In the News
Goodwill corp.s
The Hindu Business Line; Nov 30, 2007
By Harsh Kabra
Summary/Excerpts
Aravind Eye Hospital, founded by Dr Govindappa Venkataswamy and Thulasiraj D. Ravilla in 1976, has treated over 2.3 million outpatients and performed over 2.7 lakh surgeries in 2006-07, almost two-thirds of them for free.
Bunker Roy’s Barefoot College, which began in 1972, has turned thousands of school dropouts in rural areas into “barefoot” doctors, teachers, engineers, architects, designers and communicators.
The 1972-born Self-Employed Women’s Association, a brainchild of Ela Bhatt, is India’s largest union that offers its members—poor, self-employed women—an astonishing array of financial, health, childcare, insurance, legal, vocational and education services.
Social entrepreneurs are to social change what business entrepreneurs are to the economy. They are the driven, creative individuals who question the status quo, harness new—often overlooked—opportunities, refuse to give up and remake the world for the better; and increasingly, they are filling the void left by the failures of governments and bureaucracies. “Social entrepreneurship has quietly become a movement in India,” says Don Mohanlal, President and CEO, Nand and Jeet Khemka Foundation (NJKF), which offers support by building innovative collaborations and development infrastructure. “We now see social entrepreneurs level the playing field and address large sections of society left behind by India’s economic growth. They understand ‘profit’ as large-scale and inclusive systemic transformation and take the poorest citizens along the country’s growth curve.”
“In the last five years, many social entrepreneurs have focused on connecting markets to the places where corporations and governments haven’t quite reached,” says Parag Gupta, Head, Eastern Europe and South Asia, Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship. “In many rural places, we see social entrepreneurs figuring out the last mile in the supply chain to have consumer goods reach the base of the pyramid and offer services—even basic ones like water, sanitation, electricity—that many people in India take for granted.“
Rewarding the Samaritans
Schwab Foundation, active in over 20 countries worldwide, had joined hands a couple of years ago with NJKF, the Confederation of Indian Industry, and the United Nations Development Programme to bring the ‘Social Entrepreneur of the Year’ award to India. While the finalists are invited to the India Economic Summit, the winner gets to attend the World Economic Forum regional event and be considered for the Global Social Entrepreneur status.
“This year, we have received over 100 applications and the quality of these applications is outstanding, making the selection process extremely difficult,” reveals Gupta. “We find that these entrepreneurs are more focused on connecting markets in rural areas and are putting out a host of innovative services and products, ranging from ways of financing livelihoods to products necessary to bring lighting or electricity.”
Mohan explains that social entrepreneurs, similar to business entrepreneurs, build strong and sustainable organisations. “They seek to be financially self-sustainable,” he says, “but the primary goal is the social return.” Gupta concurs, “They can surely make profits, but they choose social innovation and impact first.”
Whatever be the model, a substantial market for social innovation still remains untapped. “Nearly 800 million poor people do not have access to financial services, quality health interventions and political participation,” reminds Mohan.
© 2007, The Hindu Business Line.
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