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Business School on Wheels for Rural Women
 

The districts of North Karnataka consist largely of drought-prone areas and its economy is mainly agricultural. The increasing number of farmers’ suicide due to large indebtedness and continuously poor harvests in drought-prone Karnataka caught national attention, as over 4,000 farmer suicides occurred in the past five years.  While those who chose to continue farming increasingly suffer from indebtedness, many others shifted to temporary informal sector employment to make ends meet.

In September 2007, with the help of Deshpande Foundation and Ashoka Foundation, Mann Deshi and Mann Vikas began a a five-year project to provide financial empowerment for rural communities in North Karnataka. This is to be achieved by offering financial services to women (formal and informal) and establishing a Business School for Rural Women. 

The Business School on Wheels for Rural Women is Mann Vikas’ innovative solution to making it’s range of courses accessible to women who due to financial or cultural constraints would be unable to access training in a central location. A bus has been designed and converted to operate as a mobile classroom which will travel from village to village within the Hubli-Dharwad area. The Business School on Wheels will offer training in a range of  technical and practical business skills which will enable women to expand or start new businesses, which will in turn be supported with start-up micro-loans through Mann Vikas’ financial services.

The financial services offered include a diverse range of micro-finance products, including savings, loans, pensions and insurance which will be coupled with comprehensive and accessible financial literacy training. These services will be offered from both a central location in Hubli and from the Business School on Wheels for Rural Women.

Local NGOs provide advice to the business school on locations where there is the most demand for entrepreneurial training and where mobile classrooms can be held. The leaders of the SHGs from the respective villages are responsible for coordinating the local logistics in their respective villages.