“ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN SLUM YOUTHS OF

KANPUR”

ORGANISATION TRAINEESHIP SEGMENT

(OTS)

(PRM 2004-06)

By:
ABADHESH RUSIA (25001)

Host Organization:
INDICORPS (AHMEDABAD)

Faculty Guide:
PROF. G KRISHNAMURTHI

INSTITUTE OF RURAL MANAGEMENT ANAND

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First of all I would like to place on record my thanks to INDICORPS Ahmedabad which
provided me such a nice opportunity to work with people, especially with youths and learn from
them. I would also like to thank to Mr. Rakesh Kumar Pandey assistant project Manager at
Shramik Bharti who floated such an interesting project. I would also like to place on record my
thanks to Prof. g Krishnamurthy who guided me through out my working on this paper. It is
because of his proper guidance that this paper is being presented in this form.

I would also like to acknowledge the role of my host organisation in Kanpur “Shramik Bharti”
which provided me necessary guidance and facilities without which it would have been
impossible for me to work with youths on this project.

I would like to give my special thanks to Indicorps fellow in Kanpur Ankur Shukla who provides
me all kind of necessary assistance. To work with him was a pleasure for me. In the same way I
would also like to thank to Roopal Shah, the Head of the Indicorps Ahmedabad. Roopal not only
provided us time to time assistance but also keep on encouraging us to do our best. Without her
proper guidance and help it would have been impossible for me to finish this project in this way.

Last but not least I would like to thank to all those youths with whom I worked and those who
provide us their precious time and necessary assistance. We learned lots of things by working
with them and they shared also very insightful information with us. I would also like to place on
record my appreciation of the employees and all fellows of Shramik Bharti and Indicorps with
whom I stayed in Kanpur and Ahmedabad and who make our stay at host organization’s office a
life time memory for me.

Abadhesh Rusia (25001)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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I Title : Entrepreneurship Development in Slum Youths of
Kanpur
II Organisation : Indicorps Ahmedabad
III Reporting Officer : Ankur Shukla
IV Faculty Guide : G. Krishnamurti
V Student’s Name : Abadhesh Rusia

Entrepreneurship development never was an easy task. We decided as our objective to

motivate youths for self employment and make them enough competent so that they can start
their own enterprises. Kanpur has more than three hundred slums. We decided to choose four
slums according to our convenience where our host organisation had good reputation. For
entrepreneurship development we decided not to follow any hard and fast rule. We first made
friend ship with our targeted youths and later discussed their problems related to their carrier and
business.

Most of the youths were either studying or doing some small jobs such as wage labour in
tanneries or having small grocery shops in their house. So we decided to meet them between 5
pm to 9pm. To achieve our objective we adopted four strategies. First we tried to give them some
better understanding of money. For this purpose we organised some workshops in which two
youths were assigned responsibility of preparing lessons from books like “Richest man of the
Babylon” and “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and later have to make presentation to other boys.

We also provide carrier counselling to those boys who were interested for higher studies,
though it was not our instant objective. To achieve our objective best strategy which we adopted
was business game. It was more then simulation of a business. It was real business at very
smaller scale. During business game many business plans were floated by these youths and later
they analyze them. Initial two plans of manufacturing candle and selling Desi ghee in 10 grams
pouches were found either not much profitable or too much risky. Finally they decided to start
business of packing different spices such as Cardamom, Clove, Camphor, and Cumin. Five boys
collectively started this business with equity of Rs. 50 of each. Later one boy left the game. Boys
purchased spices from market, packed them in small pouches of Rs. 1 and tried to market them.

All this exercise make them enough confident that they also can start their own business.
We got different kind of response from different peoples so on the basis of our experience we
determined some characteristics which can be useful in targeting right kind of youths. We found
that boys, who were not from much well off families, were less educated and had some family
responsibilities including some work experience can be easily motivated for starting their own
enterprises. Another strategy which we adopted was of arranging meetings of successful
entrepreneurs with these youths in an informal environment. Boys also get benefited from this
experiment. We take care that these entrepreneurs should be from the same humble background
of these boys.

CONTENT

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 List of Tables

1. Comparison between approach develop by us and of SGSY……………...………….25

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1. BACKGROUND:
Organization traineeship segment is just beginning of our final year in PRM course.
Under this segment in organization action component we are expected to do some project work
for our host organization. I had decided to do my OTS from Indicorps Ahmedabad, which is a
non-profit based organization. Indicorps has a fellowship program under which NRI students of
USA and Britain are sponsored to work for a whole year on project proposal’s floated by partner
organizations which are also NGO’s involved in development activities. Ankur Shukla also was
one of such fellow who was working on the project “Entrepreneurship Development in Slum
youths of Kanpur”. This paper was floated by Shramik Bharti which is a Kanpur based nonprofit
and non government organization.

2. INTRODUCTION:
Kanpur is an industrial city and also the hub of business activities. It keeps on providing
employment to thousands of peoples of nearby areas. But in last some years this city is loosing
its charm. Several industrial units have closed and many other are on the verge of closing. In
such situation many people loosed their source of earnings and become unemployed. This was
the basic reason that this kind of project was floated for Kanpur city. It was found that most of
the youths from poor communities and from slums was involved in some kind of petty work,
which was giving a sense that most of them are employed and there is no serious problem of
employment. But the real situation was totally different. Many of them were working in
tanneries for 8 to 10 hours for just a meagre salary of Rs 1500 to 1800. Lesser salaries long
working hours and no secured future career for these youths in these petty jobs were some
among other reasons, which enforced the need to make them entrepreneur.

3. OBJECTIVE:
When I joined on 6th June Ankur Shukla already had done lots of work on this project.
Initially I was confused that what kind of work I have to do? Can we make these slum youths
entrepreneur in such a short period, if not then what we should do to make them entrepreneur.
After making lots of discussion with experts of host organization and with my faculty guide we
reached on the conclusion that the only thing what we can do was to motivate them enough to
start their own business. We had to make them enough competent and confident in such way that

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in future they can develop themselves as entrepreneurs. In nutshell our basic objective was to
change their mindsets at the same time develop their confidence.

Another thing there are several module and approaches developed by different institutes
for entrepreneurship development but most of them are not designed in an interactive mode, and
are focused on lecture methods. This was the reason that most of these programmes were not
able to achieve their objectives. Our second objective was to design a module which is more
practical and which focus more on experienced learning.

4. PROBLEM DEFINITION:
1. To make these slum youths enough competent to start their own business by motivating,
by providing skill training and real experience of business.
2. To develop a module for entrepreneurship development that is more practical and does
not depend on lecture methods and also evokes interest of youths.

5. METHODOLOGY:
Our basic objective was to make these youths so much motivated and confident that they
can start their own business or enterprise in near future. To achieve our objective we started from
assessing their needs. Once we find out that most of them are working for longer hours of 8 to 10
for a meagre salary of Rs 1500, we encouraged them to start their own business from small level
and after that expand it gradually.

To motivate these youths and provide them real life experience of business we arranged
meetings of youths with successful entrepreneurs who also were from the same humble
background as of these youths. We organized some workshops on financial managements also in
which two youths first prepare one chapter of book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and after that
presented the essence of chapters through some drama to other youths.
We did not follow any hard and fast rule but keep on changing our strategy according to
feedback, which we get from these youths. We also planned to play a business game within
group in which each youth will have to choose any kind of business activity of his choice either

2
individually or collectively and with the help of 100 Rs. provided by us as loan will have to start
a profitable business.

5.1 Sampling Plan:

No proper sampling plan was used. We used convenient sampling planning. Most of the
communities or clusters where we worked were areas covered by Shramik Bharti which was our
host organization in Kanpur. We recruited youths for our project from families of women’s who
were member of SHG of microfinance program of Shramik Bharti called Boond Bachat.

5.2 Scope of Study:

Before I joined to Ankur for this project, Ankur already had covered two communities or
slums Maikupurwa and Deviganj of Jajmau area in Kanpur. Later we extended our work in three
new communities Chabilepurva, Ghaukheda, and Makushahid ka Bhatta. All these slums can be
categorized on the basis of different economic and educational status. Situation in Maku Shahid
Ka Bhatta was really pathetic and Ghaukheda it was best, Chabilepurva was some where
between. We worked only with youths of slums of Kanpur and tried to focus on those who were
totally unemployed or had left their education and were within age group of 18 to 30 years.

5.3 Areas of concern:

1. During our study we tried to find out those factors which either helps or hinders in developing
these youths as entrepreneurs.
2. To make experiment with different kind of strategies so that a replicable and practical model
can be developed.
3. We tried to find out the kind of business that can be started by these youths in Kanpur.

6. LIMITATIONS:
Every research work or study has its own limitations. Just like that we also were working
under some limitations.
1. Time was one constraint. We had to wind up our entire project within stipulated time.
2. It was really difficult to recruit right kind of youth for our project. We wanted to recruit those
youths who have left their education and are totally unemployed. But most of the time we could

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not got the same kind of students. So we also worked with those youths who were either semi-
employed or were studying at that time.
3. Another constraint was that we focused only in those slums where Shramik Bharti (our host
organization in Kanpur) was already working. Otherwise it would have been very difficult for us
to build reputation with youths in such a short period of time.

7. CHARACTERISTICS OF ENTREPRENEURS:
The basic question that came in our mind was that who is an entrepreneur. What are the
basic characteristics that an entrepreneur has? And what are those qualities by developing them
in slum youths we can make them entrepreneur.
By discussing this profile of a successful entrepreneur with these youths in an interactive
mode instead of a lecture mode we tried to motivate them toward an entrepreneurial career.

1. Entrepreneurs have a strong desire to be a winner. Most people dream of success and
achievement, but do not take any action towards achieving these dreams. Entrepreneurs, on the
other hand have a strong desire to achieve a higher goal and make their dreams come true. To
them winning is achievement.

2. Entrepreneurs have a quality of stick –to- it or perseverance. Once committed to a goal and a
course of action, entrepreneurs become absorbed in it. They are not deterred by difficulties and
problems that beset any project; they work hard until the whole project is successfully
accomplished.

3. Entrepreneurs are moderate risk taker. They prefer middle –of- the –road strategy when they
analyze a risky problem. Entrepreneurs are not high-risk takers; they are not gamblers. They
choose a moderate risk rather than play wild, speculative gamble. They love a moderate risk
situation, high enough to be exciting, but with a fairly reasonable chance to win.
4. Entrepreneurs are alert to opportunities. They seize and convert them to their advantage.
Entrepreneurial persons are quick to see and seize opportunities. They show an innovative bend
of mind and convert difficulties into opportunities. But they are realistic too. They plan and
anticipate carefully how to achieve their goal.

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5. Entrepreneurs are unaffected by personal likes and dislikes while approaching problems.
(ANALYTICAL ABILITY) Entrepreneurs are realistic. They have a matter of fact approach
about business undertakings. They are unlikely to let personal likes and dislikes stand in their
way. When they require assistance, they select experts rather than friends and relatives to help
them. They generally do not take an emotional attitude towards their business or a problem.

6. Entrepreneurs use feedback; they consider it important to know how they are doing, when they
work on a goal or a task. Entrepreneurs like to have immediate feedback of their performance.
They like prompt and accurate data and it does not make any difference whether the information
they get is favourable or unfavourable. In fact they are stimulated by unfavourable news to pour
more energy into attaining their objectives.

7. Entrepreneurs welcome tackling an unfamiliar but interesting situation. They like facing
uncertainty. Achievement oriented entrepreneurs tend to be optimistic even in unfamiliar
situations. The odds may not be clear but the circumstances may be appealing. . Entrepreneurial
person in such situations sees no reason why they cannot win through their abilities. They go
ahead undeterred, sometimes even without guidelines and frequently make the best of whatever
opportunities are there. So they begin to under stand their environment; they begin to calculate
their chances very closely. Thus paradoxically they present a picture of boldness in the face of
the unknown and prudence in the face of the familiar. They usually win by applying their special
insight and skill.

8. Entrepreneurs have a dislike for working for others. It is found that most entrepreneurs start
off on their own because they do not like to work for other people. They like to be their own
masters and want to be responsible for their own decisions.

9. Entrepreneurs are flexible in their decisions. Most successful entrepreneurs, after weighing the
pros And cons of a decision, tend to change, if the situation so demands. They do not hesitate in
revising their decisions. Successful entrepreneurs are person with open mind.

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10. Entrepreneurs think ahead, plan for the future and then work to make it come true. So they
are good planner. Most successful entrepreneurs tend to set a goal for themselves and plan to
achieve that goal in a certain time limit.

11. Entrepreneurs have good interpersonal skills. Entrepreneurs are comfortable dealing with
people at all levels. An entrepreneur, in the course of his activities, comes across and deals with
many types of persons. He has to make them work for him and help him attain his objectives.
Hence he should be a person who likes working with people and has skills of dealing with
people.

12. Entrepreneurs are good motivators and can influence others. In the course of his career, an
entrepreneur will be required in many situations to influence people and make them think in his
way and act accordingly. He motivates people to act.

13. Entrepreneurs are capable of working for long hours and tackling different problem at the
same time.

14. Entrepreneurs are aware of themselves. They have positive self-conception. An achiever
directs his fantasies toward accomplishment of worthwhile goals and sets standards of excellence
in what he is doing. This is based upon the awareness of his strengths and weaknesses. He uses
positive knowledge to support his thinking.

15. They have their orientation to future and tend to think ahead. Entrepreneurs show a high a
high level of future orientation. They do not allow the past to obsess them. They are oriented
towards the present and the future. So their usual response remains “So it was, now what to do”.
(Source: EDII Manual on Food Processing Industries)
An individual may not have all these qualities. But most of them will have many. So the
first step for a person aspiring for entrepreneurship is making an inventory of the traits he
possesses. This self-awareness and analysis will help define his strengths and overcome
weakness. So we asked to youths to find out what entrepreneurial qualities they have and what
are those areas of concern where there is a need of improvement?

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8. DIFFERENT STRATEGIES ADOPTED FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP
DEVELOPMENT:
For entrepreneurship development and make these youth enough competent to start their
own business we focused on some specific approaches. Business Game, Meeting with Successful
Entrepreneurs, Career Counselling, and conducting of Financial Management Workshop were
some among those approaches. We tried to give them some tips on better financial management
that are very practical. For that we organized some workshops in an interactive mode also. We
explored their needs for skill training and tried to make arrangements for that. We also provided
career counselling to them who wanted to go for higher studies and make their career in
specialized field.
Best strategy we adopted for entrepreneurship development in these youths was Business
Game. It was more than a simulation of real venture at smaller level. Finally we arranged their
meetings with peoples who have succeed in their life either in business or in service sector and
belong to the same humble background from where these youths come. It was done so that they
can get inspiration from these successful peoples.

8.1 Business Game:

The basic idea of Business Game was given by Ankur Shukla with whom I was working
on this project. In USA as a part of study students are asked to prepare a profitable business plan,
in the same way we also tried to do it with these youths.

Objective:
Basic objective of business game was to start a profit making enterprise with low capital
investment either individually or in group.

Process:
After making good reputation with youths and winning their confidence this business
game was introduced to them. To remove misconceptions of parents they were also taken in
confidence in some cases. Total time period for Business Game was decided of 20 days, we
started on 1st July and winded up on 20th July. Every day meeting of youths was arranged in
evening 5 pm at house of one of the youth. First youths were asked to give some business ideas

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which can be implemented either individually or collectively. These ideas were discussed later
from the point of view of profitability and inherent risk. If business proposal was found
profitable then all nitty-gritty’s of that business were discussed further.

Idea Generation & Screening of Idea:

Business ideas have to be generated by youths themselves. Most of these ideas were
generated in meetings itself. It was expected that they will generate some business ideas on the
basis of their skills and experiences which can be successfully implemented in their surrounding
areas. Youths were given freedom of working on any business plan. Once idea was generated it
was discussed within the group. Basic point of discussion was profitability, uncertainty and risk,
necessary skills required availability of raw material, market demand, and existing competition
in market. If proposal was found profitable and less risky in initial phase then next step was of
starting market study so that actual picture of that business can be figured out.

Market Study:
During market study youths contacted to those persons who were already in that tread
and tried to know their responses. Prices of raw materials and items of fixed investment nature
were also confirmed. Lots of information was collected through friends and relatives about the
business because in most of the cases youths generated those ideas a little bit about which they or
their familiar people know.

Changes in Plan:
Next day findings of market study was discussed within group and a business plan
consisting all nitty-gritty’s of that business was chalked out by two or three youths. In this
written plan they calculated cost of their products, selling price and net profit. If business was
still find out profitable and less risky then further financial aspects were discussed. If business
was not found profitable or too much risky it was abandoned and new ideas were discussed.

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Financing Business:
Youths were told by us different ways of financing any business such as loan, equity
share, and debentures. From the beginning youths were informed by us that we will provide Rs.
100 as loan to each one of them and rest of the money will have to be arranged by them
themselves. Though there should be no restriction about the source of finance but total amount of
investment should be kept less than Rs. 1000.

Production or Processing:
After arrangement of necessary finance next phase comes of production and packaging.
Place of production and the required technology was already discussed during formation of
business plan. It will be better if all participants contribute to production process and marketing
in the same way otherwise work can be divided among participants according to their choice of
marketing or production.

Marketing:
This was the most important part of the whole Business Game exercise. It was observed
that youths found marketing as the toughest task. Youths had decided to market their products in
small grocery shops which are situated in slums or in small markets. It was because customer of
that product was only at those places.

Results:
We can not say the benefit of this exercise in monetary terms because we had to wind up
our project within the stipulated time. Up to the wind up of our game product was supplied only
to two shops on credit. But we are confident that youths not only learnt to analyze the business
proposal from different business angles but also learn to communicate their ideas well. Youths
learn about business process interactively and
1. Develop confidence through public speaking
2. Many of the youths thought about doing business for the first time
3. Learned skills they can use in any business such as
 Interpersonal/group communication, public speaking, market researching,
investigating and analyzing businesses, leadership skills

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Recommendations:
We suggest that the game should be completed within the stipulated time period
otherwise its implementation will be too much difficult. Youth should be taken in confidence and
time of meeting should be fixed in evening or night according to the comfort of participants.
Ideas should be generated from their side and analysis of business also should be done by them
themselves. Meetings should be done every day, any gap of long duration may distract youths. If
necessary, parents also should be taken into confidence.

(It has been already mentioned that no hard and fast rule was adopted during this
exercise. In the same way we recommend that at the time of replication of this approach at large
scale, it should not be implemented as it is. The facilitator can take the basic idea of this
approach but after that he would have to implement it in his innovative way according to the
youth’s requirements.)

Business Game in Practice:

Business game was started with youths for the basic purpose of getting real life
experience of a business activity. We tried our best to learn business by doing it. During this
process some times we found that our game is going in right direction and we are making
progress but some times it look like that we are not going to get any positive results.

It is human tendency that we learn things by doing them. This was the basic concept to
start business game with these youths. Another thing was that many times because of lack of
experience people fail in business completely and lose their money. This kind of incidents not
only discourages to the loser but also to others. In our business game chances for loosing were
limited only up-to a small amount of Rs.50 for each person.

We started in Ghaukheda with eight youths and some five students became ready to be
part of our Business Game later one youth left the game and we end up with four youths named
Amit Gupta, Ramu, Deepak and Neeraj. We found that motivation level of Ramu and Amit
Gupta was very high during our business game and they also participated with full commitment.
Neeraj and Deepak were also motivated but they had some better opportunities available and

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were focussing for that, both of them were doing ITI Fitter course from a private institute. The
same was not true in the case of Amit and Ramu both of them were involved already in some
small business activities and were supporting their families. Also both of them were intelligent
but not much highly qualified. Per month family income of both of these youths was less than Rs
4000. Though Amit Gupta and Ramu both are unmarried yet they have family’s responsibilities
also. Ramu and Amit Gupta took part in our business game and continued it up to the winding up
but Neeraj and Depak left the game at the time of marketing of products.

From our this observation we found that right kind of persons for entrepreneurship
development programs will be those who either have left their study or doing some part time
business or job. Those who have some family responsibilities and are not from too much well off
families will be the right kind of persons for entrepreneurship development projects.

The basic tenant behind this conclusion is that entrepreneurs cannot be made. Those who
belong to well off families and are educated also at the same time has entrepreneurial qualities
will never come to you to learn Business tactics; instead of they will start their own business.
Only those youths who have entrepreneurial skills but because of family responsibilities or
poverty are not able to expand their business will come to us and like to take help to make their
dream ventures a success. Those who belong to either well off families or poor families and are
risk averse and want secured jobs will never be able to be a successful entrepreneur. And I think
there is also no need to make them entrepreneur. It will be better if we focus only on those youths
who have some skills and want to expand their business.

8.1.1 Advantages of Business Game:

1. It provides a good opportunity to learn business by doing it. Experienced learning is the best
learning.
2. It is real business still there is lesser risk to lose money. Most of the people do not become
entrepreneurs because they are afraid of taking risk.
3. In business game participants not only learn from their mistakes but also learn from other’s
mistakes because they share their experiences with each other in every meeting.

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8.1.2 Business Plan:
In Ghau kheda we proposed our Business Game with the objective to gain some
experienced learning. We proposed them to start any business activity of their interest either
individually or collectively. It was proposed by some participants initially that selling of Gutka
will be a profitable trade business, but we could not permit them for it because of its harmful
effects. Later business of candle manufacturing was suggested by some youths. We started
market research for candle making business and reached on conclusion that it is not much
profitable business, simply because of extremely competitive market, higher cost of raw material
that is wax and some investment in fixed cost for the purchasing of ‘moulds’. Although candle-
making business was not much profitable but it was looking standard business to these youths.

The next day I proposed the idea of introducing Desi ghee pouches of 10 grams in market
for the price of Rs. 2 or 3. I also suggested to them to do some market research for this and try to
find out whether there is any market segment for this product or not, what is the fluctuation in
prices of Desi ghee in Local and country side markets. Because of being a new idea and also not
coming from themselves it could not get momentum and we left this idea also. After lots of
discussion and learning from our previous experiences these youths became ready to start their
business of packing spices in small pouches of Rs. 1 and sell them in market. This business was
chosen because it required no fixed capital. Also the process of packing pouches was not much
cumbersome and all of them were familiar with this business.

There were threats also for this business. We were not much sure about no. of packs
which will be packed for price of Rs.1 from the raw material we purchased from our invested
money. We were also not sure whether it would be profitable or not. Because of highly
competitive market we will have to sell our product on credit. There is always risk of loosing
money in case of selling products for credit.

Initially five youths started this business but later one among them Amit Chaudhary left
the game and took his money back. Finally four youths Amit Gupta, Ramu Gupta, Deepak, and
Neeraj started this business. All of them contributed fifty rupees as their equity in the business

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and they also rejected the proposal of getting credit from us because they thought that the money
will have to be returned in short period so it will not be of any use.

Ramu and Amit purchased different raw materials (spices) from market and with the help
of all six of us these spices (camphor, cardamom, Clove, Pepper, and Cumin) were packed in
small pouches of selling price of Rs.1. Later we find out that if all pouches are selling in retail it
may give a profit margin of 100% and if these pouches are sell in wholesale to shopkeepers at
the rate of Rs. 9 per dozen pouches it may give a profit margin of at least 25%. In this calculation
wages or salaries of all these youths were not included which may further reduce profit margin of
business.

During all this process we had to play our role as a facilitator and we continuously
encouraged them to start their own business because this was the best way to learn business. We
emphasized that we may succeed or fail but in each of the condition we are going to learn
something.

Important question was how much we succeeded in our objectives. It can be judged from
the fact that when youths get information that we are going to wind up our business game on 17th
July they said that we can not learn any thing in such a short period of time and we were
planning to play this business game for a much longer period. So during the game they were able
to appreciate the utility of this game. So I think finally we were able to motivate them to start
their own business, which was our basic objective for this project.

We started the same business game in Chabilepurva also but initially could not get the
same kind of success as we got in Ghaukheda. The basic difference that I found in both of these
communities was of educational level and of economical level. At the end of the game we could
get only two real entrepreneurs each from both of the slums. In Ghaukheda those who could not
continue with our business game were those who wanted to pursue higher study contrary to it in
Chabilepurva those who left either were not much sincere because of lack of any family
responsibility or could not show enough courage due to acute poverty. Only two Sushil and
Saurabh could show this courage. Sushil who belong to a middle class family had family

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responsibilities also, so he was sincere. Saurabh also was sincere about business but his sincerity
was not related to family responsibilities he really wanted to start his own enterprise. Both of
them had started business of spice packing and of videography and photography respectively
with our encouragement during business game. Now Sushil has planned to start his spice
grinding machine and sell packed grinded spices in market to shopkeepers. In the same way
Saurabh who is a good photographer and can make videography also has plan to establish his
Computer lab for mixing of songs.

8.2 Meetings with Successful Entrepreneurs:

We found meetings with successful entrepreneurs or peoples who have succeeded in any
field of life either in business or in service very useful for motivating these youths. We take care
that meetings should be arranged with only those peoples whose prior background was also the
same as of these youths.

We arranged one such meeting for Youths of Ghaukheda with one senior executive
manager of Sultan tanneries in Jajmau. Mr. John Ashley who belongs to Tamilnadu and is
working as a senior manager in Sultan tanneries has qualification only up-to 12th standard. He
belonged to a very poor family and his father was not able to bear expenses of his education. He
did all kinds of jobs to support his family and never thought that any work is inferior. He always
keep on learning from his job and whatever he did, he did with full commitment. Many of our
participant youths were already working under his efficient guidance in Sultan Tannery.

This meeting with senior manager John Ashley was very fruitful and youths feel more
confident that they also can excel in their life. We were planning one more such meeting for the
youths of same slum with a property dealer but we could not do it because of his deteriorating
health.
Learning to youths: Mr. Carter imparted values such as:

1. Valuing all work—big and small

2. Trying to learn all work—not just what you are doing
3. Work to learn—not just for the sake of money

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8.3 Career Counselling:
When we started our project in Ghaukheda and Chabilepurva we found that most of the
youths were interested in getting a job with a salary of up-to maximum Rs. 5000. Only some
youths were interested in starting their business. Especially in Ghaukheda we found that most of
the youths were pursuing their study and wanted to make their career better by getting higher
education. Though our interest was to motivate them for their self enterprise yet we adopted the
policy of providing career counselling also to them. It may be possible that these youths can not
go for their own business at now but after completing their higher education they can start it in
better way. So we also provided them some kind of career counselling with explaining the
advantages of self-business to them.

Though we find out that they were more aware about their career opportunities, still we
provided them some tips to make their career better. But the situation was not the same in all
slums. In Chabilepurva we found that very less people was who wanted to pursue their higher
studies. Even then we could not retain most of the youths with us because in some youths there
was lack of sincerity due to not having any family responsibilities and others who had some
sincerity were not much courageous to start their own business or were lacking finances

8.4 Financial Management Workshops:

For starting of any successful venture knowledge of money and its better management is
of utmost importance. We did not try to give them knowledge of finances, which is given to
MBA students like us in business schools. Whatever we told to them I think most of them
already know those things. But these things always remain in their subconscious mind. Our
purpose was to make them conscious of their knowledge and encourage them to use this
knowledge. We tried to teach these lessons them in an interactive mode in which two students
were assigned the responsibility to read lessons and understand them and after that make oral
presentation to all other youths and answer their queries.
Our financial management classes were based on two books one “Richest Man of Babylon” and
another “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. First book provides basically three learning.

15
1. Save at least one tenth of whatever you earn.
2. Invest your savings in productive purposes so that each Rs. of your saving can earn for you.
3. For investing your money takes help from peoples who are intelligent and have succeeded in
their life.
The second book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” provides the basic learning that you can make
money only by starting your own business or by learning investing your money intelligently. For
our participants (youths) this book was very helpful, because it provided them a better outlook of
how a person can be an entrepreneur. The book provides details of how it is beneficial to be
entrepreneur, at the same time with examples of others failures and success tries to make readers
a successful business main. At the end of our game we asked to youths that how many of them
would like to purchase this book, and most of them were ready to purchase it. They really
appreciated book’s findings. In fact book provides details that how rich dad who had
entrepreneurial qualities became rich and poor dad who did not have those qualities remains
poor.

8.4.1 Interactive Teaching Mode of Workshops:

First we provided Hindi version of books “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and “Richest Man of
Babylon” to them. After that we assigned the task of reading and preparing one chapter from
book and make next day oral presentations to others and answer their queries. This responsibility
was assigned to all of them in a serial manner. This responsibility of teaching others in this
interactive mode helped youths not only to learn nitty-gritty’s of basic financial management but
also to develop confidence of presenting their ideas to others.

They learned how they could save money by paying all there expenses before tax if they
have their own business. They also learned how to make better decisions to invest their money.
At the end of this whole exercise these youths were much more confident about their financial
matters and they not only appreciated this interactive method of teaching but also showed their
interest in having personal copy of this book.

This experiment was done with the youths of Maikupurva. Initially we got good response
from youths but later because of their involvement in other activities and time scarcity this

16
program could not took much momentum. Even in later stage some youths were ready to start
this program again but other youths could not give their time.

Youths were told about different sources of finance to start their business. For example if
they have strong business idea and can convince others about profitability of it, they can issue
equity shares and can arrange capital for investment. Another way to raise money was bonds and
debentures.
Basic difference between trade business and manufacturing business was also discussed
with them in an interactive mode. It was also come out from the discussion that trade business is
less riskier in comparison to manufacturing business because you do not need to invest money in
fixed cost.

8.5 Skill Training:

We find out that it is always better to target those youths who have some kind of skill
already. Even then if such kind of youth does not come we can provide some training for them or
can assist them by providing information where they can get required training.

In our case Shramik Bharti which was our host organization in Kanpur was conducting
two training workshops with the help of SIDBI, one for Motorcycle repairing and another one for
Generator maintenance. We found that one youth whose father was also motorcycle mechanic
and had died some year back completed his motorcycle training successfully. Others who did not
have any such background could not do the same in specified time period, even some left in
between the course. So we can say that if youths have some prior experience of related field then
the training will be very helpful for them and certainly they will use it for their future career.

We also found that there are several training programs, which are being conducted by
government agencies such as DUDA (District Urban Development Agency). Quality of these
entire programs was not as per standards. It was found better that they get training from some
private institute or institution.

17
 In Maiku purva most of the youths were working in tanneries. They know the work of
leather press machine and other related work. One guy was expert in golf playing and was trying
to make his career as golf trainer. We encouraged those who were not going tanneries and were
devoting their time for bodybuilding, for getting some skill or vocational training. Later two
youths also joined computer programs to learn the skill of computer operations.

8.6 Loan Disbursal and Repayment:

In entrepreneurship development assessing the different loan proposals and determining
loan repayment schedule are also important aspects of business activity. During our business
game in Ghau kheda initially it was proposed that we would provide Rs. 100 as loan to them and
rest of the money at least Rs.20 will be invested by them. Later we decided that equal money
would be contributed by both of us that mean if each boy is investing Rs. 50 then each boy will
be provided Rs.50 as loan amount.

Final business plan was of purchasing spices in bulk and selling them in market in 1Rs.
pouches. Total Rs. 250 was collected from all five youths and we also contributed Rs. 250 as
loan amount. At the time of providing loan we took written undertaking from them that they will
have to return this loan amount up-to 17th July the date on which we were going to wind up our
business game. Signature of each and every boy was taken with an affidavit.

At the end youths decided that they want to go with their own money, because after all 10
days after they will have to return loan amount. It may be difficult for them to return it because
they may not have requisite cash money at the time of winding-up of business game.

By all this process of lending money and by taking written undertaking about repayment
of money youths learned to analyze a loan proposal and to take instant decision. They also
learned that it is also important that loan instalment should be returned within time and at the
time of receiving loan all these things (cash flow) should be taken care.

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8.7 Learn from Your Mistakes:
During Business game it was emphasized that you may succeed or you may not succeed,
but in both of the cases you will learn a lots of things. Most people never win because they are
more afraid of loosing. If we look at the way humans are designed to learn, we learn by making
mistakes. In an interactive mode it was emphasized how we learn to walk, simply by falling
down. If we never fell down, we would never walk. The same is true for learning to ride a bike.
We all got injured during learning to ride a bike, but now we can ride it without thinking. The
same is true for getting succeed in business and being rich. Unfortunately the most people are not
rich because they are terrified of losing. Winners are not afraid of loosing but losers are. Failure
is part of the process of success. People who avoid failure also avoid success.

9. PROCESS OF TARGETING RIGHT KIND OF YOUTHS:

Initially when we started our project in Ghaukheda, we started working with eight youths.
We started our business game with only five youths and wind-up it with only two youths. Rest of
the youths could not maintain their motivation level high for the kind of business activity that we
had adopted for our business game.
On the basis of characteristics of those who continued with us and those who left us
during our business game we can fix some criteria on the basis of which it will be easy to trace
right kind of persons in a community for our entrepreneurship development project. We could
find out these four characteristics which were helpful in finding right kind of participants for our
entrepreneurial project.
1. Participants should not be much highly qualified. Education up-to intermediate is enough.
This is because those who are highly qualified they always want to go for some secured
job either in private sector or in government sector. They do not like to do small business
and for big business they do not have enough money and courage also.
2. They should not belong to too much well off families. Monthly income of family should
be within Rs. 5000 range. Those who belong to well off families many times lack
sincerity or seriousness which is the most important characteristics of an entrepreneur.
3. They should have some skills that mean they should be either semi employed or have
some work experience. Each and every body has some kind of skills we need to identify

19
 those skills. It is necessary that the participants should be encouraged only for those kind
of businesses about which he know already.
4. They should have some family responsibilities also. That means they should play their
role as part-time bread earner for the family. This sense of responsibility makes them
sincere about their ventures and they take it seriously.
5. They should be sincere about there future and that sincerity would come through family
responsibilities.

The most important thing about entrepreneurship development, we found was that those
who are already doing any work but are not able to make enough money from his business are
the right kind of persons for entrepreneurship development. Here we want to recruit only those
persons who are partly employed or are employed for the sake of name. Most of such persons are
employed in single-family business where they get only part time jobs and very less income.

Though we have identified some basic characteristics for our right kind of entrepreneurs
yet it would not be right to ignore others who are more qualified and rich and have better kind of
future options available for themselves. In fact during our project in Ghaukheda we found that
these were the first persons that came with us later those who are less qualified and poor came
forward. Less qualified youths also learned lots of things about business from rich and highly
qualified youths, because these highly qualified youths make analysis of initial projects. Later
poor youths also learned how to analyze a business opportunity.

So we found that it is better that all those who want to come for entrepreneurship
development should be welcomed and later we should gradually concentrate on those youths
who are fulfilling our above mentioned criteria’s. It would have been better if we could provide
different business plan to those youths who were from much well-off families and more
educated. They did not come with us for shop-to-shop marketing because they dislike this kind
of marketing, though they were convinced that it was only for gaining experience of marketing
for our products. Our basic objective was to make them entrepreneur (to all of them without
discrimination on the basis of poverty) so that they can play their role as job providers instead of
job seekers.

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 “Above mentioned conclusions are based on our experience during business game. The
sample size for this experiment in each of the slums was of eight. So we recommend that our
conclusion may not be final but can be the basis for a hypothesis which can be further examined
by someone else in his study.”

10. DIFFERENT COMMUNITIES AND THEIR RESPONSES:

At large we did our project in four different slums Ghaukheda, Chabilepurva, Maiku
purva and Deviganj. All these four slums had different demographic characters and different
social and economic structures on the basis of castes. We got different kind of responses not only
on the basis of different castes but also on the basis of economic status and educational
qualification. So we found three major factors for selecting right kind of candidates their caste,
economic status and their educational qualification.

The best response we got from Ghaukheda and worst from Deviganj. Both of these slums
are situated in the same area near Air Force Station Chakeri. Ghaukheda is a slum which is
dominated by peoples of either other back ward castes or by general castes contrary to which
Deviganj is dominated by peoples of Scheduled castes. In Deviganj it was very difficult to
motivate them for self-enterprises. It may be because of their lower educational and economic
status but there was something which was I found was more important. That was surrounding
environment; these youths in Deviganj never found their any relatives or friends to start their
own business (except some pity type) and being succeeded. This was the basic reason that we
found it very difficult to pursue them to start any business game or enact some drama to learn
some basic tips on financial managements.

In Ghaukheda we got good response from youths. Though we started to work with eight
youths but ended with only four youths. All these four youths actively participated in our
business game of selling small pouches of spices like cardamom, Clove, camphor, Pepper, and
Cumin. Among these youths Amit Gupta and Ramu who belong to general caste but had lower
level of family income and were also less qualified (because of family responsibilities)
participated actively. We were successfully able to motivate them to start their own business.
Another two youths Deepak and Neeraj who belong to other back ward castes and had middle

21
level of family income were doing their ITI course as Fitter. Though both of these youths were
also motivated to start their own business and were ready to learn it yet could not give enough
time for marketing their products.

In chabile puva where started also with eight youths we ended up with only two youths.
One Saurabh Pal who had a good family income of 16000- 17000 Rs. was not doing any of his
personal business. He had some expertise in Videography and Photography so we encouraged to
him start his own business in the same line. Another guy Sushil who was our resource person in
this slum was from a good family but with a low monthly family income of Rs. 4000. Initially
we found that he is not much motivated to start his own business. But later we found that he was
only insisting that from small capital good business couldn’t be done and some days after he
started his own business of packing un-grinded Garam Masala’s.

11. GREAT HINDERANCES IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT:

After working with youths in four slums for more then six weeks we were able to figure
out some of those factors which were working as impediments for these youths in the process of
making them entrepreneurs. Lack of necessary skills, finances, proper market research and
supporting environment were the some major factors which were affecting them adversely to be
an entrepreneur.
11.1 Low Level of Motivation:
Most of the youths to whom we interacted were interested in finding a job, which can
provide them an income of Rs. 5000 per month. Many of them were working as wage labour in
tanneries for a salary of Rs.1600 to Rs.1800 per month. Working hours were long and may
extended up-to 10 hours. In many of the cases these youths were the sole bread earner for the
family. Some also had responsibilities like marriage of sister etc. Most of these youths because of
lack of access to higher education and extreme poverty were not able to think even about their
self-business.
No previous knowledge of businesses, High level of uncertainty and risk, extremely
competitive market, lack of capital and knowledge of financing capital and resultant inactivity
which was encouraging the status- quo were the major factors for their low level of motivation
for business.

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11.2 Lack of Finances:
Finance was the major problem, which was emphasized by many of the youths.
Whatever capital they had was from their small savings. They did not have any access to
institutional sources of finances. In one of the case in which a boy was assisting his brother in the
business of fruits was asked to start his own separate business. The boy told that he can not start
the business because he does not has money to start his own fruit business. Required capital was
only Rs. 3000 which he could not arrange.

11.3 Very less Real life Examples:

In these slums we also found that most of the peoples were involved either in petty
businesses or small jobs as wage labourers. So youths in these slums get inspiration only from
them. They did not find any person who would have succeeded in self-enterprise in their area and
from whom they can get inspiration.

11.4 Failure Due to No Proper Market Research:

Many times youth could not succeed in their efforts because they entered in business
without proper market research. When we started our business game with these youths in two
slums majority of the youths choose business of candle manufacturing. For manufacturing of
candles and its viability and profitability we started some market research. Later these youths
found that this was not much profitable business and even there were chances to have loss
because of current higher prices of raw materials in market. If these youths had gone in candle
manufacturing business directly without any kind of market research certainly they would have
loose their money. And consequently others also who may be planning to start throe own
business got demoralize.

Similarly in Ghaukheda when futility of candle manufacturing business had proved we

planned to start selling Desi ghee in 10 grams of pouches which will cost customers two or here
rupees and will sell like Pan Masala pouches. I gave this proposal and I asked to them to do a
market research about feasibility of the demand of this product by asking questions to your
prospective customers.

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12. DIFFERENCES FROM CONTEMORARY APPROACHES:
In most of the entrepreneurship development programmes training workshops are
organized in a lecture mode. We adopted different strategy that was based on the thought that
experienced learning is the best learning. We plan our business game not like a simulation of
business but as actual business. After completing this month long exercise, participants were
enough confident to start their own business at larger scale.

13. SIMILARITY TO THE APPROACH DEVELOPED IN SGSY:

Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna which is a government sponsored self employment
generation programme also want to develop entrepreneurship in rural poor. I found there are
many similarities in the approach being developed by us for entrepreneurship development and
the approach being used in SGSY. SGSY first of all gives importance to saving and after that it’s
use for productive purposes within the group. Same thing we were doing in the way of
organizing workshops for financial management which was emphasizing on saving and then
investing it for productive purposes.
After six months of savings groups are provided Rs.25000 as revolving fund so that they
can start some small businesses or learn investing money for productive purposes and the same
thing was also being done by us in the form of Business game. Basic difference was of the
approaches. We started Business game after taking youths in confidence and telling them for
what purpose we are doing all this exercise that is not the true in case of SGSY.

Another thing which we included but is not being used in SGSY is our approach of
arranging meeting of youths with successful entrepreneurs. Except this SGSY also provides
financial assistance in the form of loans and subsidy which was not true in our case. We were just
trying to make them enough competent and motivated so that they can start their own enterprises.

Table: 1

24
Comparison between Approaches adopted by us and of SGSY

Serial No. Approach SGSY Our Approach

1 Business Game Yes Yes

2 Financial Management Yes Yes

workshops
3 Career Counselling No Yes

4 Meetings with successful No Yes

entrepreneurs
5 Skill Training Yes No
6 Financial Assistance Yes No

14: RECOMMENDATIONS:
Business Game, Meetings with Successful Entrepreneurs, Financial Workshops in an
interactive mode and carrier counselling was the some ways adopted by us in the effort of
entrepreneurship development in youths. Though all of these efforts were helpful in achieving
our objective but role played by Business Game was of utmost importance. We recommend the
use of Business Game so that participants can learn nitty-gritty’s of business without fear of
loosing too much of money. How much participants will learn from business game will depend
on the seriousness with which they will play their game.
All these above mentioned activities were helpful in enhancing confidence level of these
youths. But the role of facilitator becomes very important in this whole process. Facilitator
himself should be highly motivated to achieve his objective only then he can motivate to other
youths. Those youths who are enough motivated can be further provided expert training in their
field of interest or can be recommended to right kind of training programmes.

15: CONCLUSION:

25
 Unemployment and poverty are the growing problem not only in the Indian context but
also in the global context. We can not leave the situation as it is. We will have to do something to
remove poverty and unemployment. In our country after independence several government
enterprises and departments were started which provided employment to millions of people, but
now in the era of liberalization and globalization most of the work processes have been
automated which is resulting in the downsizing of the organizations.

Service sector in our country is expanding very fast and it provides lots of entrepreneurial
opportunities also to youths. Need is to provide necessary assistance and motivation to youths so
that they can start their own enterprise. Many of them already have required skills; only need is
of to give them a push.

This project was a little effort in this direction. We make experiments with different
strategies for improving entrepreneurial skills of youths living in four different slums. Some of
our efforts were a big success and some of them could succeed only up to a limited extent. We
recommend the concept of Business Game for learning purpose and to develop entrepreneurial
capabilities. We hope those youths who came with us up to the winding up of business game and
also those who left in between will start their own business in near future and will also provide
employment opportunities to others.

REFERENCES:

26
1. Bogart, M.V.D. and Das S. P. Group Entrepreneurs with the rural poor an idea whose time has
come. New Delhi: Indian Social Institute (1989).

2. Birley Sue and Muzyka F. Daniel Mastering Entrepreneurship the complete MBA companion
in entrepreneurship. London: Pearson Education Limited (2000).

ANNEXURE-I
Demographic Information of youths

27
Name of slum: Ghaukheda

Seria Name Cast Monthl Ag Education Technical Skills Past work

l No. e y family e al experience
income Qualificati
on
1 Rahul OBC 4000 18 B. Com. ITI(Fitter) NA
2 Sharad OBC 4000 17 12th Computer NA
Application
3 Deepak OBC 5000 19 B.A.II ITI (Fitter) NA
4 Amit Gen 3000 16 12th NA Persoanl small
Gupta grocerry Shop
5 Rajesh Gen 3000 21 8th Mithai Mithai shop
Preparing
6 Anil OBC 3000 19 B.Sc.II ITI (Electrician) NA
Kumar
7 Amit SC 21000 19 12th NA NA
Chaudhar
y

ANNEXURE-II
Demographic Information of youths

28
Name of slum: Chabile Purva

Serial Name Caste Monthly Age Educational Technical Past work

No. family Qualification Skills experience
income
1 Vipin OBC 8000 22 10th NA Button
Kumar Store
2 Manish OBC 4000 18 B.SC. NA NA
Kumar
3 Saurabh OBC 15000 18 12th Videography NA
Pal
4 Avadhesh OBC 4000 18 11th NA NA
Pal
5 Bablu OBC 5000 22 8th Milk Dairy Milk
Dairy
6 Dileep Pal OBC 8000 16 10th NA NA
7 Sushil OBC 4000 18 10th Tannery Small
Kumar Work Grocery
Shop

29