Heroes I Have Met - I

The most essential part of the Jagriti Yatra was meeting rising social entrepreneurs in India. Social enterprise does not imply charity with marginal profit. It implies profit coupled with social good. The good news is this - the trend is catching on. I want to document the achievements of some charismatic entrepreneurs I met on Jagriti Yatra 2014. Somewhere, in the nooks and corners of this country, change is happening. This is pretty much a factual read. But you will be inspired. 

Be a proud Indian, this Republic Day!

At Hiware Bazaar, Maharashtra, the crops had died out almost a decade ago. There was no water and people were soon trickling out to find jobs in nearby towns and cities. Country liquor was the only product manufactured out of this village and soon, most of the consumption was internal. When all seemed lost, an erswhile resident Popatrao Powar decided to give up a fledgling career in cricket to come back and work again in his village. He was elected the Sarpanch of the Gram Sabha. With the support of an entire village clamouring for change, Powar initiated schemes for water conservation, soil treatment, afforestation and changed dairy farming practices. A crucial step was the switch from water - intensive food crops to profitable cash crops that put little stress on the water table. With time, these measures bore fruit. The village is an enterprise in itself. Today, 25% of Hiware Bazaar's residents are millionaires. It has become the face of development of villages in India. An agricultural university is being set up here to document the model of agricultural development.

A similar story emanates from Gram Vikas in Berhampur, Orissa. Joe Madiath visited the area in the aftermath of the 1971 war as part of a student brigade to help provide alms to the refugees entering India in droves from Bangladesh. Joe never left. He began addressing the issue of energy shortage in the area by initiating biogas and solar panel installations. Soon, the issue of health and sanitation drew his attention. Open defecation is a rampant practice in almost all Indian villages - almost always close to a river or lake. This pollutes the water source and is the source of diseases. Nothing is more important to a villager earning his living from the field than his health. Joe initated a model of toilet construction in every village where each family had a stake in the project and would be assured water supply and a toilet in their household. Construction materials were sourced from the village and generated additional business. Gram Vikas then set up schools in each village to bring education. More than 1100 villages in Orissa have been revamped by their projects. Joe is essentially a social worker.

Speaking of social work, a lot of us donate old clothes to charity. Reality check - the average waist size of a man in a city is 34 inches. In a village, the average waist size does not cross 30 inches. A lot of clothes from charity go waste. Anshu Gupta started Goonj to make charity more efficient. Today, an entire manufacturing unit functions out of Sarita Vihar in New Delhi to recycle old clothes, paper, stationary etc. to make new products that are sold in the urban markets - bags (that have lately gotten pretty fashionable) and notebooks being the primary products. In rural areas, clothes, sanitary products, stationary etc. are given as remuneration for work in rural development projects. Interestingly, Goonj stocks up on old books and obscure curios which are also sold in fairs and college fests. The collection did tempt me heavily!

This is getting too text heavy. Read Part II here. Meanwhile, you can look up the above people for some remarkable video snippets of their speeches.