What we do:
Dharma Life is a social enterprise dedicated to poverty alleviation through rural entrepreneurship. The organisation uses an entrepreneurship model coupled with an end-to-end supply chain to deliver high quality products and services at the last mile. Dharma Life is a partner of choice for leading corporates such as Unilever, Prestige, Usha, Philips, Panasonic, Microsoft (Nokia) and Singer, and is strategically supported by organizations such as Shell Foundation, Tata Trusts, GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), DFID (Department for International Development, UK), elea Foundation and DOEN Foundation (a foundation set up by the Dutch Postcode lottery).
The Problem:
Rural India faces various developmental challenges such as lack of connectivity and infrastructure for the last mile, lack of sustainable livelihoods (16.5% have a regular income, that is, wage/salary), lack of access to energy (India faces the most acute challenge of electricity access in the world with 75 million of its 226 million households off the grid, the largest such demographic globally), lack of nutrition for children 48 per cent of children under the age of five, are stunted due to chronic undernutrition, with 70 per cent being anemic) and high frequency and burden of disease (an estimated 300,000 children in India die every year from diarrhoea).
These challenges are caused by three major factors in rural markets - lack of awareness regarding causes of social problems and solutions, lack of access to high quality solutions and lack of affordability. There are still no large-scale models that can address these challenges in an economically viable and scalable manner.
Approach
Dharma Life has created an end-to-end value chain that enables individuals at the Base of the Pyramid to earn a sustainable livelihood. Rural entrepreneurs are identified, selected and trained to become social changemakers in their village by addressing the issues of awareness, accessibility and affordability for social impact products such as solar lights, clean cooking solutions, water purifiers amongst others. This results in greater income generation for entrepreneurs, improved consumer awareness and increased adoption of social impact products.
Entrepreneurship Network
Dharma Life believes that ‘entrepreneurship’ is one of the most powerful and scalable solutions to addressing the issue of unemployment. We identify, train and mentor aspiring individuals, especially the rural youth to become Dharma Life Entrepreneurs, and equip them with a range of health and livelihood products that positively contributes to their communities.
Building our Network of Village Entrepreneurs:
6P Village Selection Model: we select villages based on size of market and identified demand for ‘social impact’ products
- Paanch Sau Ghar - Minimum of 500 households
- Primary School - School at the village level
- Panchayat - Village level governance
- Paani – Source of irrigation water
- Panch Dukaan – Five retail shops
- PHC - Primary Health Centre
We recruit village entrepreneurs with the highest potential to succeed
- We follow a robust recruitment process of evaluations, interviews and reference checks, selecting one entrepreneur for each identified village.
- Entrepreneurs complete a training programme (co-developed with NIIT and London Business School) to build their knowledge of entrepreneurship, sales, market activations, research and products.
- We organize a village meeting to introduce the role of the Dharma Life Entrepreneur to their community.
We provide extensive skills support and mentoring to empower entrepreneurs and help them grow their business
- Each entrepreneur is assigned a mentor with whom they meet weekly to discuss progress, challenges and receive training.
- Entrepreneurs receive additional support from our head office staff who share up-to-date customers’ insights through weekly calls.
- Dharma Life Entrepreneurs in the same region meet, train and participate together in market activation activities.
- We create online platforms to facilitate peer-to-peer support – enabling entrepreneurs to share their experiences and learn from each other.
How our rural entrepreneurs evolve to become change makers
Model-Bussines
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Values
Pioneer a movement where every individual earns a sustainable living, true respect and bring inclusive progress.
Goals
By 2020 we aim to:
- Create a network of 100,000 Dharma Life entrepreneurs
- Serve 50 million rural low income consumers
- Expand our network across India and globally
Mission
Develop a unique and sizeable community of social entrepreneurs by:
- Delivering effective training in entrepreneurship, sales and marketing
- Establishing a conscious culture that help build purposeful careers
- Providing access to networks and products that have a social impact
- Developing monitoring and evaluation processes for continuous improvements
Philosophy
Progress with purpose
Potential
We believe that individuals have the potential to rise above their circumstances, and through personal growth uplift their community.
Purpose
We believe that individuals, when empowered with opportunities and aligned to a social cause, discover meaning and a sense of purpose in life.
Progress
We believe that when an individual’s potential merges with a sense of purpose in life, it leads to something truly invaluable: progress.
Our Team
Management
Gaurav Mehta
Founder & CEO Social entrepreneur and MBA from London Business School with over 10 years of experience in working with both corporates and not for profits such as Pratham, General Atlantic and Morgan Stanley.Sheo Mohan Prasad
Senior GM, Channel and Sales MBA from IMT, Ghaziabad with over 15 years of work experience in sales and distribution with multinational corporations such as Samsung, VIP Industries and CEAT.A S Sunny
General Manager, Operations MBA from INSEAD with over 10 years of work experience with social enterprises, not for profits and multinational companies such as V-shesh, Teach for India and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.Nupur Bhattacharya
General Manager, Category MBA from SIBM Pune, India with over 10 years of experience in strategy and product category management with companies such as Usha International Limited and ICICI Lombard.Amit Bhattacharya
Vice President, Research MBA from University of Technology, Australia; over 15 years of experience in research and consulting for global and emerging markets with firms such as A.T. Kearney.Rajeev Ranjan
General Manager, HR MBA from XISS, Ranchi, he has over 12 years of experience working with organisations such as the India Today Group; specializes in HR processes to attract, reward, nurture and retain talent.Group Entities
Gajam India
Dharma Life Foundation
Ananta
Bettermarks
Careers
Reference website Dalberg: http://www.dalberg.com/careers/
Partners
