Learning’s from Thinking Social Seminar

By: Hitesh Sharma

Social entrepreneurs are individuals with innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social

problems. They are ambitious and persistent, tackling major social issues and offering new ideas

for wide-scale change. Rather than leaving societal needs to the government or business sectors,

social entrepreneurs find what is not working and solve the problem by changing the system,

spreading the solution, and persuading entire societies to move in different directions. Social

entrepreneurs often seem to be possessed by their ideas, committing their lives to changing the

direction of their field. They are visionaries, but also realists, and are ultimately concerned with

the practical implementation of their vision above all else. Social entrepreneurs present user-

friendly, understandable, and ethical ideas that engage widespread support in order to maximize

the number of citizens that will stand up, seize their idea, and implement it. Leading social

entrepreneurs are mass recruiters of local change makers— role models proving that citizens

who channel their ideas into action can do almost anything. Just as entrepreneurs change the face

of business, social entrepreneurs act as the change agents for society, seizing opportunities others

miss to improve systems, invent new approaches, and create solutions to change society for the

better. While a business entrepreneur might create entirely new industries, a social entrepreneur

develops innovative solutions to social problems and then implements them on a large scale.

I learnt about the concept of the 5th space. 5th Space is a space where young people develop a

psycho-social worldview, which answers the question “Who are we?”(We as in humans – a

social species) as opposed to “Who am I?” This view allows young people to understand and

define their connection to the world as it is. The 5th space makes the relationships in the other

four spaces (At home with family, hanging out with friends, in leisure or at college / workplace.)

count by nourishing and enriching the capacities of young people to take effective and

responsible action. The 5th space believes that self-transformation is the first step towards

creating change in our relationships and in society.

Social entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs with a social mission as opposed to a profit seeking

motivation. Their goal is to create social value. Social value has little to do with profits but

instead involves the fulfillment of basic and long standing needs such as providing food, water,

shelter, education and medical services to those members of society who are in need. They

usually start with small, local efforts; they often target problems that have a local expression but

global relevance, such as access to water, promoting small-business creation or waste

management. The innovative solutions that social entrepreneurs validate in their local context

often get replicated in other geographies and can spun new global industries. Social

entrepreneurship is thus having profound implications in the economic system: creating new

industries, validating new business models, and allocating resources to neglected societal

problems.

Meenu Vadera believes that women have as much right as men to earn decent money driving

vehicles on the teeming streets of urban India. And the small social enterprise she created in New

Delhi — Sakha Consulting Wings Private — has been blazing a trail, training women from slum

families to become professional taxi drivers and chauffeurs, historically a male role. She said that

their aim is not just to provide technical skills, but mainstream livelihood opportunities. So with

support from the Azad Foundation, Sakha’s nonprofit sister organization, Vadera has been able

to initiate professional training that’s led almost 300 women to a permanent driving license — in

many cases the first formal documentation, and legal recognition of their citizenship in their

lives.

Thus, to conclude I would say that “Thinking Social Seminar” has enhanced my knowledge to a

great level and has also made me think in a different way as to what are the roles of a social

entrepreneur. In the coming future I would try to incorporate the learning from this seminar and

will try to become a successful Social Entrepreneur.