Social Entrepreneurship in Orissa, India
By Alex Woodcock, Global Impact Fellow
Throughout middle school and high school, I was always involved in community service. I joined countless clubs that had missions to serve the community and also the world at large. As a high school senior, I was proud to be the president of my high school’s Key Club. I organized all sorts of projects for my members like bake sales, coin drives, and trips for members to build houses or serve food at the local homeless shelters. However, it was an extremely time consuming (or so I thought) and frustrating job. Often I would break down from stress, feeling that the rest of my board did little, and that the members were only joining the club to make their resumes look better. Putting little effort into coin drives, for example, was common, with students asking their wealthy parents to simply write out a check for them. While the outcomes of the work I did as President—like seeing a fully constructed house for a deserving family—made everything better and seem worth it, I sometimes felt that I was stuck in a job that I didn’t want to do.
Right now, I am sitting on my bed in Dhenkanal, Orissa. I have been working here at the Kalinga Eye Hospital and Research Center (KEHRC) as a Unite For Sight Global Impact Fellow for almost two weeks now. Not only am I years past my role as Key Club President, but I am also miles and miles away, and all I can think of is how easy my job really was back then. I was doing charity work—gathering money or members for a one-time gift to what I thought was a “lucky” recipient. And while I still think that I did do some good in my community, and that I had the best intentions in mind, my “oh so frustrating” work was little compared to the social entrepreneurship shown by some of the locals here in Orissa. A social entrepreneur is someone who uses innovation, creativity, and business-smarts to create an enterprise with intentions to use its proceeds and/or services to serve a social purpose. Even more important is their ability to make these social benefits sustainable, in that programs are being made that will continue to run and provide for the community in the future. These characteristics of a social entrepreneur are qualities that I had hoped to gain through my presidency of the Key Club. However, in no way did I attain this. I did not “creatively” start a new business (in this case club), but was handed the position from my predecessor. I did not use “innovation” to come up with new projects, but relied on by-the-book fundraisers, like bake sales. And I did not, whatsoever, initiate any projects or relationships that would continue after I left office. Although I must give myself some benefit and admit that I was a young high school student assuming my first leadership position, I also see that this is not a good excuse. When compared to the amazing people that I have seen here in Orissa, I had more than enough resources available to me to begin with to do something influential in my community. It was the drive and determination to truly make a change that I lacked. Sarangadhar Samal, on the other hand, the director of the KEHRC, had these qualities, and has proven himself a social entrepreneur that I can look up to. He is an unrecognized social entrepreneur, “invisible” to much of the world, however doing a world of good in his own community, Orissa.
Sarangadhar Samal (Sarang) was born into completely different circumstances than me, growing up in the backwater village of Santhasara, Orissa. There was no electricity in his village, and there was very little communication with the outside world. An ambitious boy from the start, Sarang walked 12 km to school and back everyday—this was a 2 ½ hour walk both ways. Sarang describes the journey as difficult, as it was not along a road, but through the highly vegetated landscape of Orissa. It is not a surprise that Sarang was only the second person to receive education in his village.
Although he started out working at various industries around Orissa, Sarang always felt that he wanted to be a social worker. He saw inequality and corruption in these industries, in combination with the poverty of the people in Orissa, and he wished to do his part in combating this. It was this belief in equality that drove him to leave home with no plans or destination and with the sole goal to become a social worker. In his travels, Sarang encountered an isolated tribe called the Santal. Upon his initial encounter with them, Sarang remembers how they were armed with bows and arrows and wore giant headdresses. They brought him to their village, and Sarang saw this as an opportunity to start his social work. He began to teach them basic numbers and letters in Oriya. Sarang reflected on how “happy” they were to learn. Furthermore, in order to save time for the local women, who walked large distances to collect water daily, Sarang initiated well digging in the village. People began to hear of Sarang’s good deeds and his talent for organization and began to support him. Slowly, through various projects, NYSASDRI was created with its mission to fight against poverty and improve the quality of life of the Oriya people. It is here that Sarang truly took the role as a social entrepreneur. He created an organization, with a succinct mission statement, and he would continue to use innovation to make his goals reality.
It was in the 1980s that Sarang noticed the great correlation between blindness and poverty. He explained that NYSASDRI’s mission was “obstructed by blindness because visual impairment results in loss of productivity as well as spoils the household economy.” In addition to the lack of eye care in Orissa, during this time 50% of the surgeries undertaken for cataracts were resulting in increased blindness due to low quality of care. Thus, Sarang felt that under NYSASDRI, comprehensive eye service must be offered to the poor. Although many people encouraged him to create an eye hospital in Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa, Sarang believed it was more important to have his hospital at the “doorstep” of the rural Oriya population. Dhenkanal was chosen due to its central location in Orissa. Here, in October 2002, Sarang has said they took a risk. They rented a small house for 5000 rupees a month and started the Kalinga Eye Hospital and Research Center (KEHRC), concentrating only on cataracts and refractive errors. Eight years later, with a new hospital building, thriving staff, and the latest technology for eye care, Sarang’s hospital model is being used by others to start their own hospitals all over the world.
Sarang says, “It’s easy to set up a hospital.” All you need are three things: space, hires, and technology. Sarang took a risk and rented his first hospital space. For paramedics and doctors, he decided to train local Oriyans in eye care, helping the local economy and providing these young Oriyans with a future. His doctors are now world-class cataract surgeons. And lastly, through the help of NGOs like Unite For Sight, he was able to get the necessary technology for the hospital.
It is through Sarang and my history in community service that I have truly learned about social entrepreneurship, and have come to appreciate it enormously. Even more, I can recognize how trying and sometimes frustrating it must be to be a social entrepreneur in a developing country. While in the United States, or in other more developed countries, support in the form of money and already established organizations is pretty easy to find. Although starting a business or in my case, presiding over a club, is difficult anywhere, I can’t think of a better place to do it than in the United States. Here in India, on the other hand, I cannot imagine even attempting to do what Sarang has done. India has a struggling economy, thus the support and monetary funds to start a business are not so easily accessible. Furthermore, it seems to take much longer for things to be accomplished in developing countries. Time passes slowly and the acceptance and integration of new ideas into society can take years. Despite these obstacles, Sarang started NYSASDRI through hard work and determination. He saw problems in his community and has worked to rectify them through creativity and innovation. He furthermore has shown the qualities of a social entrepreneur in his concern for the future of the KEHRC. While the hospital is thriving as of now, Sarang has voiced to me his great concern on the sustainability of the hospital. The “paying patients” allow for the hospital to serve people who cannot pay. However, as Sarang says, there are few paying patients. Thus, one of the roles of Unite for Sight volunteers at the KEHRC is to research different marketing techniques to attract more paying patients from throughout the state, in addition to the outreach patients from the villages. Sarang is constantly developing new ideas to test in order to make sure that the KEHRC can stand the test of time.
It is unfortunate to me that prior to Unite For Sight's efforts, the work of people like Sarang has gone unnoticed. I have to wonder what other miracles are being performed by other such local social entrepreneurs. These people do not receive the credit they deserve from the international community and even from their own communities. Thus, I believe it so crucial for these people to get recognized in any way they can, so they can receive encouragement and support to continue their work. With the dedication of these entrepreneurs, countries like India can achieve statuses different from their current “developing” ones.
Robert F. Kennedy once said that “Each time someone stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.” It is my understanding that a lot of tiny ripples, when added together, can create a wave. If we recognize these wonderful people like Sarang, I believe that waves will start to cover the world.