My background as an Information Technology professional that took me to 10 countries in a span of 15 years, working with the Government sector, private sector and Multinationals, could not satisfy my inner soul that craved to help the needy. My middle class upbringing always used to make me feel guilty about the high expenditures involved in my air travel, lodging and boarding. The plight of poverty rampant on the streets in comparison to the luxuries enjoyed by others presented a sharp contrast in our ideologies. A growing GDP along with an increasing population below the poverty line demonstrated the growing economic disparity between the haves and the have-nots. I found that the while the haves were tempted to accumulate more to allay their fears of economic insecurity, the have-nots were completely vulnerable to economic, livelihood, food and health insecurity. This realization led me to believe that lack of a social security system in the country was one of the main reasons behind poverty and growing economic disparity. Since the social security systems in developed countries were all tax based, it was difficult to implement the same in India, as any tax is a forced saving and more than 60% of our population do not have any savings potential. Hence India needed a different social security model that was not tax or savings based and could give social security to the poorest. This was the defining moment that made me quit my profession and give India its Social Security System.

From Information technology to Social development, from computers to economics and from aircrafts to bullock carts; this was the road that Pradeep traversed to become a Social Entrepreneur and give the poorest in India their right to complete social security. Being the youngest of four siblings, he was always a rebel challenging the impossible. Using his creativity and experience that he gathered in 15 years, he set upon the road to give India a social security system independent of taxes or savings.

We help the SHGs design financial innovations using their deposits in many ways to help people buy goods or services. Since the SHGs have decided not to give goods on credit from the retail outlets managed by their SEGs, they have offered short term credits to their members from their SHG deposits at higher interest rates for the same. They have even lent their deposits at prevailing interest rates to raise working capital for their SEG managed shops. Since the revenue generated from sales from their SEG shops come back to the SHG, the liquidity of their deposits is maintained, allowing them to lend and grow their deposits further. They have even offered short term small credits at high interest rates to non-SHG members for buying goods and services from their shops. This makes them also act as moneylenders in the village that socially discriminated them because of their poor economic status.

The SEGs take loan from their SHGs to raise working capital for their business that produces goods to be kept in the SEG managed retail outlets. Thus when these SEGs sell their good to the other SEG managed retail outlets, the loan amount with interest comes back to the SHG and the SEG members get their cost of labour. Thus the loan is recovered almost immediately and is ready to be offered for the next cycle. This helps in increasing the deposit base of the SHG (with interest), while maintaining cash flow within the system and the members. So just by lending the SHG deposits for sales and purchase within the Social Security model, the SHGs grow their deposits and every family grows its social security collection. This makes the rural economy volatile and thriving and also keeps the money within the village instead of being siphoned off to urban areas.