For social causes: Tale of two TISS start-ups

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, has incubated around 35 social start-ups over the past seven years. Spread across the country, these social enterprises work on a range of issues such as waste management and education.

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“Usually, social startups are equated with non-government organisations, but that is far from the truth. There are many enterprises that have a self-sufficient model and make a social difference,” said Satyajit Majumdar, professor at the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, TISS.

Hindustan Times looks at two such start-ups incubated at TISS.

Even Cargo: This social enterprise was co-founded by student Yogesh Kumar Rao in 2016. It started as an initiative to create equal opportunity workspaces for women in traditionally male-dominated industries but eventually became an organisation that trains women and employs them as delivery agents in the logistics industry. Even Cargo trained and employed 250 women in the National Capital Region, Jaipur and Nagpur and is set to start operations in Thane by next month, said Rao.

“The entire logistics industry is traditionally designed for male employees. We have a multi-pronged approach to change this and increasing the visibility of women in the industry,” said Rao, founder and CEO of the enterprise.

Sampurn(e)arth: Set up in 2012 by three TISS students, Sampurn(e)arth offers a host of waste management products and solutions and also works towards streamlining the informal scrap market.

“The existing waste management process is non-cyclic where the waste generator and the scrap dealers do interact with each other. We are trying to change that,” said Debartha Banerjee, a co-founder of the company.