Twenty-year-old Vasimakram Kondannavar was finding it tough to get a job, after his PUC in Commerce. He wanted to acquire a few more skills. He took up a vocational course conducted by Grameen Koota at the Vidya Poshak Training Institute in Dharwad. Within three months, he learned some English and basic computing skills. Today, Vasim is an employee at a famous supermarket chain, and he earns Rs. 5,000 a month.
After a stint at a Micro Financing Institution (MFI), Heena, from Dharwad, realised she lacked good communication skills.
She enrolled in a vocational training programme that aided poor, unemployed youth in acquiring skills to help them get employment. Heena is now in Hubli, working at a Café Coffee Day outlet.
Both Vasim and Heena were able to pursue their courses of interest, with the money lent to them by Milaap (www.milaap.org). This online platform raises low-interest loans for the working poor in India.
Anoj Viswanathan saw what a change solar lighting brought about to some underprivileged homes in Orissa. At that time he was working at SKS Microfinance. That was when the idea of Milaap was born.
He says, “One of the main reasons inventions such as these fail to make a bigger impact is because loans are unavailable at low interest rates.” Anoj is President and co-founder of Milaap. He started Milaap in June 2010 along with Sourabh Sharma, CEO, Milaap, who was looking to build an internet-based start-up for social impact, and Mayukh Choudhury, who wanted to build loan programmes for small-scale retailers.
Money for your thoughts
Milaap organises funds for those in need of education, raw materials for start-up ventures, good sanitation facilities, and other purposes that can make a large impact in their lives. It designs programmes taking into account what the borrower needs. It raises the capital, disburses the loans, and then monitors and supports loan use. If you are interested in loaning the money, go through the list of borrowers on the website. It clearly spells out the purpose of the loan and the amount required, along with the details of the borrower. Pick out the one you want to support, and loan the amount using your debit or credit card.
Says Anoj, “A loan could be as small as Rs 1,000. The loan period ranges from 12 to 24 months. Once the money is repaid to the lender, he can recycle the loan and help out another borrower.”
Nearly 1,750 people have been helped by this initiative. Milaap has so far raised $1,40,000 from corporates, high-net-worth individuals and everyday people.
It works closely with NGOs and MFIs. The loans are usually used to provide services that have a long-term impact on families, such as clean water and sanitation. They are also used to create sustainable income generation opportunities. This enables youngsters to undergo vocational training and find better jobs. It also helps farmers and artisans to invest in equipment and raw materials, and find buyers for their finished goods.
“We are currently working with four field partners, in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,” explains Anoj. “One of them is Indus Tree Crafts, a non-profit organisation that works with artisans and farmers. Another is Gravity, a tie-up between an MFI and a training institute, which helps youngsters secure jobs in various sectors through vocational training. Thirdly, we have Guardian, based in Tamil Nadu, which is an MFI working to provide piped water connections and toilets for rural households, and the fourth partner is Sakhi Samudhay Kosh, an NGO in Southern Maharashtra, that helps women become micro entrepreneurs by providing them opportunities to sell organic fertilizers and other products catering to essential needs in a community.”
Organisations such as National University of Singapore, Indian Institute of Management (Bangalore), DBS and Dasra fund and support Milaap. Anoj clearly states that Milaap is not a charitable organisation. He describes it as a “sustainable social business”.
Milaap plans to partner with companies involved in e-commerce, in the near future. “The companies could probably give vouchers to their employees that would encourage them to lend money through Milaap,” he suggests.
