'We give them problems so that they can come up with solutions using the technological skills they have learnt.'
Manav Subodh, an entrepreneur based in Bengaluru, met President Droupadi Murmu along with 15 young changemakers his organisation has created in different parts of India.
These young people were mentored by 1M1B, a non-profit organisation Subodh founded.
"We prefer to talk about changemaking, and not about entrepreneurship or start-ups," Manav Subodh tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier in the concluding segment of a two-part interview.
- Part 1 of the Interview: 'Create Million To Impact Billion Lives'
First venture, a failure...
I was trying to make them entrepreneurs, and they were telling me, give us jobs!
To cut the long story short, after one year, I came to the conclusion that my first venture was a failure both on the funding side and the people side.
I could not generate funds after the money I had taken from my provident fund had exhausted.
And I could not convince the youth in the villages to start businesses.
So, I was forced to wind up the programme.
Looking back, I find that it was a good learning experience for me.
At many occasions, especially when I lost money, I wanted to leave entrepreneurship and go back to my corporate life. But I didn't.
That was because I just couldn't give up the 1M1B idea.
First digital skilling, then changemaking...
I decided to use my corporate connections and start afresh.
The route I chose was use the corporate CSR funding to create changemakers in the villages.
The corporate sector wanted me to skill people, and I wanted them to be changemakers by solving problems.
Why not combine both? I thought.
In a way, it became a blessing in disguise for us.
1M1B in a new avatar in 2017...
With IBM as our new partner, we revived our organisation.
This time, we decided to work with the young of both the urban and rural India. And with the backing of IBM, our initiative was launched all over India.
We started by creating an AI curriculum with which they could solve problems.
The same programme was taught in an elite school in a city, and also in a tribal school in a village in Uttarakhand; also in the social welfare schools in collaboration with the ministry of social welfare.
We also have partnership with state governments in Meghalaya, Andhra, Telangana and UP.
So, digital skilling through the AI curriculum became a tool for me to create changemakers.
What we do is, we teach the youth technology and then tell them to solve the problems using the technology.
Through problem solving, we are creating changemakers.
This time, the response from students has been phenomenal because we are trying to create changemakers with the help of technology.
We prefer to talk about changemaking, and not about entrepreneurship or start-ups.
A state like Kerala is very big on entrepreneurship. Telangana, NCR and Karnataka are also good, but the rest of the country still looks at start-ups as a distant dream.
What we tell them is, problem solving is a big skill to have in today's world. Then we give them the problems so that they can come up with solutions using the technological skills they have learnt.
In fact, changemaking and problem solving are interchangeable, in a way.
Changemaking through digital skilling and solving local problems...
What the country needs today is to solve our local problems using technology.
No big corporate is going to a small village in India to solve a local problem.
Take, for example, this girl from Sikkim. She is from a very average school in Sikkim, and she has created a programme on the AI chatbot for local hospitals to streamline hospital appointments.
This has changed the way hospitals are managing patients now.
What she has done is not starting a start-up but solving a problem and becoming a changemaker as what she has done benefits the community in multiple ways.
When they solve a local problem, they get wide acceptance among the local community.
Meeting the President of India
The honourable President inviting us to meet the young changemakers was a big moment for all of us.
I think the grassroot work we are doing must have convinced the President's office to invite us.
We took 15 of the young changemakers to meet the President including the girl from Sikkim.
The changemakers at the United Nations...
A global showcase is very important for the success of any programme.
As I believe in knocking all doors, I went to the United Nations wanting to showcase the changemakers from India to the world.
I told them that these changemakers could also solve the problems of the world.
Though the United Nations is a big organisation, they gave an opportunity to an entrepreneur like me.
In fact, I got the first opportunity of a one hour window in 2015.
I took 4 of my changemakers from Andhra, and I spoke about what changemaking was.
That was how the UN became our partner in the journey.
For the last eight years, I have been taking our changemakers to the UN, and our young changemakers are getting an opportunity to talk on a global platform like the UN.
This opportunity gives them a huge global exposure where they could network with people from across the world.
Not just that, this gives them more acceptance and recognition back home in their villages.
More than everything, this kind of acceptance and recognition by the local community will inspire more young people to be changemakers.
Today, around 700,000 young people are undergoing our programme. We are also training 500,000 teachers also as part of our programme.
Our programmes are taught in 6,000 schools and colleges in India.
Out of the 700,000 people who have underwent the programme, we have created 400,000 changemakers.
I know, India is such a big country and 700,000 is a small number.
Like our name suggests, my dream is to create 1 million changemakers who can impact 1 billion people!
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
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