Greetings from Delhi
Young boy making necklace – Is one like it available in a shop near you?
I’m in Lalpatti (romantically named the red light district) in Delhi, India. I first came here six years ago – it blew my mind. Lalpatti is a slum in old Delhi and children the age of 7, the same age as my son at the time, were making cheap accessories for the British high street – today, nothing has changed as you can see from these photos.
Child labour and sweat labour are symptoms of cheapness and the desperate need to earn a livelihood and put food on the table. Child labour is a third the cost of adult labour. I found 15 children working in a 10 foot by 20 foot room where they also work, eat and sleep. I used to think that the people who run the workshops, themselves between the ages of 8-16, were the problem – but they are at the end of a very long chain of people – that starts in the high streets of the west
Boy making trinket boxes and handicrafts in Delhi
Many say that the problem is the trading agents, the representatives of the buyers from the high street chains that offer low prices and the sub contracting competition – “We are helpless,” says Mr Alece who runs one of the workshops, “We’d lose orders if we didn’t have kids to do the work cheaply.” So the buyers are also part of the problem – and perhaps the customers who buy cheap accessories in ignorance?
I leave the slums with a heavy heart –some of the kids I met have been sold into this occupation, and send around £4 a month to the families they have left in Bihar or even as far away as Nepal. They work 12-16 hours a day.
Mrs Sunita with her savings book
In Fair Trade we work with adult producers who make fashion accessories, through working with the groups directly, we know who makes the product! The minimum wage in Delhi is 3300 Indian rupees a month. Fair Trade benefits producers with fair prices, health and educational support for their children and a savings programme that helps people like Ms. Sunita (pictured holding her savings book). When her husband was injured in a motorbike accident and was unable to work for a year she drew on the savings to keep the family going until he was well again.
‘Sports for All’ Campaign distributed games to kids from poor communities in the Delhi area
Through People Tree and Tara projects the ‘Sports For All’ campaign has helped not only the children of our producers but also the children of vulnerable communities like those whose slum homes were flattered by the government, by delivering games like badminton and karim for the girls, a board game and cricket and balls for the boys. What fun!
Social Entrepreneur's Summitt 2007 - Zurich
So it’s official – Social business is not a trend - it’s a paradigm shift! Dozens of Social Entrepreneurs like me were glad to hear this (we were at the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship – Social Entrepreneurs Summit in Rüschlikon, Switzerland before Davos.) Just in the knick of time too – or is it? The snow caps that surround this beautiful venue looked like spring – global warming has changed the landscape – and the locals were muttering about spring flowers already in bloom. The leaders of the financial institutions, insurance companies and businesses look nervous.
So what will it take to find and build solutions to our environmental problems and poverty alienation with courage and speed? The debate heated up as the 200 participants gathered there heard what the most prestigious business schools are doing to prepare tomorrows’ business leaders. Many are teaching social entrepreneurship and placing students within social business to help them learn about how a business model can alleviate poverty. Conventional approaches need to be changed, business theories need to be rewritten, case studies and the management systems of social business need to be documented and published. These need to be used by business students and business leaders alike.
At the same time rules about risk need to be rethought, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is beginning to do that as large companies look at the impact of bad PR if they use sweat and child labour in the manufacture of their products. Then there are the bold announcements of Marks and Spencer’s to go carbon neutral in 5 years, by planting tress, stocking recycled materials and stopping land filling. All good, positive stuff.
But when you look at the scale of the problem – is it enough? Limited resources, raging consumerism (everyone floating around in a media day dream of desire), a far cry from meeting our commitments to the Millennium Development Goals to wipe out poverty by 2015. Probably the most famous social entrepreneur of all, noble prize winning Mamud Yunus, founder of micro credit Grameen Bank proves that you have to rewrite the rules. To work grass roots up and deliver where opportunities are most needed, with the most marginalised people in our world. These are also the people with the lightest environmental foot print in the world.
Fair Trade does this – which is why New Statesman / Edge Upstart Awards asked me to come and launch the 2007 Awards as 2006 Social Entrepreneur of the Year, a day after I returned from Zurich, Innovating on social and environmental fronts, campaigning to clean up the fashion business and writing up the model so it can be easily scaled-up and emulated – at the same time as running a business.
Paul Coelho, the famous Brazilian author, had a few words of encouragement in his closing remark: “On your hard journey don’t forget to stop and enjoy the view up the mountain– mountains look more frightening from a far than close up.” (He wasn’t talking about the Swiss Alps). Hopefully the leaders of our corporate and financial institutions will soon join the social entrepreneurs and take a leap of faith and support us in our endeavours too!
