Enterprise reporter
For Mansukh Prajapati, childhood within the western Indian metropolis of Morbi started earlier than dawn, with a six-mile stroll to gather clay for his or her household enterprise.
“My father was a potter,” he recollects.
Typically he would get up to the rhythmic sound of his father at work at his potter’s wheel.
“My mom and I might stand up at 4 within the morning and stroll for miles each day to get clay.”
Used for storing water, clay pots have been a standard merchandise in Indian households within the Nineteen Seventies.
However the earnings from making pots was meagre and the career additionally got here with social stigma.
“No person needed to their daughter married in a potter’s household,” Mr Prajapati says. “They feared she will likely be burdened with limitless labour.”
Aged 31, a pure catastrophe marked the turning level for Mr Prajapati.
The devastating earthquake that hit Gujarat in 2001 destroyed his household house and left a pile of smashed clay pots within the courtyard.
“A neighborhood reporter wrote that ‘the poor individuals’s fridge is damaged’,” Mr Prajapati says.
“Clay pots hold water cool in the summertime, so they’re identical to a fridge. The thought bought caught in my head. So, I made a decision to make a fridge out of clay that does not want electrical energy.”
With no formal coaching, Mr Prajapati began experimenting with designs and supplies.
“I first tried to make it like the trendy fridge and even added a water tank, however nothing labored’, he says.
“At one level I had $22,000 (£17,000) in loans and needed to promote my home and small workshop. However I knew I needed to hold going.”
It took 4 years of tinkering to provide you with a design that labored – a small clay cupboard with a water discuss on the highest and storage cabinets beneath.
As water trickles by means of the cupboard’s porous clay partitions, it naturally cools the inside.
Mr Prajapati says it will possibly hold fruit and greens contemporary for at the very least 5 days – no electrical energy wanted.
He named it MittiCool or the clay that stays cool.
At $95 its inexpensive and now bought by means of 300 shops in India and exported to international locations together with the UK, Kenya, and UAE.
“Fridges are a dream for a lot of poor households,” Mr Prajapati says. “And such desires needs to be inside attain.”
Mr Prajapati’s innovation is a part of a rising wave of grassroots entrepreneurship in India, pushed by necessity.
Prof Anil Gupta who runs the Honeybee Community, a platform for supporting such ventures, name these “frugal improvements”.
“It’s a mindset,” says Prof Gupta.
“Frugal innovation is about making options inexpensive, accessible, and obtainable. Many of those innovators do not have formal training however are fixing actual world issues.”
It is troublesome to place a quantity on such companies, as there has by no means been an in-depth examine.
Prof Gupta says such start-ups are essential as a result of they supply jobs in rural areas and begin a cycle of financial change.
For instance, Mr Prajapati now employs 150 individuals in his workshop and has branched out into cookware, clay water filters and is experimenting with houses fabricated from clay.
One other start-up that is hoping for comparable success, is run by Bijayshanti Tongbram within the northeastern state of Manipur.
She lives in Thanga village which is house to considered one of India’s largest freshwater lakes, Loktak.
Right here lotus flowers bloom in abundance.
“Folks in my village use the petals of lotus flowers for spiritual choices. However their stems usually go to waste and that is what I needed to alter and considered doing one thing sustainable,” she says.
A botanist by career, Ms Tongbram developed a technique to extract silk-like fibres from the lotus stems and now leads a crew of 30 girls in her village who spin the threads right into a yarn and weaves them into distinctive scarves and clothes.
“It takes two months, and 9,000 lotus stems to make one scarf,” she says.
Ms Tongbram pays the ladies $80 a month.
“This is not nearly trend. I’m giving girls in my village an opportunity to do one thing aside from fishing and earn cash,” she says.
Like many small enterprise house owners, she needs to scale-up and discover new markets, maybe abroad.
“Funding is the largest problem,” she says.
Prof Gupta from the Honeybee community agrees.
“There are authorities schemes and small grants, however rural entrepreneurs usually do not know methods to entry them.
“Even enterprise capitalists who’re IT improvements not often spend money on these sorts of start-ups due to excessive transaction prices,” he says.
Nonetheless, innovators proceed to spring up.
In Karanataka’s Vijaynagar, Girish Badragond is engaged on a tool to assist blind and partially-sighted farmers.
His system, described as a wise farming stick, makes use of soil sensors and climate knowledge to information its customers in regards to the crop circumstances and harvests by means of audio messages and vibrations.
“There are such a lot of blind individuals in India who need to farm however they cannot belief others to information them. It will assist them turn into impartial and empower them,” says Mr Badragond.
He has sourced mechanical components from completely different retailers and is hoping to realize assist for commercialising his challenge quickly. For now, he’s doing rounds of presidency exhibitions.
“It is a prototype however I’m hopeful that individuals will assist me to alter lives of others,” he says.
