L’Oréal’s CSR programmes in India focus on young women becoming self-reliant and economically independent, while also giving them a chance to make a mark for themselves in the field of science

Not only do this famous line — Because I am worth it — make sense for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan or Sonam Kapoor when they say it onscreen, it also holds significance for numerous women who have benefitted from L’Oréal’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

A worldwide leader in beauty, L’Oréal is known for its cosmetics (with global brands such as Garnier, Giorgio Armani Beauty, Kerastase, Kiehl’s, Lancôme, L’Oréal Paris, Matrix, Maybelline New York and Yves Saint Laurent Beaute, to name a few), and for innovation and scientific excellence. Through this leadership, however, comes the responsibility to give back to society.

Since women have always been the centre for L’Oréal’s business both globally and in India, giving back to this section of society is what holds priority in the company’s CSR initiatives. In case of India, L’Oreal has combined its core foundation of education and research with its social initiative towards upliftment of underprivileged women and girls by educating them and providing livelihood training.

At present, under its India’s CSR initiative, L’Oréal runs two programmes — “Beautiful Beginnings”, and “For Young Women in Science scholarship”, which are unique to the Indian market. According to Dinesh Dayal, COO, L’Oréal India, since a majority of L’Oréal’s customers are women and the company employs a high percentage of women, the two main CSR programmes are directly reflective of this vision. These initiatives are spread across metros, tier-I and tier-II cities.

While Beautiful Beginnings provides beauty training to underprivileged women; the Young Women in Science gives full scholarships to underprivileged girls for a curriculum in science in junior colleges.

“These initiatives not only help these women with social inclusion and cross economic barriers, but also help women become self-reliant, confident people in the future,” he says.

Beautiful Beginnings

This was started in 2009 to commemorate the centenary celebrations of L’Oréal. The beauty industry is a high growth sector and there is always a demand for trained professionals. The programme’s objective has been to create livelihood opportunities by providing beautician training to young women from disadvantaged sections of society. While some have been employed by L’Oréal itself, others have found stability by being employed in existing beauty salons or setting up their own.

The six-month course provides training in simple techniques such as hair cutting, styling and colouring, and other beauty and skin care skills, along with a one-month internship in a local neighborhood parlor. There is special emphasis on bridal make-up and hair and saree draping, besides imparting knowledge about salon hygiene. The courses are taught in dedicated centres, with qualified trainers who have been trained by the L’Oréal Academy.

L’Oréal India had also tied up with NGO Aide et Action, and later with Labour Net through its centres, and industrial training institutes in different states. The training partner also helps them keep a track of the students’ progress for the next two years, after the course is completed. Tracking of students also helps project executives in planning and upgrading of skills session for the alumni.

Sharing an interesting observation, Dayal says, “During the initial study, we also found that compared to other occupations (such as nurses or tailors), the women were more attracted towards the beauty industry, since it is not only associated with glamour but also acts as a stepping stone and brought much more social inclusion in the section of society, which they had never been exposed to.”

In the past five years, L’Oréal India has already trained close to 2,500 girls and has plans of training 10,000 girls by 2020. Beautiful Beginnings currently runs in six states — Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, through 12 centres.

To give a boost to their careers, L’Oréal is planning to give girls six-month training on hair dressing before they pass out of the programme.

With a placement of 90 per cent, which reflects on the success of the programme, the whole journey according to Dayal been an enriching and learning one. Take the case of Preeti, for instance, who was abandoned by her husband after eight years of marriage. After the course at the Pune centre, she started working as freelancer and specialised in bridal makeup. She also provided make-up services for the cast of a music album. Later, she moved to Jaipur as a beauty trainer with Aide et Action and is now back at the Pune centre, training young women like herself. Earning a monthly income Rs 15,000, not only is she able to rent her own home but also live independently.

While the company cumulatively trains 1.5 lakh hairdressers (and a number of beauty advisors in the sales counters) every year through L’Oréal’s training academy and CSR programmes, it plans to substantially increase their skill training initiative under the CSR programmes.

For Young Women in Science (FYWIS) Scholarship

The second interesting programme under L’Oréal’s CSR initiative is derived from its international CSR charter.

Being a research-based company, science has always been an inherent part of this cosmetic giant since its inception in 1909. With a strong belief that beauty needs science and science is the source of progress (with contribution of women vital for its future), L’Oréal instituted the FYWIS programme in 2003.

The programme encourages and supports bright but economically disadvantaged young women to pursue careers in science by granting them a scholarship of Rs 2.5 lakh spread over a period of four years for graduate studies in a scientific field from a recognised college or university in India.

Although in its 12th year running, according to Dayal, it has been a pathbreaking initiative and every year has been an emotional one for the people associated with the programme. While internationally, the company provides awards and fellowships to top and bright scientists (with a tie-up with UNESCO), for India, the need of financial assistance was felt at an earlier stage of education. “The feedback from different panelists and scientists was that if we want to develop women in science, we need to look at these bright and intelligent underprivileged students who were not able to finish their studies for lack of funds,” says Dayal. While there are a lot of government scholarships at the doctorate level, there were no scholarships available for these girls.

Considering it’s a need-based scholarship, the girls are shortlisted on the basis of their class XII results, with a minimum of 85 per cent in either their PCM/ PCB criteria. The company spreads the information through its NGO partners, news releases and schools.

Not only have these scholarships enabled many to fulfill their dreams, but have also company increased the number of scholarships to 50 and the programme was expanded to the southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, apart from NCR, Karnataka and Maharashtra, where the programme is already in place. This year the programme will be open to all states across India. “The before and after experience itself is quite humbling,” he says enthusiastically. With the success achieved, L’Oréal is planning to replicate this programme in other developing countries, too.

Beauty for all

L’Oréal India is also working towards its global vision of “Sharing beauty with All” (till 2020), wherein the company spreads beauty in every aspect of their value chain. Be it the beauty of protecting the environment and biodiversity, supporting communities, or delivering desirable and sustainable products for women and men who trust in the company.