ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ ಉದ್ಯಮಶೀಲತೆ

Life of people on the margins of the society all over the world, more or less remained untouched by the development agenda of the First and Second Sectors. This necessitated the emergence of alternative strategies to draw the marginalized to the mainstream. Third Sector that encompasses a range of initiatives that fall in between the state and the private enterprise is one such alternative. Social entrepreneurship is a newly emerging concept within the Third Sector, which is gaining ground in North America and Europe. Though the experiment of Mohammed Yunus is quoted in debates on social entrepreneurship to give it a universal significance, the concept is largely grounded in the experiments, experiences and research works in the developed part of the world. A traverse through the terrains of the existing works on ‘Social Entrepreneurship’ reflects the dominance of the strong under currents of the ‘spirit of business enterprise’, and in the European context the dominance of the reflections of the ‘social sector’, in its definition. This is despite the fact that the spirit of enterprise being originally ‘social’ than ‘business oriented’. Moreover, the first two sectors cast their shadow on the Third sector, which holds well in case of Social Entrepreneurship as well. In developing countries the border between the first and the second sector is fuzzy and more over the social group that remains on the margins is quite large compared to that of the developed world. There has been a range of experiments to bring in the marginalized to the mainstream over a period of time even in the developing world. Surprisingly, experiences and experiments in the developing part in the sphere of social enterprise and entrepreneurship is excluded. Therefore it is strongly felt that there is a need to seriously engage with the experiments on social entrepreneurship and social enterprises in the developing world in arriving at a proper definition of the term.

In the Indian context there had been a number of experiments that has been able to bring in social changes within the community which invariably necessitated the revolutionary changes in other communities too. Initiative at some junctures of history and some sections had a chain effect, leading to overall growth of the region or a nation. If one benignly takes the definitions given and limitations set by the existing works, the crux of the concept will be lost. More so India is one of the select few countries where you will find coexistence of multi religious, multi lingual communities. Of course yet times there are problems.

I trust people from the west have to analyze the complexities to understand it properly. In case any one of you are interested to visit India you are most welcome.

Uday