Entrepreneurship is the buzzword right now with various avenues opening up to groom budding entrepreneurs. Some of them have preferred to test the waters of ‘social entrepreneurship’, and successfully so.
“Social entrepreneurship is the concept of giving back to society,” said C.G. Padma Seshadri, former president of the Association of Women Entrepreneurs of Karnataka (AWAKE).
One such initiative is Chirag Greeshma Arts and Crafts, which teaches arts and crafts to inmates of Bengaluru Central Prison. “We focus on women in the jail. The government funds our material. We teach Warli painting, ceramic work and toy-making, among other things. The handicrafts are sold at exhibitions and the profits are given to the inmates. Some of them have even set up their own small craft businesses once out of prison,” said Anupama Janardhan, co-founder of Chirag Greeshma Arts and Crafts.
Rekha set up Eco-friendly Paper Export in Malleswaram in 2001. It sources 90 per cent of its handmade paper from a small village on the outskirts of Jaipur, Rajasthan. Starting with handmade paper bags, they went on to make over 20 diverse products.
Kalpana Heblekar, a former bank employee, started Handicraft Sourcing in 1995. Hearing stories of women being ill-treated made her want to instil the “spirit of independence” in them, she said. “I travelled to rural areas in India and some underdeveloped countries in Africa to teach women to make various handicrafts. Over a 1,000 women who I have taught in India have set up their own small businesses,” she added.
While quite a few enterprises involve arts and crafts, there are some who have come up with some unique and timely concepts. For instance, Ranjini Ganesh, an active member of the AWAKE, is the founder of Nirbhaya School of Self Defence (named after the New Delhi gang-rape victim). “Knowing martial arts isn’t enough. One needs to be mentally alert as well. Here, we teach martial arts along with yoga and meditation in order to channelise concentration,” she said.
