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KEY LEARNINGS ON RURAL DEVELOPEMENT

HUL's INITIATIVE IN RURAL DEVELOPEMENT: Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and its constituent companies have been in India since 1931. KEY LEARNINGS ON RURAL DEVELOPEMENT.

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KEY LEARNINGS ON RURAL DEVELOPEMENT

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  1. HUL's INITIATIVE IN RURAL DEVELOPEMENT:Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and its constituent companies have been in India since 1931.

  2. KEY LEARNINGS ON RURAL DEVELOPEMENT • The principal issue in rural development is to create income-generatingopportunities for the rural population. Such initiatives are successful and sustainable when linked with the company’s core business and is mutually beneficial to both the population for whom the programme is intended and for the company. • Based on these insights, HUL launched Project Shakti in the year 2001, in keeping with the purpose of integrating business interests with national interests.

  3. Operation Shakti • Hindustan Unilever's Project Shakti is a rural initiative that targets small villages populated by less than 2000 individuals. It is a unique win-win initiative that catalyses rural affluence even as it benefits business. • Project Shakti impacts society in two ways – the Shakti Entrepreneur program creates livelihood opportunities for underprivileged rural women and the Shakti Vani program improves quality of life by spreading health and hygiene awareness • Project Shakti benefits business by significantly enhancing HUL’s direct rural reach, and by enabling HUL’s brands to communicate effectively in media-dark regions.

  4. Operation Shakti • The Shakti Entrepreneur program recognises that while micro-credit plays a key role in alleviating poverty, its ability to do so depends on the availability of investment opportunities. Shakti contributes by creating profitable micro-enterprise opportunities for rural women. Armed with micro-credit, rural women become Shakti entrepreneurs: direct-to-home distributors in rural markets. This micro-enterprise offers low risks and high returns. The products distributed are some of the country’s most trusted brands of consumer goods, and include a range of mass-market products especially relevant to rural consumers. Moreover, HUL invests its resources in training the entrepreneurs, helping them become confident, business-savvy professionals capable of running their own enterprise.

  5. Operation Shakti • Shakti entrepreneurs typically earn between Rs. 600 to Rs. 800 per month. As most of these women are from below the poverty line and live in extremely small villages(population between 2000-5000), this earning is very significant, and often doubles their household income. • Poor hygiene practices are the single largest cause of common diseases such as diarrhea. Lack of awareness of basic health and hygiene practices kills over 500,000 children every year in rural India. The Shakti Vani Program educates rural community about basic health practices. Rural women are appointed as Vanis (communicators) and trained to communicate in social fora such as schools and village get-togethers. The Vani program covers areas including pre and post-natal care, infant nutrition, sanitation, good hygiene practices, and the prevention of common diseases. By end 2007, the Vani programme had covered over 50,000 villages, reaching out to over 50 million people.

  6. Operation Shakti • Various central and state government agencies, including the governments of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, and Orissa have extended support to Shakti. Over 300 NGO's are actively involved in the project. A national MOU has been signed with CARE India, covering the fields of health and hygiene awareness and functional adult literacy. • Shakti’s impact on society is far-reaching. The Shakti entrepreneur program creates livelihood opportunities for underprivileged rural women. It has already improved the lives of over 45,000 families of Shakti entrepreneurs, Vanis and iShakti kiosk entrepreneurs. The Shakti Vani program works to improve the quality of life in rural India, by spreading awareness of best practices in health and hygiene. The iShakti community portal empowers rural community by creating access to information.

  7. Operation Shakti • Shakti operates in fifteen states: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa. There are over 45,000 Shakti entrepreneurs covering over 135,000 villages across 15 states. The Vani program has covered over 50,000 villages.

  8. Operation Shakti • Since 2007, HUL has also started several new initiatives to help the SEs get additional source of income. HUL has done a tie-up with an affiliate of USAID which is piloting a project to sell ORS (Oral Rehydration Salt) to villagers. Directionally efforts are on to create a larger community of SE's which will work together to develop themselves

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