Narendra Dabholkar: An Obituary

Ramona Pinto

M11040

Narendra Dabholkar was a man of contrasts. Although, an atheist, he treated all religions with respect and followed the philosophies of Gandhi.  He believed in the power of Indian spirituality even as he campaigned from village to village across Maharashtra exposing conmen and trying to spread scientific awareness among villagers who were exploited by scheming godmen and politicians He advocated scientific thinking, but he was a vegetarian and a teetotaler.  

Born to progressive Brahmin parents, Dabholkar was a medical doctor by qualification, an editor and writer by profession and an activist by choice. Though he is known for his work against eradicating blind faith and superstition, he was also an advocate for women’s rights; an environmentalist and criticized the caste system.

Dabholkar started his social work by volunteering to be an activist for the ‘One Village, One Well’ campaign initiated by well-known socialist leader Dr. Baba Adhav. This campaign formed the foundation for his ideals, which later echoed throughout his career as a social activist. He soon founded the Committee for Eradication of Blind Faith in 1989, (MANS in its Marathi acronym), which now has 180 branches in the state. Their mission was simple, he along with his activists would visit villages, confronting the babas, sadhus and other “godmen” and exposing their scams. Soon enough, he was appointed editor of a weekly newspaper Sadhana started by Sane Guruji, which operated from his MANS office. 

Dabholkar believed in teaching by example. He built his house facing south, contrary to the popular belief that houses must face north. He named his son Hamid, after the social activist Hamid Dalwai, raising eyebrows among Hindu fundamentalists. Even his funeral pyre was lit by his daughter. He was always meticulous in his work – from organizing demonstrations and performances, to exposing so-called magic and tantra, to preparing legislative drafts. He had colleagues and comrades, not ‘followers’. His discussions with volunteers used to be open sessions. They would relate terrifying tales from their villages – which even the police were not aware of or had often connived in.

He exposed cases of black magic to cases of possession, and also expressed dissent publicly against millionaire ‘godmen’ like Sathya Sai Baba, and Asaram Bapu. So strong was his belief against superstition that he promised a sum of 21 lakhs to any baba or godman who could replicate the miracles that they performed under scientific conditions and observation. The sum remains unclaimed to this day.

Over the course of time though, His efforts bore fruit slowly. And as they did, politicians and right-wing extremists began taking notice of him. During many instances, Dabholkar was attacked by goons and once almost doused with kerosene and set on fire. Many people accused him of wanting to destroy all religions; however, he only condemned the exploitation on common people. 

On august 20th, Dabholkar was assassinated near Pune’s Shanivaar Peth. He was shot at, four times in the head, neck and chest by men on motorbikes. This at a time when, the state government is dragging its feet to pass the an anti-superstition bill called ‘Maharashtra Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and other Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic’ which was put forward by Dabolkar.

His murder was the logical and ideological culmination – conspired, coordinated and executed in the same way, Gandhiji was killed. Nathuram Godse belonged to Pune; 65 years later Narendra Dabholkar was assassinated in Pune.

 

Redefining Entrepreneurship- Dr. Kurien and his contributions!

What does it take to be a social entrepreneur? To what extent do these entrepreneurs go to, just to make a difference? It takes an idea. Sometimes a million dollar idea- where one ends up creating an absolutely marvelous item and sometimes it’s a basic idea. So basic, that it was always there in the society, in our minds- but we needed someone to take the initiative. I am unsure as to what kind of a social entrepreneur is this person, the former, the latter or a combination of both! It was a task to fit in his achievements in words.
Why did you not contest elections, was the question.
“Because I would have easily won,” was his answer.
This answer, this confidence and aura is not shared by many. “Father of White Revolution” and “Milkman” are two of the popular names he was addressed with. Awarded with Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan, Dr. Verghese Kurien is solely behind the largest dairy development program in the world, Operation Flood. He was more than an icon.
A graduate in Physics from Loyola College, Chennai, he also holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Madras University. Later when he topped the exam in Metallurgy at Tata Steel’s College of Technology in Jamshedpur, Government of India sent him to America for further studies with a scholarship grant. He joined Michigan State University in 1946, and then returned to the country as a Mechanical Engineering scientist. He later remarked that none of these achievements were of any use in his career later on! This proves in one way, that one does not necessarily follow what a degree holds, what needs to be followed as the idea of one’s mind and the courage in one’s heart

In the beginning, he was in Anand ( Gujarat ) just to serve a bond against the government scholarship for his education. At the end of his bond, he was convinced to stay by Mr. Tribhuvandas Patel- the founder of KDCMPUL (Kaira District Cooperative Milk producers Union Limited). Their aim was to develop cooperatives, and procure milk from farmers and pay them according to the quality of the milk; the right amount. However, Dr. kurien wanted to come up with an easy name for this cooperative, and thus it was named AMUL (Anand Milk Union Limited) He created India the biggest producer of milk and dairy products as AMUL- the Gujarat based cooperative generates 2.5 billion dollars.
He built AMUL brick by brick, once he stated that there can’t be a limit to what one man can do, as one man can build an AMUL. This is the kind of power and energy he believed in, in the ordinary being. However, to call him extraordinary would be an understatement; he was just one among the many with an idea. India’s biggest one.
Born in a malyalam household in Calicut, his hindi was a labored effort, setting up in Gujarat had its own negatives as gujarati was not something he was affluenced with. But, the moral fiber he carried in him was unthinkable. That made Gujarat what it is today, as more and more cooperatives kept coming in!
A classic example of being a social entrepreneur, Dr. Kurien, created such an entity that as of today AMUL is one of the few organizations in the world which match up to this brand as it is a union of 16200 cooperative units. A gross turnover of 12,000 crores in milk and milk products, AMUL is a marvel. It manufactures a series of products, milk, cheese, ice cream, cold milk, milk butter to name a few! In Operation Flood, he replicated cooperative dairy development across the country. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also quoted that one of the greatest contributions by him was to give a position of pre-eminence to the farmer.
Out of the innumerable awards he won, a few were the Walter Peace Award, World Food Award and Magsaysay Award. Many of these awards, were awarded for the first time to an Indian. In his autobiography, An Unfinished Dream, Dr. Kurien mentions, “Farmer sheds his blood as sweat to produce food for us. When he eats his meal in peace, when he gets the respect and an income equivalent to other trades and industries, then alone will my dream be fulfilled. The journey that I started in Anand 60 years ago is not going to end till every poor farmer in our country triumphs.”
When the country suffered from his loss, billboards across states and advertisements in the newspaper saw the girl cry, for the first time. It was history. The Iconic girl, Amul brand ambassador- the one we all connect to right from our childhood. That ever smiling, girl wept. A nation wept on the 9th of September, 2012.

Aiman Khan

M11022

Lunchbox – Review

The Lunchbox (Irony Served in a Tiffin)

 By – Garima Roy

          TYBMM  

A quintessential Mumbai story, The Lunchbox is a movie set in ironies. In an age when social media, Whatsapp, BBM and the works define how we communicate, The Lunchbox leaves it to the fabled romantic notes that wives send to their husbands in the daily tiffin.

 

And then to the specially cooked tiffin that finds its way to the wrong address – a rare one in a six million chance, to the desk of Saajan Fernandes – a grumpy, retiring insurance company employee, who has been working in the same office for 35 years and like many people at his age, dreams of settling down at Nasik post retirement.  Ila, played by Nimrat Kaur is a dutiful but neglected housewife and a caring mother who was seeking to add the lost spice in her marriage through that particular tiffin; only to discover that the dabba never reached the intended address. A short note in the next day’s tiffin and a curt reply by Irrfan, leads to the beginning of a warm and innocent friendship – that strengthens with routine interactions over the simple yet ever-so-strong device of a letter. The two share their lives, their fears and their losses and finally fall in love.

 

The third character, Shaikh played by Nawazuddin is an endearing and in a strange sort of a way, loveable one with him adding the light moments in the not so depressing yet sad story of the mere existence of individuals in a big city. He is the guy meant to replace Fernandes post his retirement and forces the audience to fall in love with him despite all his forthcomings. Living in with the girl he loved, chopping vegetables on office files during the train ride back home, his character is unmistakably symbolical of Mumbai and of its inhabitants.

 

Ila, who discovered her husband’s infidelity while going through the daily laundry routine, is restrained in her suffering but delivers something that I instantly can relate to: “Very often we forget our memories because we have no one to share them with.” Her only true companion throughout the story was the voice of Aunty, the motherly Mrs Deshpande who lived above her house. Although it was Shaikh who delivered what was undoubtedly the premise of the movie – “Sometimes the wrong train can take you to the right destination.”

 

The Lunchbox urges viewers to take a fresh look at their lives, breaking the shackles of mundane existence. It works because the audience can connect with the setting, with the lives and the dysfunctional relationships portrayed and with the everyday battles one has to fight while living in a big city; until one day a young college going person offers them a seat and they discover they have grown old, and full of regret. Full of powerful metaphors, the movie is strikingly simple in its cinematography and one could easily mistake it for a documentary but for the fact that it was being screened in a multiplex environment. The background score superbly complements the storyline and the everyday sounds of the trains, auto rickshaws, buses and the deafening silence of the television program while families have dinner lend character not just to the story, but also to the characters themselves. Irrfan, Nimrat and Nawazuddin soak up the characters almost perfectly and the cinematographer brilliantly traces the encounters with the dabbawallas. The Lunchbox is a rare execution of three regular lives in Mumbai, and ends leaving the audience wondering what would have happened next had the movie continued for another few minutes.

 

I did get out of the theatre thinking what next, not in the plot or in the characters lives; but in my own life in this city.

 

 

Socially Responsible Consumers: Trending

Corporate Social Entrepreneurship is when a corporate gives back something to the environment in return after using everything that they require from the environment in abundance. (Corporate Social Responsibilities) These are Social missions that corporates take up in order to try and strike a balance and only provide a helping hand in depleting natural resources. It’s their way of saying “sorry” and “thank you” to the environment and the people they’ve taken help from or cause trouble along the way. The power to make decisions over their own resources, environment and working conditions, fair and sustainable trade that rewards workers with just wages and a clean, sustainable environment. Public services such as education, healthcare, water or electricity should be made available at an affordable price. No institution should be allowed to profit unjustly out of the provision of such basic services and access to local jobs and services are some of the basic things that a company should aim at providing.
CSR’s wouldn’t make a difference if it wasn’t for the consumers who are aware and willing to pay a few extra bucks in order to try and save the planet. Recent researches show that the younger generations (18-26) are more than willing to pay up or use products and services which are provided by companies which are socially responsible. Consumers’ becoming more and more socially responsible is a growing trend around the world these days.
Apart from just being socially responsible, the main thing to take into account is that these people are not only willing to buy products from such places but are also up for boycotting products and services which do not keep up to their promises of trying to give back to the World.
Sites like http://www.crocodyl.org/, http://www.corpwatch.org/, http://www.corporatecritic.org/ are a few sites that provide complete information about companies that are socially responsible and the ones that fall back on their promises. These sites provide an insight into what a consumer needs to know in terms of what a company does and what their goals are. Ignorance about such activities amongst consumers tends to act like a barrier in them behaving in a socially conscious manner. Some consumers still aren’t aware of any such activities being undertaken by well established brands and companies. On the other hand, over one million copies have been sold of “Shopping for a Better World” as mentioned in a research done by a Harvard student which means that there are consumers who want to be more aware about CSR’s.

Socially Conscious Consumerism is on a rise, people wish to be more aware and use products which give something back to the environment because it gives them a “feel-good” feeling. This usually occurs when a firm CSR actions influence the consumers’ behaviour which in turn shapes and forms their attitude towards buying a particular product.

Shreya Shetty
M11053

‘Necessity is the mother of all inventions.’

In a country, where menstruation is a taboo, it was necessity for hygiene and comfort for his wife that drove Arunachalam Murugantaham, also popularly known as the tampon king, to design a machine which would make subsidized sanitary napkins.

When I approached him for an interview over an e-mail, he instead asked me to call him. And to my surprise, the first thing he did was humbly apologize saying, “If I had replied to your mail, it would have taken me a week to write it. My English is little poor.”

Arunachalam Muruganatham, a middle-aged man from a village in Tamil Nadu, is a dropout.  It was his curiosity that took him to where he is today- a proud inventor of subsidized sanitary napkin machine in India. His innovation has not only provided comfort and hygiene to millions of women in rural India but also empowered them economically.

One day he saw his wife collecting rags and escaping into the toilet in his early marriage days. He wondered what she did inside. Once she was out, he asked her. To his surprise, his wife did not tell him. He kept wondering what it is that his wife cannot tell him. He insisted and she gave up and finally told him.

He suggested her to use sanitary napkins rather, to which she replied that they will have cut down on milk if she switched to the napkins. Out of love, he decided to gift her, a packet of napkins. He saw that the medical store man was wrapping the already packed napkins again in the newspaper and looked left and right before handing them over. He says, ‘It looked as if he was smuggling something.’

More than half of the male population of India doesn’t know what menstruation is and the rest half doesn’t bother about it considering it a women’s issue. Even today, only 12% of India uses sanitary napkins and the rest depends on leaves, rags and what not. Not using proper sanitary napkins is not only unhygienic, but also poses serious health problems. A woman can contract RTI (respiratory tract infection) or even cervical cancer. Not only this, to save themselves from any embarrassment, many girls drop out from schools once they attain puberty.

Muruganantham brought home a packet of napkins as a gift for his wife. That day, he decided to make sanitary napkins for his wife. He opened them and studied the content and started experimenting. After few days, he asked his wife to try his handcrafted napkin and give him a feedback. He wasn’t even aware of the fact that it is a monthly cycle. He laughs and tells me, ‘I thought it happened every Friday to Monday.’

He waited for the feedback that month but was not satisfied with what his wife told him. He has two younger sisters as well. But they refused too. And later he went around asking medical girls college to do it for him but they refused too out of embarrassment. But he did not give up. He resorted to wearing one himself for one whole week by creating an artificial uterus out of a football using animal blood.

While narrating the incident, he pauses for a while and says, ‘I don’t believe men and women are equal. I think women are superior to men. Every man should be asked to wear a pad once in their life and then they will respect women and realize what they go through every month.

During his four years of research, he was termed a pervert, his family abandoned him and he was ostracized from his village. But nothing stopped this man. He went ahead with his research.

His machine costs Rs. 85,000 and makes 120 napkins per hour. Each napkin weighs 10 gm unlike the usual 6 gm. They are thick and can be worn by women farmers for the whole day. He has sold over 100 units and now is the founder-director of Jayashree industries. They are also being used by other developing nations too. He has successfully created a social entrepreneurial model in rural India where his machines are bought by the Self Help Groups (SHG) who then reach out to rural women.

He says, we are able to reach out to more women as napkins are sold by women, unlike medical stores, where it is usually sold by men. The system is also very flexible. A women can either buy the whole packet or she can buy it lose too. And even when she is short of money, there is no problem. There is an exchange of napkins with vegetables or anything between the two women. It works really well.

He also adds that he did not just want to make India 100% sanitary napkin using country, but also wanted to empower women. After my father’s death, I saw my mother struggling every day in the village. In our country, 99 percent people work to survive. But I believe that we should not use our skills and education for just survival, we should give back to the society. It will change a lot.

When I asked him what he thought of the new emerging social entrepreneurship industry, he said, “I am happy people are striking balance between earning money and giving back to the society. But there is still a long way to go. “

Muruganantham now teaches at IIM-Ahmadabad and is already working on his new project-‘agriculture without water and soil’. 

 DEEPA AGARWAL

M11001

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A social enterprise, a Social Business and a difference in ideology

SKS, has been in the news much of last month. Word is, Vikram Akula, often referred to as the ‘poster boy ’ of india’s micro financing industry, wants in. SKS was first founded in 1997 as a non-profit organisation and since some time has been one of the most well known names in IMF. This could be partly because it is India’s largest microfinance institution or because it is the most controversial one.
on 28 july 2010, SKS went public raising $350 million in its IPO. Philantrophist circles criticised this move, and a familiar debate about ‘profiting from poverty’ and altruism vs capitalism broke out. All through this, Akula maintained that the offering IPO was a step taken to simply scale up the size of operations for the company. To do more social service, more capital is needed, and IPO was to serve that purpose. “The best way to raise large capital is from commercial capital markets and the best way to tap commercial capital markets is to be structured as a profit-oriented institution and do an IPO,” says Akula.
In October the same year, SKS was in the news again for sacking its CEO Suresh Gurumani. The media dubbed this as evidence of a power struggle within the company. It was rumoured that that Akula allowed Gurumani to take the lead in the IPO as he preferred to stay away from it. Once the issue was a done deal, however, and the heat was off, he wanted to get back to the helm.
In November 2011, Akula, the then CEO of SKS, was forced to step down amid the Andhra Pradesh microfinance crisis. The state brought in a law after complaints that micro-lenders were adopting coercive loan recovery practices and charging exorbitant interest rates. More controversy followed in 2012 when it was revealed that over 200 poor, debt-ridden residents of Andhra Pradesh killed themselves in late 2010. The state law, the Andhra Pradesh Microfinance Institutions (Regulation of Money Lending) Act, 2011, defines that no company should use any coercive methods or any mode of harassment on borrowers.

The company managed to erase much of its debts and reported a net profit of Rs 2.70 crore in March this year and saw its foreign institutional investors reach 36%. The very same month, The Andhra Pradesh government decided to challenge the Supreme Court interim relief order given to SKS Microfinance for resuming loan operations in the state. The SC order said that the company had to adhere to the Andhra Pradesh Microfinance Institutions (Regulation of Money Lending) Act, 2011, with respect to new loan disbursements, interest rates and recovery practices.
Now coming back to Akula wanting in, it all started on September 3 this year when media reports published “SKS Trust Advisor has upped its holding in SKS Microfinance to 9.63%, becoming the largest shareholder in India’s only listed micro finance institution (MFI).” Barely 5 days after this new development, Biksham Gujja, chairperson of the trustees of SKS Trust, wrote in a letter to SKS Microfinance, “In line with this, and as an initial step, the trusts have urged the board to induct Dr. Vikram Akula, its nominee, immediately.” “I am truly honoured that the trusts have asked me to serve on the board of SKS Microfinance,” Akula said in a statement. “I will do my best to help SKS Microfinance achieve its mission and to contribute to enhancing long-term shareholder value.” A pressure group was forming within SKS with SKS trust rooting for Akula’s re-entry into SKS Microfinance’s board.
Alas, SKS MFI denied this position to Akula stating under its charter minority shareholders have no right to nominate directors. “Minority shareholders are entitled to move the Company Law Board to seek greater participation in the affairs of a company. However, the Company Law Board has the final say on whether the stakeholder should be given a board berth or not. “ said a company spokesperson.
A social enterprise is based on the simple principle of ‘doing well and doing good’. When social welfare organisations become for-profit the doing good factor is often given a back seat. Akula might have meant well when he said that the IPO move was for the better of the company to help it serve more people and ‘do more good’, but a social enterprise is balanced on a fragile thread. The right amount of social good-will and profit incentive are needed to make a venture successful. Once this profit incentive turns into greed the social good-will is forgotten about, the social welfare institute becomes an exploitative organisation. SKS IMF is a social enterprise only because the namesake gives it the aura of a well meaning organisation now.
Drashti Thakkar

Chai-Nashta at TISS

Devina Sethia 

M11047

TYBMM(J)

“There must exist a community or society where there is no violence against women” said one. “Are you crazy? There is no community where there is no violence. Violence is not just about physical beating; it exists in many other forms. Not giving someone basic rights or imposing their will on them is also a form of violence” replied the other. “Wait. Wait. Maybe there is community where there is no violence; maybe not. Let’s dig deeper and find out about it” said the third. And then it is 4:45 pm when someone came and told them that the meeting had gone past the scheduled time and has to end.

The meeting ended or rather was adjourned and then while we were sitting around in the library I asked them why they were doing this course; what motivated them to take up social entrepreneurship, all of them had their own reasons. Rajat Madan said that he liked solving problems. He got a kick out of it. He wanted to do something on his own and hence, social entrepreneurship. “Society is not perfect. What was I doing to improve somebody’s life? Nothing. To change this, I took up social entrepreneurship” said Krishna Kumar Purohit. Manik Dhingra said, “I read the book, ‘Banker to the Poor’. This book was my trigger which got me into thinking and finally compelled me to leave my job and take up this course”.

There reasons may vary but what was common amongst them is that all of them want to do something to benefit the people and bring long term change.

Inspiration is important when a person sets out to change something. I again got various replies when I asked them what inspired them now that they were one semester into their course. There inspiration comes from their seniors. “One of our seniors graduated from here and opened a school in Kala Handi, Orissa. Kala Handi is a village which is struggling with the issues of poverty, caste, class and discrimination” said Manik Dhingra. Other successful projects like Sampurn(e)rth, Bharat Calling and Green Basics inspires them to move steadily towards their own goal.

From the library we move to the mess. And from motivation and inspiration I move to challenges. What challenges do they face as students and as upcoming social entrepreneurs? Social entrepreneurship is a new discipline. Not many people know what it is. They confused ideas of social work and social business with social entrepreneurship. “There is no single, clear and rigid definition of social entrepreneurship. It is an approach to bring change to improve the society that we live in” said Shruti Parmar. Another problem is that of distrust. “People promise and do not deliver. Hence, there is no trust. When we tell people what we want to do to change their lives, they do not trust us to do the same” said Manik Dhingra. “Funding our ventures is also a major problem” said Manoj Kumar Swain. Shruti Parmar added, “Balancing social value and economic value is one of the biggest challenges we face.”

Mayank Gandhi however, has a different story, a different challenge. His parents were not too keen to send him to Mumbai to do this course. He was working in the marketing sector before came here. His reason to leave his job and do social entrepreneurship was that he was not happy in what he was doing. He asked himself ‘Why am I doing what I am doing?’ The search for this answer led him to where he is today. Finally after talking to seniors and people already in the business, his parents agreed. This story is not of Mayank alone. There are many others who face a lot of problems in taking up social entrepreneurship as a career because parents and family members are not clear what they will end up doing. They often think social entrepreneurship will not pay well and hence are insecure about the future of their child.

Soon it is time for me to leave. I bid them farewell and wish them luck with the ventures that they are about to begin; with the dreams they are about to work towards. 

(Note: All students interviewed for this article are currently pursuing their Masters in Social Entrepreneurship at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.) 

 

 

Ajay Chaturvedi: From CitiBank to Rural India

Ajay Chaturvedi is a living example for the adage, “Climb mountains not so the world can see you, but so you can see the world.” Backpacking in the Himalayas made the banker quit his more-than-comfortable job at Citibank to translate his deep sided realization of rural India into work that would empower the demographic.

Armed with a Masters’ degree from Wharton and Penn Engineering, Ajay Chaturvedi was your typical US-educated Desi success story, taking home a hefty pay at the end of the month. All was good until he decided to pack his bags and head to the Himalayas during a two-week break from work. The two weeks turned into six months in the mountain where Ajay found his true calling. This introspection during his journey to the Himalayas laid the foundation for the social enterprise,  HarVa  which stands for Harnessing Value of Rural India, in 2010.

Speaking in an interview, Ajay admits that he was never content with his job after graduating from BITS Pilani. He speaks of the nagging urge to do something more. His time at Wharton and Penn Engineering gave the idea some clarity. He doesn’t look at his Himalayan expedition as an eye-opener but as the final push that materialized his ideas. “Unless you don’t participate, you do not have the right to criticize,” he says.  Driven by the need to make a different, Ajay worked towards value creation to get to the grassroots to help rural India. One of Ajay’s underlying belief is that government is building capacity without creating enough opportunities. Programmes like National Skill Development Corporation train candidates but due to lack of options the training renders pointless.

HarVa works towards skill development, BPO, community based farming and micro-insurance in villages. In the past 3 years, HarVa has evolved considerably in terms of its vision and impact. They have added a not for profit wing which emphasises on skill development. Microfinance was always a fundamental part of the structure but due to the current state of the industry, Ajay and his team have put their project HarVa Employee Loan Program (HELP) on hold. Nevertheless, they came up with another venture, HarVa Suraksha, a quasi-savings product which provides micro insurance to the poor. The project is backed by Bajaj Allianz.

Ajay works with a “social capitalistic” model in mind. It is multi-pronged in its attempts to develop the rural community on several fronts like community-based farming, skill development, micro financing, business process outsourcing and even sustainable energy.  Currently, HarVa operates 20 HarVa Digital Huts or XPOs (BPO, KPO, LPO) of which 5 are owned by HarVa and rest on a franchise model. They are spread across 14 states in India employing over 70% women and each XPO caters to 3-4 villages in the vicinity. Based on the contributions towards projects like farming, student helpdesks and selling insurance, employees are earning anything from Rs. 1500 to Rs. 14000. Expanding his vision durther, Ajay is trying to incorporate the partner model as well. However, in his version, the franchisee doesn’t pay the franchisor. HarVa will be responsible at all levels. While his short term goal is to empower the middle level management which drives the organization at the regional level, he also seeks to consolidate the development at the national level and further expand it to the global scene.

While setting up HarVa, Ajay had to face major challenges like poor infrastructure and bad connectivity. There was also the added task of tuning in to the mindsets of people to convince them to cooperate with HarVa. The low attrition rate created loyalty between HarVa and the people. While working on producers’ model and consumers’ model for the economy, Ajay has grown to understand the rural space.Ajay’s journey from Wharton to social entrepreneurship has been one of sustainable progress. When frustration reaches a tipping point, you have no choice but to participate and make a difference. This has kept Ajay motivated and lit up the lives of a large segment of India’s rural population.

 

 

Swathi Gokulan

M11019

A Set Trend

BY Shalini Lobo

Roll No: M11027

 

One day its pleated skirts, then multi coloured socks and the next day its leather jackets. People’s desires to look good and keep up with fashion always change. Some might be the trend setters and the others might be the followers. The world is dynamic and keeping up with this constant flux is well, let’s say painful. But looking over the recent past, many trends have risen and many are long dead gone, but one trend stuck and is even today picking up fast – Social Entrepreneurship.

Social Entrepreneurship is an act of creating social value and impacting society through your product or service. In a country as vast as our own, with wide ranging demographics and a hundred issues to tackle, we can actually use much of people’s innovation and ideas to make this country a better place to live in. Transforming the landscape of India bit by bit by ideating ways to solve its problems and to improve the lives of people is one of the best entrepreneurial exercises.

The good news for every social entrepreneur in the field is that there is never a lack of funds in this arena because the big investors, mainly the corporate, who damage mother nature and invade and exploit the lives of a million ‘have-nots’, have to show people that they are doing something good to society and hence, well they are more than willing to give you the big bucks you will need to start your venture. But then doesn’t that go into a “profit – making” organisation? It’s up to the entrepreneur to call the shots of the business. Yes, you can quietly make a tonnes of money out of it or you can be a non-profit organisation backed by investors and derive utmost happiness and joy out of your selfless service. The choice is yours.

Ask any teen or adolescent today, “What do you want to do after college?” and the reply will be, “I want to help society and make it a better place to live in.” Or another favourite is, “I want to take a year off and work with an NGO.” These thoughts are not bad and I do not want to extinguish them, but where is the zest to learn more? Children today look for reasons not to stay focused on a particular track and many consider NGOs and other organisations an easy way out from college and well when they say work, they do not mean volunteering for free, they mean work which means money.

An NGO pays its people who work for them. But there should be a particular age and academic eligibility for this. Students should just be taken in as volunteers and they should work for free, that is what I would call giving back to society and helping others; the need to do good without expecting anything in return. We do not really see that kind of selflessness anymore.

Social entrepreneurship as a trend is going to last. People have this urge to help others. It is human instinct and the more one travels and is open to experiencing the rest of the world with open arms, the more one will want to help to solve problems and this is the need of the hour – people wanting to help one another. There is no such thing as a “grand gesture”. Even a smile is sometimes the grandest gesture you can offer someone.

In their field of social enterprises, India has witnessed a massive change. Today, there are so many platforms to launch ones enterprise and so many people to back it up and this can be done by tapping a few keys on the keyboard. Unltd India, Social Story, Social Enterprise Buzz are some of the many platforms which help anyone with an idea and perseverance to change the world. But this has also turned into a competition now with ‘award ceremonies’ and ‘The Best Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award’. I do agree that people doing good must be awarded. But making it a rat’s race is not really the best option to provide people with.

A great idea, mind and commitment to change the world are what it takes to bring a smile on someone else’s face and to be a saviour. There are many social enterprises worth appreciating like Milaap which is a smart simple way of providing loans to people who need it. Not only Milaap, but many others like Jal Jyothi, Nov Jeevan, Akshara are active organisations who guide people to become better individuals by helping our brethren.

 

 

 

 

 

Some good in a bad world

I’ve read up on my fair share of famous five and secret sevens to believe and imbibe that there are people out there that will do bad and then there people who will balance it all out and do the very opposite of what the baddies do. Then after all that reading I switched to mindless cartoons because I finally learnt how to switch the decoder on. As a reward I spent my afternoons religiously watching a cartoon Scooby doo, where a bunch of teenagers help people who are being tormented or rather robbed/fooled/exploited by people who dress up as ghosts. Both groups of protagonists did it for the sake of the greater good that most people forget exists, they did it for nothing in return.
As I grew older and figured how advertisements and the world of business’ work I almost forgot about Enid Blytons’ bunch of innocent sleuths and Hannah Barbara’s Mystery Gang.
The logic there was why would anyone do anything that wouldn’t really do good to them, Really would people really do something that would benefit everyone else more than it would benefit them.
All of a sudden a new term was being tossed around in the business sphere and by the people who fought for the less privileged, the term being social entrepreneurs.
‘Social entrepreneurs’ is just a shorter and more complex term for “nice-people-that-want-to-help”. Social entrepreneurs are those that practice social entrepreneurship which is the art of doing business in such a way that it benefits society. To put it specifically their business is not solely for profit but to bring about a sustainable change in the societal values. It is the combination of what you would call traditional capitalism and the solution to different problems faced by people.

India has its fair share of these guardian angels, which have made it their goal to solve the challenges and then spreading the solution so that other societies learn.
Our country is no stranger to difficulties, especially since most of the country’s population lives in rural India. Its aim is in some way unlike what business’s do is to make life easier for the poor. Whether its educating sections of society or helping people earn what they deserve; who despite their hard work are exploited.

Take the instance of Jaydeep Mandal and Sombodhi Ghosh of Aakar Innovations a group that started in Delhi have developed a machine that manufactures low-cost sanitary pads, with the help of banana fibre, bamboo and other agri waste products. It is not news that about 23% of adolescent girls drop out of school and miss around 50 days of school because of the problems they face while they menstruate. Aakar hopes to sell that machine to groups of woman who can sell this product door-to-door with the help of saleswoman who also sell other products. This is just one example, just one of these social innovations that made me believe the good bit of humanity does exist.
The number of social entrepreneurs in India is steadily rising, with so much happening in our rapidly developing nation; it’s only natural with a country as vast as ours to have so many social issues that remain untouched by the growing economy.
A social entrepreneur sees a problem, identifies it and works towards solving it to make sure it doesn’t arise again, in a way they are somewhat rural India’s heroes, helping people do things like study after the sun sets, or avail of education when they never could before. People are now empowered to do things they couldn’t do before. In way bridging the gap of privileges we take for granted.

India where the government and the social sector have for years worked separately to pursue development in their own fields, now sees a change where in the social sector is moving towards working along with the government rather than against it. Santulan an organisation that works for the rights of informal stone quarry workers works along with the government to bring a change in the policies to benefit the workers, its founder Baastu Rege has successfully set up a committee where his organisation works with the government of Maharashtra that studies if education programs can regularised or if grants can be allotted to migrants in the state.

Research shows that these entrepreneurs see the people they work for as partners rather than consumers. This is probably the reason they were successful and were able to sustain the change they brought in.
There are a number of stories that are witness to success and they make a huge difference to the lives of the people they involve, in the end creating a move towards a positive change in social values and in a whole a society.

 

 

 

Candida Coutinho
Roll no M11009