From fellowship to rural startup

NISHANT Singh, a software engineer working with Wipro in Hyderabad, nursed a quiet ambition — he wanted to set up his own social enterprise. He had read biographies of Muhammad Yunus, the father of microfinance, and Leila Janah, the young founder of Samasource, who believed it was well-paid work and not aid that eradicated poverty.

It was the SBI Youth for India (YFI) Fellowship that caught his attention. Nishant applied, was accepted, and then placed in Jawhar, a tribal hill station in the Western Ghats in Maharashtra. He worked there in partnership with BAIF Development Research Foundation, formerly called the Bharatiya Agro Industries Foundation.

The 13-month fellowship programme is an initiative of the SBI Foundation, the State Bank of India’s CSR wing. To be eligible, candidates have to be between 21 and 32 years of age. They could be young working professionals or fresh graduates. Apart from citizens of India, Overseas Citizens of India can also apply as well as citizens of Nepal and Bhutan.

“During our selection process, we look for individuals whose aspirations in the development sector are strongly aligned with the realities of rural life. They must have the potential to bridge the gap between these two worlds,” says Gyan Prakash, head of the YFI Fellowship programme at SBI Foundation. Prakash himself is an SBI YFI Fellow who collaborated with Chirag, an NGO, to enhance a social enterprise led by rural women.

Experiences often differ and have their own outcomes. Nishant found that the tribals he was working with still consumed their traditional diet, a staple of millets, moringa and mahua. But Jawhar was plagued by other problems. A one-crop cycle led to seasonal migration which had a deleterious effect. Education of children came to a halt. The tribals became disconnected from the Anganwadi and other government schemes. Migration also alienated them from their communities and diets. They didn’t know the foods they consumed were considered ‘superfoods’ by urban consumers.

Nishant realized it wasn’t charity that tribal communities needed but empowerment. They needed to earn more.  “The SBI YFI Fellowship gave me the freedom and headroom to discover the direction in which I wanted to head. I learnt to interact with the community, understand their needs and include them in their solution. By the end of this transformative journey, I was ready to go on my journey,” says Nishant.

Nishant Singh set up Jawhar Farms which markets millet-based foods

Once his fellowship was over, Nishant returned to Jawhar and set up a social enterprise called Jawhar Farms. Today, Jawhar Farms has not only carved a niche in the urban market for healthy millets-based food but also provided a livelihood for tribals. 

At Jawhar Farms, millets, moringa and mahua are procured directly from farmers at market prices. Local tribals then make them into products like ragi cookies, ragi laddoos, ragi papad, among others. “We market these as products from a tribal farm, chemical-free and natural with all healthy ingredients. Our enterprise services the rural economy  and solves the problems of migration and unemployment,”  says Nishant.

Jawhar Farms won a Rs 9 lakh grant from the SBI Foundation. It is all set for expansion. Nishant is planning a full-fledged production unit with new eco-friendly packaging and marketing to get more orders. He’s also exploring if this model can be taken to other tribal areas of India.

Nishant is from the 2022-23 batch of SBI YFI Fellows which has an alumni network of 580 former Fellows. The Fellowship was introduced 13 years ago. Thus far, 11 batches have received the grants. According to the SBI YFI programme office, they are working in 250 villages and impacting the lives of 150,000 people. 

“One way to measure impact is by assessing the sustainability of youth-led interventions and ongoing projects. The solutions developed by Fellows at the grassroots level should have the potential to scale up on their own or in collaboration with partner NGOs, and benefit local communities,” says  Prakash.

Another success story is that of PIRUL Handicrafts, founded by Nupur Poharkar, a veterinarian who became a social entrepreneur. An SBI YFI Fellow of the 2020-21 batch,  Poharkar was placed at Khetikhan village in Champawat district of Uttarakhand. She found that pine needles were causing havoc in the region. They led to forest fires and caused groundwater table depletion. At the same time local women needed to supplement their meagre income. The men migrated to the cities and sent tiny sums to their families back home. It was a hand-to-mouth existence for the women. The solution, she realized, was to enable women to earn a livelihood from waste pine needles. That is how the seeds for PIRUL were sown.

Starting with three women, PIRUL now provides employment to over 100 women from remote villages in the Kumaon region. The women are trained to make handicraft products like coasters, pen holders, planters, sling bags and so on from pine needles. PIRUL markets its products through exhibitions, a few stores in Hyderabad, Nainital and Mussoorie and exports its products as well. 

With a grant of `9 lakh from the SBI Foundation, Poharkar intends to scale up,  and focus on marketing and business development.