Pooja Shahi is busy cross-checking the accessories she needs to pack for her 15-day, 8,000-km-long train journey across the length and breadth of the country. In go the anklets and bracelets that the 30-year-old woman entrepreneur from Surouli village, near Deoria town in Uttar Pradesh, is planning to put up for sale during the annual Jagriti Yatra, which is said to be the world’s largest entrepreneurial journey that crisscrosses 12 destinations to ‘inspire the youth to find their calling and purpose in life’.
In its 15th edition—and the first physical run since the pandemic—the 19-bogie train, carrying 510 young changemakers from across India, will be flagged off from Mumbai on December 24, 2022, touching Bengaluru, Madurai, Berhampur, Delhi, Tilonia, etc. and back to Mumbai on January 8, 2023. Shahi, who had undertaken the yatra in 2014, will be onboard as an entrepreneur this time, selling her handicraft to the participants and at every place the train stops.
“Shahi is the poster child of entrepreneurial spirit,” says Chinmay Vadnere, Chief Operating Officer of Jagriti Yatra and a 2008 yatri. “Jagriti means awakening and the journey is to help them discover their calling. The train travels across India, but the passengers barely get to see the tourist spots. Instead, they meet changemakers at every stop,” he adds.
Set up under the non-profit Jagriti Sewa Sansthan in 1997 by Shashank Mani, Jagriti Yatra was conceived as a transformational journey to ‘build India through enterprise’ with a focus on the largely untouched demographic in the tier II and III cities.
The programme’s aim is also to make a difference in agriculture, education, healthcare, arts and sports through its participants—7,000 plus so far. According to its impact study, 28 per cent of the yatris have turned entrepreneurs in the last 15 years, as the programme aims to generate 10 lakh jobs through one lakh enterprises by 2023.
Shahi, a Macramé artist, was earlier part of the yatra in 2014. She learnt the art at a local skilling centre as a 15-year-old. Impressed with her exhibits and entrepreneurial skills at a national exhibition in Deoria in 2014, Mani invited her to get aboard the entrepreneurial train. So how can a train journey across India really help an entrepreneur?
“In the train, I was thrown amid 500-plus people and was given a free hand to market my ware. In broken English, I would communicate about my art. Then my mentors and peers trained me on how to package my products and sell more,” says the budding entrepreneur.
A year after the yatra, Shahi established Arjan Crafts in her town and hired a few local women to help her. Today, her products find a place at the ethnic retail chain FabIndia and thousands of YesBank welcome kits. How much does she expect to sell this year aboard the train? “At least worth `3 lakh, I hope,” says the youngster, who is today a part of Jagriti Enterprise Centre- Purvanchal, which was set up in 2021 to create an ecosystem that can create more jobs, especially for underprivileged but skilled women.
Prasanth Lagudu, from Krishnadevipeta, 150 km away from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, says the yatra made him take the leap of faith—from engineering to farming. With a Master’s in cyber security and data analytics from Andhra University, the 25-year-old was part of the Jagriti Yatra in 2020.
Due to Covid, the journey was a digital one—via Zoom sessions, documentaries and live in-video chats. “It helped me meet people like Manjushree Gulvi, a fellow yatri who was practising organic farming in her village near Shirdi, Maharashtra. In 2021, I visited Gulvi at her farm. Her sustainable method of farming and the joy she exuded as a happy farmer inspired me to start my own farming practice that year,” he says.
The selection process to discover gems from small India is highly elaborate—this year, the final 510 were handpicked from among 23,000 who applied. “We ensure there is the diversity of age, competence, education, gender (40 percent women), socio-economic status, etc. so that we present an Indian microcosm,” says Vadnere.
A typical day begins with an early breakfast followed by a briefing of the day. By 10 am, they are meeting changemakers at different destinations. Post-lunch, they are back on the train and the participants divide themselves into groups to come up with solutions for problems and discuss them with 75 facilitators and 100 mentors. In the evening, the participants brainstorm and network.
This year, the yatris will meet Anshul Gupta, founder of Delh-based NGO Goonj, to learn about their fundraising process, and the team of Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, to understand how it manages to run a cross-subsidy system of eye care. In two words, what would the 2022 yatra entail? “Goosebumps, guaranteed,” sums up Vadnere.