The current poverty line is approximately ₹157. Per person. Per day.
I hope this number has caught your attention because it deserves much more attention than it gets.
How rural women in Maharashtra proved RBI wrong
Chetna Gala Sinha is one of India's foremost champions of financial inclusion for women.
Living in the village of Mhaswad, she saw the struggles of rural women firsthand. Here's her incredible story -
Where can you find the best pineapples in India? 🍍
Nagaland!
Does that answer surprise you? Trust me, nothing beats the taste of the fantastic pineapple that is grown in Nagaland and much in demand all over.
(1/n)
In 1997, Mann Deshi Mahila Sahakari Bank, founded by the women of Mhaswad, became the first bank by and for the rural women of India.
The bank not only creates financial products that help rural women but also encourages entrepreneurship and financial literacy.
The current poverty line is approximately $1.90 - Rs.145. Per person. Per day.
I hope this number has caught your attention because it deserves much more attention than it gets
PS : We are inspired by leaders like Chetna every single day of our work at
@WeAreRangDe
The Groundbreakers Fund is dedicated to the resilient spirit of women entrepreneurs in rural India and you too can invest in them.
Today, the bank has helped nearly half a million women achieve their goals.
And a true champion of women, Chetna proved that if given the opportunity, women can achieve anything.
5 months later the women approached RBI again, this time with a challenge of their own. They asked the manager if his team could calculate faster than them, without a calculator.
Impressed by their confidence, RBI finally approved their banking licence.
It’s a shocking number. Poverty is not an individual failing and it is not a crime.
But people like you and me can help those in need. If you can think of even one person to help, visit
Rang De is a platform that lets you lend to rural entrepreneurs in India (lend, not donate) with an amount as low as ₹100.
Lending that creates impact and returns - it is possible. We have disbursed more than Rs.50 crores in loans to people from underprivileged communities.
An Indian is the second richest person in the world.
It's a little strange to see social media posts with people celebrating this. There are people who belong to the same country where poverty is still a fact of life for crores.
When they approached RBI for a banking licence, they were rejected as most of the women were illiterate. Instead of giving up, the women took this as a challenge.
Fuelled with determination, Chetna started a literacy program in the village.
So the next time you think of poverty, think of ₹157. Per person. Per day. As Prof. Yunus says, Poverty should only be in museums.
Let’s not turn a blind eye to people who are experiencing it.
Kanta Bai was not even asking for a loan.
This incident triggered Chetna to open a bank, especially for rural women so that they could save, no matter the amount.
But another roadblock was awaiting the women of Mhaswad.
When farmers no longer need credit from Rang De, we will call ourself successful.
I know it sounds odd coming from the CEO of a lending platform.
But let me explain.
One day Kanta Bai Salunke asked for Chetna’s help in opening her bank account. She wanted to save enough money by monsoon to buy a plastic sheet for her house.
The banks refused to open an account for Kanta Bai as they considered her savings to be insufficient.
How one woman completely changed the microfinance sector 🌟
Back in the 1970s, Vijayalakshmi Das (Viji) was researching the money market in rural India for her postgraduation.
For the first time, she truly saw the struggles of underbanked Indians with informal lending.
In 2017,
@ram_nk
and I had decided to shut down Rang De.
RBI had come up with regulations for P2P lending. It meant we had to apply for an NBFC P2P license and relaunch
@WeAreRangDe
As per guidelines, we needed to have net owned funds of ₹2 crores to even file for the license.
Remember this scene from Jolly LLB?
The line has a much more powerful message than we think.
What makes rural Indians migrate to cities?
What compels them to leave their ancestral homes, their culture and even families?
So, to answer the question - Kaun hai ye log?
“Once poverty is gone, we'll need to build museums to display its horrors to future generations. They'll wonder why poverty continued so long in human society - how a few people could live in luxury while billions dwelt in misery, deprivation and despair.”
―
@Yunus_Centre
Would you believe me if I said that the milk you drink everyday is subsidised?
In India, dairy farmers do not charge the true value of their milk.
India produces 22% of the world's milk, largest among all other countries.
Yet, the dairy farmers earn peanuts.
On January 26th, 2008 Rang De went live for the first time!
We were a one of a kind platform and the model instantly resonated with our peers.
Some like us had just started their careers and were enchanted with our audacious goals.
They were our early adopters.
"Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary.”
— Sebastian Junger
We're thrilled to share that Rang De and
@smitaram
are part of the inaugural cohort of Google for Startups Accelerator - India Women Founders.
The cohort includes 20 women founded / co-founded startups, selected from close to 400 applications!
@google
|
#googleforstartups
This is a celebration of all the women who have in one way or another contributed to the growth of women of Bharat through Rang De.
And I am deeply grateful for that.
@WeAreRangDe
@DCWDelhi
It was a proud moment for all of us at Rang De to have our co-founder
@smitaram
receive the International Women's Day award from the Delhi Commission for Women.
This motivates us even more to continue our work towards enabling millions of women entrepreneurs from rural India.
It was such a privilege to be a part of the inaugural cohort of Google’s accelerator program for women founders. Getting to know 19 other co-founders, sharing our problems, helping each other solve problems just brought us together as a community.
@GoogleIndia
@WeAreRangDe
Are Indian artisans celebrated enough?
The painting you see below is an example of Gond art - a 1400 year old art form.
Gond painting is a beautiful art form carried forward by artisans to preserve the culture of the Gond tribe.
One such artisan is Bhajju Shyam.
86% Indians don't have access to formal credit.
They are rejected by banks and exploited by money lenders.
Here's how Rang De is changing this ↓
Old way:
- High interest rates
- Fails to empower women
- Borrowers have 0 autonomy on when, how much and how long they borrow.
It was a happening week for us at Rang De as
@smitaram
, our co-founder and CEO received the 'SheSparks of Bharat’ award at
#SheSparks2023
.
Thank you
@YourStoryCo
for the recognition and honour.
Here's Meeha Tewari from the team who received the award on Smita's behalf.
It took us 1 year to go from 6000 to 7000 social investors.
And just 4 months to reach 8000 investors at
@WeAreRangDe
This is where we are in our journey today -
₹56.6 crores disbursed to rural entrepreneurs
17,352 loans fulfilled
Thank you to everyone who joined in!
75 years on, 25% of Indians are still poor
We’re all gearing up for India’s 75th year of independence but the sad truth is not all Indians are really free.
If you are poor, you are trapped. You are not free to make decisions around healthcare, education, livelihood & nutrition.
Today,
@WeAreRangDe
turns 3 as a NBFC-P2P!
- 6311 social investors have joined the platform
- 14,175 loans have been fulfilled for rural entrepreneurs from 18 states
- Interest rates have been as low as 4 to 8% p.a.
I thank everyone who has believed in Rang De's mission.
Which is the only variety of apples that belongs to India? 🍎🇮🇳
McIntosh? Golden Delicious? Sunehari?
The answer is Ambri apples.
If you didn't know this, here's more ⬇️
If your story started from any of these states and you want to give back,
@WeAreRangDe
wants to get in touch -
Madhya Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Bihar
Jharkhand
Nagaland
We have something super exciting planned that will make you proud.
Reply to this and I'll send you the details!
Barely any of us would picture a woman.
But what if I told you that 75% of full-time workers on farms are women?
There is no end to the issues our farmers face, but for women farmers, there is another layer of limitations.
India is home to one of the richest traditions of handcrafted art. Communities over generations have weaved, knit, crafted and painted art. Today, they are among the poorest enterprises of the nation. Support the artisans by buying handmade.
#HandmadeDilSe
While we talk about startups raising crores of rupees in Series A fundings, maybe once in a while, we can think about the other end of the spectrum.
I mean the ones who struggle to get access to any kind of credit to expand & grow - the women-owned very small businesses (WVSEs)
Instant deliveries, instant food, instant streaming
We live in a world of instant.
In this day and age of convenience and instant gratification, have you wondered what would happen if we apply the same rule for credit?
Instant loans?
Even though women are silently fighting these battles, their resilience keeps shining through.
Their presence in terms of the workload is
- 70% in livestock
- 47% in tea plantations
- 47% in cotton cultivation
- 45% in growing oilseeds
- 39% in vegetable production
Some food for thought.
The red line is the share % of pre-tax national income of the top 10% adults in India. The blue line is the pre-tax national income of the bottom 50%.
The gap keeps widening every passing year.
Source : World Inequality Database
- Commercial banks are owned by rich people.
✔️ Grameen bank is owned by the poor.
Result?
Today, Grameen Bank has -
- 2600 branches across the country
- 9M+ borrowers
- 99.6% repayment rate
- Inspired 64 countries countries
@Yunus_Centre
was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
Part of the top biodiversity hotspots in the world, Nagaland supports some fantastic agriculture and horticulture. Including pineapple farmers.
But sadly, because of warehousing and connectivity issues, pineapple farmers face many challenges.
(2/n)
When her father met with an accident, Bharathi was struggling to finish her BSc degree. She recently repaid her loan amount and now has her own optometry practise.
You can enable others like her through the
@WeAreRangDe
Girl Child Education Fund -
"One reason global poverty has been so intractable is that it remains largely out of sight for those who are not living it, safely somebody else’s problem."
- Kaushik Basu
Why do social enterprises not scale?
Especially when you compare with businesses in the 'non' social domain with billion dollar valuations!
This is a complex problem with many systemic issues.
We finally went live again after close to 2 years! With the same freshness and excitement like we did in 2008. Give it a spin, let us know if it was worth the wait
The next time you want to enjoy a pineapple, remember the best ones are in Nagaland.
So until you can make a trip to Nagaland, you can still support pineapple farmers and other rural entrepreneurs from Nagaland through the Rang De Freedom Fund :)
Have you seen these beautiful elephant sculptures in Bengaluru’s Terminal 2?
What if I told you they are made from a weed that is causing huge damage to forests?
In the 1800s, Britishers brought the Lantana plant to India.
Today, it has taken over 40% of Indian forests!
Rang De is NOT a crowdfunding platform. Nor a donation platform.
Here's another question we get frequently and here's me explaining how Rang De is different.
Join our tribe of social investors today at !
#rangdeindia
#p2plending
#fintech
#techforgood
You can fill this form to express interest. Once you fill out the form, I will email you with all the details and also answer any questions that you may have.
Join us as a co-traveler in our journey!
I find that we are spending more time explaining ‘why’ we are doing what we are doing to funders and investors more than anything else. It seems it’s easier to understand business models built for us as consumers much more than models built for restoring agency of rural families!
It’s a shocking number. An amount you would not notice usually.
Poverty is not an individual failing and it is not a crime. But people like you and me can help those in need.
6000 social investors!
We've been looking forward to reaching the 6k milestone and we're so happy to share this with you all. A big thank you to our community of social investors for being a part of this journey
If you'd like to join the tribe, visit
At
@WeAreRangDe
, we've tied up with The Entrepreneurs Associates (tEA) and have been able to give pineapple farmers low-cost and timely loans.
Social investors have come together to invest in pineapple farmers, helping them grow both area under plantation and output.
(3/n)
Our tribe is growing! 🌱🌟
Rang De's social investor community has crossed 8000!
It took us 1 year to go from 6000 to 7000 social investors. And just 4 months to reach the next milestone. Check out Rang De at !
@wearerangde
We have limited time on this planet and as social entrepreneurs, the only way to create large scale impact is through collaboration, not competition.
At Rang De, we have seamlessly collaborated with some amazing impact partners, due to our alignment in mission and values.
Fact : Regional Rural Banks which were set up with the primary objective of meeting the credit needs of those from the economically weaker sections, were advised to lend 60% of their incremental credit to this TG in the 90s - this went down to 10% at the end of the 90s.
Thanks to them, we are -
- Able to provide credit to rural entrepreneurs at an interest rate of just 4-8%
- Financially including communities from the remotest parts of India
- Build and scale a sustainable business model
On 1st September, we celebrated Rang De’s 3 year anniversary as a NBFC-P2P.
I’d like to invite people in my network to become angel investors at Rang De.
If you believe in our mission to enable last mile financial inclusion in our country, we would love to have you on-board.
So what are we celebrating actually?
Accumulation of wealth and an increase in inequality.
One person amassing wealth will get so much more attention than crores of people at the bottom of the pyramid.
It’s time to change this.
If you're from Maharashtra and want to give back to your state, just reply to this post!
We have something that will help you connect with your home state and create huge impact.
We've just launched the West Bengal Handicraft Artisans Fund!
Enable handicraft artisans to buy raw material and get repaid with interest.
Support Dokra craft, Katha embroidery, wooden dolls and Madhur Kati at
Start your week with social investing :)
Ram and I put all of our life’s savings which we were absolutely fine with. Sometimes you need your life's savings to create your life's work.
But we were still falling short.
We could have raised private equity but were uncertain about how it could impact our mission.
If you can think of a one person and think about helping them, visit
We are a platform that lets you lend to rural entrepreneurs in India (lend, not donate) with an amount as low as ₹100.
We finally were able to file for the NBFC P2P license with the RBI.
In the last 3 years, 108 angel investors have joined Rang De.
All of them aligned with our mission to revolutionize credit access in India.
Rang De has partnered with
@akshayakalpa
to help enhance livelihood opportunities for farmers by investing in their dairy farms.
So far 491 social investors have -
- Raised ₹1.17 crores
- Disbursed ₹1.14 crores
- Impacted lives of 93 farmers
Some have become -
- Equity investors
- Team members
- Investors along with family
Together in the last 15 years they have invested ₹126 crores to support 80,000+ low income families.
Just a reminder that 85% of India's poor are in rural India. If you want to invest in someone from rural India and help them grow their business and income, visit
80% of our loans are disbursed to women farmers, entrepreneurs and artisans.
Join our community of 8000+ social investors and invest in the potential of women.
Visit
@WeAreRangDe
to know how to start your journey as a social investor
A big shoutout to our impact partner Indian Micro Enterprises Development Foundation who help micro-entrepreneurs like Sarita grow their businesses sustainably.
Want to enable entrepreneurs from all over India? Visit and join 8000+ social investors!
We are helping individuals become bankers to the poor.
Not through charity but through investments.
@WeAreRangDe
is helping people in rural India break this cage of poverty through access to credit.
To know more, visit
It will:
- Enable her to expand her business
- Help her create jobs for people in Basti
- Inspire many others to strive for success in their hometowns
Enterprise is the antidote to poverty. It's time we nurture it at the grassroots level.
2668 billionaires have more wealth than 4.7 billion people.
The number of billionaires has doubled in the last decade and so has the gap between the rich and the poor.
You can help bridge this gap - visit and be a banker for the unbanked in India :)
5 months of no work orders. Can you imagine that?
#JaiJawanJaiArtisan
can change that. Livelihoods with dignity for our artisans, gratitude for our soldiers
- They often earn half as much as men.
- They don't get proper access to basic farming resources like seeds and fertilizers
- They own less than 8% of farming land in India - Worst of all, they don't even get recognised as farmers for the most part
There is a woman named Sarita Devi who runs a small medical store in Basti, UP. Being the sole breadwinner of her family, she often struggles to meet their needs.
There is a fairly simple solution: Sell more → Earn more.
To do so, she needs credit.
@shvm_b_
Thanks for that clarification, Shivam. Tried to get the right numbers but was slightly confusing. The figure in PPP is absolutely unbelievable.
The Rang De way:
- Encourage entrepreneurship in rural households
- 100% of capital goes to the borrower
- Borrowers feel safe & secure
- Provide credit to women
- 4-10% interest rate p.a.
- Peer to peer lending
India's poor pay the highest cost for credit.
Rang De is not subject to market risks because you’re not investing in the market.
You are investing in people, their pride and potential.
@WeAreRangDe
- experience the magic of social investing at
Gratitude messages from all over. So much positivity and kindness. "You are the real stars and real brothers" a heartwarming message from a citizen to our soldiers
#JaiJawanJaiArtisan
. Join us on
UN estimates that if women farmers have the same access to resources as men, they can increase their yields by 20-30%.
At Rang De, we believe in giving recognition where it is due. If there is one thing we can change for these women today, then it is their access to credit.