NextBillion.net - Development Through Enterprise - Changemakers, freeing the scavengers - Comments

Latrine Cleaning

Vijay Dalit — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 18:31:56 -0400

Mr. Alex Bloom, Latrine cleaning, indisputably difficult work, is nevertheless not unsanitary, "dangerously" so or otherwise. We provide a vital service to our communities (without which we would have a true sanitation disaster!) and provide our employees with soaps for cleanliness. We pay our employees not much, but as much as we can afford to, although salaries have indeed fallen thanks to Dr. Pathak's "progressive" efforts. For many dalits, the choice isn't between pleasant office work and latrine sanitation, it is between latrine sanitation and no work at all. It is extraordinarily difficult to be an entrepreneur in much of rural India, a fact I would hope you'd be cognizant of.

Reminds me of E-Choupal middlemen

Rob Katz — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 14:33:57 -0400

Vijay's comment about unemployment created by innovation reminds me of the adatiyas (middlemen/agents) displaced by ITC's highly successful e-Choupal project. Some folks may know the details, but the basic story is that Indian ag major ITC deployed a grain sourcing system that bypasses the traditional market/agent model. The e-Choupals have generated additional income for many lower-caste farmers while helping ITC improve its internal efficiencies.

Meanwhile, the adatiyas have been rendered unemployed by the choupals. Is this a bad thing? Well, in my opinion (and many others who cite e-Choupal as a standard-bearer of BOP success), it's a consequence of economic progress. Such is the state of creative destruction.

Hi Vijay, and thanks for post

_Alex Bloom — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 14:07:20 -0400

Hi Vijay, and thanks for posting. I am sorry to hear that your business has not been able to compete with Dr. Pathak's, but it is my understanding that the practice of cleaning latrines with one's hands is not just "not easy," but dangerously unsanitary, on the personal and community levels--and also not lucrative enough to make a living for these children or their families. I do hope that Dr. Pathak's business model creates as much employment (in the maintenance of the Sulabh facilities) as have been laid off from your enterprise. Finally, I do not think you should blame "modernity" here, since this is the way free markets function. Just as you were able, as an entrepreneur, to start a company employing latrine cleaners, so Dr. Pathak was able to start Sulabh. This is business competition and creative destruction at work. I do wish you the best in your efforts to improve livelihoods in rural India, and encourage you to post again with updates as to how you and your businesses are doing.

Incredible!

Vijay Dalit — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 17:45:47 -0400

As the entrepreneurial founder and owner of a small latrine cleaning business in rural Uttar Pradesh (Faizabad Division, Ambedkar Nagar District), I must condemn Dr. Pathak's efforts. His toilets have cut away my business and forced me to lay off precious employees. Perhaps this is your much-touted "modernity", but it hurts us, the members of the very scheduled castes he is trying to protect. Cleaning excrement with one's hands is not easy work, but it is better than no work at all.

Changemakers, freeing the scavengers

_Alex Bloom — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 12:00:01 -0400

I attended last night's Ashoka Changemakers award ceremony for the Social Entrepreneurship & Innovation Competition, which was well-attended by business and non-profit fans of social entrepreneurship alike. The Ashoka speakers were self-effacing and concise; first was Sushmita Ghosh, Chair of Changemakers.net, who talked about Changemakers' 5-step strategy for impact. Bill Drayton, CEO and founder of Ashoka, highlighted the hybrid value chain of impact that Ashoka creates by creating a space where social activism meet business principles, policy, and citizen groups. Third was Valeria Budinich, VP of Full Economic Citizenship, who introduced the 11 finalists (three were absent).

Most of the finalists are probably well known to Nextbillion readers--Rebeca Villalobos and Wayne Farmer on the health care beat with ASEMBIS eyecare and HealthStore; improving farming productivity with Sadangi's International Development Enterprise ; Honeycare Africa employment and guaranteed income; SELCO solar energy for the BOP; sustainably harvested Acai berries to make Sambazon drinks (by "antisocial social entrepreneurs" Black and Baumgardner); "RUGmark" labels to sell products made without child slavery; microbanks to empower rickshaw drivers and women.

Craig Esbeck's story was touching: a high school teacher with an existential crisis, he went to Uganda with the Peace Corps, stayed post-evacuation, and used his Peace Corps "readjustment" money--$2,500--to launch Mango Tree Educational Enterprises.

But by far I was most inspired by the Sulabh project, which provides the unglamorous service of sanitation. This may well pave the way for Quadruple Bottom Line standards: green, profitable, social, and also breaks down class barriers.