The colossal reverse migration of labourers from cities to the villages, widely referred as real ‘Bharat’ has once again highlighted the disproportionate concentration of economic opportunities in the country’s urban areas. Lakhs of migrant workers have returned to villages. However finding jobs and livelihood for these workers remain a challenge. Respective governments have set high power committee to look into the issue. One has to find jobs for these workers beyond agricultural sector. Prime Minister Modi has stressed on the need to provide skill-based training and job to ensure entrepreneurship. Thus, creating not only a necessity, but also the possibility to encourage entrepreneurship and create an ecosystem that promotes people to be a part of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.

To empower rural people with jobs and entrepreneurship – we need to educate who are comfortable with technology, provide efficient resources and the collective strength of women from marginalized groups. Understanding the potential, several organizations are today working towards empowering migrant labourers to turn into rural entrepreneurs and seek better opportunities.

Here are some companies focusing on building rural entrepreneurs:

Coca-Cola – CSC and Coca-Cola India have signed a MoU to boost outreach in rural India. Coca-Cola’s products on CSC’s grameen e-store platform for key markets in AP&T, UP and Haryana. This enables the availability of affordable, essential hydration to rural communities through village level entrepreneurs to promote availability of consumer products at doorsteps in rural India through local entrepreneurs and e-kirana stores, common Services centres etc. CSC and Coca-Cola’s partnership serves the dual purpose of providing last mile connectivity of essential and affordable hydration to citizens’ doorsteps, as well as promoting rural entrepreneurship and building livelihoods by mapping supply points to Village Level Entrepreneurs.

TATA Power – Tata Power launches marketplace for its rural entrepreneurs, ”SaheliWorld.org.” The website will offer products, such as apparel, handicrafts, dairy, herbal, agricultural items and COVID-19 essentials, made by self-help groups and farmers. The aim behind launching the market place is to empower rural entrepreneurs and provide them financial Independence. The item includes the traditional handwoven crafts from the artisans, organic products, women apparels, decorative items etc.

BANKIT: Noida-based fin-tech startup company , BANKIT is helping people who are excluded from the easy access to basic banking and financial services to enjoy the seamless experience of banking and digital payment system. BANKIT not only helps people be a part of the fintech revolution in the country, but also creates entrepreneurial opportunities by appointing banking agent (business correspondents). BANKT vision is to make “Millionaire Agents Network” (MAN) i.e. to maximise the number of agents who are able to make Rs. 5-10 Lakh revenue in a year by delivering various BANKIT services. There are over 1 Lakh+ Self-employed Agents already working with BANKIT and over the last few months have been on boarding 5000+ agents, who are at the forefront of being rural entrepreneurs.

Bunavat – Avipsha Thakur, founder of Bunavat, a for-profit social enterprise that makes contemporary sarees through traditional, sustainable weaves that needed to be preserved. Started her journey in January 2018 when she visited Ajrakhpur, a village in the Rann of Kutch out of her love for sarees. She decided to make more trips to three more clusters of weavers in West Bengal where the artisans had poor living conditions due to the long supply chain between them and the end customers. Now, more than 950 weavers across 30 weaving clusters, spread over 11 Indian states can sell directly on Bunavat’s ecommerce platform. The handmade and handwoven sarees cater to women in metros, Tier I, and Tier II cities of India.

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