvantage to a virtuous cycle of opportunity.

• Stemming from our core value of sustainability, this approach empowers the children, young adults and older adults to be self-reliant and, in effect, become partners in the growth of our nation. Taking one step at a time, we aim to pave the way for a brighter future.

• We are committed to the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We promote access to free education and livelihood, healthcare and sanitation, and cleaner environment. Covid -19 has unleashed unprecedented challenges for human lives, and in this transforming environment, we have focused our fight against the virus on employee safety, uninterrupted customer convenience aided by digital advances, contribution to nation-building, and support to the marginalized sections of the society.

EDUCATION AND LIVELIHOOD

HDFC Life aims to create enabling conditions for the underprivileged children to stay in school and complete their schooling, and also to improve learning outcomes for better skills and abilities. Similarly, social initiatives focus on providing industry relevant trainings to underprivileged graduate students to make them self-aware, future positive and confident earners for their families.

Thematic Focus

• Early Childhood Education
• Support Orphan Children
• Support Youth Employability
• Financial Literacy

Total Outlay : ₹ 311 lakh
Number of Partners: 18
12 States : Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Assam, Rajasthan, Puducherry, Punjab, and Andhra Pradesh

Our implementation partners have introduced modern teaching methods and digital interventions, to create a stimulating learning environment and experience for students from low-income families. Our initiatives include:

• Learning Centers: To prepare young girls for formal schooling and enhance teacher capabilities. 

• Financial Support: Provided to boarding school, housing 600 children from the Mushahar community, one of the most backward in the country.

• Scholarships: To make quality education a reality for deserving underprivileged students. 

• Tinkering Lab: To foster innovation amongst underserved students. 

• Education for All: To provide fee subsidies and living expenses for higher education to students without one or both parents. The programme also offers career and psychosocial counselling, extra-curricular activities to build up confidence in the students.

• Project Evolution: Connected classrooms with smartboards or K-YAN, interactive scientific and educational multimedia content to encourage students to experiment and develop concept simulations.

• Financial Literacy: Classroom training and mass awareness sessions to improve financial literacy across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand.

• Youth Employability: HDFC Life ‘Campus to Corporate Careers’ programme trained 800 young final year graduates in Mumbai to enhance their employability. Students were coached on soft skills, interpersonal relations, communications and professional writing. More than 400 of these students secured jobs in corporate companies. Our programme to mainstream the hearing impaired supported the education and vocational training of 200 adolescents and youth in Jaipur.

• Beneficiary Numbers at a Glance

  1,548 Girl children integrated into formal schooling

  55,651 benefited from digital and classroom financial literacy trainings

  90 orphans in 23 locations across 16 states supported under the Education for All initiative

  803 Graduate students received training for work readiness along with placement support

  340 underprivileged children provided with digital equipment in Hyderabad

  500 students actively engaged in the tinkering lab

  200 students in Delhi schools benefited from improved learning outcomes resulting from a Teacher Fellowship programme

  13,513 children from 30 school in Maharashtra and Gujarat are benefiting from Project Evolution

HEALTHCARE AND SANITATION

HDFC Life aims to achieve the highest possible level of good health and well-being for the communities through a preventive and promotive health care orientation. Programs have been undertaken on treatment for children suffering from congenital heart disease, clubfoot, cancer and reducing the prevalence of malnutrition with the support of institutional admissions, prenatal and postpartum care as well as awareness, COVID vaccination, strengthening of government’s health infrastructure etc.

Thematic Focus

• Paediatric Cancer Care, Heart Care, Club Foot
• Nutrition
• Sanitation
• Care for Elderly

Total Outlay : ₹664 lakh
Number of Partners: 7
17 States : Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Tripura, Manipur, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim, Odisha, Maharashtra, Punjab, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, and Kerala

• Our initiatives are aimed at providing access to affordable Healthcare and Sanitation services for the vulnerable and economically marginalized. The key focus is on paediatric care, such as congenital heart defects, cancer, clubfoot treatment, nutrition and sanitation.

• Paediatric healthcare: We have supported several paediatric interventions implemented by our partners throughout the year. These include:

  • Save Little Hearts: A programme to help children from economically challenged backgrounds suffering from congenital heart defects (CHD) in Tamil Nadu.

  • Home Away from Home Hygienic, protective and caring housing facilities for children undergoing cancer treatment in Mumbai and Chennai. We also support facilities to house cancer-stricken children through hospitals in Chennai, Puducherry and Kolkata.

  • Ponseti treatments Support for treatments to correct clubfoot conditions of children

  • Healthy Baby Wealthy Nation: An initiative that aims to eradicate hunger and malnutrition through nutrition, prenatal and antenatal care awareness campaigns run in West Bengal. 

• Elderly care and support programme

  We provided 678 senior citizens with monthly ration, personal care kits, nutritional supplements like protein, etc. We conducted cataract surgeries for 1,500 elderly people from low income groups in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. 

• Health Cannot Wait

  A preventive health care programme where mobile clinics are delivering various solutions to 6,420 beneficiaries.

• Polyclinic camps

  E-clinics delivered preventive healthcare to 6,317 people, and regular polyclinic camps treated more than 2,945 people providing timely and affordable access to diagnostic services and medicines in rural Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand. Health awareness sessions on preventive healthcare have reached 7,032 people in these regions. 

• Sanitation

  Contribution of ₹12.27 Lakh to the Swachh Bharat Kosh to promote sanitation. Our ‘One home-One toilet’ programme is aimed at reaching 110 families living in slums in Thane, near Mumbai. 

  Apart from this, we are also providing 2.5 Lakh healthy meals to needy communities in Mumbai. We have also extended support to 134 Veer Naris or War Widows and provided necessary utilities for the specially-abled children at Asha Schools run by the Armed Forces. 

• Beneficiary Numbers at a Glance

  36 screening camps and 97 corrective surgeries were performed under the Save Little Hearts programme

  1,741 children supported through hospitals and 60 children have spent 4,010 nights at our Home Away from Homes

  3,246 children treated for clubfoot across central and eastern India. 1,115 new beneficiaries added. 3,862 children availed follow-on screening for Ponsetti Treatment

  1,41,202 households, 39,557 children and 6,157 expectant mothers benefited from the Healthy Baby Wealthy Nation initiatives conducted by 300 trained Swasthya Sevikas

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

HDFC Life aims to reduce carbon footprint and contribute to reducing climate change impact. The company undertakes several initiatives to reduce carbon footprint through rationalizing consumption, increasing the use of environment-friendly technology and responsibly sourced energy interventions are focused on four key areas:

• Establishment of city forests
• Bio-diversity restoration
• Water body rejuvenation
• Solar Energy integration

Total Outlay : ₹ 264 lakh
Number of Partners : 4
3 States: Sikkim, Maharashtra, Gujarat 
6,49,000 sq ft Forest Cover 69,000+ Trees 
10 City Forests 

01 Bamboo Forest

01 Trees for Himalayan Bio-Diversity

01 Lake Restoration

• Under our Environmental Sustainability programme, we strive to reduce our carbon footprint and contribute to reducing climate change impacts. We have set up multiple city forests and bio zones, using the Akira Miyawaki method based on the concept of ‘Potential Natural Vegetation’. The plants are carefully selected to form a self-sustaining bio-diversity. City forests produce oxygen, reduce carbon dioxide, and improve air quality. 

• City Forests Establishment

  City or urban forests produce oxygen, reduce carbon dioxide and improve urban air quality. We have developed multiple city forests using the Akira Miyawaki method based on the concept of ‘potential natural vegetation’ and ‘native forest by native trees’. In this method, the main tree species are planted along with their companion species from the area’s natural vegetation. Since FY 2018-19, we have set up 27 city forests across multiple locations in and around Mumbai, Thane, Aurangabad, Nashik, and Jalna, Maharashtra, covering 1.2 lakh sq. ft. with 51,000 saplings belonging to as many as 150 native species.

• Trees for Himalayan Biodiversity at Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary

  Under our ‘Trees of Himalayan Biodiversity’ project, we planted 34,000 trees around the Pangolakha Wildlife Sanctuary in East Sikkim. This region in the Himalayas is rich in biodiversity which also offers rural community ways to earn a living. Large scale planting of trees provides employment to the community and offers a safe habitat for local flora and fauna.

• Bamboo Forest

  Under Project Green Gold, we planted a bamboo forest with 6,000 saplings spread across 14 acres, the hills of Balkapra Jawahar in the district of Palghar. Bamboo absorbs high levels of CO2, prevents soil depletion, reduces soil temperature, prevents water loss during monsoons, and raises the water bed of the surrounding area. The saplings will generate usable bamboo for 25 years, starting from the fifth year of planting.

  Under backward integration for the project, 450 vanvaasis have been trained in the bamboo craft. This forest will eventually help them source bamboo at an affordable price to make and sell products. We have also planted around 9,000 bamboo saplings under tree plantation drives during the last two years to act as a natural fence for the plantation.

• Spreading the Use of Cleaner Energy
  India is looking at reducing the consumption of fossil fuels by harnessing the sun’s power to mitigate the impacts of climate change. In line with the country’s vision, HDFC Life has set up a solar electrification project, ‘Schools on Solar’, at the B.A.F. Petit Girl’s High School, Mumbai and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Tribal Residential School, Shirole, Thane. Over the 25-year lifespan of this project, the total installation of 71.41 kWp across the two schools is likely to generate 99,974 units of electricity annually and 22,73,503 units cumulatively benefiting approximately 5,643 students and staff. The installations will help offset 1,819 MTCO2e of carbon emissions with savings of about ₹.2.72 crore.

  The project also educates students and faculty on climate change and responsible energy consumption to save health and livelihoods.

CSR POLICY

The Corporate Social Responsibility Policy of HDFC Life has been designed in consonance with Section 135 of The Companies Act, 2013 to lay down the guidelines for undertaking CSR initiatives at HDFC Life in accordance with the Companies (Corporate Social Responsibility Policy), Rules, 2014 as amended from time to time.

This Policy lays down the guiding principles or rules that shall apply to all CSR programs/projects to be undertaken by the Company, as per Schedule VII of the Act, within the geographical limit of the Republic of India.

• HDFC Life Swabhimaan CSR Policy

CSR PROJECTS OF FY 20-21

We believe that sustainable business growth is achieved when it goes hand-in-hand with social responsibility. Under HDFC Life, Swabhimaan, our CSR initiative, we reach out to communities and enable them to shift from a vicious cycle of disadvantage to a virtuous cycle of opportunity. Stemming from our core value of sustainability, this approach empowers the children, young adults and older adults to be self-reliant and, in effect, become partners in the growth of our nation. Taking one step at a time, we aim to pave the way for a brighter future.

• Project Details FY 20-21

GROWING SUSTAINABLY (ESG)

HDFC Life is committed to industry leading ESG standards that will help shape a sustainable future for the communities we serve and creating long-term value for all our stakeholders.

Our ESG strategy focusses on five pillars, each of which have been elaborated in the subsequent sections:

• Ethical Conduct
• Responsible Investment
• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
• Holistic Living
• Sustainable Operations

• ESG Report 2020-21