As a nation today we need many social entrepreneurs. We need a revolution from people in different walks of life in creating and implementing effective, innovative, and sustainable solutions to battle social and environmental challenges. These solutions include services and products for profit or as non-profit initiatives. India needs numerous social entrepreneurs with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. Areas such as sanitation, education, water, gender bias, primary health, female feticide, environmental problems need attention because these problems are persistent in nature.
Usually, people leave the societal needs to the government or the business sectors. Nevertheless, social entrepreneurs tend to identify areas that are not working efficiently in the current system and try to solve the problem by changing it, spreading the awareness about the solution, and influence people to be a part of the change. For example, let’s look at Dr. Govindappa Venkatswamy’s Arvind Eye Hospitals. Its business model is highly social yet sustainable. It runs on its own revenue. The founder’s mission was to eradicate redundant blindness among the poor population in India especially in rural India living with a minimum daily wage and who can’t afford medical treatment. Arvind Eye Hospital provides large volume, high quality and affordable care. 50% of its patients receive services either free or at steeply subsidized rate, yet the organization remains financially self-sustainable. Much importance is given to equity – ensuring that all patients are accorded the same high quality care and service, regardless of their economic status. The model’s core is economies of scale.
As a common trait, social entrepreneurs are passionate with their ideas and commit their lives to change. They are visionaries since they envisage a society without problems. They almost dedicate their lives for a social cause. They also present ideas which are user-friendly, ethical, and easily understandable engaging widespread support. This ensures that local people stand up, grab their idea and implement it. In simple words, every leading social entrepreneur is a mass recruiter of local change makers. He is a role model who tells people that their action can do anything. In the last two decades, social entrepreneurship has grown based on the understanding that a new idea in the hands of a good entrepreneur is a powerful tool.
Octogenarian Aabid Surti is a national-award winning author, cartoonist and artist. He has 80 books to his credit. On every Sunday morning he visits the topmost floor of his apartment complex in Mumbai’s Mira Road district. He rings the doorbells of all 56 apartments in the complex, asking residents a simple question: “Do you have a leaking tap in your home?” Aabid is accompanied by a plumber and a volunteer. The plumber gets to work, plugging leaks in the homes of those who answer with a yes. Aabid apologizes to those who say no. Over the years, Aabid Surti’s efforts have helped save 10 million liters of water. He is obsessed with the cause of saving water!
While most entrepreneurs are motivated by the potential to earn a profit, for a social entrepreneur the profit does not come as the first motive. As Adam Smith explained in The Wealth of Nations (1776), “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.” Adam Smith believed that when individuals pursued their own best interests, they would be guided toward decisions that benefited others. The baker, for example, wants to earn a living to support his family. To accomplish this, he produces a product, bread, which feeds and nourishes hundreds of people.
How social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents? They adopt a mission to create and sustain social value (not just private value). Further, they recognize and relentlessly pursue new opportunities which serve the mission. Santosh Parulekar another social entrepreneur worked to create job opportunities for the unemployed youth in rural India. He started ‘Pipal Tree’, a company that aims to impart formal training to the youth and provides them with reputable jobs in companies across the country. Operating since 2007, Pipal Tree has trained over 1,500 workers and intends to open training centers pan India in the coming years. He engages in a process of continuous innovation, adaptation, and learning.
Social entrepreneurs act boldly without being limited by the resources in hand. But they do exhibit heightened accountability to the community served and also the outcomes created. Examples of social entrepreneurship ventures include microfinance institutions, educational programs, providing banking services in underserved areas and helping children orphaned by epidemic disease. Their efforts are connected to a notion of addressing unmet needs within communities that have been overlooked or not granted access to services, products, or base essentials available in more developed communities.
Shirish Apte has successfully rejuvenated a traditional water system in Maharashtra which is caught in between the Malguzaars (the local Zamindars or landlords) and the state government, the Malguzari tanks were left to die many years ago. Shirish Apte decided to change the situation and, since 2008, he has been successfully rejuvenating these tanks. His efforts and hard work have made the district administration restore 21 more such tanks. This project has helped many local people get employment, the irrigation output has increased in the area, the farmers have reduced the use of fertilizers in the farms and, above all, you now get to witness a great sight as many animals come and quench their thirst at these tanks.
A social entrepreneur might also seek to address imbalances in such availability, the root causes behind such social problems, or social stigma associated with being a resident of such communities. The main goal of a social entrepreneur is not to earn a profit, but rather to implement widespread improvements in society.
Oddoor farms near Mangalore, Karnataka, provides an inspiring example of the efforts made by Rajesh Naik to transform 120 acres of barren land into a lush green farm through his persistent efforts of creating a 2 acre wide and 50 feet deep lake, which has not only transformed the surrounding area, but has also helped in improving the water table in the surrounding village, besides helping in the development of a self sufficient organic farm and a dairy. It took a lot of financial resources and time to create a lake that gradually started filling up with water and now it generates around 40,000 litres of water that is used for irrigating the whole farm. This has not only helped in creating and developing greenery in the area, but has also helped in increasing the water table in the surrounding areas of the farm.
Contemporary economists and management writers like Baptist Say, Joseph Schumpeter, Peter Drucker and Howard Stevenson have defined entrepreneurship with slight variance but the same perspective that entrepreneurs are individuals who create value, those who are innovators, those who are change agents in society etc. Social entrepreneurs are close to all these definitions created by various economists. The only difference being that of social entrepreneur is entrepreneurs with a ‘social mission’, for a social entrepreneur social mission if explicit and central theme. This affects how they perceive and assess opportunities.
In India social entrepreneurs face some critical problems such as: enterprises need a strong grounded business plan to help achieve milestones. The rigor of building and following a plan that is based on market realities and customer insight is critical, they need support of lawyers, chartered accountants, senior entrepreneurs to help them develop good business plan. We have all heard of a great social enterprise doing good work, but limited to specific geographies. The primary reason they are not able to scale up is lack of funds or the founders’ limited bandwidth. I appeal readers of this article to strengthen hands of social entrepreneurs in whatever way we can.
