Ms Anupama Katkar is the Chairperson of Quick Heal Foundation and Chief of Operational Excellence at Quick Heal Technologies. In this interview with TheCSRUniverse, she talks about her organisation's CSR initiatives that primarily aim to make Cyber Safety a fundamental right for all. The foundation's goal is to raise cyber security awareness and provide better healthcare services, especially donating medical van units, to the most marginalized sections of society. Ms Katkar shares how her organisation is achieving these goals via a myriad of initiatives, and by collaborating with NGOs that are well acquainted with grassroot issues and needs of communities. The foundation also works closely with local authorities such as the police to raise awareness of digital risks.
She also expresses her views on how corporates can ensure self-sustainability of tribal communities with constructive dialogue.
To know more on the various CSR initiatives of Quick Heal Foundation, scroll down to read the full interview...
Q: What are the main thematic areas of Quick Heal Foundation's CSR activities?
A: Quick Heal’s CSR initiative, its foundation, is driven by a vision, individuals and communities, and by extension, the society itself. Working in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, we strive to create a better India. Our key focus areas are cyber security awareness and better healthcare for all. In this process, we also work to enhance employability through soft skills and vocational trainings.
Q: Please elaborate on the various ongoing projects, their goal and social impact.
A: At Quick Heal, through our CSR initiatives, it’s our goal to make ‘Cyber safety a fundamental right for all’. Every step that Quick Heal’s CSR initiative, its foundation, has taken so far has been in the direction of securing communities by enabling their progress.
Since 2015, we have been imparting life skills education to students studying in classes 9th to 11th across Pune. The primary objective of this program is to help improve the understanding of physiological, psychological, and social changes among adolescents and prepare them to become socially responsible citizens. In addition, we also have counselling centers under ‘Shalangan’ project.
Our “Cyber Shiksha for Cyber Suraksha”, aims to create awareness in the society through street plays, workshops, and webinars for students across India, which has endeavoured to touch over 26+ lakh lives to date.
Furthermore, under our program “Earn and Learn” we train and motivate volunteers to spread cyber security awareness amongst schools and colleges, reaching out to over 3 lakh lives till date. In FY23 alone, the program aims to touch 7 lakh lives.
We have organized workshops for underprivileged sections of society, like street vendors educating them on how to minimize risks on the internet.
We have included all our employees, partners, schools & universities, local police, authorities, state administrations and corporates across the country. We proactively spread awareness on cyber threats through e-learning on our website, social media and PR campaigns.
Since creating better access to healthcare is also one of our primary objectives, we have been working in the public health space ever since inception. Under our “Arogya Yan” initiative, we donate state-of-the-art, fully equipped medical vans to NGOs operating in the rural areas of the country. In total, we have donated 14 of these vans in 10 different states of India covering 520+ remotely located villages, benefitting more than 4.5 lakh rural residents, and we continue to expand the ambit of our initiative. 448 people from President protected tribes are also the direct beneficiaries of Arogya Yan.
Post Pandemic we observed that there was marked increased in mental trauma of underprivileged students coming from slum areas in Pune. We then under our program, ‘Arogyam Mansampada’, proactively designed and conducted a 3-hours long session to address their anxiety, stress, trauma and phobia and other problems including lack of attention and concentration. Till date we have covered more than 6,500 students in Pune.
Q: How has the foundation leveraged on its parent company's experience as a technology led solutions provider? How do you incorporate it in your current CSR initiatives?
A: Like I mentioned above, the CSR initiatives at Quick Heal relay its goal of making ‘Cyber safety a fundamental right for all’. All our initiatives across states including Maharashtra, Kerala, Goa, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh aim to create awareness on digital risks and the ways to mitigate them.
Given our government’s vision of digital India and the growing impetus on digital empowerment of its citizens, technology is the key enabler for all. And, we are constantly working towards enabling holistic growth for all by leveraging the latest technology in all our programs.
A prime example of this can be seen in our Arogya Yan initiative, wherein the medical vans come with state-of-the-art equipment to provide the best primary care to the people residing in otherwise inaccessible regions of rural India. Our ‘Cyber Shiksha for Cyber Suraksha’ works towards enabling young children, teachers and parents to understand the digital risks and the ways to mitigate them through a series of online webinars in multiple languages, e-booklets and a 2-hours long online course. We have developed a ‘cyber oath’ document available on our website for society at large. We also make active use of social media to expand reach and awareness.
Q: What reasons led you to donate the Arogya Yan to the rural communities in Barpeta, Assam? How did you identify the beneficiaries?
A: Barpeta in Assam is one amongst the remotest rural areas. We identified the relevant local NGO partner Srijan Ek Soch, who we discovered to have been working towards promoting overall welfare for rural communities in the region. Our NGO partner then helped us to identify the vulnerable groups amongst the residents of Barpeta, which largely comprised of remotely-located villagers from over 20 villages. People had to walk long distances of about up to 30 km in order to reach the nearest medical shop or healthcare centre. Due to the constraints including the seasonal nature of roads and lack of last-mile connectivity, these rural residents found themselves unable to access basic medical care at the times they needed it the most. Through Arogya Yan, our aim was to transform the lives of 20,000 people in these remote villages by bringing quality medical care right to their doorstep.
I am pleased to share that is not our 1st, but the 13th van donation, and we will be continuing this initiative with 2 additional donations in the month of December. One scheduled on 15th in collaboration with a Pune-based NGO at Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation. And, the other one scheduled later this month in Rajasthan.
Q: What kind of support is your NGO partner providing in this initiative?
A: We share a very close relationship with our NGO partners, who form the backbone of our initiatives.
Right from identifying the most vulnerable communities in line with need-based analysis, to executing our programs as last mile connectivity, our NGO partners help us at every step. They also work towards creating awareness around the importance of maintaining good health and education by organizing various activities around it.
Q: What facilities are available in the Arogya Yan? Are there medical professionals and doctors on board to provide requisite medical assistance to the community members?
A: The Arogya Yan, state-of-the-art medical van is thoughtfully designed to be a one-stop solution for primary healthcare for rural communities that find it difficult to gain quick access to public healthcare facilities. These medical vans come with necessary equipment and kits for the primary detection of diseases and even have necessary requirements to perform on-spot small surgeries. Since the vans are built to be mobile healthcare platforms, they are manned by trained paramedic staff and doctors to bring healthcare right at the beneficiaries’ doorstep.
Q: How do you socially engage these communities to participate? What are your advocacy building and awareness programmes in that regard?
Social engagements undoubtedly play a critical role in spreading awareness amongst the communities. Under our Arogya Yan initiative, we periodically organize health camps through which people are made aware of the best practices one can adopt to maintain good health. They are also informed about the various government schemes that are aimed at providing healthcare amenities to all. People from these communities can also avail of the basic health checkup and eye checkup facilities in the camps.
For cyber awareness programs, like I mentioned earlier, ‘Cyber Shiksha for Cyber Suraksha’ in association with our partners we conduct a wide range of on-ground activities to engage society-at large. With initiatives like Earn and Learn, we reach out to students in various schools and colleges through pre-trained volunteers, and we also engage with public via a range of fun activities like street plays and more.
Q: Did you face any hurdles as far as engaging rural communities, especially in terms of vaccine hesitancy and other modern medical services that these communities are not aware of?
A: Rural communities often lack awareness about the efficacy of modern medicine, which results in hesitancy in adopting modern treatments and vaccines by them. However, it is not something that cannot be overcome by spreading awareness. While the government, through its various initiatives, is disseminating the knowledge about the benefits of modern medicine to the rural parts of the country, we are doing our part through the health camps we organize under our Arogya Yan program.
Q: There is a major challenge of tribal communities opting for traditional methods of treatment due to the prevalence of superstitious practices. What steps do you think the Healthcare CSR industry should take to address this?
A: The collective aim of the Healthcare CSR players should be to support the often-neglected communities through their initiatives. A large factor contributing to the tribal communities’ reliance on traditional methods of treatment is their limited knowledge. They trust these methods because that’s what they have known for years, and hence they are often reluctant to adopt any new method that differs from theirs. Other major factor is the unavailability and regularity of primary healthcare services in these areas.
Constructive dialogue is the key here. There is a need for not just the formulation of holistic healthcare initiatives, but also for conveying the benefits of these initiatives to tribal communities in such a way that helps them to trust the newer methods. The leaders of the tribal communities can be approached for this, since it is them who steer the entire communities. Then initiatives like Arogya Yan help bringing healthcare to their doorstep so they can be direct beneficiaries of the same. And, once we are successful in bringing community leaders into the fold, it is easier to make others see the benefits of modern medicine.
Q: Are you collaborating with local governing bodies and administration to expedite your efforts? Please elaborate.
A: We work closely with state administrations, authorities, Police, universities, industry bodies, leading corporations and local NGOs in multiple states. To name a few government partners, our list includes Maharashtra Cyber, PCMC Smart City Ltd, DSCI, Pune Police, Indore Police, Mumbai Police, Madhya Pradesh, and Jalaun Police in Uttar Pradesh.
One such instance I would like to highlight is the street plays and workshops for communities at large, in collaboration with Police to spread awareness on digital risks. While designing the program, inputs from cyber cell are taken on current trend in cyber-crimes and the show is designed focusing on how to identify, prevent and report them. Scenarios used in street plays are mostly taken from common man’s perspective like loan fraud was highlighted in street plays conducted in 2022-23 as many people suffered from financial crunches post covid and were trying to get money through fraudulent loan apps.
Another way we closely work with government bodies is to correlate the outcome of our programs by collating the data from National Crime Records Bureau and Maharashtra Cyber Police on the ongoing cybercrimes and their impact.
Q: What kind of changes do you recommend at the policy level to take Tribal Development and Rehabilitation into the mainstream?
A: Tribal communities may be set in their ways, but our government is focused to helping them through various programs. These communities need special attention, especially with respect to their healthcare and sanitary needs. I strongly believe that the tribal communities need to be hand-held towards being self-sustainable.
We at Quick Heal through our CSR initiative, recently worked extensively for uplifting ‘Katkari tribe’ near Pune to becoming self-sustainable through a series of highly focused programs. We started with providing them a place to assemble, which they soon began to associate with. We also built public toilets for them. We then started a drive to seek donations like blankets, clothing, and more which were then refurbished and sold by them to make a consistent living. This encouraged them to be productive and have enough to meet their daily ends.
Effective policies can be formulated only through understanding the pain points of these communities first. This can be achieved through amicable discussions with the community representatives, which will also help build trust for such policies amidst the targeted communities.
