Students help villagers with ideas to make more money

MUMBAI: A few months ago, Mohit Kataria, an MBA student, had organised a financial literacy camp for Akashi village on the outskirts of Virar, a Mumbai suburb. The

MUMBAI: A few months ago, Mohit Kataria, an MBA student, had organised a financial literacy camp for Akashi village on the outskirts of Virar, a Mumbai suburb. The village gram panchayat had banned plastic bags and asked residents to use paper bags instead, he said. Not long after the visit, Kataria along with some of his colleagues — from their college, Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship Education (SIMSREE) — helped a group of women from the village start a paper-bag making business.

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The Virar paper bag project was one of the entries in a national-level competition held by Enactus India — an organisation promoting entrepreneurship among marginalised sections — in Mumbai last week. The participating students were required to pitch their sustainable and scalable business models to help poor communities.

In the past few months, teams from several city colleges had developed unique business ideas and implemented them. In the process, they also created self-employment opportunities for numerous women, differently-abled persons from the underprivileged groups.

For the project, the SIMSREE team, with the help of a city-based organisation, trained around 15 women from villages near Virar to make paper bags. Now, the women manage to manufacture around 150 bags in three-four hours, which are sold in rural markets.

“We have also tied up with a food-delivery start-up in the city, which now delivers food items in our paper bags. In the last twothree months, we have generated a revenue of around Rs50,000,” said Kataria.

Meanwhile, Charoo Agarwal and her friends, from Jai Hind Colleges in Churchgate, have been assisting differently-abled people from the city to sell their products at a better price. They plan to start an online portal.

They joined hands with Fellowship f or Physically Handicap (FPH) in Haji Ali, which trains people with disabilities in trades such as tailoring, printing, assembly line, handloom and carpentry.

Another t eam f rom HR College, which sought to help people in parched villages in the state, was one of the finalists in the competition. They had toured 18 villages in Wada, on the outskirts of Mumbai, and held discussions with villagers to assess their water needs. After research, they had decided to sell large rolling drums to help women fetch water more comfortably.

While the each drum costs around Rs2,500, the students decided to sell them at Rs500. To compensate the difference, they sold canvas bags, designed by village craftswomen, in the urban markets. “We managed to secure orders for customised from some big companies in the city. So far, we have sold 60 drums and 3,000 bags,” said Thakore.

“Over the course of the twoday event, students showcased how their community-outreach projects and business ventures. The process also provided an opportunity for collaboration, fostered innovation, encouraged results and rewarded excellence,” said Bhavna Joshi of Enactus.