The Bind-Bond

Between the Lines: Stories of Change

In the small village of Lachhapatti where most youth in their twenties migrate to towns and cities in search for jobs, the stories of Dharmendra Bind and Gulshan Kumar Bind have become a hot topic of conversation. Their journey as self-starters has laid the first step to service underserved market needs in their village — setting an example for each other and their peers to take up entrepreneurship as a reliable livelihood option — a path less encouraged in the community.

Walking in the village of Lachhapatti, you will not miss the shopping complex with Gulshan’s Computer Service Centre (CSC) and Dhramendra’s videography service Centre. Their Centres remain surrounded by people at all times — conversing and sipping on tea as they wait for Gulshan and Dharmendra to attend to their demands. After all, no other enterprise offers such good quality services in a radius of twenty kilometers.

Born and brought up in a poor family of weavers, Gulshan was amongst the first in his family tree to complete his undergraduate studies. His determination and passion towards exploring digital economy based work drove him towards this feat. His family, specially his father, has always provided Gulshan with the motivational support to pursue his dreams. In 2015, Gulshan received a scholarship and invested it in setting up a computer service enterprise. He started out by renting a room in a shopping complex in his village and just one computer. A few days after setting up his enterprise, the government run Common Service Centre (CSC) scheme was introduced in his village — the timing could not have been better. Gulshan applied to become a CSC agent and got trained in providing information on public utility services, welfare schemes, financial, and agriculture services.

Gulshan shares, “I did not feel like applying for jobs in the city after completing my studies. I wanted to stay in my village and guide other people, specially youth like me, in accessing reliable information. I believe reliable information is powerful enough to connect and match my village to the cities.”

Gulshan started attending meetings with his community members and other entrepreneurs in May 2018. In these, he discussed the challenges he was facing on account of low capital and limited access to service portals to service the growing demand information on government schemes. By June 2018, some ideas started taking shape. He registered as an agent on state government websites for providing more information on agricultural schemes — the main profession in his village. He also connected with a program for accessing a technology grant with which he bought a printer. This increased his portfolio of services and the mark up on existing services as he was able to provide print outs. In order to encourage more youth in his village to explore entrepreneurship as an option, Gulshan is publicising an interactive information booklet at his CSC and made one of his friends, Dharmendra Bind read it.

Like Gulshan, Dharmendra was brought up in a poor family but had to drop out of school because his family could not afford it and instead started working as an errand boy at his uncle’s photo studio. He recalls, “It was pretty tough for me to drop out of school and work when my friends were still going to school. But now I think it was destiny.” He started out by assisting his uncle in tasks such as carrying heavy equipment and handling lighting but eventually became drawn to learning the art of photography and operating the cameras. Over a course of five years, Dharmendra taught himself video recording and photography techniques, gradually started handling more tasks around the studio.

After going through the information booklet and talking to Gulshan about his experience of running his own enterprise, Dharmendra decided to accompany Gulshan to one of the community awareness meetings on entrepreneurship. He became a regular participant of the community meetings and co-created a business plan to set up a videography enterprise with other entrepreneurs. With support from his family and friends, he rented a shop next to Gulshan’s and set up his videography enterprise in September 2018, with a second-hand computer and a handy-camera. Dharmendra trusted his self-taught skills would make his customers happy.

In order to improve his skills further to match the market demand, Dharmendra attended an animation and video editing training in Delhi and became the first certified videographer in his community. He continues to attend trainings on enterprise development and is planning on applying for a loan to access better equipment.

It has been six months since Dharmendra set up his enterprise and he has already shot twenty weddings in Mirzapur while his neighbor, Gulshan, continues to provide information to over three thousand people. Dharmendra’s income has increased by twenty-five per cent while Gulshan’s has increased by thirty per cent. Dharmendra says, “If Gulshan Bhai (brother) had never provided me with information on starting my own enterprise, I would not have been able to do it.” Both of them are now testing a collaborative model for increasing their sales by offering discounted complimentary services to create a mutual and bigger customer base.

Their bond continues to narrate the power of peer to peer mentorship.