MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

Grassroutes

One-line solution summary:

Creating new, sustainable, livelihoods in rural India through development of community-based enterprises in hospitality

Pitch your solution.

Majority of India’s exploding 1.3 billion people live on less than $ 2 a day, stay in villages, and is dependent on rainfed subsistence farming, leading to mass distress migration, exploitation of scarce biodiversity. Rural India is in need of non-farm based livelihoods with regular cash cycles.

Tourism and hospitality have proven to be efficient economic engines, but often accompanied by ostracization of local communities & environmental degradation.

Through development of ‘Community based hospitality enterprises’ (CBHE); (wherein the hospitality services of Lodging, F&B, Recreation & Merchandising are owned, managed & run by the local rural communities themselves); Grassroutes has ensured new livelihoods opportunities and regular cash cycles to rural communities, especially to women & youth, via bringing tourism and hospitality services within their remit. Migration is no longer necessary to supplement income; and local culture and biodiversity are preserved and celebrated due to their entrenchment in our product offerings.

Film your elevator pitch.

What specific problem are you solving?

Over two-thirds of India’s 1.3 billion still lives in rural areas and are engaged in agriculture, which contributes only 15% to the GDP. Poverty is rampant (300 million Indians in rural India are below poverty) as majority of agriculture is dependent on the monsoons, has poor soil conditions, minimal use of modern farming methods, lack of systematic irrigation facilities, absence of post-harvest facilities and sustainable market linkages.

Further India has moved to being an increasingly cash based economy. However, the lack of livelihood creation, and unavailability of viable sources of cash income at the base of the pyramid, has led to mass distress migration & exploitation of already scarce biodiversity.

The need of the hour is rural non farm livelihood opportunities

Tourism contribute to 10% of India’s GDP & engaging 8.1 % of its workforce (is labour intensive) tourism is a proven economic development engine, which is also efficient Rs. 1 million in provides employment to 90 in tourism, 45 in agriculture, 13 people in manufacturing in India.

However tourism development in India, concentrated in a few circuits or destinations, is Infrastructure and investment heavy, leading to the exclusion of local communities and environment degradation.

What is your solution?

We create new, sustainable, non-farm livelihoods in rural India through development of community-based hospitality enterprises (CBHE) wherein the hospitality services of Lodging, F&B, Recreation & Merchandising are owned, managed & run by the local rural communities themselves.

By creating new livelihoods at the local village level itself, Grassroutes has ensured an alternative and regular cash cycle to rural communities, especially to women & youth in rural India, via bringing tourism and hospitality services within their remit. Migration is no longer necessary to supplement income; and local culture and biodiversity are preserved and celebrated due to their entrenchment in our product offerings.

We provide local communities

Availability of Skills in hospitality & entrepreneurship development through our unique contextual peer to peer training programs, & modular affordable Infrastructure
Accessibility to capital and clients through innovative online and offline marketing activities.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Grassroutes exists to provide livelihoods especially to women and youth in rural India.

Rural Indian women are often not considered as contributors to family income and are entrusted with household chores and tending to the needs of a family. If they engage as labour they are paid as a rate 20-40% below that paid to their male counterparts. As the women are at the helm of running a household, they are always on the lookout for new avenues for livelihoods and income.

Unemployment, underemployment and disguised unemployment plagues rural Indian youth.95% of Indian jobs are urban centered and require certain levels of skills and education, scarcely available in rural India. Hence most youth are found either loitering around the village, helping their family in agriculture as additional hands. Due to increased connectivity with internet, television and travel, the rural youth have high aspirations, but have limited access to skills, capital and markets.

Grassroutes model of CBHE goes beyond mere tokenism and informing, to involve, consulting, collaborating and ownership of the local village communities. From the very beginning, the local communities are at the center of decision making and development and operationalization of tourism.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Enable small and new businesses, especially in untapped communities, to prosper and create good jobs through access to capital, networks, and technology

Explain how the problem, your solution, and your solution’s target population relate to the Challenge and your selected dimension.

Through the creation of CBHE, Grassroutes is able to provide marginalized village communities with the availability of resources (training, infrastructure, products) and access to capital and markets leading to the development of community based livelihoods and enterprises

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Bombay, Maharashtra, India

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Growth: An organization with an established product, service, or business model rolled out in one or, ideally, several communities, which is poised for further growth

Who is the primary delegate for your solution?

Inir pinheiro, CEO founder