Earth Day to Every Day: ZEISS employees are getting involved with different activities

Difficulties accessing education and problems in rural areas are also reflected in India's schools. During a visit to a public school near the ZEISS site in Bengaluru in 2021, Manoj had the opportunity to see for himself how the learning conditions put the children at a disadvantage. At the time, seating was either scarce or completely unavailable in some of the classrooms.   



Four years on, things now look different at this school: there are new desks and wooden benches painted light blue in the classrooms at the school near Bengaluru. The wood for the new school furniture came from discarded ZEISS delivery boxes that a team of local carpenters took apart and repurposed. "Each box that we no longer need can be converted into a desk and seating for the children," explains Dhaval Radia, Chief Financial Officer at ZEISS India, who shares Sharma's enthusiasm for sustainable projects that help to improve resource efficiency. "This work creates jobs for local carpenters and supports education. The wood that would have ended up in landfill has now become a valuable asset in the classroom."

Nevertheless, it is often challenging for young women in India to enter the working world. There are a number of reasons for this. On the one hand, many families do not have the money to fund an adequate school education for their daughters. On the other hand, it is difficult for girls with a good school education to find a job that corresponds with their qualifications.   



To counteract this, ZEISS has set up a program that gives six schoolgirls every year an opportunity to receive technical training from an NTTF center, one of the most prestigious institutions in India. Following the three-year course, the graduates are invited to a job interview at ZEISS so that they can get their careers off to a great start.  



Once she completes her training at NTTF, one of the first graduates of the program will begin her career at ZEISS India as a quality manager. "The opportunity to learn at an NTTF center has offered our schoolgirls a high-quality education and given them the prospect of making their professional dreams come true. This particular graduate is an outstanding example of how education can open doors and help women to launch their careers," Prabha Venkatesan emphasizes.

The current aim of Sharma and his project team is to fully supply the town with clean drinking water in the future through the implementation of further well and filter systems. The project also demonstrates that the restoration of lakes and traditional wells can also be successfully deployed in and transferred to other towns, cities and rural regions.   



Back to the school desk and bench project: It, too, does not stop at this year's Earth Day – far from it. Sharma and the project team are planning to make more benches and desks for India's schools in future to further improve the learning environment for schoolchildren. ZEISS is also continuing to support the education of young Indian women. Next year, the first group of young schoolgirls will celebrate their graduation from NTTF. Following in the footsteps of the first successful graduate, they will also start their professional life with an interview at ZEISS.