Signs a three-year sponsorship deal with Hungarian Sports Club, DVTK

March 8, 2018

To mark the occasion of International Women’s Day, Apollo Tyres today inaugurated a Rubber Sheet Making Unit, for the rubber tapper’s wives, which would be run by them only, at Vellavoor Panchayat in Kottayam, Kerala. This Rubber Sheet Making Unit, established with the help of one of company’s reputed Suppliers, was inaugurated by Adv S Jayasooryan, Vice Chairman, Rubber Board of India in the presence of the Panchayat President, other Rubber Board members and the team from Apollo Tyres.

The Rubber Sheet Making Unit will be run by a group of women, who have been trained by Apollo Tyres, in association with Rubber Board of India, on rubber tapping, sheet making, sheet smoking and general entrepreneurial skills. They have also been linked to the rubber dealers to directly market their produce from this unit. Apollo Tyres initiated this project with the objective of empowering the women and increasing their family income, in addition to getting better quality rubber sheets as raw material for the business.

 The women running this sheet making unit, were earning between Rs 1000 – 2000 per month that too, not very regularly; they are now expected to earn Rs 8000 – 10,000 per month on an average by running this unit. Apollo Tyres plans to replicate this model soon in other Panchayats of Kottayam, which will empower more women, and at the same time, help with getting better quality rubber sheets.

 In the last two years, Apollo Tyres has reached out to nearly 600 women in Kottayam, who had very little or no income, and provided them with alternate sources of livelihood. These women have been trained in jackfruit processing, mushroom cultivation, aqua culture, organic farming and apiculture. In addition, the company has been providing healthcare facilities by conducting regular health camps and specialised cancer screening camps for around 500 rubber tapper’s families.

This initiative is a part of Apollo Tyres’ Women Empowerment Programme, which is targeted towards providing livelihood skills to underprivileged women in and around the company’s manufacturing facilities in Kerala and Gujarat.