Head Held High
A New Life For Lingaraj
Lingaraj is a young man from Koppal who found himself unemployed due to circumstances beyond his control. The training gave him the confidence to explore other possibilities.
March 20, 2021 No Comments
ANTARPRERANA
For inclusive and sustainable growth, we need more village entrepreneurs – both men and women – starting small businesses in their communities.
Antarprerna (“inner motivation”) is an initiative to nurture entrepreneurship – both group and individual enterprise – in places with limited economic opportunities. We leverage partnerships, as well as our own training expertise and field knowledge to connect members of rural communities – particularly women – with income generating opportunities.
The idea for setting up women collectives under Antarprerna stemmed from our observation that women in rural parts cannot travel too far from their homes for work. The typical Antarprerna Centre is a group enterprise unit that employs women from the local community to make textile and other handmade products. We work with partners to ensure that these products can be sold in order to generate income for the women.
In rural communities, where farming or local industry alone are not enough to support livelihoods, self-employment can be a route to income security for many individuals and families.
Through Antarprerna, we help aspiring rural entrepreneurs launch and run small ventures aimed at their local communities. This support covers a range of interventions, including entrepreneurial mindset training, mentoring, access to funds, and help with business growing market strategies and linkages.
Lingaraj is a young man from Koppal who found himself unemployed due to circumstances beyond his control. The training gave him the confidence to explore other possibilities.
Ganga had to endure societal bias and slights from her family after she chose to leave her marriage and return home. But her status and perceptions of those around her changed following her new job.
Manamma felt defeated by her circumstances in life. Until a new job showed her that she had greater agency and influence than she had believed.
We depend on strong partnerships to drive impact through our rural entrepreneurship initiatives.
ACC Trust aims to financially empower women in the rural communities where it has a presence, Our women collective models were aligned with this goal. Since 2019, ACC Trust has supported multiple centres by providing infrastructure and operational funds. Such centres serve as safe workspaces and hubs for economic activities for the women in these projects.
Craftizen Foundation provides strategic interventions and business acumen support to enable sustainable livelihoods for traditional artisans as well as marginalised communities. We partnered with them to put together safety mask kits (including a fabric mask and prevention booklet) through our Antarprerna collectives.
Meemansa was the first market partner for our Women Collective centre in Wadi. As an established textile company that converts industry fabric scrap into eco-friendly cloth bags and other products, Meemansa was able to provide the supply chain and market linkages that we needed to run a successful pilot in Wadi and subsequently launch Antarprerna centres in other locations.
Partner with us to boost rural entrepreneurship
