Professional Documents
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Rojamma (right) with her 15 year old daughter Krishnaveni and 18 year old daughter Maheshwari who both go to school in a nearby village. Rojamma is proud that the income she
earns from Project Shakti has enabled her to educate her daughters and give them a better chance in life than she had.
P
roject Shakti has proved being taught IT skills by their school and to generate incomes for
to be a great success for teacher, Nanda Kishore, on the village’s i-Shakti entrepreneurs. For the thousands of women
Hindustan Lever and for one and only computer. like Rojamma who have
women in India. The project While Hindustan Lever is become Shakti entrepreneurs,
started in a few pilot villages intent on building its rural this initiative has already
in Andhra Pradesh in 2000. and provide organisations sales and market share, it is changed their lives in ways
In 2002 it expanded to two with communications access equally committed to that are much more
states and by the end of 2004 to those parts of the country improving the lives and profound than the income
had grown to over 13,000 not reached by TV, radio and livelihoods of people in India. they earn selling soaps and
Shakti women entrepreneurs newspapers. This involves Shakti Vani (‘Voice’) takes shampoos. It has brought
covering 50,000 villages in creating village ‘kiosks’ Project Shakti a stage further. them self-esteem, a sense of
12 states, selling to 70 million containing internet-linked Hindustan Lever is now empowerment and a place
consumers. This represents a computers run by training rural women to give in society.
30% increase in rural entrepreneurs. talks to villagers about basic
population reached. health practices, such as good
i-Shakti was formally hygiene, disease prevention
Hindustan Lever has had launched in partnership with and pre- and post-natal care.
strong support from over the Government of Andhra
300 partners, including NGOs, Pradesh in November 2004, “Project Shakti’s role in
banks and both state and local and aims to have 3,500 creating incomes for
government departments, i-Shakti kiosks on stream by underprivileged rural women
who recognise the potential the end of 2005. Mostly and helping to empower
for economic growth by housed in the homes of them economically is more
encouraging women to Shakti entrepreneurs, i-Shakti important than sales alone”, Many of the brands Rojamma sells are
become entrepreneurs. kiosks provide villagers with says Sharat Dhall. produced in small sizes to meet the needs
and pockets of low-income consumers.
Andhra Pradesh typically had free information on a wide For example, sachets of shampoo sell for
a 3% success rate in creating range of topics, including “Creating incomes is as little as 50 paise (half a rupee) each.
entrepreneurs among health and hygiene,
women’s self-help groups agriculture and horticulture, more important than
prior to Project Shakti. This child and adult education, sales alone” As Rojamma says: “When my
initiative has a 90% success finance, employment, and husband left me I had
rate so, not surprisingly, entertainment. nothing except my daughters.
Andhra Pradesh’s Women’s Today everyone knows me. I
C
Empowerment Commissioner, ontent is in the local am someone now”. It has also
Ms Ramalakshmi, requests language and has been He believes Project Shakti, meant she has been able to
monthly updates on Project specially developed by i-Shakti and Shakti Vani will send her daughters to school,
Shakti’s progress. institutions and NGOs with have the potential to act as giving them the chance in life
experts in these fields, a catalyst for creating new she didn’t have, although
In 2003 Hindustan Lever including the Azim Premji markets and generating rural Rojamma’s aspirations for
started to pilot an Foundation for children’s micro-economies. them remain modest: “I hope
information technology education, the Tata they have happy marriages
initiative called i-Shakti. This Consultancy Services’ Adult He recognises this is something and they too become
is designed to meet rural Literacy Programme and that Hindustan Lever cannot Shakti Ammas”.
villagers’ information needs ICRISAT (International Crops achieve alone and is actively
shakti_final.qxd 28/2/05 1:59 pm Page bc2
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nilever believes that one of the best If you would like to know more about Unilever’s Or write to:
and most sustainable ways it can help social and environmental activities, please visit Corporate Relations
to address global social and www.unilever.com/ourvalues/environmentand Unilever PLC
environmental concerns is through the very society. There you will find copies of our latest PO Box 68
business of doing business in a socially aware social and environmental reports and copies of London
and responsible manner. previous articles in this series. Subjects of other EC4P 4BQ
articles include: United Kingdom
This is one in a series of occasional articles
called Global Challenges – Local Actions that Global Challenges – Local Actions Corporate Relations
looks at how Unilever companies are tackling – Micronutrient deficiency in Africa Unilever N.V.
global social and environmental concerns by – River pollution in Indonesia PO Box 760
working in partnership with local, national and – Diarrhoeal diseases in Asia 3000 DK Rotterdam
international agencies, governments, business – Climate change/refrigeration in Europe The Netherlands
organisations and NGOs. – Sustainable fishing off Africa
Hindustan Lever works in partnership with We would like to hear from you. If you
over 300 organisations on Project Shakti have any questions about this publication
and i-Shakti. or any other aspect of Unilever’s
environmental and social policies, please
For more information about Project Shakti contact: csrcomment@unilever.com
and i-Shakti, including details of partner
organisations, visit www.hllshakti.com or for
more about Hindustan Lever visit www.hll.com
Cover picture: Rojamma setting out on her door-to-door visits in Kurumurthy, Andhra Pradesh, India.