Day 5. UnLtd India

After all the sites we have visited in Mumbai to learn about the struggles people in the community are facing, it was nice to finally learn what role social entrepreneurs are playing here in India to address such struggles.

We visited the office of UnLtd India, a seed fund and incubator for social entrepreneurs, where we learned how ideas become realities when you have the proper business structure. UnLtd India offers different types of support for social entrepreneurs in the community. They offer financial support through grants, and low interest loans at different stages of the project. They also offer non-financial support through coaching, training, networking and even by providing physical space for meetings and other administrative tasks.

Thanks to our visit to UnLtd India, I feel I am finally able to understand the idea of a social entrepreneur. It all clicked when they talked about one of their examples, the “Honey Lady, ”and how she was able to increase the farmers’ productivity by 25% by using bees. This woman provided bee boxes and training for farmers on how to use them to increase pollination in their fields in order to increase productivity. Also she set up a system where she would buy the honey from the farmers as well, as a way for them to make additional profit, but what I found very interesting was that she allowed farmers to sell to other buyers if they could get a better price. She provided them with training plus tools, and also allowed for a source of income. I never thought bees could foment social change in a sustainable manner.

On this note, one of our classmates pointed out how whenever we think of ideas or projects to help communities we tend to complicate things and forget about the impact of the little things. We forget that bees, a soccer ball and even an electric fence can start something bigger than we can imagine. I will keep this in mind when thinking of ideas for our business plan.

Today was our last day in Mumbai.

Thank you Mumbai. Next stop, Delhi.