In this maddening hustle bustle of the modern day, most of us dream of a vacation , set in some tranquil abode of nature, a unique experience that enriches the body , mind and soul , full of contrasts and diversity. Something that can’t really be located in a guide book.

Well, if you are looking for all of that and want to contribute to Responsible Tourism in the country Travel another India is the answer.

As traditional sources of income erode , Travel another India aims to provide an alternate means of livelihood to many rural farm and forest fringe communities , artisans and craft persons who are willing to play host.

Travel another India won the Sankalp award for emerging companies in Rural Innovations for 2009.

Here’s an interview with Ms. Gouthami, Co-Founder of Travel another India.

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Please visit http://travelanotherindia.com to know more
Blog: http://travelanotherindia.blogspot.com
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Amit Kataria comes from a humble background. Brought up in Choma village, Gurgaon, Haryana by his father, a farmer and mother, a housewife, he always dreamt of making a change in the society. Never having let his walking disability come in the way of his dreams, today he has successfully transformed the lives of many in his village by imparting computer literacy and in the process, setting a precedence worth following.

Amit’s journey began in 2007, “I completed my primary education in Choma but beyond that level of education, there was no opportunity there so I decided to study at a school in West Patel Nagar and passed my tenth and twelfth class there. In my final year, I came back to my village in 2006. I realized that most villagers owned land and money but they had little or no literacy especially in computing. They were ignorant of the need for computer skills. I found that this was the biggest need of my village and its future generations. That was when I decided to start a computer learning institute in my area.”

With a vision to spread computer literacy throughout India, especially in rural areas, Amit started his venture ROSE Computer Academy in 2007, when he was only nineteen years of age. Having learnt computers, he realized its potential in making his community independent and in the long run, in contributing to strengthening of the economy and the nation at large. At no point of time did Amit lose heart in the face of difficulties even when finances were few and far between, he persisted. “I still remember September 7, 2005, the day when I had earned my first hundred rupees. When I set out to start my institute, I had twenty-three thousand rupees of savings. My maternal uncle agreed to lend me one lakh rupees and I could start my computer lab.”

Amit’s academy has so far trained 300 students from his village, offering courses such as Basic computing, Java, Graphic Designing, Tally, C++ and many others. His is the only academy in Palam Vihar, Gurgaon which offers different kinds of computer courses under one roof, working 18 hours a day. Some of his students have also gone ahead and opened their own enterprises, while others have taken up jobs. Some start working at the academy itself.

One of the students at ROSE Academy is seventeen year old Ashok Silwal. Born in a small village of Nepal, Ashok came to India in 2007. His father is a bus driver at a school in Gurgaon and had no money to support his education so he went back to Nepal and enrolled for a correspondence course in India. “In Gurgaon, my father met Amit Kataria sir. Sir needed an office boy, so I started working with him at the Academy. I soon developed an interest in learning computers. I completed a Certificate Course in Computer Application and Desk Top Publishing and also completed my schooling here. Then I started teaching at the ROSE Academy and earned salary also. Now I am able to contribute to my family too,” Ashok smiles, gleaming with pride.

ROSE Academy has provided computer skills and employment opportunity to many like Ashok. Besides computer education, ROSE Academy also provides learning assistance to students in their studies, considerably brining down the examination failure rate. As Amit puts it, “ROSE academy is like the rose flower that spreads its fragrance everywhere.” True to its name, the work and virtues of the Academy are an inspiration by every measure!

A less traveled track to Tilonia gives one a journey into Indian entrepreneurship and perhaps changes the way our villages are perceived by city dwellers. Tilonia brings you face to face with the real spirit of India. Its misty hopefulness uncovers the nature of the task that is ahead for a social entrepreneur, its uniqueness and challenges.

Tilonia is a small town 25 kms from Kishangarh near Ajmer in Rajasthan. Barefoot College, established in 1972, inspires this town with the conviction that solutions to rural problems lie within the community. These solutions are broadly classified by Barefoot College into solar energy, healthcare, education, water, rural handicrafts, people’s action, communication, women empowerment, income generation, wasteland development, electricity and power as well as social awareness and conservation of ecological systems in rural communities.

Barefoot College was founded by Sanjit ‘Bunker’ Roy, an Indian social activist and educator. Roy was influenced by the philosophy of Mao Zedong, and modeled his organization after Mao’s Barefoot Doctors. Roy has worked all his life with the Barefoot College.

Spread over more than 8 acres of land, the campus of Barefoot College was built between 1980 and 1986, designed by a team of rural ‘barefoot’ architects, masons, blacksmiths, farmers and members of women groups who sat and struggled through the initial basic designing of the campus. This institution believes in imparting informal, non-structured, on-the-job practical training by identifying the poor, unemployed youth who have been unable to finish their formal education and have returned to their respective villages as dropouts. The five principles which are an integral part of the functioning of the college are equality, collectiveness, self-reliance, decentralization and austerity.

The education program focuses on the overall development of rural children, with literacy being just one part of it. It encourages hands-on or learning-by-doing process of gaining knowledge and skills. Lessons are focused on awareness about the environment and socio-economic and political forces that dominate development. The aim is to provide the children with a right balance of education and literacy so that they choose to stay in their village and work for its development. The college has different programs for children and women. There are Balwadis (rural crèches) established for children between the age of 6 months-5 years for the convenience of working mothers. Night schools have been set up for ‘working children’. There are bridge courses, courses for night school children who aspire to join formal day schools. In these night schools, initiatives like the children’s parliament are established which allow them to participate in the management of their schools through a democratic process. Candidates are selected through a proper election process, giving them an idea of the working of a democracy.

There is also a huge emphasis on the holistic development of women by empowering them socially, financially and politically. In the past 38 years, the college has trained more than 15,000 women in jobs ranging from construction work, education, metal craftsmanship, toy making and solar engineering, to mechanical repair and fabrication, health care, water testing, handicrafts, film making and social activism.

The Barefoot College has setup eight field centers in Rajasthan and a society known as SAMPDA (Society for Activating, Motivating and Promoting Developmental Alternatives) through the collective efforts of which the Barefoot approach is replicated in rural communities across 14 states in India.

The global response received by the organization is worth acknowledging. The institute has witnessed semi-literate middle aged woman traveling from places as diverse as Afghanistan, Cameroon, Gambia, Mali and Sierra Leone to undergo training to become barefoot solar engineers.

To know more about this organization and to read on some of its wonderful initiatives, please visit their website at www.barefootcollege.org.

Ajay Das comes from a poor family in Patla village. The family of six was dependent solely on agriculture. Apart from paddy, they also cultivated vegetables and Assam lemon, earning around Rs.1500 a month, which was barely sufficient. What does Ajay do now? He is an entrepreneur, producing arecanut leaf plates. Initially shy and slow, over a period of time he gained confidence when he saw the money coming in and when he realized that he could independently handle such a complex activity. In the last financial year, he produced around 40,000 products, one of the highest. He has taken up this activity full time and has one of the best raw material supply chains and is earning more than Rs.3000 a month.

Dalimi Patgiri from Bhalaguri village, a mother of two, is married to a teacher in a private school in the village. She came forward to start a similar venture. She not only saw an opportunity to earn additional income but also to set an example for other women. She facilitated setting up the raw material banks through a SHG (Self-Help Group) and helped collect 50,000 pieces of raw material in her area. She led a team of seven women on training visit to Salem at a time when many women did not have the courage to go beyond the precincts of the village. Later when her group did not support her to establish the plates manufacturing unit, she decided to do it alone. She set up the unit with a loan from SBI in January 2007. In spite of many problems and criticism from villagers, she has continued to improve her performance.

These are inspiring stories of just two of the many villagers of North East India, whose lives have been completely transformed by the initiatives of Dhriiti – The Courage Within.

Dhriiti has set up micro enterprises for Arecanut Leaf Plate Manufacturing. Each arecanut leaf plate manufacturing unit provides direct employment to three persons and indirect employment to ten other persons. At the same time, it produced an eco-friendly alternative to dangerous plastics and polystyrene plates, using dried arecanut sheaths, otherwise wasted in these regions. Since these regions have a huge raw material supply, Dhriiti focuses on the four Bodoland districts of Baska, Chirang, Kokrajhar, Udalguri and the adjoining districts of Barpeta, Nalbari and Bongaigaon to promote this project. Dhriiti operates from its office in Barpeta, Assam and hopes to generate a business of more than 100 crores for rural North East by 2015.

So far, Dhriiti has established 44 units. Not only have over 5 lakhs plates been sold till now but the process has generated income of around 2 lakh for rural people by selling arecanut sheaths which was earlier deemed a waste product. The units, established at the house of the entrepreneurs, offer convenience and ease of self-employment.

The percentage of poor in Assam is the highest among the seven sister states of the North East. Around 36.09 percent of the State’s population continues to live below the poverty line. The incidence of unemployment, measured as a percentage of the labour force is increasing in Assam. The way out of the unemployment and insurgency scenario is to promote self employment. This is where the arecanut leaf plate industry comes in. Cheers to an organization that has tapped the opportunity in this sector, providing employment to not just the entrepreneurs but also to many others!

Mrs. Savitri is a weaver at the Physically Handicapped Training and Rehabilitation Centre in Sangli, Maharashtra suffers from leprosy but is learning to make scarves using wool for the first time.

Mr. Anbazhgan is a disabled wood-cutter, part of The Helen Keller wood carving group in Kalakurchi in Tamil Nadu, who is learning about the problems he could face with the use of an unfamiliar wood for an international client.

Mrs. Kankadurga works at Bethany Products, Bethany Leprosy Colony in Andhra Pradesh to create bed webbing that is used in the production of strong and beautiful bags.

Mr. Tarak Nath Roy of Susunia, West Bengal, is a gifted stone carver but disabled by polio.

The lives of these four artisans and several hundreds like them have been changed by an organization called MESH (Maximizing Employment to Serve the Handicapped). Earlier they were all being paid half of what their products were worth because of the presence of middle-men. But now, due to the efforts of a MESH, these artisans are able to market their wares directly and receive their due credit.

Mission and Activities:

MESH aims at providing opportunities for social and economic development to disabled and leprosy-affected people. It achieves this by acting as an intermediary between the disabled artisans and the market place. In effect they secure orders from national and international buyers, forward those orders to the skilled artisans, train and guide the artisans in fulfilling these orders, and promote fair wages among the artisans.

In addition to this, MESH helps the artisans by providing access to a host of design and product development ideas from its own Design Studio in order to keep them updated on the latest market trends. The organization helps add value to the artisans’ products by telling their stories. It also provides training in best business practices and helps the artisans secure 50% advance payment if required so that they can buy their raw materials without taking loans.

Products and Contact Information:

Their product catalogue includes shoulder bags, table mats, scarves, bedcovers, tablecloths, office stationery, toys, cards in a large variety of shapes, sizes, designs and materials to keep up with the latest trends and cater to various needs. All of these are available at their stores at the following locations in India:

MESH
5, Local Shopping Centre,
Uday Park,
New Delhi 110 049
Tel. +91 11 26965039/26568048
email: mesh@del6.vsnl.net.in

MESH
Shop No. 8,
NTR Gardens
Necklace Road,
Hyderabad
Tel. +91 9703879557

Besides this, MESH also has retail outlets in Britain, Germany, Sweden, USA and some other locations. Check their website for more details.

MESH has truly helped in filtering out the middle-men and enabled the handicapped artisans of India to earn their due.

In our society, the differently-abled and mentally challenged citizens find it extremely difficult to be able to make a living and live a life of dignity. These individuals do need work and subsequently the advantages of work. However, prejudices towards them have caused them to be treated as surplus citizens incapable of being contributing and productive members of society.

This is where Diya Foundation makes its mark. Started in 1999, Diya Foundation is a vocational training center which provides training and, more importantly, employment to adults who are mentally challenged as well as others who are differently-abled physically.

Sarah Santamaria, founder of Diya Foundation, shares her insights with us:

This Diwali, Diya Foundation urges you to add sparkle to your life by doing more. They have a range of delicious chocolates and colourful diyas on sale for individuals and corporates. Handcrafted using imported cocoa, the Chocolyn chocolates are available in a range of flavours and along with the diyas, make for a delightful gift. A gift that will give you double the joy because of the cause it supports.

The products can be custom wrapped to suit varied preferences and budgets. For more information and to place your orders, contact Diya Foundation here:

Global Warming. Unemployment. How do you come up with a solution that addresses both these issues? S M Raju, a civil servant in Bihar has done just that. Raju has started a campaign to encourage unemployed village folk to start planting trees. This campaign has been linked with the government’s NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) and thus the village people earn money by planting these trees.

Amarnath Tewary writes in this article at the BBC:

An Indian civil servant, SM Raju, has come up with a novel way of providing employment to millions of poor in the eastern state of Bihar.

The article quotes that about 44% of Bihar’s population is under the poverty line. And Bihar has not been able to successfully spend the NREGA funds allocated to them mostly due to lack of awareness. Here comes Raju’s idea of bringing in tree plantation as part of NREGA.

Raju’s program has brought in significant benefits, as he says:

“So the idea struck to my mind, why not involve families below the poverty line in social forestry and give them employment under this scheme for 100 days?

“Under the scheme, each family can earn a minimum of 10,200 rupees ($210).”

Read the complete article here, which lists how Raju conceptualized and executed this successful idea. A special thanks to reporter Amarnath Tewary for writing about this.

Link to original article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8257563.stm
Link submitted by: Deepak and Prakash

Introducing SourcePilani, a company that is bringing the concept of BPO to rural India, starting off from the small town of Pilani in Rajasthan.

SourcePilani provides high quality and low cost BPO services by leveraging the hitherto untapped talent that rural India has to offer to the growing Indian economy. In addition to providing employment to the local people, SourcePilani is also providing the rural youth an exposure to the paths of progress being witnessed in the bigger Indian cities.

The basic model followed by SourcePilani includes identifying youth from various schools/colleges who are interested in taking up a BPO career. Since most applicants are from Hindi medium of instruction, they are put through an English training course for a period of 3 months. Post this, the recruits are put on the job under the supervision of team leaders who groom the new comers and make them able to handle the tough requirements of a BPO career. As an outcome of all of this, the youth of Pilani have been able to increase their income levels and over a period of time the economic spectrum of the town will also be enhanced. This is a wonderful way of executing inclusive growth and progress. Here is a sample of a couple of recruits who have joined SourcePilani and how their lives has been transformed:

Check out the following table to get an idea of the impact that SourcePilani is having on the economic progress of the town’s inhabitants:

Number of Employees	Average Salary(Per month)	Amount induced into local market
30(current scenario)	4000	14,40,000
50(By End of this year)	4000	24,00,000
150( in 2010)	4250	76,50,000

To get a visual idea of what SourcePilani is doing and their impact on the society, please check out the video embed below:

If you are unable to see the embed above, please click here to view the video.

You can know more about SourcePilani and contact them at their website: www.sourcepilani.com

In this article, we talk about a successful cooperative initiative called The Apple Project launched by Shri Jagdamba Samiti (SJS), an NGO led by Mr. L.P. Semwal.

SJS launched this project in Uttarakhand with the realisation that small farmers in a market-oriented agribusiness get further marginalised mainly due to the dominance of mandis, a chain of well-organised intermediaries who control the entire process from credit supply for farm inputs, transportation and marketing of produce. The apple project hence strives to create a model of business-driven, decentralised independent and small-scale production with coordinated arrangements for processing and marketing by providing technical, managerial and investment support to enable farmers collectively to move up the value chain. The ‘collective’ feature of the business model is promoted to save individual time, distribute risk, maintain price assurance, pursue damage control and save on handling costs such as storage and transportation.

Empowerment beyond economic gains

The Centre apparently did have an empowering effect among the community beyond mere economic gains. First, market dynamics and the apple business as such became more transparent and easier to understand for everyone. Thereby, people were enabled to participate actively and accumulate broader ownership instead of depending on traders and middlemen. Also, people were encouraged to view and understand power no longer purely along the lines of traditional class boundaries, but become aware of the power and possibilities for participation they have. Also, the Centre has an empowering effect on women. It was for instance repeatedly noted that women were for the first time participating in public meetings, and daring to speak up in public.

Breaking the prevalent market cycle

A main strategy of the Apple Project is to break the dependency of small and marginal farmers on middlemen through a process of a joint marketing via the Centre. This has both strong economic effects, as it raises the farmers’ direct gains significantly, and empowers them by reducing their risk of being exploited by middlemen. However, breaking entirely away from a highly organised network of middlemen is not an easy task. Middlemen still keep a tight control of crucial stages of growing as well as apples’ post-harvest processing. Sometimes, middlemen also operate transport services and buy apples from farmers at their orchards, but at a very low price. It is hence not easy for small farmers to delink themselves from the system controlled by middlemen. A sustainable, comprehensive alternative system should be in place.

The role of SJS as an external agent

The commitment, entrepreneurial competence and perseverance of the leadership of the farmers’ association and the Centre staff have been the main contributory factors for the success of business operations. SJS as an external agent has, however, played a distinctive role as a facilitator of the process. SJS’s main contribution has been to come up with an innovative business model for small and marginal apple growers and to build capacities of farmers to own and run such a business operation. SJS’s role in this regard has been building capacities of farmers in general and leadership of the farmers’ association in particular. The other important role that SJS has played as an external agent is to mediate power-play in relation to forming the farmers’ association.

Matching economic goals with social goals

The uniqueness of the Apple Project is its business model which is based on the functioning of the business operations whilst at the same ensuring social goals. If economic benefits are only used for consumption purposes there is no clear link to social change. Hence, it is important to monitor what the money is spent for (e.g. education, better health care etc.).

Economic empowerment alongside social interventions is required in order to stimulate long-term social change. SJS is also aware that joint ownership of the business operations alone will not automatically deliver social goals. The new form of collective ownership is an alternative to the form of organisations hitherto established in the village which were dominated by the Sayanas. SJS is cautious that opposing an existent power structure can lead to the unintended creation of another power structure. This is a major concern for the future.

Promoting a value-driven business model

Organising small and marginal apple growers is not simply an economic activity. The story of apple growers in Bawar area suggests that power structures and politics play a major role in village life and an economic activity cannot circumvent or keep aloof from such realities. The new farmers’ association and the Centre promoted a principle of political neutrality and a leadership model which is based on competence instead of party affiliations. Promoting a new form of economic activity with a social goal based on political neutrality and competence had been possible due to the values of inclusiveness and tolerance of diversity, which the Centre stands for. Drivers of change must hence incorporate the values they aim to promote, and these should be reflected in all areas of operation.

Enabling farmers to jointly move up the economic chain

With support from private investors, originating from successful business families, a new model for advancement of small and marginal farmers is now being tested in India and other countries. This model is an attempt to find a healthy entry point for rural development by concentrating on setting-up healthy agro-businesses in which farmers themselves gradually gain economic ownership.
Similar to the self-help groups and cooperatives, the aim is to set-up healthy business in handling, processing and trading farmer’s commodities on a commercial basis. The main difference of the new approach is that the farmers are equal business partners of the investor: they will only gain full economic ownership if the investment is repaid fully. No paternalistic form of aid, but a sound economic partnership between an investor and a (farmer-owned) company. The investor assists the farmers in setting up commercially-run businesses (private Limiteds), based on a solid feasibility and business plan, and makes available a full (guaranteed) loan to the new company. The companies are to generate sufficient profit to pay back the loan, capitalize the company and invest in new profitable business ventures (allowing the farmer to move further up the value-addition chain). Part of the profit flows back to the farmers in the form of better prices for their commodities and possibly dividend payments.Some of the guiding principles behind the projects where the new model is being tested, are:

The above article is excerpted from the original article by CDC with due permission from SJS.
All images courtesy CDC and SJS.

A lot has been said of BPOs. They have changed people’s lives and brought a modicum of hope to the lesser privileged sections of society that was denied for so long. However, till now the story was mostly restricted to urban India. Thanks to the efforts of a few like an enterprising District Collector in Tamil Nadu, Santhosh Babu and an economics graduate straight out of a US college, Kartik Raman, rural India now has an opportunity to be included in the BPO boom, and avail of alternative and better sources of income than what they could eke out from their meagre resources.

Kartik, along with 2 others, started a rural BPO in Bagad village in Jhunjhunu district if Rajasthan with 10 women, many out of class X and some graduates. A year later, the BPO called Source of Change boasts of 30 more employees earning between Rs.3500 and Rs.7000. Kartik plans to expand to more towns, recruiting about 1000 employees by 2012.

When Santhosh Babu decided to open a BPO for his collectorate, he recruited and trained villagers who had failed class X. The first BPO was of 100 seats capacity and was started with a loan of Rs.20 lakhs from the District Rural Development Agency. Its biggest client today is the US All State Insurance. Sreelatha Menon reports in Business Standard:

The most important gain of the BPO experiment in Tamil Nadu is that it recruits mostly people in villages who have failed Class X as well as graduates and pays both equal salaries of up to Rs 5,000.

After the tremendous success of the BPO experiment, Babu has been made the Managing Director of Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu (Elcot) to expand his operations to all 30 districts. Elcot has started a rural finishing scool where 7000 dropouts have already been trained, and plans to tender applications for franchises in every village. Every franchisee has to profitable and uncompromising on quality. The model is already serving as an inspiration for other states to embark on a similar development path.

We wish these dedicated few all the success in their endeavours and hope many more will join their ranks in improving the lot of all the far flung villages in India.

Read the rest of the story here.
Image Courtesy: Wikipedia