Intervida works to create small businesses to achieve self-sufficiency among of the most impoverished indian communities
Barcelona (17/04/2008). Within INTERVIDA’s project to “Improve income levels through alternative economic activities”, entrepreneurial groups in poor communities in India have received business training towards establishing their own small businesses. Through this project, which is based on the first of the Millennium Development Goals “to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger”, INTERVIDA aims for the most disadvantaged communities to have the means necessary to generate resources and to subsist autonomously.
India represents 16.7% of the world population, with more than 1 billion inhabitants, a figure which has tripled over the last 50 years, accompanied by unequal economic growth. While last year’s economic growth index was 8.9%, more than 300 million people still survive on less than one dollar a day.
The lack of economic development of some regions of the country drives unqualified people to migrate from the rural areas to the large cities, where they occupy the lowest ranks of the productive process. This inequality in industrial growth and the inequalities in development among the population have provoked an increase in unemployment and risky employment, which translates into poverty and the continuous fight for survival.
The women, who are in charge of family responsibilities, are the most affected by this situation. They need to carry water for kilometers, collect food for the animals and fuel for the home, grind grain for food, take care of their children, attend to the farming activities, among many other activities which, despite their importance, are undervalued. Women continue to be undervalued, with low levels of education and training, fewer job opportunities, and low cash income. All this, in turn, affects their ability to buy basic food and medicine and makes it difficult for their children to go to school, since oftentimes they also have to work to support the family economy.
Through entrepreneurial training, people can learn how to identify business opportunities, as well as how to conceptualize and organize their own business, which will provide them not only with economic resources, but also with social recognition and a better quality of life.
Since 2005, INTERVIDA has been focusing on business education as a means of strengthening diversification and optimization of available resources, creating employment and improving product quality and commercialization.
In 2007, a total of 161 members of impoverished communities in Velhe and Nashik, in the Indian state of Maharashtra, and in Nagercoil, in Tamil Nadu – one of the areas affected by the tsunamis in 2004 – received training on general themes related with business and have presented their business plans, have submitted to analysis and validation processes and have converted their ideas in reality.
This project places special emphasis on the role of women as an engine for economic development not only because it is their responsibility to maintain their families, but also because they are more disciplined and more entrepreneurial, they have a higher saving capacity and they are better payers when it comes to micro credits.
One of the greatest limitations when it comes to creating new businesses in the unavailability of minimum start-up capital to initiate the activity. To combat this situation, INTERVIDA supports the creation of Self-Help Groups, mainly formed by women who create an association and contribute a small amount of money each to a common pot, which is then managed by their own group through committee. This money can serve to establish a small activity like buying cloth or chickens, but can also serve to help in the case of personal or family crisis. At the same time, INTERVIDA also acts as an intermediary between these groups and financing entities so that they can access the start-up capital they need to establish their project.
Once the professional skills have been acquired, the project has been defined and the start-up financing has been secured, the work groups establish, with INTERVIDA’s support, mechanisms for assuring that the proper commercialization of the projects enables them to optimize income. Among other, they try to identify the markets which are the most appropriate for each product or services, studying the supply and demand, the acquisitioned capacity of the population and the existing commercial channels.
About INTERVIDA
INTERVIDA is a nonpartisan, nondenominational and independent development NGO in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Its objective is to contribute to sustainable human development towards improving the living conditions of the most disadvantaged communities around the world. Currently, INTERVIDA is active in various countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia, offering its support to nearly five million people.
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