I have been associated with Young India chapter of my organization since sometime now. I relate to the ideology of social upliftment as business. As a part of some initiatives i have dirtied my hands on coming up with small business models and have also been on field understanding the real issues. I think what i learned and what i am still learning is the fact that Rural Poverty or urban rural divide is an immense opportunity to bring in prosperity. Its a gold mine for enterpreneurs and to add to all when you see your actions impacting simple lives, you love it all the more.
When four of us started the rural zing, we had no capital to start with. We just had an idea that we wanted to take educated youth to villages and hence activate their grey cells to get the ball rolling for their rural friends. It is doing good and it is my heart and soul, i am not letting it die is all i know. This is one work which i have loved to do so much and i feel i relate to every life that i have met in making this a success.
Today YI organized a talk by http://www.s3idf.org/. The organization works on providing pro environment, scalable technologies that can provide infrastructure services to poor.
I left my work and rushed for it because i had the hunger to know how people connect and sustain. I dont believe in social work, but i believe in finding gaps and leveraging them to make profit which benefits poor. I had read a lot on the failures of microfiancing institutes and i always knew that money is not the end. We have enough money lying with every social upliftment house, its the ideation, innovation, enablement and connect. And yes, i think this organization is doing the same. They leverage the volume of trade that happens in India by exchange of money through pockets. They read the small enterprise, develop them, do a market fesibility, go to banks, stand as guarantor ( Read, negotiate smart terms), enable and help the enterpreneur run. Of what i gathered they have 100-150 small scale projects in their portfolio and the loss is 2-3 projects. So, yes, there is a lot of business behind those slums, if you dare to sit and bring them up, you can make many dreams a reality. The idea here is not to lend money, but to strike a deal with banks by sharing the risk. They are not micro lending, they are making banks lend, by building their confidence and showing how much money lower class transacts on a day today basis. Must say. SMART Krishna and Dr.Russell!
What is common thread that i have discovered is, that its not the lack of money, its not the lack of ideas, its the lack of organizing and channelising. We work day in and day out cribbing about work being non creative, why dont we voluntarily connect with some of these small enterpreneurs, help them bridge the gap with our knowledge and be a part in someone's dream. All they need is some of your reach and brain which anyways is dormant working for MNCs which lend out third grade BPO, research and servicing job to us.
Its fun to work on ground, relate to people, work on real solutions and experiment with models which work. Rural Zing has given me and is giving me the vision and learning which has no parallel. I love the thrill to dream, sort, analyze, visualize, discuss with my partners. It helps me learn which theory works and which doesnt. It has left me hungry to discover this black hole more and more. And interesting is the fact that i am not alone, there are millions who share the vision for social enterpreneurship and are all set making it a big success.
My only concern- The reach for such organizations is very limited. For a truly successful venture, the idea has to spread all over India and it has to grow to involve villages and villagers at all level. We have to think BIG.
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