Dear
All,
The
monsoon progressed in June and both IMD and Skymet have predicted
a normal monsoon on the whole. However, global warming has also caused
the monsoon to be erratic and uneven, and often delayed, in the last
few years.
Our project partner teams in water conservation in rural areas were
actively engaged in pre-monsoon planning and activities. We look
forward to implement the integrated data system to support smart
farming for marginal farmers in a progressive manner.
WIN Foundation's goal is to bring sustainable social impact. The
late Harvard Professor, Clayton Christensen showed extensive evidence
that grassroots entrepreneurship is far more effective in bringing
sustainable and scalable change as against charity / handout based
supply side models. We also have clear historical evidence of skill
based microentrepreneurship in India as root of its past economic
wealth. Microentrepreneurs providing solutions for the community
improves the quality of life and quality of work, leading to a vibrant
circular economy. Also these local micro-entrepreneurs become
part of the knowledge led economy with high potential for scaling and
replicability.
Micro-entrepreneurship at grassroots level is the theme for this issue, as a major tool for sustainable development.
WIN Foundation has supported micro-entrepreneurship through many of its
projects. These include Women nutritious food entrepreneurs and, Bhujal
Jankar in village providing increasing services to create sustainable
business model. We also recently completed a multi-NGO, multi-location
WhatsApp business training for 35 microentrepreneurs, who implemented
their pages during this experiential training. We are happy to add that
Mr. Ruyintan (Ron) Mehta, President, WIN Foundation, received the
"Social Entrepreneur" award for promoting Social Entrepreneurship at
the World Zoarastrian Congress 2022, held recently at New York.
In this issue two senior NGO founder-directors have contributed an
article each, under our Science in Action series, for
microentrepreneurship, and its strong impact.
Among our ongoing projects, Participatory Ground Water Management
(PGWM) activities were started in Little Rann, Surendranagar villages
and are being planned in Gandhinagar. RRWH activities have been
initiated in Ahmedabad and Kutch.
We organized more field health worker training programs. Our
skillingtowin platform continues to make steady progress and it is now
used for actual training in blended mode. The Vishwakarma innovation
contest, for water and sanitation, enters its final stage now.
Feel free to forward to your feedback on this issue or any suggestions for collaboration, or articles, at info@winfoundations.org.
With Warm Regards
Paresh Vora
Director, India Operations
Latest Updates
Water and Sanitation
Participatory Ground Water Management :-
Pre-monsoon
intense activities were conducted in Mandvi, Kutch and Khambhaliya,
Dwarka District, as well as in new added project areas in Abdasa, Kutch
for water conservation as well as pre-monsoon data collection.
In
Little Rann, Surendranagar, a new PGWM project was started under
multi-stakeholder approach, under partnership with Arid Communities and
Technologies (ACT) and Jhaleshwar Philanthropic Charitable Trust
(JPCT), the local NGO. It has initial focus on Bhujal Jankar training,
water recharge structures in 3 villages and RRWH in schools, with aim
to expand to 14 villages in near future.
Participatory Ground Water Management (PGWM) - Gandhinagar - is
being initiated under IIT Gandhinagar - ACT - WIN partnership
with project demonstration areas on IIT Gandhinagar Campus and 2
villages on Sabarmati river-bank within 40 km of IITGn, with aim to
bring greater research inputs to field level activities and vice versa.
Many training programs were conducted, including several using our skillingtoWin.org platform.
In Kutch and Khambhalia, as a logical extension to health and
nutrition - Kitchen garden in Kutch and Field Health Worker training in
Khambhalia were conducted.
With Samerth, a project to implement RRWH in 5 schools in Rapar taluka,
Kutch, was initiated, which also includes training local Bhujal Jankars
(Jaldoots) in those villages to initiate PGWM planning and practices.
Additional rain water harvesting projects include RRWH
projects in 2 economically weaker section housing societies,
initiated in collaboration with Mahila Housing Trust and Sujalam
Under
the Samerth led Sanand Nutrition project, Mr. Nikesh Ingle concluded
the formal part of training for women microentrepreneurship
groups. The women microentrepreneurs have introduced their initial
products locally.
They will be supported over the coming 12 months for seed funds
and further entrepreneurship related hand holding support.
The Saath led nutrition project in Ahmedabad continues to make
progress. We are initiating further nutrition projects under Saath, in
(i) Ahmedabad - 2 new areas and (ii) Jaipur.
WIN supported field health workers, including (i) by Saath in Vasna,
and (ii) by AMC in 14 PHCs across Ahmedabad, (iii) through ACT in
Khambhalia, Devbhumi Dwarka dist. More
training programs are being planned.
Innovation and microentrepreneurship Support
The initial testing of Chakra, developed
by Prof. C. Subramaniam, IIT Bombay, showed promising results in
reducing TDS to within the recommended level for drinking. More
testing is planned.
The Vishwakarma Innovation prize contest is now entering its final
phase. 20 teams presented their ideas during a mid-week review.
WIN supported Rukart, a startup, under WIN market validation support,
for its innovative subjee cooler product through Saath as the
facilitating NGO, with a vegetable vendor.
WIN Foundation signed an MOU with Birla Institute of Technology
(BITS), Pilani, to explore innovation projects by BITS faculty,
research scholars and students for WIN supported domains.
About 25 Nirma University Students, under an NSS project, studied
the PGWM project in Kutch and worked on multiple themes, and made their
final project submissions. The submissions include communication
materials, case studies and 3D model for aquifer.
WIN Foundation together with 5 leading NGO's conducted `Whatsapp
Business Implementation Program for Microenterprises' for 35
microentrepreneurs. The leading implementers were facilitated in an
Award function. The details are covered under subsequent section
`programs and events'.
Blackfrog, the WIN Foundation Health category startup award winner at
NBEC 2019, launched its manufacturing facility, fully operational with
a capacity of churning out up to 1500 units of its refrigerated
portable vaccine carrier "Emvolio" every month adhering to ISO 13485
standards of medical devices. Mr.Paresh Vora, Director - India
Operations, attended the inauguration event on 29th April 2022 in
Manipal, Karnataka.
Mr. Ruyintan Mehta (Ron), President of WIN Foundation, was given the Social Entrepreneur Award, for promoting social entrepreneurship to advance societies and address social problems as part of the "World Zarathushti Community Award" - at the World Zoarastrian Congress 2022, held at New York over 1-4 July 2022. (https://wzc2022.nyc/)
Ron's full Citation can be read by clicking on the picture on the right above.
Science in Action Series -3
Rural Microentrepreneurship
Microentrepreneurship for Sustainable Social Impact Authors
: Mr.Paresh Vora, Director-India
Operations and Ms.Shanti Menon, Manager-Programs
& Projects, WIN Foundation
Introduction:
Tens of billions of dollars as well
as human resources have been spent over last several decades
to reduce poverty, solve critical problems in health, water, and
improve quality of life. However, the progress has been far less than
desired.
In the book, “The Prosperity Paradox”, the late Harvard Professor
Clayton Christensen, the guru of disruptive innovation, showed, along
with his co-authors, how solutions creating
local market at bottom of the pyramid,
have been more effective in moving the needle faster and more
efficiently towards social goals in society and nations, as compared to
aid handouts and subsidies. Successes like MPaisa in Kenya, Grameen
Bank in Bangladesh and several microfinance initiatives in India show
ample evidence, as do failure of many large aid
programs in bringing about sustainable change.
Even more important, for quality of life, is the
micro-entrepreneurship at grassroots catering to public /
social goods and services for communities, particularly public
services like health, water, energy, education and so on. The
pre-colonial Indian economy was estimated at 15-20% of world’s GDP.
While the goods produced, like textiles, ships, steel,
by Indian entrepreneurs were world renowned, local services
for health, water structures, basic education, evolved over centuries,
and provided by locally skilled “experts”, were the bedrock
of rural life and economic prosperity. In each domain,
expertise was carried over generations within families, providing high
quality and reliable services, over centuries, thus providing
livelihoods and high quality of services to villagers. E.g. Our water
structures like “Vavs” in Gujarat, the ancient water storage
structures in Dholavira in the Harrapan times, show high precision and
quality structures.
Today, India has achieved substantial growth. However, our rural and
tribal areas suffer not just from lack of income and employment, but
poor civic services in critical areas of health, water, energy etc.,
leading to poor quality of life. Several projects demonstrate high
potential of micro-entrepreneurship models in each of
these domains for sustainable development.
WIN Foundation supports innovations for sustainable social impact in
its domains of (i) water and sanitation and (ii) mother and child
health. It brings innovative products and approaches, by bringing
multiple stakeholders together, including NGOs, premier institutions,
startups, and other innovation ecosystem players.
This is combined with empowerment and skilling of the local
communities. Local talented young men and women are trained in skills,
technology and organizing work and projects, to carry out interventions
for impact, creating livelihoods and improving social / public services and quality of life.
E.g. (i) In Water and Sanitation, water recharge structures, roof rain
water harvesting systems, agriculture and water data collection and
analysis etc. Microentrepreneurship models are being implemented to
enable the trained local youth to achieve dignified career, respect and
sustainability. (ii) Similarly in health, WIN Foundation supports
several projects involving development of women microentrepreneurs for
nutritious food products, to market the
products alongwith message of healthy diet among communities.
Challenges for microentrepreneurship:
If the potential for such microentrepreneurship for sustainable impact
is known, then what are the challenges in scaling up this approach
across the country? Based on the experience in our projects, we share
the following, with few suggestions to overcome them:
i) Self-confidence and Trust: Communities need to build self-confidence in themselves, and trust with their partners, to adopt the path of self reliance for
their public needs like water and health, as against 100%
reliance on the government for all such services. The typically
“free” or “low cost” “government schemes/solutions, are often
inadequate, inconsistent, or of poor quality, imposing a high cost on
the community. E.g. Poor water bodies management results in poor water
quality, shortages in summer, in turn resulting in health problems.
Fortunately, many NGOs have worked closely with communities to build
such trust. Further, NGO staff has to be oriented to understand the
need to carry the message of skilling, microentrepreneurship as a
solution, as against the standard charity activities or government
schemes and freebies as the solution. Even when the government provides
funds or basic infrastructure, local microentrepreneurship can help
maintain such infrastructure and related services, to get maximum out
of it. The community has to be convinced to get involved, take
ownership, and support their own young men and women to get skills and
provide high quality and reliable services as microentrepreneurs.
ii) Localised Customer-focused Solutions:
Microentrepreneurs have to develop customized solutions to meet
dynamic local customer needs. This requires (i) technical skilling in
production of goods or provision of services, and (ii) understanding
marketing concepts, to understand varying customer needs and adapt
offerings, with effective marketing. This also requires bringing out
the innate leadership skills of the microentrepreneurs,
giving them confidence in their abilities, and
encouraging them to experiment and improvise along their journey.
Often, well meaning NGOs train microentrepreneurs to only produce
goods, with little or no marketing and leadership training. This
restricts microentrepreneurs from thinking further about understanding
customer needs and long term growth. WIN engages
microentrepreneurship training experts to train and handhold
microentrepreneurs, with support of NGO staff, over 1-3 years. The NGO
and microentrepreneurship expert also help evolve new viable business
models, through experimentation.
iii) Understand and adopt technologies,processes, and update knowledge regularly to meet customer and community needs:
products and services: Even the rural population is exposed to modern products, and aspires to
benefit from such products. Microentrepreneurs have to be trained to
scan and adopt new technologies and products from time to time.
Fortunately, a lot of affordable technologies are being developed by
startups and companies, available for use by local
microentrepreneurs to offer better services. E.g. Field usable Soil
moisture, soil testing, water testing equipment at low cost, allow the
local micro-entrepreneurs to offer services to support smart farming
even to marginal farmers. WIN Foundations, through multi-stakeholder
collaboration, involving NGOs, startups, institutions, etc. has helped
bring affordable state of the art products, bringing products from over
10 startups to the communities.
E-business: to
help microentrepreneurs become efficient and widen market reach. Here
too, modern IT and Telecom solutions are available at very low cost or
no cost. This requires identification of such affordable means and then
training microentrepreneurs to implement them. This too requires
bringing expert trainers and NGOs together. Eg. WIN Foundation recently
carried out a multi-partner, multi-location month-long whatsapp for
business training for around 35 microentrepreneurs, predominantly
women, who implemented their online pages and catalogues right during
the training and started generating businesses.
Continued learning: We
need to build a learning attitude among the microentrepreneurs for
their continued learning and update, and support them with learning
opportunities, including self learning, online learning etc. E.g. WIN
Foundation supports learning through its online skillingtoWIN.org
platform.
iv) Funding support:
Microentrepreneurs require funding support, just like that
available in startup world, over a period of time, alongwith
development of their own financial expertise to enable them to move
towards financial self reliance. This requires creation of seed funds,
soft loans, cooperative credit society structures, etc., which provide
support and also generate financial accountability. There are several
priority sector lending schemes also available for small businesses
including those by women.
v) Scaling and Replication:
While many pilots have shown excellent results,
scaling and replicating solutions across whole districts, state,
country remain the biggest challenge. Typical solutions tried for
scale-up are skilling at mass scale, financial support schemes by
government etc. However, these have had limited success and often
lose momentum, as they often face new unforeseen problems in new
locations or new situations. A key requirement, missed out by most
scaling efforts, is that of local leadership. Success in pilots
invariably involved local leadership displayed by experts, local NGO
staff, few local community leaders etc, which is critical to overcome
unforeseen hurdles faced along the way. Scaling efforts miss out on
this leadership aspect almost totally, leading to lack of success in
scaling up. Hence, to complement the massification of skilling, we also
need to create a simultaneous system to identify leadership potential
at local levels, and then empower the local leaders to evolve, through
practice, local solutions, and solve local problems and hurdles, while
replicating successful models from elsewhere. Such local leaders
typically also help many other microentrepreneurs around them, thus
bringing true multiplier effect. WIN Foundation is engaged with its NGO
partners to brainstorm and implement such leadership development
process, and is keen to explore more stakeholder relationships for this.
Summary of WIN Foundation projects which support microentrepreneurship:
Water Conservation,
where local youth, men and women, are trained as Bhujal Janjkars, and
lead interventions by preparing water security plans and help implement
water recharge structures, smart farming practices using affordable
equipment and solutions, women group formation and practices like
kitchen gardens etc. Thus these Bhujal Jankar act as change
agents, and bring sustainable improvement in quality of life at village
level.
Mother and Child Nutrition, where
women microentrepreneurs are trained for producing and selling
nutritious food products to community, along with support for central
kitchen, seed funds, community events etc. These women
microentrepreneurs take the message of nutrition to mothers and others
in communities, and market healthy food products, affordable to the
community and finally make a positive impact to tackle
malnutrition.
Horizontal initiatives across domains:
Whatsapp
for Business training for grassroots micro entrepreneurs, from multiple
domains - to enable them to tap into e-commerce even with their limited
education.
Online skilling platform - skillingtoWIN.org, enabling expansion of skilling.
Impact:
25+ of Bhujal Jankars
40+ Number of Women microentrepreneurs for food
35+ Number of microentrepreneurs who implemented e-business and started getting sales through ebusiness channel
Future goals:
Support microentrepreneurs
reach stability and maturity, and put them on growth path with greater
customer service and financial profitability
Identify leaders among above groups and motivate them to act as coaches for more microentrepreneurs
Scale and replicate in other locations - through training and local leadership development
Build multi-stakeholder system to support microentrepreneurs.
WIN
Foundation would love to engage with other organizations for supporting
grassroot microentrepreneurship. If interested, write to us at info@winfoundations.org.
In our science in action series, we have articles from two experienced
NGO founder-directors, with excellent on ground achievements in
microentrepreneurship support.
I am involved in work related to water conservation in my village. I
measure and monitor groundwater levels and quality, create well
inventory, do water level analysis and take measurements for lake
deepening work. I also do site selection for groundwater recharge by
identifying defunct borewells and sites where there is surface water
runoff; and we do interventions for groundwater recharge at these
selected sites. I have created women's groups and with them, we have
grown kitchen gardens and are doing vermicomposting.
What has been your major learning as a Bhujal Jankar?
I have understood how important it is to conserve water. Before my work
as Bhujal Jankar, I never thought about the excessive groundwater usage
in my village and used to feel there is a lot of water available for us
to use. Now I have understood that we have limited water resources, and
we need to value it and conserve it. As a Bhujal Jankar, I have also
learnt many technical things such as water level and quality
measurements.
What are the benefits of your work as a Bhujal Jankar to farmers and other village communities?
There were some previously defunct borewells in the village in which,
through groundwater recharge water is now available. Previously, the
drinking water borewell of the village panchayat used to go dry in
summer; and people had to go out to fetch water or order tankers. But
now water is available in the panchayat borewell even in summer months,
because of the recharge intervention that we did. This is a huge relief
for us.
How do you see your services provided as Bhujal Jankar to be offered as a microentrepreneur?
I have received some technical training to assess land and water
quality, measure groundwater levels. These are important methods to
understand the status of our natural resources, especially in my
village where groundwater salinity is high. So, I do see the need and
importance of my services as Bhujal Jankar in my village, and in future
can consider being a Bhujal Jankar microentrepreneur. Moreover, the
equipment we use for these activities are simple and easy to use, which
helps in providing our service. At present, I have my small business in
which I make and sell vermicompost, and I know there is a need for this
product.
For what services provided by Bhujal Jankar, the farmers would be willing to pay for their services?
Based on water - soil quality testing and groundwater availability, we
can give advice to farmers related to agriculture. So there definitely
is a need among farmers to get this information. It is a useful service
for farmers, as they get quick results and they don't need to travel
out of the village for that.The farmers will be willing to pay for
this, but we will have to appropriately price it, and not keep it too
high.
What additional training would be helpful to you as a Bhujal Jankar to provide better services as a microentrepreneur?
Any training to enhance my technical skills. It is very useful to know
about new techniques and technologies in agriculture. I have come to
know about different types of fertilizers, one of them being
vermicompost, which I make on my own. Training for connecting with the
customers, networking and marketing will also be helpful. I am eager to
learn all these things
Experiences of Samerth Trust – a grassroot organisation in promoting Micro Entrepreneurs Author : Ms.Gazala Paul, Managing Trustee, Samerth Charitable Trust
Imagination is the beginning of creation
Background
It
is estimated that well over 260 million people, out of India’s
population of over 1 billion, are living below the national poverty
line. It is also projected that out of these poor households,
approximately 20 percent have access to credit through formal channels
and even fewer have undertaken formal or informal financial or business
training.
Women comprise half of India’s human resources and are key agents of
sustainable development. The contribution of women and their role in
the family as well as in economic development and social transformation
of the country is pivotal. Women are also representing an
ever-increasing percentage of the total marginal or informal workers of
the country. There are multiple ways in which the socialized skills of
women can be turned into entrepreneurial initiatives.
There is especially true in rural and semi urban areas with scarce
industries or industries which inherently are hostile towards women due
the nature of work – like mining, where micro enterprise rooted to the
needs of the local area presents as the one of the most viable options
to become financially independent.
Samerth Trust – an introduction
Samerth Trust initiated its operations in drought prone region of
Rapar, Kutch (Gujarat) in early 2000 based on the poor human
development index of the area. Our interventions began from providing
potable water through participatory ground water management and later
as villages became self-sufficient in water, livelihood became their
biggest focus in order to avoid distress migration. With no industries
in the area, the only livelihood options are rooted in local economy
including agriculture and Animal Husbandry. In Rapar
with a population of over 2 lakh people, even today one cannot find
ATMs or banks for 100 kms at a stretch. Samerth started supporting men
and women from marginalized communities on their entrepreneurial
aspirations and today has a broad base of more than 300 individuals who
have been able to successfully start and sustain local businesses.
Samerth later expanded to Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and then Chhattisgarh
working with communities who are marginalized and come from low-income
backgrounds. In Chhattisgarh, the focus has been tribal communities and
in the urban and semi urban areas of Ahmedabad district it was migrant
and vulnerable groups. We started working in Ahmedabad &
Chhattisgarh on education and livelihood issues. Currently we reach out
to more than 70,000 families directly through various interventions. In
both these areas, we have supported communities’ initiate enterprise -
especially women through special trainings and support and today we
reach out to more than 1000 entrepreneurs in both these regions.
In
all three regions, in Rapar due to sheer distance and lack of
administrative support, in Chhattisgarh as the focus are the PVTGs –
Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups living in hilly forest regions
with poor accessibility, and in Ahmedabad marginalised communities of
western Ahmedabad as well as women in Sanand face great barrier in
accessing formal sources of loan like banks, and still fall prey to
private players who provide loan at exorbitant rates. Samerth works
with more than 48 micro entrepreneurs
in Ahmedabad, in urban and rural area, supporting small shops or
helping establish their street business on cart, women entrepreneurs to
set up food business etc. In areas like Kutch and Chhattisgarh,
Samerth has been battling against some of the most challenging living
conditions- extremes climate, deforestation, soil depletion that often
gets exacerbated by unpredictable natural calamities. In Kutch,
in the desert area surrounded by big and small rann where frequent
droughts, water scarcity and salinity in the ground water overpowers
everything the support for setting up small enterprise creates
significant impacts and becomes key to alleviating poverty. Samerth has
worked with 283 families for dairy / animal husbandry, setting
up small businesses, auto services, higher education and agriculture
activities in Rapar block of Kutch. We also provide technical
and training assistance for setting up vermicomposting, biogas
installation of solar pumps, livestock promotion and dairy business.
In
Kwardha district of CG – Samerth has promoted 665 enterprises on
pisciculture, poultry farming, NTFP collection and marketing as well as
farm-based livelihoods by linking them with available forest and
government schemes on technical training, accessing loans etc.
Thus, more than 1000 micro entrepreneurs are handheld and supported on
regular basis with financial support, business strategy as well as
market linkage. Samerth overall vision is to help people get out of
poverty and to pursue this goal we have been encouraging social
business. The idea is to create products or services that provide
social benefits.
In Samerth’s experience, rural and semi urban micro entrepreneurs do
not readily receive the training and support systems that facilitate
the upgrading of skills as well as the general understanding of
organising and managing successful businesses. The transition from
homemaker to sophisticated entrepreneur is no small challenge, however
women across India are increasingly showing an interest in economic
independence.
Samerth’s
support to the microentrepreneurs stresses on encompassing the skills
in the way that it extends beyond financial support to those of
creating market linkages.
Each cluster of activity provided a learning experience that has helped
to shape the concept of social business/micro-enterprises.
Our learnings of the last decade of promoting micro entrepreneurs
Only providing microfinance support is not enough. Samerth’s
experience of working in some of the poorest areas has highlighted that
in many instances, providing finance to low-income communities does not
effectively reduce poverty levels. More comprehensive services are
required to enable them to benefit from financial inclusion. Constant
hand holding in the initial years and support in market linkages is the
key for any micro enterprise to not only survive, but thrive. The
enterprise has to be prepared to compete with market. It must provide
with high quality goods and services , provide excellent value for the
prices it charges.
Building a multi partnership model benefits all.
Partnering with multi-sector organizations to offer training and
business counselling on enterprise feasibility, Samerth worked towards
strengthening collectives and creating market linkages and financial
linkages via banks.
Capacitating the entrepreneur is the key.
Wherever possible, formal capacity building micro enterprise
development training is undertaken. These trainings are delivered in
local, vernacular languages and through contextually relevant methods,
with content derived from the region. These trainings are crucial as
the world is changing faster particularly in the realms of economic
development and technology
Women led enterprises lead to many other changes in the society. Finally, micro
enterprises headed by women are important indicators in demonstrating
overall and holistic economic development, which also incorporates
social elements such as the promotion of gender grievance and redressal
forums, and an awareness of health and physical wellbeing as an
essential aspect of both maintaining productive livelihood activities
and reducing financial burden on individuals and families alike.
Role of Banks for financial Inclusion:
We must not overlook the fact however, that a strong support for credit
through formal banks is crucial. The vibrant micro-enterprise
will further blossom with pro-active involvement of nationalised and
private sector Banks and credit institutions. It is only with the
strengthening of these institutions, that the promotion of
micro-entrepreneurs can happen and spur economic growth.
Highlighting
here case study of our women entrepreneurs from Sanand in Gujarat. This
programme is supported by WIN Foundation.
Samerth
has been working in five villages of Sanand since 2019. Sanand was a
small sleepy town in Ahmedabad district, that shot to prominence after
the Tata Nano factory relocated from West Bengal to Sanand. After Nano,
many other ancillary companies came to Sanand and from an agricultural
zone, it became an industrial zone. Overnight the land prices shot up
and big farmers became rich. The poor farmers with small land holding
became factory workers. Though there were industries, the social
dynamics did not change, women were still expected cover their faces,
were not allowed to carry smart phones, girls were not allowed to study
and most menial jobs were delegated to women.
Samerth had been working in the government schools of the area on enhancing quality of education and
nutrition had been one of the focus areas. Our team was also working
with women to form Self Help Groups, save regularly, come together on a
platform etc. It is in this situation that the pandemic struck and many
factory workers lost their jobs. With no income and poor skills, it
became difficult for families to sustain. It is in these circumstances
that the WIN Foundation training on nutri entrepreneurs was initiated
with our self-help groups. The model was simple – women to be trained
in microenterprise development, from product development to costing to
packaging to market linkage, hand held through the process. The women
were also trained in nutrition, understanding the needs of their bodies
especially during times of change (adolescent – onset of menstrual
cycle) Pregnancy, menopause combined with nutritive content of our
day-to-day food and how to match the needs to the content. This gave
them an overall perspective on the foods -especially traditional ones
that they have been traditionally consuming across generation. The
training also helped them gain insight into nutritional needs of a
growing child and based on this understanding their product for
enterprise took shape.
The idea
was to make traditional sweet and savoury product with nutritive
content which children and adults can eat instead of ready to eat
packaged food with zero nutritional value and in addition to the harm
it causes to the environment with the packaging. It was a win –
win for both, women getting an entrepreneurial product, which primarily
caters to their own communities. Due to its proximity to the city and
industrial belt, there were many other avenues for the products
too. The micro enterprise development training conducted by Mr.
Nikesh Ingle was a robust program of theoretical concepts that were
delivered with practical exercises. It required every trainee to visit
a local marketplace during the training. This provided an important
initial exposure to the environments in which they will be conducting
business and a valuable insight into aspects of operation such as local
competition, typical footfalls, demand and market opportunities,
customer buying capacities etc. Such experience also contributes to
building a greater preparedness for executing effective enterprise
plan. Furthermore, constant handholding gave them further encouragement
to continue with their venture. This also including bring the technical
aspect in current times –
a WhatsApp business training that was held online for about 16 hours
through the month. This training helped entrepreneurs gain confidence
that their products and services can reach larger audience without
spending on marketing.
The product was of high-quality nutritious food and also
served low-income groups specially children. We are providing the
food to the day care centres with intellectual challenged children and
young adults. The products were competitive price wise as it
didn’t require costly packaging or advertisement.
It has been early days since the women started actively producing and
selling their products and they have great response within and outside
the community. There is certainly hope that with right support these
women will only march stronger ahead.
I
certainly believe that there is huge scope to support the vulnerable
and marginalised on business development training along with micro
credit to encourage them to become micro entrepreneurs in their own
right. We need to think strategically and analyse the potential
role of communities for growth. The whole idea is to put our
minds to it create what we want by providing a fair chance to unleased
community’s energy and creativity. I believe combined with
technology, creating local solutions with global markets is the future.
Moreover, establishing financial institutions for rural areas is the
beginning. Banking penetration, access to banking services, and use of
banking services significantly influences financial Stability for the
women entrepreneurs living in difficult areas.
Nutritious Food and Women Microenterprises – The Saath Experience
Food
is the most important basic need for human existence and has a powerful
influence on world history. Food preferences emerge in early childhood.
Children in the low income urban geographies cannot resist temptation
to tasty, cheap and easily accessible packaged food/ junk food. Junk
food contributes more calories than nutrients and is high in fat, sugar
and salt. Continuous consumption of ready-to-eat packaged food can
negatively impact growth, decay teeth, promote obesity and ultimately
lead to malnutrition. Food containing low nutritional value reduces the
intelligence of children, thus constraining the future learning
capacity and ultimately impacting the economy negatively. At present,
in India, the health and nutrition indicators of children in urban
areas are as bad as of their rural counterparts much of which can be
attributed to consumption of packaged ready-to-eat food. The urban
population in India is projected to double from 410 million in 2014 to
814 million by 2050, making it imperative to address the issue
urgently. Opportunities exist in promotion of market based
interventions on nutritious food and women led microenterprises have a
great role to play in nutritious ready-to-eat food/ snack foods. The
size of snacks market in India is estimated to be worth Rs. 44,000
crore with an annual growth of 25%. As Saath has realized, the barriers
to scale for nutritious food, women-led microenterprises remain – (i)
Poor recognition of business opportunities; (ii) Domains like hygiene,
preservation, operational efficiency and unit cost optimization require
more attention; (iii) Support system of mentors and advisors need
strengthening; (iv) Averseness on debt and skepticism to start out on
their own; (v) Lack of ecosystem approach – NGO, MFI/ Banks and
Entrepreneurs
Thus, Saath in collaboration with WIN Foundation started working
towards nurturing women microenterprises on nutritious snacks. The
interventions are designed on the twin strategies of (i) pull or demand
creation and (ii) push or supply generation. Through this project,
twenty five women micro-entrepreneurs have been trained by Saath on
product development, market research, production, marketing, customer
feedbacks, repeat orders, team development and financial management.
Trained entrepreneurs have come out with two to three nutritive
products each, have clearly identified customer segments and are
generating significant physical volumes, sales value, repeat orders,
profit and seeing it as a viable employment opportunity. They have
started to build partnerships with sales channels and raw material
supply chains. The subsequent discussions elaborate our experiences
during the entire process.
Vasna a low income neighbourhood was chosen for the project. It is
located between the old city and new Ahmedabad and is home to various
communities including Marwadi, Harijan, Vanjara, Rabbari, Vankar and
Darbar. These communities are largely patriarchal and women prefer home
based livelihoods. However to make both ends meet, some women have
started venturing out for work as housemaids. Women are often sole
breadwinners and support a family of four to five dependents often
struggling to make both ends meet. Hence monetary shortage is
persistent and the need for women centered income generating activities
is a priority. Therefore, Vasna was a natural choice for this project.
The concept seeding was done in group meetings with 10-15 women, where
the project concept was introduced. Selection of women was also done in
this group by asking questions like: “Who are interested in Cooking?
What do you know in cooking? Have you worked previously in cooking at
others home? Can you cook something different? What can you cook which
is liked by everyone? Are they interested in enterprise or in Job?”
Fifteen such concept seeding meetings were conducted with around 250
women. Saath team listed names of women who expressed interest and had
commensurate skills. The shortlisted women were later called at Vasna
Saath centre to register themselves.
Although everyone listened attentively during the concept seeding
meetings, showed interest and had explicitly agreed to come at the
centre for registration, however, only twenty five turned up and among
them six women quit even before the training began. Saath team learnt
that out of every four women contacted initially only one would become
active participant. Out of twenty five women who had agreed to join the
training, six women joined similar program organized by government in
lure of utensils and travel reimbursement. However a majority of women
decided to attend Saath program as it had handholding services.
The technical training of dry snacks was a week long program with one
session on life skills and motivation. Information about ingredients
was shared after which the trainer demonstrated the cooking process.
Thereafter participants were asked to repeat the process, to ensure
effective learning. Participants are also allowed to showcase their
skills in traditional food preparation in which they were confident to
facilitate co-learning between group members. The training focused on
nutritious food only and included limited products like Ragi ni Sukdi, Tal ni Sukdi, Khajoor roll and Nachos. Saath Team is also working on identifying new products which can be taken to scale and has high shelf life.
Advanced business trainings focused on establishing the
microenterprise, finalizing product, costing, packaging, marketing,
margins along with clear product uniqueness. The process of the
training included lecture followed by practical demonstrations, packing
products, going to shops and making sales pitch. Also participants were
asked to prepare and try selling own products to add to experience.
Preparation of snacks in the advanced business training is a central
group based activity. The group consisted of three women. Raw materials
were supplied by Saath and snacks were produced, packed and marketed by
this group. Saath has learnt that the business must compete with the
regular ready-to-eat packaged food. Thus Saath is working to improve
the retailer margins, increase shelf life, decrease product price,
increase taste and visual appeal. As the products are reaching market
Saath is connecting to market for regular feedback on competition
practices, cost structure, price spread, customer segments and
preferences.
Training on Whatsapp Business Catalogue
This training discussed the benefits of Whatsapp business App and
trained participants on the process of creating a profile and
catalogue. It included perfecting the art of clicking a food picture,
typing messages, replies and sending link. This training spanned over
nine days and is conducted twice weekly. The initial training was given
by a third party expert who understands the context of women led food
microenterprises. This training was conducted online with the objective
to train the Saath team also. The Saath team thereafter closely worked
with women entrepreneurs to develop the catalogues. These sessions were
organized at the centre. It was essential that participants have smart
phone and dual-sim activated. Saath also played a significant role in
mobilizing smart phone for the entrepreneurs.
Present Impact of the Programme:
Eight women have started business since May 2022 generating gross
revenue of Rs. 1.11 Lakh and profit of Rs. 0.35 Lakh. Twenty
participants are in process to start business, six participants have
been linked to job and two women have left the program. Women
entrepreneurs require assistance in getting orders and a subsidized
loan of around Rs. 50,000 to strengthen the enterprise. To create a
physical presence in the mind of customers, Saath is also planning to
participate in food festivals which will also go a long way to
establish the business. Thoughts for Future:
As discussed, the idea of nutritious snacks is timely. However it
requires patience, hard work and regular investment in market research,
technology and standardizing operational processes. Post COVID-19 the
upper middle class is sensitized towards such products and are an easy
market. However reaching these nutritious products to the low income
households will require addressing issues of affordability and ease of
access for the population who is under constant squeeze of time and
money.
Women Entrepreneurs Speak: Case 1 My
name is Senila Bano Shaikh and I am a resident of Vasna. I have
presently started production and sales of nutritious snacks since 4th
May 2022. The products include “Mawa ke Samose”, Tal ki Sukdi”, Tal Ke
Laddu”, Mungfali ni Chikki”and “Mungfali Ki Barfi”. Till date, I have
sold 49 Kg of Snackswith a gross revenue of Rs. 15,300 and have earned
a net profit of Rs. 5,000.
When Saath team
approached, I was interested and wanted to join the training program on
nutritious snacks immediately. However my husband was reluctant and
opposed the idea straightaway. He said that it is not possible as women
of our community do not go outside. However I was determined to join
the program and discussed with my family members again. I shared that I
want to learn and become an entrepreneur which will add to the income
of the family. After repeated discussions I was allowed to attend the
program on the condition that I would complete my household errands
before going to the training.
In the entire
training I took part regularly and mastered whatever was being taught
at these classes. Since I had experience of running a tiffin service
since last one year, I knew cooking and it was my strength. However I
was unknown to the fact that raw materials and the process of cooking
could impact the nutrition. I thought that all food was nutritious. The
nutrition content of raw materials added to my knowledge significantly.
I already knew that I had to operate this business from home and I was
worried how to connect to customers. However I was relieved when I
learnt the WhatsApp brochure. I also learnt that food experience
started from the picture of the food. Dark background provided a sharp
contract and enhanced the colour of food. Today I have a WhatsApp
brochure, in which I add any new product and also share it with
potential clients. I receive repeat orders from my clients. From a
point of not even knowing how to operate smart phone and whatsapp,
today I am successfully managing my clients on WhatsApp it has added to
my confidence and respect from my family. It is a very big jump for me
given my background.
In one of the sessions,
the trainers at Saath asked everyone about any snacks which is known to
us, is healthy, traditional and tasty. “Mawa ke samose” was something
that I had been cooking for years. The trainers allowed me to showcase
my skills and teach “Mawa ke samose” to all participants. With the
support of my trainers, I did well and everyone enjoyed the sweet. This
also helped me decide that this product will always be on my list.
Women Entrepreneurs Speak: Case 2 My
name is Nitikshaben Darji and I am a resident of Vasna. I have
presently started production and sales of nutritious snacks since 4th
May 2022. The products include “Papad”, Ragi Ni Sukhdi”, “Khajoor
roll”,” Makkai ke Nachos”, “Choco Roll” and “Sabudana Batakha Ni
Chakri”. Till date, I have sold 58 Kg of Snacks with a gross revenue of
Rs. 16,900 and have earned a net profit of Rs. 7,000.
When
I first heard about the training, the thought that came to my mind was,
“Would it help me to establish my business?” Saath team assured that
they would train and also guide me during the entire process of setting
up the business. I was relieved on hearing this. Family did not
initially permit me to attend the programme and I was also worried
about how I could manage the business and my children. With firm
resolute to add to income of my family, I decided to take one day at a
time and started attending the programme. Soon I learnt about
ingredients which could be used to make nutritious items with less oil
and less spices. All these years I had been cooking for my children,
not knowing that it was filling up their stomach but not adding to
their nutrition. This added to my conviction and I started making these
products at home also. WhatsApp advanced business training was a ray of
hope in my life. With past experience of COVID, where shops were closed
during lockdown, I immediately knew that this is the way forward for my
business. I learnt to take photos of my business, write description and
also send the link to my potential customers. Soon after making the
brochure, it was accidently deleted by my children and I had to remake
the entire brochure to connect to potential clients. I lost time in
this process and this experience taught me that smart phone was a
critical asset to my business. Hence I keep it away from my children.
I
visit the centre regularly to make products, package then and ideate. I
have also visited shops in order to understand and make a sales pitch.
This has helped me understand that we need to unite together to compete
with large players. Also the role of technology can decrease
manufacturing cost, added to the shelf life and increase the visual
appeal of our products. Each day I am learning and I am hopeful about
my future.
WhatsApp Business Implementation Program for Small Business / Microenterprises
WIN Foundation, together with 5 leading
NGOs, conducted an experiential training program for 35
microentrepreneur teams, who implemented their e-commerce presence on
whatsapp for business at no cost, during the 1 month training program
and also started their digital businesses through this. The leading
implementers were facilitated in an Award function, to further motivate
them to aim for greater achievement and also support other fellow
micro-entrepreneurs in their communities.
Organised and Sponsored by: WIN Foundation
Master Trainer: Mr. Nikesh Ingle, Rural Training Program Partners:
"I
have not received much education. So we could never imagine learning
this. But Nikesh-sir taught us very patiently and we could create our
site, which is helping me in the business to showcase my whole
catalogue. Further, in this short time, I have shown how to do this to
some of my neighbours including both men and women entrepreneurs for
their business, and they appreciated this help. It feels very
satisfying to win the excellence award. My sincere thanks to
Yogeshbhai, ACT team and WIN Foundation for bringing this eye opening
program."
"We
have difficulty going out due to various family responsibilities and
lack of such exposure. So while we can make very good food products, we
cannot market it easily. With this we are able to sell our products
online, sitting from our homes and serve our customers directly. Nikesh
sir conducted this program very well, and Afroz-ben ensured that we
could attend. Shanti-ben coordinated the schedule and encouraged and
motivated continuously through the program. We thank Nikesh-sir,
Samerth and WIN Foundation for this program."
Vishwakarma Innovation Prize Competition launched in January2022
is jointly organised by WIN Foundation, Maker Bhavan Foundation
and Dr Kiran C Patel Centre for Sustainable Development (KPSCD) IIT
Gandhinagar.
Vishwakarma Prize Competition encourages and rewards top innovators
among engineering students focused on building practical systems.
In Feb'22, 30 applicants were shortlisted from 115 applications. They
are currently working on the development of the prototype. In the first
week of June, we have conducted another round of mid-feedback
sessions and now 20 innovative teams are working towards building
a prototype. Around mid-July month, we are planning to conduct an
evaluation session for shortlisting down to 10 applicants. These 10
applicants will be working toward fine-tuning their product until the
3rd week of August. These top 10 finalists will then be visiting IIT
Gandhinagar for demonstrations wherein the Jury Panel will be selecting
the top 3 finalists.
In
Little Rann, Surendranagar, a new PGWM project was started under
multi-stakeholder approach, under partnership with Arid Communities and
Technologies (ACT) and Jhaleshwar Philanthropic Charitable Trust
(JPCT), the local NGO. It has initial focus on Bhujal Jankar training,
water recharge structures in 3 villages and RRWH in schools, with aim
to expand to 14 villages in near future.
locally.
They will be supported over the coming 12 months for seed funds
and further entrepreneurship related hand holding support.
Mr. Ruyintan Mehta (Ron), President of WIN Foundation, was given the Social Entrepreneur Award, for promoting social entrepreneurship to advance societies and address social problems as part of the "World Zarathushti Communit
y Award" - at the World Zoarastrian Congress 2022, held at New York over 1-4 July 2022. (
domain,
expertise was carried over generations within families, providing high
quality and reliable services, over centuries, thus providing
livelihoods and high quality of services to villagers. E.g. Our water
structures like “Vavs” in Gujarat, the ancient water storage
structures in Dholavira in the Harrapan times, show high precision and
quality structures.
r impact, creating livelihoods and improving social / public services and quality of life.
ii) Localised Customer-focused Solutions: 
to
benefit from such products. Microentrepreneurs have to be trained to
scan and adopt new technologies and products from time to time.
Fortunately, a lot of affordable technologies are being developed by
startups and companies, available for use by local
microentrepreneurs to offer better services. E.g. Field usable Soil
moisture, soil testing, water testing equipment at low cost, allow the
local micro-entrepreneurs to offer services to support smart farming
even to marginal farmers. WIN Foundations, through multi-stakeholder
collaboration, involving NGOs, startups, institutions, etc. has helped
bring affordable state of the art products, bringing products from over
10 startups to the communities.
pilots
invariably involved local leadership displayed by experts, local NGO
staff, few local community leaders etc, which is critical to overcome
unforeseen hurdles faced along the way. Scaling efforts miss out on
this leadership aspect almost totally, leading to lack of success in
scaling up. Hence, to complement the massification of skilling, we also
need to create a simultaneous system to identify leadership potential
at local levels, and then empower the local leaders to evolve, through
practice, local solutions, and solve local problems and hurdles, while
replicating successful models from elsewhere. Such local leaders
typically also help many other microentrepreneurs around them, thus
bringing true multiplier effect. WIN Foundation is engaged with its NGO
partners to brainstorm and implement such leadership development
process, and is keen to explore more stakeholder relationships for this.
Kakabhai Sinhan, Khambhalia, Dwarka Dist.Gujarat
with a population of over 2 lakh people, even today one cannot find
ATMs or banks for 100 kms at a stretch. Samerth started supporting men
and women from marginalized communities on their entrepreneurial
aspirations and today has a broad base of more than 300 individuals who
have been able to successfully start and sustain local businesses.
eneurs
in Ahmedabad, in urban and rural area, supporting small shops or
helping establish their street business on cart, women entrepreneurs to
set up food business etc. In areas like Kutch and Chhattisgarh,
Samerth has been battling against some of the most challenging living
conditions- extremes climate, deforestation, soil depletion that often
gets exacerbated by unpredictable natural calamities. In Kutch,
in the desert area surrounded by big and small rann where frequent
droughts, water scarcity and salinity in the ground water overpowers
everything the support for setting up small enterprise creates
significant impacts and becomes key to alleviating poverty. Samerth has
worked with 283 families for dairy / animal husbandry, setting
up small businesses, auto services, higher education and agriculture
activities in Rapar block of Kutch. We also provide technical
and training assistance for setting up vermicomposting, biogas
installation of solar pumps, livestock promotion and dairy business.
rth’s
support to the microentrepreneurs stresses on encompassing the skills
in the way that it extends beyond financial support to those of
creating market linkages.
enterprises headed by women are important indicators in demonstrating
overall and holistic economic development, which also incorporates
social elements such as the promotion of gender grievance and redressal
forums, and an awareness of health and physical wellbeing as an
essential aspect of both maintaining productive livelihood activities
and reducing financial burden on individuals and families alike.
nutrition had been one of the focus areas. Our team was also working
with women to form Self Help Groups, save regularly, come together on a
platform etc. It is in this situation that the pandemic struck and many
factory workers lost their jobs. With no income and poor skills, it
became difficult for families to sustain. It is in these circumstances
that the WIN Foundation training on nutri entrepreneurs was initiated
with our self-help groups. The model was simple – women to be trained
in microenterprise development, from product development to costing to
packaging to market linkage, hand held through the process. The women
were also trained in nutrition, understanding the needs of their bodies
especially during times of change (adolescent – onset of menstrual
cycle) Pregnancy, menopause combined with nutritive content of our
day-to-day food and how to match the needs to the content. This gave
them an overall perspective on the foods -especially traditional ones
that they have been traditionally consuming across generation. The
training also helped them gain insight into nutritional needs of a
growing child and based on this understanding their product for
enterprise took shape.
dea
was to make traditional sweet and savoury product with nutritive
content which children and adults can eat instead of ready to eat
packaged food with zero nutritional value and in addition to the harm
it causes to the environment with the packaging. It was a win –
win for both, women getting an entrepreneurial product, which primarily
caters to their own communities. Due to its proximity to the city and
industrial belt, there were many other avenues for the products
too. The micro enterprise development training conducted by Mr.
Nikesh Ingle was a robust program of theoretical concepts that were
delivered with practical exercises. It required every trainee to visit
a local marketplace during the training. This provided an important
initial exposure to the environments in which they will be conducting
business and a valuable insight into aspects of operation such as local
competition, typical footfalls, demand and market opportunities,
customer buying capacities etc. Such experience also contributes to
building a greater preparedness for executing effective enterprise
plan. Furthermore, constant handholding gave them further encouragement
to continue with their venture. This also including bring the technical
aspect in current times 
–
a WhatsApp business training that was held online for about 16 hours
through the month. This training helped entrepreneurs gain confidence
that their products and services can reach larger audience without
spending on marketing.
"I
have not received much education. So we could never imagine learning
this. But Nikesh-sir taught us very patiently and we could create our
site, which is helping me in the business to showcase my whole
catalogue. Further, in this short time, I have shown how to do this to
some of my neighbours including both men and women entrepreneurs for
their business, and they appreciated this help. It feels very
satisfying to win the excellence award. My sincere thanks to
Yogeshbhai, ACT team and WIN Foundation for bringing this eye opening
program."
"We
have difficulty going out due to various family responsibilities and
lack of such exposure. So while we can make very good food products, we
cannot market it easily. With this we are able to sell our products
online, sitting from our homes and serve our customers directly. Nikesh
sir conducted this program very well, and Afroz-ben ensured that we
could attend. Shanti-ben coordinated the schedule and encouraged and
motivated continuously through the program. We thank Nikesh-sir,
Samerth and WIN Foundation for this program."
