The dynamics of promoting entrepreneurship among the rural poor

Before digging in to the subject I must say that this is my first blog and I am writing this to share some of my experiences and learning in the field. The views expressed here are my personal opinions drawn from my own observations. I am in the process of learning, and i am always open to questions pertaining to the ideas or views expressed in this blog.

This blog post is the first part of the series of posts I would like to write on ‘the dynamics of promoting entrepreneurship among the rural poor’. This part basically explains ‘the need for promoting entrepreneurship among the rural poor’.

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As most of us must be aware of the famous Chinese axiom ‘’Give a man a fish, and you have fed him once. Teach him how to fish and you have fed him for a lifetime”, to extend it further, ‘Teach him how to make a business out of the extra fish that he catches everyday and you have improved his standard of living’ (assuming that he uses his earnings for the right purpose). To put in simple words this art of generating wealth out of the existing opportunity using available resources is what we call as entrepreneurship.

What is entrepreneurship: defining entrepreneurship is not an easy task as there are numerous definitions provided by various scholars based on the different contexts. Hence to choose a definition appropriate to rural context, we need to think of entrepreneurial skills that will be needed to improve the quality of life of individuals and communities and to sustain a healthy economy and environment. Hence “Entrepreneurship is the process of creating value by pulling together a unique package of resources to exploit an opportunity.” 1 

The need for promoting entrepreneurship among rural poor:

Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger is one of the important millennium development goals. Countries all over the world are implementing several programs to achieve this and India with a vast BPL population has a long track of policies to combat extreme poverty and hunger. These policies over last 50 years have taken various shifts from providing direct food subsidies, providing rural employment opportunities to promoting rural entrepreneurship.

As mentioned in the Chinese poem charity has its limits i.e. providing food subsidies is only a temporary solution and it is not sustainable in the long run keeping in mind the alarming economic situation. Also for an average rural family the food subsidy is not sufficient and hence they need to struggle for the remaining food. Hence governments have moved a step ahead towards providing employment in the rural areas i.e. teaching fishing.

This policy of creating rural employment sponsored by the government came as a game changer and helped many people in earning their bread. But it has its limits i.e. it has only provided limited employment which is not sufficient for a family to live a decent life. Keeping in mind the ever growing population and dwindling public finance, this policy alone may not help in improving the standard of living of rural people. Hence governments have moved a step further towards promoting rural entrepreneurship.

Promotion of rural entrepreneurship generates local jobs and adds value to the rural economy by reducing the stress on the government sponsored employment. Sustainable entrepreneurial activities ensure regular employment to the people and hence facilitates in improving their standard of living. But the challenge lies in promoting entrepreneurship in rural areas.

To summarize, poverty is multi dimensional and hence need a multi pronged approach.  All the three government initiatives mentioned above have contributed to reduce economic poverty. Though one approach may be better than the other but in reality all the three approaches are necessary depending on the context and level of poverty of the individuals.