A Social Business - of the rural folks, by the rural folks and for the rural economy
Organisation for Awareness of Integrated Social Security (OASiS) is a Social Innovations Laboratory that identifies gaps in the social sector, designs innovative, simple, practical and sustainable solutions to address them, pilots them, develops them into models and then gives them out to the social sector for replication. OASiS has developed 5 solutions in 7 years and has 1 on the drawing board.
About You
Section 1: About You
First Name
Pradeep
Last Name
Ghosh
Website
Country
India, MP
Section 2: About Your Organization
Is your initiative connected to an established organization?
Yes
Organization Name
Organisation for Awareness of Integrated Social Security (OASiS)
Organization Website
Organization Phone
0091-755-4274407
Organization Address
158, SECTOR-1, SHAKTI NAGAR, BHOPAL - 462024, MP
Organization Country
India, MP
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has this organization been operating?
More than 5 years
Your idea
Name Your Project
A Social Business - of the rural folks, by the rural folks and for the rural economy
Describe your Social Enterprise
Organisation for Awareness of Integrated Social Security (OASiS) is a Social Innovations Laboratory that identifies gaps in the social sector, designs innovative, simple, practical and sustainable solutions to address them, pilots them, develops them into models and then gives them out to the social sector for replication. OASiS has developed 5 solutions in 7 years and has 1 on the drawing board.
Country your work focuses on
India, MP
Innovation
What makes your innovation unique?
The innovation is unique in many ways:
a) It re-organises local businesses in villages by forming Self Employed Groups (SEGs) and engaging them in different business activities.
b) It is an integrated Business model that ties up all SEG activities (in a village) into one, ensuring both demand and supply locally.
c) It ensures all dimensions of Social Security viz: Livelihood security, Food security, Economic security, Health security and old age economic security through the social business.
d) It brings back long lost self-sufficiency in the villages.
e) It is a business that is completely owned and managed by the villagers themselves.
f) It breaks caste barriers in the village.
g) It helps villagers break away from the clutches of shopkeepers (indirect moneylending through credits purchases).
h) It helps in arresting the drain of rural economy, and strengthens it economically.
i) It removes the fear of uncertainty from the minds of the villagers.
j) It helps in arresting migration.
Do you have a patent for this idea?
No
Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
Tell us about the social impact of your innovation. Please include both numbers and stories as evidence of this impact
The model has been piloted in 4 villages in 2 states. All the villages had a different composition of population tribal and non-tribal, different income levels, different mindsets and at different distances from their weekly markets. Hence the results were different. However the model was slightly tailored to meet the specific requirements of each village.
There was a significant social impact visible in all the villages:
a) The SEGs were formed out of Self Help Groups that basically comprise of the lowest section of the village community. Bringing these lowest rung to the levels of service providers in their own village gave them access to every household. The incentive available for everyone for taking the services provided by SEGs, helped in reducing the social gap that existed between the highest and lowest rungs in the village community.
An example here is that a Brahmin in the village (in MP) did not drink water from the hands of the tribals. With this model in place, the Brahmin and his wife now come regularly to buy stuff from the retail outlets managed by the SEGs and also buying products made by them. The brahmin also responds to the greetings of the SEGs whenever he crosses their shops for his regular commuting.
In another village in MP, the Patel had to donate a part of his land for constructing the retail outlets, when all the SHGs in the village collectively demanded for it.
b) In one village (in Mah), members of 2 political parties dissolved their differences and came together to share the activities in the integrated business model. The SEGs were formed with members from both groups, so that business does not suffer and both keep a check on each other for any fraudulence.
c) The freedom from worries of uncertainty through Free Social Security (a by product of the model) gave the villagers enough strength and confidence to pursue their livelihoods more effectively. In the first year itself 30% of the families were covered by insurances, the second year 50% were covered. The premiums for these insurances came out of the social business itself.
d) The confidence and status of the SHG members has gone up in the village as they own a common business activity of the village. Their renewed strength has given them greater audience and respect in village gatherings (Gram Sabhas).
e) SHG Groups from nearby villages have started demanding the model and see it as a tool for their empowerment and status within their village.
Problem: Describe the primary problem(s) that your innovation is addressing
My innovation addresses 3 problems:
1) In the golden days, every profession (from a brahmin to a cobbler) existed in a village. But as professions turned into castes leading to caste oppression, generous NGOs tried to bring out the lowest castes by teaching them better professions. Result, most villages in rural India have lost their self-sufficiency, and are dependent upon weekly markets for their regular needs, where they pay a premium for the same services. Through this integrated business model I am trying to bring back all services in a village making it self-sufficient.
2) Most Income generation activities taught by NGOs are towards making products that have an urban demand. From poultry to mushroom, sericulture to pisciculture, none of the products have rural demands or consumption. They are all meant for the urban population. But one bird flu threat in north east India leads to collapse of poultry demand in central India and the poultry farmers in villages go bankrupt. Rural economy is slowly becoming dependent on urban economy. My innovation intends to cut off this dependency by setting up rural social businesses for rural economy.
3) Rural folks depend upon weekly markets (1 for every 10 villages) for their regular needs. The retailers here also act as moneylenders giving things on credit and then charging interest. Manipulating weighing scales squeezes out more profits. Adulteration leads to more profits for retailers, but results in ill health of villagers. The surplus produce of one village is bought by retailers at low prices and sold to other villagers at higher prices. The profits made by these retailers usually gets spent during their jolly trips to cities. My innovation intends to stop this menace by giving villagers the capacity to sell their own produce in a systematic manner thus ensuring reasonable profits for themselves and get quality produce in right quantities. All for their better health too.
Actions: Describe the steps that you are taking to make your innovation a success. Include a description of the business model. What might prevent that success?
Any livelihood based model is sustainable, if marketability of its products/services is ensured. The integrated business model is designed to ensure sustenance for all livelihoods associated with it through an ensured local consumer base. In every village, the SHG managed retail outlets cater to all needs of the villagers buying at the wholesale-rate and selling at the same price as the neighboring market place. Agriculture surplus in one village is purchased by the other village where need exists. Village women are trained to manufacture items that can be sold from the shop and given the first inputs to start production. Each group is allowed to manufacture only 1 item and sell it to the shop at the wholesale rate. Thus products manufactured by one group are consumed by the other. The entire village acts as a committed consumer base in return of free social security.
The transaction recording method currently requires some literacy levels for the villagers running the shops. A combination of entrepreneurship and literacy is difficult to find, therefore not many families can be given such livelihood where literacy is required. Also these members feel themselves indispensable and thus dominate other members in their groups. The paper based method needs to be replaced by a paperless & automated system.
Rural populations have little faith in the Insurance system as they have been duped earlier. A large group will make it a viable proposition for the insurance companies, and give the decision to choose the insurance schemes in the hands of the villagers. But one wrong experience with an insurance company will lead to a setback in the system.
Many villages in India have been loaded with freebies in the past. Teaching them how to fish is not accepted in such villages, as they have to work to avail the benefits lifelong.
The system helps in bring socio-economic equality in the village. This might be considered as a threat by the upper caste in the village. Attempts by them or politicians to de-stabilise the system for personal gains might restrict the success of the project.
Results: Describe the expected results of these actions over the next three years. Please address each year separately, if possible
Year 1: It is expected that about 75% of the families will be covered by the Social Security scheme and about 30% of them will start accumulations for old age pension. About 15% of the commodities in the shop will be manufactured by the local SEGs.
Year 2: It is expected that about 90% of the families will be covered by the Social Security scheme and about 50% of them will start accumulations for old age pension. About 25% of the commodities in the shop will be manufactured by the local SEGs.
Year 3: It is expected that 100% of the families will be covered by the Social Security scheme and about 75% of them will start accumulations for old age pension. About 40% of the commodities in the shop will be manufactured by the local SEGs.
Besides this, with CSR funding, more villages will be covered by the Business model, so that people visiting each other's villages will also be benefitted when they make any purchases from similar setups in other villages.
An Apex body will monitor and account the cross transactions, do the necessary calculations based on social security numbers and do the inter account transfers.
Using technology to make things simple and foolproof is the key to building transparent & sustainable solutions for illiterate population. A paperless & automatic transaction recording system will help in overcoming hurdles arising out of poor literacy rate in villages and also overcome the linguistic barriers. Enterprising but illiterate villagers can fearlessly participate in the integrated business model without worrying about inventory, accounting and recording transactions. The comprehensive Insurance mechanism will give them complete economic security and bring in them a sense of dignity and social respect. OASiS has been able to churn out 5 innovations in 7 years. In order to continue our search for gaps in the social sector and experimenting innovative solutions for the same, OASiS needs a corpus as funding organisations are reluctant to fund experiments at conceptual stage
How many people will your project serve annually?
More than 10,000
What is the average monthly household income in your target community, in US Dollars?
Less than $50
Does your innovation seek to have an impact on public policy?
Yes
If your innovation seeks to impact public policy, how?
This innovation seeks to bring in social security as a mandatory component of the Indian economy, enabling it through similar expense based mechanisms, so that it does not become a burden on the national and state exchequers.
The data obtained from recording every purchase will give a much detailed region wise Consumption pattern that will help policy makers make much more informed decisions. Region wise schemes can be announced based on this data as it will show the actual demands of the people in that region.
The trends in Consumption Patterns will show the changing demands of the people, changing income levels and changing health patterns that will again help policy makers in making informed decisions.
With lesser load on the exchequers we can strive towards making Social Security a right for every citizen of the country.
Sustainability
What stage is your Social Enterprise in?
Operating for 1‐5 years
Does your organization have a board of directors or an advisory board?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with NGOs?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with businesses?
Yes
Does your organization have a non monetary partnerships with government?
Yes
Please tell us more about how partnerships could be critical to the success of your Social Enterprise
Nothing big can be achieved alone and no one organisation can have expertise in all areas. It is always wise to use and converge all available expertise for wholistic development. Our partnership with NGOs involve identification of villages and SHGs, doing consumption survey and making them aware about their social security. We partner with the Govt by getting the SHGs trained under their various Income generation schemes and also take administrative support for implementation. We partner with Businesses for infrastructure development in the villages. We take support from Funding organisations for working capital through grants or soft loans. Involvement of multiple agencies helps in more concentrated approach for implementation and also the success of the project. We allow all agencies involved to take credit of the project as it leads to wider acceptability of the model.
Administrative partnerships with the local Administration are very important for infrastructure (retail outlets) creation, and also for creating confidence among the villagers for the model. It also helps to break group rivalry in the villages and bring everyone to a common platform.
Partnerships with the Government helps in providing Income Generation Activity trainings to the villagers under different schemes.
Funding is usually sourced from Foundations and Corporate houses. Hence partnerships with them is important.
We would like to learn more about how your initiative is financially supported. Please explain your business plan/revenue model
In both my models, the primary funders have been the funding organisations like NABARD, Friends of Women World Banking, Sir Dorabji Tata Trust and the Allied Trusts, etc.
The business plan has a revenue model built into it, but uses the funding support of the above agencies for setting up and furnishing the retail outlets, Income generation activity training, material support to SEGs and stocking up the retail outlets, either in a grant or soft loan mode.
The Story
What was the defining moment that led you to this innovation?
As an information technology professional for 15 years, I was witness to the IT revolution in India. While my job took me around 12 countries, I was always perplexed by the difference in attitude of people in developed and developing countries. While in developed countries, people had no fear of the future & believed in spending all their savings, in developing countries, people always feared an insecure future & saved even from their spendings. The fearless attitude of the former was because of the mandatory social security systems in their country, whereas the latter did not have any. In developing countries, insurances were available only for the rich, the poor being considered non-insurable. Insurances were mostly sold as tax saving instruments rather than for social security. All social security systems were either tax or savings based, hence were not applicable for people who lived on less than a dollar a day. I often wondered how a nation could develop, when more than 50% of its population found it difficult to make two ends meet daily and had no time or energy to think forward & for the nation. Comparing an affluent family with the poorest one, I found that while the former could spend only 40% of its income, the latter's expenditure was 120% of its income. Which means, moving down the economic line, the percentage of expenses to income increased. Hence if I could develop an expense based social security system, it would benefit even those who had only expenses & no savings. Also if the model could provide short term alternate livelihoods to the unemployed rather than unemployment allowance, it would give livelihood security productively. These moments & thoughts led to the innovation.
Tell us about the person—the social innovator—behind this idea.
Born into a middle-class family, Pradeep grew up deeply appreciative of the security offered by family & community ties. Yet, from a young age he used to question the status quo, see how things could be done differently, & think outside the box. The opportunity to study the laws that make the world work and then see how he could apply these laws innovatively, drew him like a magnet to Physics. His other major was Statistics that taught him the magic of number analysis. Further he went on to do Masters in Computer Applications, Electronics & Telecommunications and Business Management (MBA).
In 1986 he took a Govt job where within the typical hidebound bureaucracy, he came up with a number of system-improving, cost-cutting innovations. 9 years later, despite the security the Govt job offered he quit the lethargic environment and took a job as Systems Manager with Japanese MNC Fujitsu. This took him to Japan occasionally, where he was deeply impressed with the discipline, professionalism & work ethics of the Japanese.
In 1998 he got his first professional exposure to development issues with a 2-year assignment with PLAN International. Although his brief was to set up the IT network for PLAN’s Asia operations, he pushed the boundaries of that brief, redefining the role of IT professionals from being mere techies or data processors to persons who can bring in fundamental changes in the social sector by transforming existing systems to make them more efficient.
How did you first hear about Changemakers?
Email from Changemakers
If through another source, please provide the information
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 | 153 weeks ago Pradeep Ghosh updated this Competition Entry. |
| 153 weeks ago Pradeep Ghosh updated this Competition Entry. |
| 154 weeks ago Pradeep Ghosh submitted this idea. |
