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.

Just as entrepreneurs change the face of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others miss and improving systems by inventing new approaches, and creating solutions to change society for the better. While a business entrepreneur might create entirely new industry, a social entrepreneur comes up with new solutions to social problems and then implements them on a large scale. The new breed of social entrepreneurs are focused on their enterprise, they have workable solutions for dormant and rigid social problems.

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.  The criterion of the social entrepreneur definition is mission-related enterprise; not merely wealth creation. Social entrepreneurship has gathered a momentum because of large numbers of NGOs and organizations working for a social cause. The description of social entrepreneur can thus be put as follows:

1. Social entrepreneurs play the role of change agents in the social sector by adopting a mission to create and sustain social values.

2. They recognizing and relentlessly pursue new opportunities to serve a mission.

3. They engage themselves in a process of continuous innovation, adoption and learning.

4. Once they accept a mission, they act boldly without being limited by resources in hand.

5. Thus they exhibit heightened accountability for a cause.  They are fewer in numbers.

I give here below account of two young Indians who have turned small ideas into big production.  We are living in a world which is constantly looking for solutions to small and big problems we face every day in our lives. And, let us accept this fact that public administrations cannot work alone and they are more and more looking for innovative solutions coming from civil society. People like Rikin and Anshu are a rare breed of youngsters who have guts to give up their comfortable, prospering careers and bring in some stunning solutions to some societal problems.

Let’s look at Rikin Gandhi’s Digital Green enterprise to understand while he works locally, his innovation has global applicability.

RIKIN GANDHI – CEO of DIGITAL GREEN

Rikin’s story is awesome. He’s an aerospace engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a licensed private pilot, who could make a coveted career in the US Air Force as he was chosen by them. It seems so many people who travelled to space, saw earth from up above and wondered why there was poverty and war on this beautiful planet. Many of them after coming back to earth went on to become public school teachers or farmers in the Midwest, this was their way of connecting with people. Stories like these inspired Rikin. He learned through a friend of his who was working on biodiesel project in Maharashtra, about pathetic conditions of farmers. So many of them commit suicides due to mounting debts which they cannot service; their dependability of monsoon and poor quality of infrastructure are unsolvable problems.  Rikin decided to do something for the farmers.

Digital Green is Rikin’s brainchild. He decided to use his handy cam as a tool for social networking with the farmers. The method was simple: the farmers recorded their problems, solutions and success stories; this information is recorded and edited. Further, it is reached via videos to those who need the advice that too from the horse’s mouth – the notional truth from the practical source itself. This gave birth to Digital Green a social enterprise.

Microsoft Research has set up a lab in Bangalore to look at technologies for emerging countries in sectors such as microfinance, education, agriculture and study about how technology can be used to improve the lives of people. Digital Green was initially incubated in the Microsoft Research India lab.

The idea of Digital Green is to use relevant videos to educate the farmers on scientific methods of farming which in turn will help them increase their yield resulting in prosperity. The videos are localized in terms of language and socio –economic background of the audience. Producing and distributing locally relevant videos involving the local community. The videos consists information on farming by farmers, of farmers, and for farmers. The company works with NGOs which play an important role in identifying “resource persons” from the community who can produce the videos and to have the subject-matter expertise for ensuring the quality of the videos. They identify topics of interest and make short videos of local farmers. Distribution also happens through community; some of the community members go back to their respective villages by using Pico projectors which are the size of mobile phone which are used for smaller groups. These groups come together on a regular basis. It could be about sowing, soil standards, nursery raising or weeding based on the season.

Digital Green wants to expand in India and reach out to many farmers in developing nations like Africa. It has built a technology platform with IVR (Interactive Voice Response) so that farmers will be able to interact with each other and ask questions to the experts; thus, scaling up this platform. Digital Green, which received a $3-million grant for three years from the Gates Foundation, has so far covered more than 300 villages and aided over 17,000 farmers in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. India needs many more Rikins today.

The social entrepreneurs seek to create systematic change in the society for a cause.  While doing so though they act locally, their actions have the potential to stimulate global improvement.  The cause can be education, health, economic development, environment, racism, socially weak people, and arts, anti corruption, old age, prostitution etc.

Ian Macmillan, Director of the Wharton’s Entrepreneurs research Centre defines social entrepreneurship as a process whereby creation of new business enterprise leads to social wealth enhancement so that both society and the entrepreneur benefit.   These benefits according to Macmillan can be creation of jobs, increased productivity, enhanced national competitiveness, contribution of the cause to the GDP of the nation, enhanced image of the cause in the globe etc. The social entrepreneur has enlarged vision and heart of gold.

There are limitations to define social entrepreneurship because a wide range of opinions exists on this topic.  There are many scholars who are still researching this topic in various universities in the world. This subject is being discussed for past two decades, though social entrepreneurs existed for ages.

I cannot resist from giving the example of Goonj.

GOONJ of ANSHU GUPTA

Anshu Gupta is popularly known as the Clothing Man. He started his career as a freelance journalist. He left his flourishing career in 1998 to start GOONJ. Anshu’s mission in Goonj is to make clothing a matter of concern.

GOONJ works on the basic issue of clothing. Usually one talks of ‘roti, kapda aur makaan’ meaning food, clothing and shelter. It’s a matter of disgrace – the women in economically weak households who don’t have enough clothes to wear, have a big problem during their menstruations; they don’t have a piece of cloth for using. In the absence of a clean piece of cloth, menstruation is a disaster for a woman, which goes on for 30 to 35 years in her life. This subject is taboo. For your information – in the Sunderban Delta of West Bengal even today women use the same piece of cloth for over a year. Even if it is almost like stone, they still use it, because there is no access to a piece of cloth.  That is the height of poverty – the non-accessibility to basic necessities. Visualize how many clothes we discard without a thought.  In the village surveys conducted by our health facilitators as part of their training, it came out strongly that menstrual hygiene and sanitation were a major concern leading to vaginal and reproductive tract infections. Most of the women were using cloth, which was not being washed and dried properly, resulting in poor hygiene.

In 2004, when Anshu and his associates started talking about the issue, they discovered how even urban women feel uncomfortable talking about it. So when Anshu and his group googled ‘sanitary pad’ or ‘sanitary napkin,’ there was hardly any research or work happening on this topic. They could only find information about fancy disposable products from different countries. The group realized that they need to work in this direction. No cloth is ever wasted. The most vital of all products that Goonj makes are sanitary napkins of its own design. Each set has three parts: a waist-string, a small absorbent pad and a palm wide strip to hold the padding in place while its ends are tucked under the waist-string. Ten sets are packed with care into a drawstring pouch for women to receive without embarrassment.

The left over clothes are converted to school bags, tote bags, quilts, and mats. A great quantity is converted into narrow tapes to be used as drawstrings for petticoats. The ultimate, unusable waste is chopped up and stuffed into pillows and quilts.

GOONJ has emerged as the largest non -monetary resource agency while people also call it one of the largest civic participation movements!! It runs is a unique resource mobilization initiative that provides clothes, sanitary napkins, and other basic amenities to millions in rural villages. With an emphasis on mindful giving and dignified receiving, Goonj also provides a constructive channel for the growing quantities of waste from urban households.

Goonj does it all on a shoestring budget. In exchange for clothes, Goonj requires its beneficiaries, the rural people to take on community development projects. So far, thousands of people have undertaken more than 900 community projects, from building bridges to repairing roads etc. Rather than receiving bad, ill-fitting donated clothes for nothing, because of Goonj’s mission, community members receive well-suited, often-tailored, second-hand clothes.

Goonj’s passion is to encourage graceful giving and graceful receiving. Goonj wants people to give mindfully; the clothes they donate are of great value by recipients. Goonj is quietly creating magic with other’s waste. On an average every year this NGO recycles 1 million kilogrammes of textiles that urban Indians no longer want or need and they make 2 million sanitary napkins for rural areas. The next time you want to throw your used clothes, think for a moment about Goonj. This NGO has earned many national and international awards.

I salute Rikin and Anshu for their untiring and pioneering work!!!