Mann Deshi Udyogini

It's been a cold and rainy week in Bangalore, with the rain even creating some damage in a few low-lying areas. As I warmed up to a cup of coffee and a newspaper last Friday, I read about a Micro-Business School for rural women, which is now going mobile.

In rural India, illiteracy and gender bias are still widely prevalent. Thousands of girls are forced to drop-out of schools, either because their education is not considered important or because they have to support their families. These girls take up menial jobs as daily wage labourers or housemaids. Chetna Gala Sinha, founder-chairperson of Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank (MDMSB), which provides micro credit to rural women entrepreneurs, found out that the school drop-out rate is very high among girls in Satara district of the Indian state of Maharasthra and this restricted their access to micro credit. Mann Deshi Udyogini (MDU) aims to overcome such a skill shortage among entrepreneurial women in Satara.

MDU is a Micro-business school which was started in December 2006 with a Rs. 7 lakh ($17500) grant from HSBC, at Vaduj, near Satara. According to Chetna, who is an Ashoka fellow and a Yale fellow, the idea of starting a business school came from an enthusiastic semi-literate woman, who kept pestering her for know-how about the wholesale vegetable business and other strategies, so that she can improve her own vegetable business.

MDU does not have any pre-qualification criteria and the curriculum is entirely driven by the needs of rural women. Courses range between one week and three months in duration and course fees start from as little as Rs. 25 (less than a dollar). Courses focus on technical skills, marketing skills, managing finances and confidence-building. Courses to develop technical skills, such as goat rearing, screen printing, selling cell phone recharge coupons, bag-making etc are being offered currently. Certificates and graduation diplomas are issued on completion of these courses which can be used to obtain micro credit.

Recently, MDU received funding from Canada-based Non-Resident Indian technology entrepreneur, Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande, to start a mobile micro-business school. Mr. Deshpande, who hails from the North Karnataka region, is currently the Charman of Sycamore Networks. The mobile school was launched in last week and has a Tata turbo mini bus which is equipped with laptops, course materials and electric stove (to teach a course on fast food).

Mann Deshi’s integrated approach and innovative solutions to solve the problems faced by rural poor are commendable and inspiring at the same time.