We all are responsible!!!

Recently two days back “World Earth Day” was celebrated. On a large scale, activities were conducted in various corporate offices, govt sector and colleges. I believe it is good way to boost ourselves to pledge to protect environment. But, there is a question which bothers me again and again “who will take the responsibility of maintaining the environment once you are done with the day?". Who will take out the time and water the plants once they are planted on a specific day. Do bureaucrats who plant the trees and get there photos clicked go and water them, protect from stray cattles and other climate changes?

I agree it is not one person job to commit for environmental protection but, how many of us really think with respect of environment than as per our convenience. How many of us appreciate car pooling, riding a cycle or walking if the work place is closer, regularly check our vehicles, get the leaking taps fix, save water during our regular activities and ask our maids to save the environment. Most of the people do save the water and other things when they are short of it. If a day water supply is limited then every one tend to save every drop of water but rest of days it is used as per their convenience.

Other major area is teaching the maids and uneducated people to understand the importance of the environmental protection. Daily I tell my maids to close taps when not required but it seems they are deaf. Switching off the fans and lights are big jobs for which they need extra money. On road the maximum pollution is created by the auto, cabs and old state vehicles. But, surprising they all have pollution certificate.

It is said that one person can make a difference but I believe this is such a big problem that one person can’t do much. We all have to share our responsibility and then we can make a difference.

Chronic Poverty and Disability

According to WHO estimation, approx 10% of population is disabled, and a higher proportion of those living in chronic poverty. These numbers go up for the developing countries and underdeveloped countries than the developed countries. Disabled are disproportionately amongst the poorest.

Disability is considered as stigma to society as well as family. People considered disability as something of past bad deed. A child with disability most likely is excluded from family, education and later from society. They learn less and are less informed about the rights and policies. Lack of knowledge, education, awareness, opportunity and due to discrimination and poor self esteem, they have less chances to sustain.

Every country has developmental plans like universalisation of primary education, gender and economical equality and stability. But, it is not possible without inclusion and acknowledging the disabled needs. Various barriers like attitudinal and environmental results in social exclusion and marginalisation.

There has recently been a shift by some NGO’s, philanthropist and even Government towards considering the issues of disability right. Disabled and society is not aware of rights. There is poor distribution of resources and information among disabled. Other important point is that, rarely disabled could able to reach to power and can influence the policies and laws.

Government, developmental agencies and various others NGOs have tried and created expensive programe for disabled for main streaming, but this is not one or two hands job. It needs every citizen support and acknowledgment, change of attitudinal and communication barrier which results in exclusion and marginalization. Empowering disabled, acceptance and inclusion to society not only reduce the chronic poverty but also assist for global development.

Social Entrepreneurship in India : Challenge or Solution

In broader terms poverty ($2 per day per person) is omnipresent. Nearly, half the world’s population (over 3 billion people) lives under poverty line. In India alone, over two-thirds of its one billion plus population is covered under the definition of poverty. Yet, the strategy for alleviating poverty across globe is reformed but practically every developing nation has remained more or less to same.

Various initiatives taken by Govt and philanthropists are not sufficient for India in overall leveraging the quality of life of the underprivileged and disadvantaged community. Philanthropy is taught as a moral value and a large scale requirement in our community increase its demand. But, it is more required as social entrepreneurship not as a charity. It has been found in various researches that social entrepreneurship is the key element for the advanced and developed community and society in addressing the social needs. Since, Govt can’t target and successfully solve all the community challenges, the demand for various social entrepreneurs increases multi-fold.

India has given birth to some of the most advanced and innovative social entrepreneurs. They have developed few innovative and cost effective models which are used world wide. For e.g Child Help line 1098. They are present every where and are into every area of problems. But, because of their willingness to work quietly they are not well recognised.

Advantages of social entrepreneurs are as they work on the grass root level, they know the immediate needs of the community and they also work with the cultural boundaries of the community and hence, they are most acceptable. Now a day NGO are developing business model with triple bottom line of Profit, People and Planet to make there efforts sustainable and reachable to maximum. In other words, social entrepreneurs are linkage between the Govt initiatives and philanthropy. Social Entrepreneurship not only brings social change but create jobs and generate income to carry forward the further activities at different level and scale. Various initiatives like AMUL India, Aravind Eye Hospital, Barefoot College and SEWA are few renowned examples in social sector, but they are few. To cater the Indian population we may need thousands of other Social entrepreneurs who can solve thousands of other existing problems in health, child education and literacy, employment and disability etc areas. For eliminating such problems India needs stronger vision and Entrepreneurial approach.

In recent studies, it is found that India has more NGO’s per capita than other developing countries, but still few of these operating NGO’s have entrepreneurial approach. Lack of proper information, management and collaboration with other NGO’s lead to poor social impact. Transparency and lack of Funds also contribute to failure in generating good results.

Few B Schools like ISB, Hyderabad and TISS, Mumbai have included Social entrepreneurship study in their curriculum to impart better understanding and knowledge about social change.
As India is moving ahead in economic development, citizen sector can contribute a lot at grass root level to build a better base and improving the quality of life.

Networking event

On 30 Nov 2008, Centre for Social Initiative and Management provided an opportunity of networking with few National and International NPO by partnering with Unltd India for their “Learning Journey” program in Hyderabad. Unltd was an UK based organisation that supports social entrepreneurs by providing funding and support to help in shaping their ideas. Learning Journeys (LJ) was one such unique experience that is aimed to develop leaders to create greater impact in the world. It was a networking event among like minded people from different countries varying from Hongkong to India and UK to US

Although numbers of Not Profit Organizations (NPO) were invited with different background with different objectives but one thing which was common among them was the passion for becoming a change maker and building a better community. The event started with introduction of Director of UnLtd (UK) and their activities. Next introduction session was from coordinator of CSIM, Mr KL Srivastava and about CSIM activities. The major session was taken by Vijay Mahajan co-founded PRADAN, a rural development NGO, in 1983. A graduate of IIT, Delhi and IIM, Ahmedabad, Vijay has devoted his working life to promoting livelihoods in rural areas. In 1996, after leaving PRADAN, Mahajan went on to found BASIX, the first for profit microfinance institution (MFI) in India, and among the first in the world to attract commercial equity investments. He also shared his journey from his graduation to BASIX, the success mantra, challenges, supports and above all the passion and vision. He also told that most NPOs become ineffective because of lack of business model approach or management. For the success of a NPO it is important to have vision, passion, values and adequate scaling and accounting. It is important to demonstrate the values for NGO/NPO as they have to work on social sector. Values help in developing rapport with the society.

He stresses on word of mouth publicity as if we target rural population most of people are barely literate and hi-tech. It is important for social sector people to participate in the lifestyle of community for better understanding of the problems. It will not just help to have an outlook but a better look of community need. Of course, networking plays an important role in fund raising or fund development.

However, Entrepreneurial concept favors the combination of social motives and values in business model but business model is not applicable to all NPO, as sometime human values are stronger than the funds. But, it does not mean that there is no need for financial management. For those NPO where there are little chances of fund development, it is important for them to reduce the expense and cost.

Other organisation who participated in event were Education for free, Ashrya Aakruti, Safa, Sakshum, ILP (Indian literacy programe), ISFC (Indian school finance company), ISB, Social impact Net, Food works and CSIM.

Indeed it was a perfect networking and knowledge sharing event. I want to extend my thanks to CSIM for arranging such networking event.

Social Entrepreneurship

As per the definition social entrepreneurship is the work of social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur (entrepreneur in French means “one who takes into hands”) is one who recognizes the social need and bring the change. Social entrepreneurs correctly defined by French economist Jean- Baptiste “who shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield”. They act as a catalyst and hasten the social progress. Thus, they are the change maker or change agents or social innovators, who solve the social problems.

In last 3 decades the social sector has developed a lot and had attracted a lot of dedicated and committed people who share a single vision of social development. The language of social entrepreneurship may be new, but the phenomenon is not new. Social entrepreneurship is not charity. It is not something like feeding with but it means empowering or preparing the people to feed them. Social entrepreneurs encourage, educate, train and empower the beneficiaries to develop skills and direct them to solve their problems. They consider the social problems as challenges and opportunities for social uplifting. It is not necessary that all social entrepreneurs or organisation have no profit objectives rather they generate the income along with social change and use the profit for community building or for further activities. It is not just fund raising rather it is fund development. For e.g Md Yunus, a noble prize winner, from Bangladesh who founded Grameen Bank, innovated the concept of micro financing for poor and beggars. The Grameen bank is For profit organisation but its objectives are to develop the rural and poor community also helping the poor to avail finances for their own development. Social entrepreneurs identify the needs and problems of society or community, innovate the sustainable solution, accept the problems as opportunity and bring the change in the society. The solution or model is sustainable, cost effective and replicable.

Flow chart of entrepreneurship

Recognition of Social needs and social assets and resources
Innovative, sustainable and productive ideas
Business model and operating strategy
Use of opportunity Social outcome and impact

Characteristics of Social Entrepreneurs

Creative and innovative
Pursuance
Leadership
Focus
Dedication and committed
Passionate
Value of long term consideration over short term
Strong ethical and human values
Wiliness to Self correct

Benefits of social entrepreneurship

• SE generates the social economy by working with the disadvantaged, poor and underprivileged group. Empowering them with training and providing opportunities to them improves the overall capital generation of a society.
• Social entrepreneurs innovates a solution which is cost effective and which can address a larger group. Hence, it reduces the Govt efforts and capital. Sometime the creative idea even accepted by Govt or Authority as a law or policy.
• Since, social entrepreneurship is a business with a triple bottom of social change; it provides employment to people in this sector.
• Overall the objective of social entrepreneurship is to develop community so, it hasten the development of a sustainable and healthy community

Difference between the business entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship

The business and social entrepreneurs are not opposite or against to each other the difference exists in 3 words, the vision, objectives and triple bottom line. For a business entrepreneur the vision is profit generation, objective is financial development and bottom line is benefits and business networking. In case of, social entrepreneur the vision is community development, objective is development of resources and bottom line is quality of life of people or benefits of people. For business the financial returns matter where as for social entrepreneurs it is social return that matter.