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Image Credits: School for Social Entrepreneurs
This Organisation Is Empowering Women With Entrepreneurial Skills To Create Fearless Future
India, 21 Jan 2022 12:35 PM GMT
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The School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) India has trained 22 women in creating a collective forming group enterprise to bring 200 women under this umbrella. In addition, they formed ten Self Help Groups (SHG) to provide self-employment opportunities to women and make them self-reliant.
Communities have been hit hard by the pandemic globally. In India, the pandemic and its associated lockdowns have had a multiplier effect on the migrant communities engaged in daily wage labour and serving the unorganised sector. All this is often borne by women and young girls who are already held back by gender economic inequalities and deeply ingrained social norms.
To support such women, the School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE) India comes to the rescue and helps to unleash entrepreneurial ideas and solutions for a fairer and more equitable society.
The platform supports people with practical ideas to solve social problems through social enterprises and initiatives to bring social change. Their fellows have created solutions to sustainable agriculture, energy conservation, affordable and accessible essential services, housing, education, healthcare, sustainable fashion and foods, etc.
"We believe everybody has the capacity to lead a revolution. We empower people to create change in their communities, transforming the lives of others," Shalabh Mittal, CEO of SSE, told The Logical Indian.
"Initially, people did not believe in what we were trying to do. I remember a notable Philanthropist in India telling me, 'You are 10 years ahead of time; the Indian Philanthropy world will find it difficult to support you'. But we have raised resources, and our work has changed people's mindsets," he added.
Supporting Social Entrepreneurs
The founding team of SSE India were passionate about supporting social entrepreneurs and creating a learning programme that was accessible and inclusive. Anyone in the age group of 18-70 years could apply, no education qualification or CV asked for, it only looked at the individual and the problem they are trying to solve.
They identified one such severely affected community in Jaipur – Jawahar Nagar Kutchi Basti and curated a program for empowerment and emancipation of women through entrepreneurship.
Located on the Jaipur-Agra bypass, the Basti has about 5000 households and 25,000 people. Most of these families have been living there for the last 25-30 years. The average monthly income of the township was Rs 10,000 during the pre-COVID situation. The pandemic, subsequent diseases and the lockdown have affected the livelihood of the entire 'basti'.
"We realised that building entrepreneurial mindset was one sure way to support these women who had lost hope to get back to their jobs (mainly housemaids) or daily wage work," Mittal explained.
As these women were facing challenges to acquire the finances they required to start an enterprise, SSE India decided to launch a fundraising campaign on crowdfunding platform ImpactGuru.com to support the cause towards training them, providing seed capital for their business, and renting a 'production and resource centre' for them to undertake business activities.
"The support will provide them with access to knowledge, building skill set, and mindset via a pool of experts and mentors and get them access to funds to pilot out their business ideas and develop their enterprise," Mittal said.
Training In Soft Skills
SSE India identified more than 20 women, formed a Women Leaders Group, and trained them in soft skills. Between December 2020 and April 2021, it engaged with approximately 20 women leaders from the community for 3-4 days each month. It has used this limited engagement to build a sense of community among this group of women, with plans now to lead to a collective group enterprise.
In the last six months, SSE India has trained 22 women in creating a collective forming group enterprise to bring 200 women under this umbrella. In addition, they formed ten Self Help Groups (SHG) to provide self-employment opportunities to women and make them self-reliant.
Mobilised Over 100 Women
"In addition, we have mobilised over 100 women as a part of the Self-Help Groups and ten women under each women leader. Another milestone was the creation of three different Common Interest Groups with 8-10 women in each group: Food & Confectionery Group; Handicrafts & Handmade Products Group (sewing & stitching, recycled paper products, and handmade soaps); Homemakers Group (cooks, cleaners, caretakers- elderly & children)," Mittal said.
SSE India has facilitated sessions on bringing a collective sense of hope and purpose, building a shared identity to celebrate, introducing different aspects of business such as production, quality, marketing, budgeting and accounting, story-telling, customer servicing, selling, etc.
"Women are forming a private limited company which is a women-owned, and women-led company selling products made by women. They have collected an initial capital of Rs 1 Lakh and contributed to its formation," Mittal added.
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