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Penguin Books Ltd - Milind Khandekar

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88 pages

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Dalit Millionaires is a collection of profiles of fifteen Dalit entrepreneurs who have braved both societal and business pressures to carve out highly profitable niches for themselves. The book is a vivid chronicle of how the battle has moved from the village well to the marketplace. There are tales describing how the multimillionaire Ashok Khade, at one time, did not have even four annas to replace the nib of a broken pen, how Kalpana Saroj, a child bride, worked her way to becoming a property magnate, and how Sanjay Kshirsagar moved on from a 120-foot tenement and now seems well on his way to become the emperor of a 500-crorerupee firm. The only common thread through these stories is the spirit that if you can imagine it, you can do it.

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Publié par	Penguin Books Ltd
Date de parution	15 décembre 2013
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9789351185833
Langue	English

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Extrait

Milind Khandekar

DALIT MILLIONAIRES
15 Inspiring Stories
Translated from The Hindi by Vandana R. Singh and Reenu Talwar
Contents
About the Author
Dedication
Introduction
A Note on the Translations
1. ASHOK KHADE
The Tree That Keeps Giving
2. KALPANA SAROJ
Unlimited Imagination
3. RATILAL MAKWANA
Beating the Boycott
4. MALKIT CHAND
Money Grows on Trees
5. SAVITABEN PARMAR
Coal Changed My Fortunes
6. BHAGWAN GAWAI
Rags to Riches
7. HARSH BHASKAR
The Science of Success
8. DEVJIBHAI MAKWANA
The Threads of Success
9. HARI KISHAN PIPPAL
Left Home to Conquer the World
10. ATUL PASWAN
Made in Japan
11. DEVKINANDAN SON
Gobar Chowki to Taj Plaza
12. J.S. PHULIA
Ambition Takes Flight
13. SARATH BABU
Engineering an Idli
14. SANJAY KSHIRSAGAR
From Chawl to Skyscraper
15. SWWAPNIL BHINGARDEVAY
I Had a Dream Too
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Follow Penguin
Copyright Page
PORTFOLIO
DALIT MILLIONAIRES
Milind Khandekar has over twenty-two years of experience in the field of journalism. He is currently managing editor at Media Content and Communications Services (I) Pvt. Ltd (MCCS), and looks after the editorial content of ABP News, ABP Ananda and ABP Majha. He has previously worked with the Navbharat Times and Aaj Tak. He is a product of the Times Centre for Media Studies, and received the Rajendra Mathur Award for best trainee (Hindi) in 1991.
Dr Vandana R. Singh is an author, translator, teacher and editor, and has several published literary translations to her credit. To know more about her work please visit: www.vandanarsingh.com .
Reenu Talwar is a writer and translator based in Chandigarh, and her work has appeared in reputed Hindi literary magazines. To explore more of her work please visit: www.anoodit.blogspot.in .
This book is dedicated to S.P.
Introduction
HARSH BHASKAR OF AGRA EXPLAINS the difference between having one s own business and working for someone else, in very simple terms. After thirty days of work, a job guarantees you a salary; but thirty days of slogging in the field of business guarantees nothing. You could find yourself exactly where you started after several days of hard work. It is for this reason that most of us are wary of giving up a job to start a business-though we could well be running the same business for someone else. But those who do take the risk, often reap high rewards.
Like Harsh, Mumbai s Ashok Khade was convinced that he would make more money by starting his own business and, consequently, gave up his government job in Mazagaon Dock after eighteen years.
Similarly, after working in different petroleum companies in Dubai for seventeen years, Bhagwan Gawai decided to set up his own business. Even though his salary was always sufficient to see him through his own life, if he were to take the plunge he would be in a position to earn enough to leave behind something for his children s children.
Dhirubhai Ambani, founder of Reliance Industries, and Narayana Murthy of Infosys, perhaps had the same thoughts that Bhagwan, Ashok or Harsh did while they were setting up their own businesses. But unlike the former, the fifteen entrepreneurs whose stories are included in this book had to overcome a more specific challenge-their caste was a major roadblock in their journey to success. Though caste-based discrimination is a punishable offence and can result in conviction, the law has its limitations, and age-old social structures find ways of perpetrating subtle discrimination. For example, when Ratilal Makwana from Bhavnagar, Gujarat, started an agency to sell petrochemicals produced by Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited, local plastic manufacturers refused to deal with him because he was a Dalit. Similarly, when Malkit Chand set up a hosiery unit in Ludhiana, Punjab, he had to buy material at almost Rs 15-20 per kilogram more than the average rate on account of being a Dalit.
It is important here to mention the speech Babasaheb Ambedkar delivered at the concluding session of the Parliament on 25 November 1949. He had said, We should make political democracy a social democracy also. Elaborating on social democracy, he explained that its essence lies in creating a society based on liberty, equality and fraternity for all. Babasaheb goes on to say:
On the 26th of January 1950, we are going to enter into a life of contradictions. In politics we will have equality and in social and economic life we will have inequality. In politics we will be recognizing the principle of one man one vote and one vote one value. In our social and economic life, we shall, by reason of our social and economic structure, continue to deny the principle of one man one value. How long shall we continue to live this life of contradictions? How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life? If we continue to deny it for long, we will do so only by putting our political democracy in peril.
Babasaheb s concern was valid. While the situation is better, India has still not risen above social and economic inequality. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment reveals that 27.5 per cent of India s population survives below the poverty line even today. However, in the case of scheduled castes or Dalits this figure touches 36.8 per cent in villages, and is as high as 39.9 per cent in cities. These figures clearly show that as compared to other communities there is greater poverty amongst the Dalits, meaning there are still many hurdles to overcome.
Dalit Millionaires narrates the stories of fifteen individuals who faced these obstacles only to set up multi-crore business empires in the last few years.
These entrepreneurs are from every sector of the economy. Kalpana Saroj turned around Mumbai s Kamani Tubes Limited which had shut down, and transformed it into a profit-making company. Ashok Khade s company DAS Offshore Engineering Private Limited manufactures platforms used at Bombay High refinery for oil extraction. Hari Kishan Pippal of Agra runs People s Heritage Hospital, and Devkinandan Son runs the Taj Plaza hotel, located close to the Taj Mahal. Savitaben Kolsawallah of Ahmedabad makes tiles, while Devjibhai Makwana of Bhavnagar manufactures filament yarn.
Dalit businessmen are no longer begging for jobs-now they re actually creating jobs. The Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI), an organization that brings all Dalit entrepreneurs under one umbrella, reveals that Dalit businessmen pay as much as Rs 1700 crore as tax to the government. Their total turnover is Rs 20,000 crore and they provide employment to 5 lakh people. Dalit entrepreneurs rubbish the general impression that their community is always asking the government for sops. They are proud of the tax they pay and the employment they generate.
The success of Dalit businessmen debunks the theory floated by so-called upper-caste lobbies or those belonging to the general category that Dalits are forging ahead with the support of the government and depriving others of jobs. Of these fifteen millionaires, barely three or four have actually benefited from reservation at the time of admission into educational institutions or getting a job. Harsh Bhaskar, chairman of Kota Tutorials, is an alumnus of IIT, Roorkee. He says, People forget that reservation only helps with admission, not with results. A student passes or fails in an exam on the basis of merit and not reservation.
Just as there is no reservation for results, there is no reservation in the market. It cannot be attributed to coincidence that most of the Dalit millionaires featured in this book started their businesses after 1991, the year the government opened the economy to the world market. Prior to this, the government issued licences for manufacturing and also decided the quantum of production and the sale price. When the market opened, Dalit businessmen put up a valiant fight to become successful millionaires on their own merit.
The liberalization of the economy has proved to be a boon for these Dalit industrialists. Most of them agree that the new market environment has put them on par with other players. This helps put to rest the claim of liberalization-bashers that the new set-up benefits only those who already belong to the privileged class and that Dalits, tribals and backward classes are at a further disadvantage in the new business environment.
The success of Dalit businessmen in the twenty years following the liberalization of the economy has come as a ray of hope. Many Dalits have finally been able to achieve economic equality, owing to their own hard work, rather than help from the government. In 2013, Milind Kamble, president, DICCI, and Kalpana Saroj, chairperson, Kamani Tubes, were even awarded the Padma Shri. They are the first Dalits to be honoured for their contribution to the field of business and entrepreneurship. Kalpana Saroj was right when she commented that if Babasaheb were alive today he would have tears of joy in his eyes.
A Note on the Translations
Vandana R. Singh has translated the following stories in this book: Ashok Khade: The Tree That Keeps Giving , Kalpana Saroj: Unlimited Imagination , Ratilal Makwana: Beating the Boycott , Malkit Chand: Money Grows on Trees , Bhagwan Gawai: Rags to Riches , Harsh Bhaskar: The Science of Success , Devjibhai Makwana: The Threads of Success , Devkinandan Son: Gobar Chowki to Taj Plaza and Swwapnil Bhingardevay: I Had a Dream Too .
Reenu Talwar has translated the following stories in this book: Savitaben Parmar: Coal Changed My Fortunes , Hari Kishan Pippal: Left Home to Conquer the World , Atul Paswan: Made in Japan , J.S. Phulia: Ambition Takes Flight , Sarath Babu: Engineering an Idli and Sanjay Kshirsagar: From Chawl to Skyscraper .
1
Ashok Khade

THE TREE THAT KEEPS GIVING
ASHOK KHADE AND I WERE in the middle of our conversation at his Navi Mumbai office, when he held up two pens-one w