Social Problem Solving Activities

Yashveer Singh is the Co-founder and All-around Director of Ashoka Adolescent Changemakers. Ashoka is the better affiliation of amusing entrepreneurs in the world, with a all-around arrangement spanning over 70 countries. Its eyes of Anybody A Changemaker is aimed at accouterment anniversary adolescent alone with the freedom, confidence, and amusing abutment to drive absolute change (see our beforehand contour here).

Yashveer — afore abutting Ashoka — founded a adolescence non-profit to abode aptitude bigotry in the development area and affect university acceptance to accompany amusing entrepreneurship. He was awarded the Adolescence Action Net Fellowship by All-embracing Adolescence Foundation and was additionally recognised as Forbes 30 Beneath 30 Amusing Entrepreneurs in Asia. He was additionally awarded a BITSAA (Birla Institute of Technology and Science Alumni Association) 30 beneath 30 Award.

Yashveer joins us in this absolute account on the added important role of amusing entrepreneurs, their activities in the communicable era, opportunities for collaboration, and architect tips.

Edited excerpts below:

Yashveer Singh [YS]: The communicable came with abounding challenges, and we saw abounding acceptance of animation aural our community. One of the above impacts of the communicable has been on the livelihoods of casual labour, and there has been a focus on creating added rural alimentation opportunities.

Our Ashoka Fellow Neelkanth Mishra is alive appear realising rural alimentation entrepreneurship abeyant through fisheries and aquaculture. He pivoted his archetypal to advantage technology to body the fishery amount alternation by transforming asset-poor producers into a assured aggregate by architectonics accommodation to admission adeptness and academy architectonics appear action and amount alternation development. This archetypal change helped realise rural alimentation and entrepreneurship abeyant through fisheries and aquaculture.

Another alarming adventure has been of two of our Ashoka Adolescent Changemakers — Naisargik Lenka and Akash Singh — who collaborated to affect added adolescent bodies to abound as adolescent changemakers, analytic problems aural their communities.

Naisargik and Akash organised a basic mega-event — Udyami Utsav — a anniversary of addition and entrepreneurship with a eyes of ‘Har Ghar Entrepreneur,’ which gave adolescent minds a belvedere to present their account and solutions and a adventitious to coact with some of the best affecting bodies in the sector.

And while the communicable has wreaked havoc, and abounding livelihoods were lost, Ashoka Advisers and Ashoka Adolescent Changemakers — in authentic ambitious appearance — confused their action and models appear agreeable in actual abatement assignment and impacted abounding lives through their charge to abating agency.

We additionally saw abounding added collaborations aural the arrangement and forth the amount alternation to do allusive assignment for their communities.

Akash Singh (L), Naisargik Lenka (R). Image credit: Ashoka Adolescent Changemakers

YS: Back Ashoka is a all-around arrangement of amusing entrepreneurs, we undertake several studies and activities that advantage the ‘network effect’ of amusing entrepreneurs.

For instance, our all-around appulse and affirmation team, in 2018, led one of the better and best assorted studies on amusing entrepreneurs in the world. Periodically, we broadcast Appulse letters and allotment our adeptness and acquirements beyond the apple through our Leading Amusing Entrepreneurs publication.

Our Advisers abstraction remains, however, one of the key accoutrement to adviser our impact, and the aggregation runs it already every three years. We additionally abide to advance our appulse studies to accommodate not alone measures for systems change account but additionally to abduction all-embracing civic framework change ideas.

The Advisers appulse abstraction is fabricated of two parts: a quantitative analysis that goes out to all fellows, and a set of all-embracing qualitative interviews, with a sample of advisers to dig added into specific issues.

Specifically, in South Asia, in accord with the IKEA Foundation, we acquire started alive appear architectonics on the ‘network effect’ of amusing entrepreneurs to advice animate alimentation opportunities for marginalised communities. With this, we seek to scale-up avant-garde account of amusing entrepreneurs creating alimentation opportunities.

Through this effort, we are witnessing that amusing entrepreneurs are advancing together, and accommodating to added their system-changing approaches and ideas. Back the communicable hit aftermost year, this action seems to be added accordant now than before, and we aim to added abutment amusing entrepreneurs in their work.

Yashveer Singh. Image credit: Ashoka Adolescent Changemakers

YS: Some of the key challenges that amusing entrepreneurs acquire consistently faced, and will abide to face, are adopting and mobilising assets to calibration their efforts, award the appropriate aptitude to advice assassinate their visions, and finally, acclimation profits with impact.

First, beyond the world, donors and investors are attractive for accelerated and college appulse growth. But that’s not article that all amusing entrepreneurs can bear in a abbreviate time. Abounding times, amusing entrepreneurs assignment in fields area the development aeon for new casework and programmes, creating awareness, or behaviour change is long. But donors and investors focus on concise returns, authoritative activity difficult for entrepreneurs.

Without the much-needed backbone and support, several amusing entrepreneurs end up attractive for concise after-effects and absorb time advancing letters to amuse the donors, and hence, aberrate from their authentic abiding goals.

They additionally argue with anniversary added for the bound funds out there, and if they are not able to get the abutment from institutional donors, they absorb admired time and assets on army fundraising campaigns or adopting from accompany and family.

Second, hiring the appropriate aggregation to accompaniment the affection and skill-set of founders is a acute allotment of growing every amusing organisation. The amusing area requires abounding of the aforementioned specialised abilities as bare in the business sector, including selling, branding, and managing financials.

However, because of the curtailment of funds and almost lower wages, this area is not able to allure abounding accomplished bodies who end up alive for bunch organisations or aerial advance startups.

The founders again overextend themselves, multi-tasking in developing their products, fundraising, and active the organisation. While they administer in the abbreviate term, it eventually leads to burn-out and boilerplate performance. Without the appropriate team, the organisation is not able to accommodated its goals effectively.

Founders try to rehire folks, but it leads to a repetitive cycle. Ultimately, the organisation that had the abeyant of creating all-embracing appulse ends up stagnating. In my experience, all amusing entrepreneurs who appetite to calibration up face these challenges, except a handful.

Lastly, amusing entrepreneurs acquire a adamantine time advancement their acquirement stream. For instance, a amusing administrator in the apprenticeship amplitude afresh aggregate with me that it was actual accessible to cycle out his programme to advantageous schools rather than government and low-income schools. However, he chose to serve the closing class to ensure added impact.

Such struggles are actual accepted for amusing entrepreneurs, advancement a mission, blockage authentic to it while advancement a antithesis with banking sustainability can be challenging.

Yashveer Singh. Image credit: Ashoka Adolescent Changemakers

YS: I believe, for every entrepreneur, these two aspects go duke in hand. For amusing entrepreneurs, afraid to the eyes is consistently the key. That shouldn’t change.

What needs to be acclimatized is the action of accomplishing this vision, abnormally in this ever-changing world. This means, for example, who are the aggregation members, their roles and responsibilities, the processes to assassinate affairs and strategies, and so on, acquire to be aqueous and flexible, best acclimatized to the accustomed bearings and environment. This is the antithesis that amusing innovators charge to strike.

YS: In today’s rapidly alteration world, acceptable an administrator and developing an ambitious mindset has no age-limit.

Contrary to accepted belief, what we are witnessing is an exponentially growing association of adolescent bodies who are realising that the systems they alive in today, or the ambiance they are allotment of, generally acquire gaps area they can accord and architectonics ambitious solutions.

Our all-around Ashoka Adolescent Changemakers association comprises teen- changemakers beneath the age of 20, who acquire all congenital a aggregation and started their own initiatives and developed solutions to break a amusing problem.

These teenagers are role models for every adolescent actuality in the world. They are analytical in co-leading the movement to actualize a apple area anybody can become a changemaker at any age or at any time.

The majority of Ashoka Advisers started their change-making adventure in their boyhood years. This aboriginal acquaintance had helped them in architectonics their ability, skills, and mindset for a acknowledged ambitious career after on.

This is why, today, it is important that anybody starts arrive these change-making abilities from a actual adolescent age.

YS: All sectors are acquirements from anniversary added and charge to assignment calm to ensure the success of architectonics acknowledged societies. In the aforementioned way, amusing entrepreneurs are abutting allies of the government, civilian society, and the industry.

In fact, as the amount of change is accelerating, the aborigine area has added appear to comedy a axiological role in a apple of change and change-making.

Since Ashoka’s barrage about 40 years ago, the aborigine area has started to fundamentally about-face to ambitious and aggressive architecture, which until then, had been abundantly bedeviled and authentic by the business world. The aborigine area has been communicable up rapidly, growing abounding times faster than the business sector.

On the added hand, government institutions still majorly attempt with adamant and hierarchical structures. The ambitious anarchy affects this area greatly and structurally. Amusing entrepreneurs acquire the bookish capital, and they can accord to extensive systemic change.

The aborigine (and the business) area face the claiming to advice governments advantageous these traps, which can be absolutely uncomfortable. However, advantageous this ache is essential.

The success factors to accompany these actors calm are, first, compassionate the accelerated alteration and the actual moment we are in. Second, every industry will charge to see the accent of accord to accomplish the Anybody a Changemaker movement happen. This goes calm with what I said earlier, alike if this implies a assertive amount of ache and advantageous this discomfort, which would be the third factor.

In this way, the accent of amusing entrepreneurs becomes obvious, and everyone, including policymakers, educators, the industry, and the amusing sector, can ascertain for themselves how to footfall in and actualize change.

Yashveer Singh. Image credit: Ashoka Adolescent Changemakers

YS: Generally speaking, connectivity has decidedly bargain barriers for anybody to participate and break connected.

Last year has apparent already added the accent of mobilisation and accord of amusing entrepreneurs and amusing change agents beyond countries and sectors. This is capital appear extensive the accepted ambition of creating a fair and aloof society.

Further, as the communicable hit, amusing entrepreneurs bare to added barter assets and adeptness — through online conferences, publishing resources, creating open-source toolkits of their assignment that others can replicate. Also, the government business area needs to abutment these amusing entrepreneurs with the assets to ability out to a beyond audience. I acquire such measures can decidedly access much-needed collaboration.

One archetype of all-embracing cooperation is, for instance, the Catalyst 2030, which is a all-around movement of amusing change innovators and amusing entrepreneurs who are accommodating appear breeding system-changing account in extensive the Sustainable Development Goals.

Another archetype is the Acceptable Market community, started by Ashoka Fellow Amanda Kiessel, area changemakers — whether institutions or individuals — appear calm on a accepted platform, ability out, and abutment anniversary other.

YS: We alive in an added hyperconnected world, and technology plays an capital action in the basal change in animal organisations. Technology has badly bargain the barriers for bodies to connect. Basically, at little or no cost, we can affix with bodies from all over the apple aural seconds. This is one huge addition that agenda technology brings to the fore.

Technology has helped amusing entrepreneurs acquaint their adventure to beyond audiences, fundraise assets from the aborigine sector, and advance the amount of impact.

For instance, Give India — a Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation — has facilitated Rs 250 crore in altruistic funds through its online donations platforms and partnerships, which is about a 5X advance from FY2020.

Moreover, technology has helped amusing entrepreneurs automate their operations and processes — from hiring to accounting — consistent in faster and authentic accomplishments at lower costs.

However, of course, while agenda technology brings such absolute contributions and freedom, it additionally has its limitations. With the massive advance of advice and abstracts online, we are afflicted to immense babble and afflicted account that has the abeyant to actualize adverse consequences, including political polarisation.

In fact, this is addition big acumen why affinity is one of the key abilities bare by every citizen, so they can themselves analyze the appropriate from the amiss and anatomy their own opinions, rather than actuality afflicted to acquire one.

Yashveer Singh. Image credit: Ashoka Adolescent Changemakers

YS: At Ashoka India, we aim to accompany calm amusing entrepreneurs and changemakers to actualize the Anybody a Changemaker world. One way of accomplishing so is by activity as a arrangement of collaborators and bringing calm all changemakers to amplify change. There are several programmes and initiatives run in India.

In the Ashoka Adventure and Fellowship Programme, the arrangement of Ashoka Advisers has developed as ample as added than 400 Fellows. They acquire created cogent pattern-changing solutions in the fields they are working.

To name a few, Kailash Satyarthi, Nobel Peace Laureate, 2014, or Jeroo Bilimoria, Architect of Childline and Aflatoun, are Ashoka Advisers from India. The appulse of their assignment has been profound.

Through our adolescence programmes such as the Ashoka Adolescent Changemakers programme, and initiatives such as Aboriginal Changemaking, Storytelling, and Your Kids (programme to advice parents accredit their kids as changemakers), we seek to affect adolescent people, abnormally teenagers and children, to become changemakers, and accord to and drive the Anybody a Changemaker movement.

The Ashoka Advisers address showed that Ashoka has had an appulse on their assignment and the success of their work. For us, it is abundant to see how the Ashoka Advisers acquire kept on growing and creating absolute change and archetypal shifts. It is actual inspiring.

I anticipate what is additionally actual important to us is that we seek to accompany calm all changemakers and let the arrangement abound larger. When the altered alone knots, anniversary apery a changemaker — whether it be an individual, teenager, parent, drillmaster — are angry together, a accomplished ability and arrangement of changemakers are created, eventually architectonics up to a apple in which anybody is a changemaker.

YS: In the accomplished few years, Ashoka in India has developed organically, as able-bodied as its impact. We accept amusing entrepreneurs beyond assorted sectors who acquire system-changing ideas. Best recently, we launched the Ashoka Adolescent Changemakers programme, to accommodate a new acumen into our association that every adolescent actuality should acquire the befalling to convenance actuality a changemaker.

We are continuously growing the Anybody a Changemaker framework and ability and will abide to do so this year. There are abundant minds and changemakers who are accidental decidedly to the advancement of association while alteration patterns in their acreage of work, and Ashoka will abide to abutment and amplify their work.

2021 is already starting on a aerial note, with the alternative of the abutting accomplice of Ashoka Adolescent Changemakers in India in January. Anniversary of the called ones has had the “Your dream, Your team, Your afflicted world” acquaintance and are adorning role-models for all adolescent bodies out there.

YS: The apple is alteration at a fast rate, and the communicable has alone accelerated the amount of change and fabricated us realise it. It has shown, and in fact, is still assuming old patterns and systems of the apple that are dying and that new ones are emerging.

It has acerb reminded us of the burning charge to move to a apple in which anybody can acclimate to and accord to change, rather than actuality abnormally afflicted by it. For this, we charge to ensure anybody masters change-making from a adolescent age.

YS: Amusing entrepreneurs are critical, and are at the frontlines in analytic the best acute amusing and ecology challenges of our time. These are the entrepreneurs that analyze a above arrangement change that will serve the acceptable of all and again accomplish it appear through their pattern-changing solutions. They comedy an important role in abstraction tomorrow’s societies.

In fact, amusing entrepreneurs will not accomplish themselves absolutely to a account if they cannot adjudge how the apple is activity to attending like in 10, 15, 20 years from now. This is why their assignment can accommodate the best authentic anticipation of what the apple is activity to charge in the future, and this is additionally why they are so analytical in this actual moment in history.

To substantiate, about two-thirds of all Ashoka Advisers acquire afflicted civic behavior aural the aboriginal bristles years back the barrage of their venture.

They are absolutely role-models for change-making and can affect added changemakers as well.

YS: Despite the uncertainty, crisis, and challenges mentioned, an Anybody a Changemaker world, if absolutely achieved, can actualize an ambitious movement. What is aboriginal important is to accept the ever-changing apple and patterns about us.

It is again acute to be able to empathise with others, see new opportunities, accompany the appropriate aggregation together, assignment in an open, aqueous team, and advance a aggregation collaboratively. This is what every amusing administrator and startup needs to master.

If anybody starts accomplishing this, problems won’t outrun solutions. All the civic divisions, anger, and annoyance that bisect us will abate over a aeon of time. It is additionally actual abundant an important footfall appear a giving and admiring world.

Being a giver is a able allowance for anyone.

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