Thomas Friedman, the NYT columnist and best-selling author, wrote in one of his recent columns that what the US needs are start-ups. He says, ?Good jobs, in bulk, don?t come from government. They come from risk-takers starting businesses, businesses that make people?s lives healthier, more productive, more comfortable or more entertained, with services and products that can be sold around the world.? This is true for our country as well. A growing young population, with increasing access to education, can?t just depend on government or private sector jobs. Job creation is not likely to keep pace with aspirations.
Given proper assistance and encouragement, one finds there are entrepreneurs emerging from all kinds of nooks and corners in our country. Take the case of 35-year-old Sarala Bastian from Chennai, who became an entrepreneur after marriage and three children. She started cultivating mushrooms in her backyard. Today, her turnover exceeds Rs 30 lakh and she employs 41 people. She was born in Salem and her father could not send her to school and got her married at age 18. After her children were born, her husband moved to Chennai.
A shy small-town girl, she was persuaded by a neighbour to join a self-help group run by an NGO. That opened up the leadership qualities latent in her. She became a group leader, then rose up to become a federation leader and started motivating groups of women to save. At some point, she realised that there was a growing demand for mushrooms and she started cultivating them in the backyard of her residence, which was really a hut. An orientation programme conducted by an NGO led her to Bharat Yuva Shakti Trust (BYST).
BYST was co-founded in 1992 by Lakshmi Venkatesan with JRD Tata and Prince Charles. Venkatesan, daughter of former President R Venkataraman, with two masters degrees and a successful career in the US, was keen to do something to fulfil the dreams of the underprivileged youth in the country. In the subsequent years, BYST has achieved what it set out to do, making many budding entrepreneurs millionaires! She explains the role of BYST, ?We are the missing link between micro-finance institutions and formal funding institutions for small and medium enterprises. Our programme is for the missing middle. We want to help the aspiring young person create assets and jobs. The young people we sponsor are entrepreneurs by necessity, not those who see an opportunity and try their hand at business.?
The meeting Sarala went to was about a BYST Indian bank scheme and caught her attention. She attended counselling sessions with the BYST group of mentors and was selected for a loan. She got a loan of Rs 1.56 lakh and had savings amounting to Rs 1 lakh, which enabled her to rent a space and put up two huts and expand her business. This was in 2007. Demand for her products has grown and she now has a third unit.
Sarala is also helping other women become entrepreneurs. She packs mushroom saplings and sells them to women who are interested, and also buys ripe mushrooms from them. She even offers training to those interested in putting up their own mushroom farms. She has helped seven entrepreneurs start their own business and several women (about 19) have set up mushroom production units with her help. All the material used in her business is eco-friendly and pesticide-free. She has also diversified by developing different mushroom products like pickles, soups, soup powders and papads. She has been regular in her repayment of loans and has cleared the entire amount.
BYST makes sure its budding entrepreneurs are guided by a mentor. Sarala?s mentor is Parul Bhatt, an entrepreneur herself, who runs a successful public relations company. She constantly advises Sarala on finding new markets and improving the products. Parul got involved with BYST through her rotary connections. She says, ?Our rotary club started helping poor women of the area with a small micro-credit scheme. We gave them a loan of no more than Rs 5,000. They showed amazing entrepreneurial skills. They bought materials from the wholesale market and sold them for a profit by cutting them into blouse pieces. They set up tiny businesses like fixing falls for saris. They returned their loans on time. It is really so satisfying to help these women become independent.?
BYST is full of success stories like Sarala?s. R Kamalesh comes from a very poor family of ten that had to go without food on some days. Kamalesh, through some contacts of his father?s, managed to study up to class X. He spent his free time at his father?s friend?s tinkering unit and found his passion. After his class X exam, he joined a turning unit as a trainee. Six months in the unit were enough for him to acquire the necessary skills. In the meantime, Kamalesh also got himself a diploma from an air conditioning and refrigeration course. Kamalesh desperately wanted to start and run a business of his own. He was too poor to do so until he discovered BYST. His enthusiasm to be an entrepreneur impressed the evaluation committee members.
He became BYST?s first entrepreneur in Chennai at the young age of 19. BYST provided him the start-up money of Rs 14,000 in 1992. In the first year of operation Kamalesh had a turnover of Rs 60,000 per annum. After adding a drilling machine and a gas welding machine (with the money he got from receiving the prestigious JRD Tata award in 1995), the quality of his work improved and slowly his volumes also increased. In August 1995, his turnover was Rs 3 lakh. He has, with the help of his mentor? managing director of BGK Computer Consultants N Krishnan, a first generation entrepreneur himself?clawed his way to a turnover of Rs 15,00,000. He has the grit and determination to expand and grow. Kamalesh now employs eight people.
In the next few decades, if all goes well, we are bound to see a million entrepreneurs bloom in our country.
sushila.ravindranath@expressindia.com