By Sreekanth Raghunath, Rang De Volunteer and Bangalore Chapter President

A casual search on LinkedIn for innovative social enterprises working towards poverty alleviation in India is what led me to Rang De almost 3 years ago. Since then, I have been volunteering with the Bangalore Chapter of Rang De! Below is my attempt to put together a brief write-up regarding why Rang De needs volunteers, what it means to be a volunteer at Rang De, what roles, responsibilities and opportunities volunteering brings with it, how volunteering can change one’s world view and the kind of impact one can create by being a volunteer.

To make sure that avoidable overheads don’t raise the cost of micro-credit reaching rural entrepreneurs, Rang De seeks support from volunteers from across India and overseas to help spread the word and raise awareness about its non-profit model of micro-credit. Volunteers help Rang De to reach out to potential social investors and potential field partners as well.

Rang De Chapters are active volunteer groups across major cities in India and a few cities overseas. They are excellent platforms for Rang De social investors to network and brainstorm, plan and participate in activities that help reach out to potential social investors in innovative ways! Some of the Chapter activities so far have been:

• Going on field visits to meet Rang De borrowers, carry out borrower evaluations and witness first-hand, the impact that Rang De is creating
• Organizing screenings of socially relevant documentaries for the general public as well as corporate audiences,  through the Rang De Box Office initiative
• Running at marathons to raise funds for and awareness about Rang De
• Organizing or support in organizing large scale events such as music concerts, leadership workshops and so on, bringing together hundreds of socially inclined individuals to participate and help them learn more about Rang De’s model
• Supporting the technology, operations and marketing teams at Rang De.
• In addition, volunteers also take active part in activities such as content writing and editing, conducting audio evaluations and film-making, among others.

Volunteering at Rang De is an excellent opportunity to meet and work closely with like-minded socially inclined individuals! It offers tremendous scope for taking initiative, both at an individual level as well as being part of volunteer teams, to bring about effective social change at the grassroots level. Going on field visits and evaluating borrowers helps volunteers see rural lifestyles from an entirely different perspective and is an extremely enriching experience.

If you are interested in some exciting volunteering opportunities, please write to info@rangde.org

 Malini Srikrishna, High School Student and Rang De Volunteer talks about the importance of starting young in the social space: “Starting young is important because this makes sure that social service isn’t just an activity for students but a way of life.”

Organizations like Youth For Seva and Sri Sathya Sai Youth have made schools send their students out to help their communities and do their part for the society. They have personally recruited students and brought them out into the real world, shown them the poverty ridden streets, children who are way less fortunate than them and much more. They have made children realize that their age doesn’t matter and they are capable of making a difference. They just have to believe in themselves. Starting young is important because this makes sure that social service isn’t just an activity for students but a way of life. It imprints many values in life, those which can be learnt only when we are young, like gratitude, being helpful and kind to others.

In Bangalore, recently, the students of a school were taken to read to blind children and play with them. This was the first time the school had indulged in seva. After talking to the students, I was amazed by the effect it seemed to have on them. They said that it was a heart wrenching experience for them and that they would surely do something like this again. And they did. They did it just to get that ‘warm feeling’ that told them they were making a difference in not just their lives but in others lives too. Once they had done it, they were hooked. After this, the students had insisted that they start going consistently for seva, not just to blind schools but old age homes and orphanages too! They seemed to love the feeling of giving, not just taking which is what this generation seems to be doing all the time. These students told me that they realized that some people, unlike them, don’t even have the option of taking but still give.

As witnessed by many schools, until you get them to do it, students will not be aware of the importance and the difference social service will make in their lives. Only a few will take the initiative to figure it out, but once they do, they don’t stop. As for the others, if you are reading this, go out there! If it’s as small as playing with an orphan or making a woman with cancer laugh, you will get the feeling that most people look for. That feeling of happiness because you made another human being feel so. And that feeling that tells you, you’re not the only one whose day has brightened up.

I joined Rang De because it is a good cause. And honestly, it made me feel good to know that someone as young as me can play a role, small or big doesn’t matter, to fight poverty in India.

From our Field Partner, Udyogini

Saraswati Devi is a disadvantaged woman social entrepreneur who overcame all odds to build an enterprise that is of direct benefit to the community and herself.

Saraswati Devi is a simple, yet sharp 30-year old woman of Gambharia Village in Bundu Block, Ranchi district. Almost 70% of the population in Bundu is dependent on Agriculture which in turn, is totally dependent on the monsoon owing to the lack of irrigation facilities. Hence, the villagers are engaged only for about six months in a year. The condition of the women is more vulnerable because of the lack of resources and knowledge. They help the men during agriculture season but are otherwise only involved in household work. Delayed monsoon and sudden rise and fall in temperature have added to the difficulties of the villagers.

In an effort to help support her family, Saraswati joined “Adivasi Mahila Samuh” a Women Enterprise Group, and enrolled in the “Udyogini School of Entrepreneurship” (USE) by paying a nominal fee. She showed a keen interest to learn and aspired to become an “Entrepreneur” to earn for her family. She didn’t allow any hindrance to hold her back and she took the pains to travel 8 kms by foot every alternate day to attend the sessions at 8:00am in the morning. Despite the ample amount of work at home, she managed to finish it early and attend the training sessions on time. Being in a patriarchal society, many tried to destroy the confidence of this brave lady by making comments on her daily outings but her determination helped her overcome such hurdles.

During her training, Saraswati learnt basic mathematics, Hindi and how to conduct herself in a group. She picked up essential business skills required to successfully run an enterprise such as inventory management and customer satisfaction. She is able to calculate her profits and losses and even do market surveys for any of the new products she wishes to introduce in her VLSC. She also learnt important life skills which have redeemed her from a state of submissiveness. She often sings a verse from her lessons with a smile “tu bolegi, muh kholegi, tabhi to zamana badlega” (“You’ll speak up, will open your mouth, that’s when the world will change”). Saraswati feels that her world has indeed changed with her newfound courage and independence.

Saraswati Devi was sanctioned a loan amount of Rs. 8000 from Rang De. She established her VLSC in October 2010 with the loan and an additional Rs. 5000 from her personal savings. She became a proud entrepreneur and her venture was immensely successful. From her success, she developed confidence and gained popularity in her village.

In February 2011, during an MSME (Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprise) workshop organized by Udyogini, in front of a crowd of over a 100 people including men from different villages, this transformed lady was the one who spoke up and raised a new business idea of detergent-making in the village SHGs (Self Help Groups) and linking their sale with VLSCs. This shows the kind of confidence she had developed after just a few months of running her enterprise. She has also created a benchmark for other VLSCs and is an example for the new trainees of USE.

After witnessing her abilities, achievements and popularity, the Gram Panchatayat chose her VLSC as a rural library for keeping books related to the Adult Literacy Program. They also appointed her as a teacher at the night school running in this library for which she is receiving a small income.

In February 2012, she was felicitated by a state level minister, at an event organized by a leading national daily Dainik Jagran for her innovation, skills and contribution to the society through the VLSC. This felicitation program was chaired by the Honorable Governor of Jharkhand. Saraswati Devi’s achievements also appeared in local newspapers. She has been now nominated for the “Anita Sen Memorial Award”. This award attempts to felicitate women/groups who have the courage to chase their dreams and also contribute to the society.

In the past, Saraswati Devi was a simple village woman involved in daily household chores and looking after her family members, yet not receiving her due share of respect. She faced difficult circumstances throughout her life and her endeavours were often met with resistance. She undertook her venture with sincerity, determination and courage to overcome all the hurdles that came her way. Today, she has grown as an individual reflecting the self-confidence that has grown within her. She now interacts with the people around her with ease and feels confident enough to speak up about family matters as well. She feels, “ab ghar ka sara jarurat asani se pura ho pata hi. Main apni beti ko bhi bahut padana chahti hun aaur desh ka accha nagrik banana chahti hun.” (“Now, the needs of the home are easily met. I want to (highly) educate my daughter and also want to become a good citizen.”)

Saraswati Devi’s Journey:

• Saraswati was the only girl from her village Gambharia who went to school at Bundu and that too after traveling a distance of 16km daily by foot. After completing her studies till 8^th standard she went to Tunju village and in spite of huge resistance from her family she completed her matriculation there. Due to a financial crunch in the family she stayed with her aunt but had to travel a long distance everyday to school since the family was unable to bear the cost of a government hostel.
• In 2006, she chose for herself Sunil Singh Munda, who was an orphan and the only caretaker of his 3 younger siblings (one of his sisters died at early age due to financial crisis) for marriage in spite of her family’s resistance since she found him to be supportive of her ambitions. After marriage, they somehow managed to stay in an under -construction house which didn’t have a door or a roof at that time, since her husband did not have any assets.
• In 2006, Sunil started to work as a daily wage driver (earning Rs.100 daily) to earn their daily bread and stayed at Bundu for the sake of convenience to work from there. Saraswati Devi had to stay alone for 1 year at Gambharia.
• Sunil and Saraswathi spoke of the many nights when they slept on empty stomachs or had a meal of plain rice without vegetables. Meanwhile, Saraswati started to work as a volunteer for a Government literacy program but it didn’t fetch her any financial support. While staying at Gambharia alone she managed to construct one room for her family (her present house).
• In 2009, Saraswati Devi developed an ovarian infection and had to get it operated at a huge cost. She was also pregnant at that time and the family faced severe financial crisis under debt.
• In 2010, Saraswati Devi enrolled herself in entrepreneurship training and Sunil gave up driving to take care of their new-born girl child at home.
• After completing the training successfully, she established her Village Level Service Centre and now she is earning Rs.3500 – Rs. 5000 per month as an entrepreneur.
• Her husband Sunil has now started Lac cultivation, vegetable cultivation and also works as a contractor work for construction.
• Benefit to the Community: Saraswati’s VLSC caters to the daily domestic needs of almost 100 households. Earlier, the villagers used to travel at least 9 kms for satisfying their daily needs. They are now procuring various NTFPs and agri-products at her VLSC at better prices. The villagers are also getting an opportunity to cater to guests visiting their homes since they have easy access to edibles from the VLSC. Earlier, this was not possible owing to the distance of the village from the main market.
• Service to Society: Having gone through terrible times herself, Saraswati understands the needs of those around her. She has started lending money to the villagers without any interest as they have suffered a lot from financial scarcity. She is willing to sponsor one of the VLSC entrepreneurs Kittabera this year and this amount (loan of Rs.7500 + training fee) would be kept as revolving capital to create at least one entrepreneur every year by her.

Note: Village Level Service Centers (VLSCs) are ‘village level market and livelihood hubs’ with identified and researched growth potential in particular sectors/products around which new entrepreneurs can be mobilized. Essentially, VLSCs are small stores run by rural women to provide essential retail commodities such as cooking provisions, detergents, stationery and toiletries, for village level consumption. VLSCs serve as anchors in the rural value chain which not only provide the daily domestic needs of the villagers at their door step as and when required but also function as the aggregation centre for village produce such as value-added lac and other produce for distant markets. A VLSC also acts as a community service centre (for providing services like insurance, health, etc.)

By Trilok Jain, VP Technology at Rang De.

One of the primary areas of focus for us at Rang De is to try and make the experience of our social investors better. Be it performance or ease of use, we continuously strive to improve the overall experience of users on our website. Here are some new features that are now available to our social investors:

Improved Portfolio and Borrower Repayment Visualization

If you log-in to your Rang De account today, you’ll notice a map representing the distribution of your social investments on your dashboard. This map of India displays your investment portfolio across various Indian states. A chart to the right shows you a break up of the amount that you have invested towards the borrowers of a particular state. The states in which you have invested will appear in green. So go ahead and color all the states of India on your dashboard green! :0)

From now on, it will also be possible to graphically visualize the repayments from your borrowers. A double graph showing the periodic as well as cumulative repayments from the borrowers has been placed on the borrower profile page.

Digest of Repayment Notification Emails

No more repeated repayment notification emails! Going forward, only one digest email that will summarize the repayments you have received on a particular day will be sent to you on that given day. Of course, the email will be sent to you only if you have turned on your repayment alerts. You can enable repayment alerts by clicking on the ‘Loan Repayment Notification’ radio button on the Notifications tab on the settings page and then clicking on the submit button.

Updated Privacy Settings

Some of our social investors came up with an interesting idea of having a semi-public social investor profile. A semi-public social investor profile does not show the details of your investments but only your basic details. You may choose to change your privacy settings from Private to Semi-Public by selecting the Semi-Public radio button on your settings page and then hitting submit.

We have a few more interesting features lined up and we plan to add them to our website soon. Please do write to us at support@rangde.org if you have any feedback or questions for us. Do share your ideas for interesting features on our website and let us know if you’d like to be a part of our Tech Volunteer Group to work on upcoming initiatives.

Rang De is excited to participate in the TCS World 10K Run which will be held in Bangalore on Sunday, the 27th of May, 2012. The run starts and ends at Kanteerava Stadium. Registration begins on Wednesday, the 21st of March on the TCS 10K Website. You can sign up for the 10k run or the 5.7K Majja Run (see the official website for the full list of categories).

How does Run for Rang De work?

In the past, Rang De Team members, volunteers, chapter members and supporters came forward to Run for Rang De. Each one pledged to raise an amount of their choice and helped raise funds through their individual donation pages. (See Gautam Mahanti’s donation page for the Mumbai Marathon). Family, friends and colleagues contributed to support and fulfill their runners’ pledges.

How will this help Rang De?

Marathons have been a great way for us at Rang De to create awareness about the cause and raise funds.  While the awareness helps us in getting more people involved, funds raised from the marathon will help us meet some of our overheads.  You could also choose to invest directly by funding an entrepreneur of your choice. Either ways, you can be sure that your contribution will add a smile to a rural entrepreneur and his/her family.

How can I participate?   

Run for Rang De:

We would be delighted if you joined us! To Run for Rang De:

1.      Email us and we will setup a donation page for you.

2.      Go to the TCS 10K website and register for the run.

3.      Spread the word about Rang De and encourage your friends, family and colleagues to support you by contributing towards your pledge or to run themselves!

Don’t forget to train for your run. If you’re just starting, here’s a ‘Couch to 5k plan’ and here are some plans for more advanced runners. And finally, get ready to join Team Rang De on May 27th at Kanteerava Stadium and have fun while you run!

Support our Runners:

You can also support us in our Run for Rang De by making a contribution towards any of our runners. Help them reach their pledged amounts and help us spread the word by sharing this page with your friends, family and colleagues: http://www.rangde.org/marathon

Thank you for your support!

More than 900 people from across India got a taste of Leading without A Title from the man himself. Robin Sharma, the globally renowned author and leadership expert was in Bangalore for Lead without A Title – a leadership seminar that was organised by Rang De.

Based on his best selling book – The Leader who had no title, Robin Sharma in his spirited lecture spoke about being world class at everything that one does and the importance of adding value to people’s lives.

The audience that  included entrepreneurs, working professionals, home makers and students was wowed by Robin’s extremely inspiring presentation style and content.

The event was organised by Rang De to reach out to audiences across India and create awareness about the need for low cost microcredit and its impact on eliminating poverty in India.

In the media:

• The Hindu Business Line
• Times of India
• DNA
• Deccan Chronicle
• OneIndia
• IBN Live
• Indian Express

Report by Ujjwal Grover(NEN)

Those who have taken a plunge will tell you that entrepreneurship is an arduous and lonely journey, where apart from determination, grit, and the right opportunities at the right time, what one needs is support from the community and expert advice. An effective support system that helps aspiring entrepreneurs achieve the latter is the need of the day. One such support system currently in place in India is the National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN) which works with over 200 academic institutions and builds entrepreneurship centres in campuses to aid the next generation entrepreneurs in realising their visions. 

This year, from February 11th to 18th, NEN organised an E-Week, dedicated to celebrating entrepreneurship across the nation. E-Week 2012 aims at engaging over 600,000 participants across the country. In line with NEN’s spirit, E-Week’s objective is to build an effective support network for aspiring entrepreneurs. According to the official website E-Week 2012 ‘will see active involvement of more than 30 organisations that support entrepreneurship; corporate entities; industry captains, experts, non-profits, and faculty leaders to inspire, encourage, and guide students.’

Rang De’s founder and CEO Ram attended the event and spoke about Rang De and its journey of supporting rural entrepreneurs across the nation. Rang De recognises the necessity to encourage entrepreneurship even at the grass roots level – an effort to make our nation truly self-sustaining.

The theme of this year’s E Week is Invent the Future. Rather than products and services built for up markets, E Week 2012 aims to encourage social entrepreneurship. It aims to bring local opportunities and fundamental problems like sewage disposal, green tech, water and power to the forefront. Something as simple as reusing waste products to make simple items of daily use like soap cases, as undertaken by a women’s self help group in Kovalam, can be a starting point in bringing about a gradual change in the way we manage the fundamental problem of managing waste. The idea is to start out small with the aim of attacking a problem big enough to impact a large section of society.  

Follow NEN’s developments via NEN’s official twitter feed. A great platform to connect with other entrepreneurs and showcase your product or share your story.

Elena Rozova, student from Denmark, interned with us in January 2012. Here is a brief account of her field trip to Palakkad, Kerala.

Coming from a wealthy Western country with heavy consumption of culture, what was I anticipating from a field trip to a rural Indian village,will it be eligible for Rang De’s microcredit? Firstly, I expected to witness overwhelming poverty and dreadful living conditions. Second, I was prepared to meet hard-working people, exhausted and showing no signs of joy. To my surprise, not all of the pre-conceived notions appeared to reflect the real picture.

Of course, poverty and shortage were present everywhere, but, surprisingly, despite all that people seemed to be enjoying their lives. Welcomed as a guest of honor and treated in the best possible way, from the very beginning I was once again assured that the lesser people have the more cheerful, hospitable, open and willing  nature to share whatever they have.No doubt, they were sincere when expressing their gratitude for the micro-loans and telling how much the quality of their lives  have improved since they received the credits.

When westerners often get upset, if not able to afford a luxury car or another designer bag, rural Indians are able to enjoy simple things like a glass of milk from their cow or just knowing that a second-hand sewing machine will provide some income in the coming days. To many of them, this is a TRUE luxury as they have experienced severe poverty before receiving their first microloans. During the trip, I met many glad and proud owners of kettle, owners of small teashops and snack stalls and tailors all of which are real proofs that microfinance does, indeed, work.

So, we can learn a lot from the rural people. The first thing here should be appreciation of what we have without constantly striving for more and complaining what we do not have and we cannot achieve it. We have to remind ourselves that it is possible to be happy without a penthouse apartment and that there are people in need of very basic things – and they are still able to smile!

At the same time, we can help rural Indians a lot, too. As of now, help is desperately needed to improve sanitary situation in villages (in many of them you will not even find a pucca toilet). Both children and adults need to be taught some basic hygiene rules. Of course, one might argue that rural people have been lived like that for centuries and that old habits die hard. With that in mind, no changes are expected to happen overnight; it will be a long process of educating and training, hopefully resulting in improved living conditions and greater joy of micro-loans.

By Rakesh Khemani, Social Investor, Bangalore

I believe in social investing as a means to knock down poverty, to help people help their families, to support the enterprising with a relatively affordable resource, to help those who believe in a dignified existence and are willing to work hard for it, to do my bit for the society and derive the vast sense of satisfaction and purpose; the reasons are equal to the number of individuals who believe in it.

However, beyond and in addition to the altruistic objectives for social investing, can it be viewed using the pragmatic lens of sound financial planning?

Let’s explore the idea with an illustration. A is a 30 year old who makes a social investment of Rs. 2000 per month with a distribution of Rs. 200 each to 10 rural entrepreneurs. At the end of the first year, she would have made a social investment of Rs. 24000 and impacted 120 families. It is assumed that the repayment is 100% at 2% interest annually.

In the second year, she continues investing Rs. 2000 per month and also reinvests (from the repayments) Rs. 2000 per month. Let’s also assume that the interest of Rs. 480 for the social investment for the first year is reinvested in the second year.

Thus at the end of second year, A would have invested Rs. 48480 thus impacting 362 (120+242) families. Let’s assume that A continues the method as described above for 27 years and receives all the repayments back in the 28^th year without making any new investments or reinvestments in the 28^th year.

At the age of 58, A would have received back a corpus of Rs 848264 as depicted in row 1 of the table below:

As shown above, assuming an interest rate of 8%, an MIP would provide A with a pension of Rs. 5655 per month from her 59^th year onwards!

Going by the original objective, A has positively supported 54292 families towards their dreams. A could receive a pension of Rs. 14138 per month with a monthly social investment of Rs. 5000.

So we see, social objectives and personal objectives need not be mutually exclusive.