Legendary Social Entrepreneur: Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak

The Prime Minister of Bharat Sri Narendra Modi worked closely with Dr. Pathak, recognized his work and acknowledged Dr. Pathak to be one of his leading sources of inspiration for mass sanitation and cleanliness programs. —  Alok Singh

Entrepreneurship is the buzzword of doing rounds among the younger generations. The scarcity of jobs in the government sector and the diminishing growth rate of jobs in the private sector have enabled the change in mindset to look for an entrepreneurship opportunity. 

The arrival of artificial intelligence and its variants are killing job opportunity which is not only repetitive in nature but also those jobs that demand critical decision-making. The battle between the jobs that can be done solely by humans and the jobs that can be done by machines has reached an extreme point. 

For a few countries, the arrival of artificial intelligence and its variants is a boon, and for a few countries, it needs to be regulated without any delay. The demographics of the population are the determinant of whether the artificial intelligence-enabled job replacement is a boon or a bane. Anyway, it’s the best alternative for a country depending on the scale of availability of efficient human resources. If there is no young generation to do the job then there is no way other than to engage machines for the job, choice is limited and the work needs to be done. 

Let’s talk about Bharat. Our country is young and will remain the youngest country in the world till the year 2047. Currently, we have 74 crore people who are less than 30 years of age and 37 crore people who are in the age group of 15 to 29 years. These are looking for jobs and many are in the pipeline for jobs, almost one crore additional people will be added every year to hunt for jobs. It’s simply impossible to imagine for job for all of these. But the solution has to be explored. The path has to be followed.  Otherwise, the government will provide them with free feeding, living, health, and other necessities for survival including entertainment for a healthy mind. But such unemployed youths will be a burden to society.

The solution lies in self-employment and cooperatives, the solution lies in a contemporary variant of barter system, the solution lies in entrepreneurship, and the solution lies in thinking innovatively for oneself to fill the gap which makes life easier for people. The solution lies in value addition at a local level. The solution lies in an idea that can add value, which can make life easier, which is acceptable to the audiences for which it has been created. There are many success stories of powerful ideas that has been executed well.

Facebook is an idea; Twitter is an idea and both these ideas have become the biggest corporates of the world. When the ideas are powerful, then the financials and other business necessities follows. It’s the idea that needs to be powerful. The young population of our nation has to be innovative to create jobs for themselves and be courageous enough to take risks and be successful. The livelihood of the youngsters in the coming future will be either self-dependent or state-dependent. When it is state-dependent then they will get free food, health, and survival necessities, and their mental and psychological health will be compromised which will be a threat to family, society, and the nation. Social entrepreneurship is something which provides hug scope for our youngsters. The youth need to think of the idea first. The development of products and execution will follow as the time moves ahead.

The biggest social entrepreneurship idea that the world ever witnessed is Sulabh International. No one could imagine, visualize, or dream of a social entrepreneurship journey that Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak could. He took a huge risk, not in terms of sustainable social entrepreneurship but huge risk in terms of support from family, support from society, and support from his target audience. But he did it and he did it so successfully that Sulabh spread its wings beyond the boundaries of Bharat. 

There is uncertainty in every entrepreneurship and there is no funding from the organized financial sector. There is no sustainable profit for even a not-for-profit organization. But Dr. Pathak managed to survive his dream. It took almost fifty years for the prime minister of Bharat to acknowledge from the rampant of the Red Fort that Swachh Bharat is the mission of every citizen of the nation. The mass movement started by an individual named Dr. Pathak was joined by every citizen of the country. 

The commitment to a powerful idea without bothering about success or failure, with no intention to create huge personal wealth is what social entrepreneurship is all about. A person can think of an idea of a mass sanitation movement, starting from ‘pay and use’ toilets at bus stands and railway stations, and after fifty years the prime minister is acknowledging the commitments of the individual and the depth of the idea and spreading the idea of Swachhta to everywhere,and to everyone. 

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak can be a synonym for social entrepreneurship. A person can think of toilets as a business model. It’s a motivation for youngsters to think outside of the box and create an innovative social entrepreneurship business that is sustainable, profitable, and at the same time makes the life of society easier, is valuable to the users, and is replicated worldwide. The turnover of Sulabh International which is a not-for-profit organization is more than 500 crores today. The research and development on executing the idea are equally important as important is the idea itself. The enthusiasts’ entrepreneurs should read the life story of Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak and the way the idea of mass sanitation was executed starting from convincing family and friends about the work for his livelihood, correct and affordable product development through research, financial management, human resources training, satisfying statutory requirements, convincing bureaucrats, influencing local to national policymakers, creating awareness among the users of the products, the execution of the project, scaling up of the product, going international with the product, and diversifying the product portfolio.

Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak was born on 2 April 1943 at the village Rampur Baghel in Vaishali district of Bihar and died on 15 August 2023 at New Delhi. The Prime Minister of Bharat Sri Narendra Modi worked closely with Dr. Pathak, recognized his work and acknowledged Dr. Pathak to be one of his leading sources of inspiration for mass sanitation and cleanliness programs.           

(Alok Singh is a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Management Indore and a freelancer academician.) 

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