PROJECT SHAKTI A HINDUSTAN UNILEVER INITIATIVE

BY: HARD KOTHARI ABHISHEK NAYAR

HUL & Rural Development

HUL linked the companys core business with rural development initiatives as it is mutually beneficial to both the society at large and for the company. Rural sales contribute around 40% to HLLs overall sales HUL has been proactively engaged in rural development since 1976 with the initiation of the Integrated Rural Development Program in Uttar Pradesh. This Programme now covers 500 villages in the district.

 HUL generates nearly half of its business from rural areas

where its products are sold in some 1,00,000 villages. The challenge was to reach the 5,00,000 villages with smaller populations and in remote areas where there are millions of customers but no retail distribution network, no advertising coverage and poor roads and transport. HULs solution for this was called Project Shakti, which was both bold and innovative. HUL decided to tap into the growing number of women Self Help Groups (SHG).

Objective
To create income-generating capabilities for underprivileged

rural women, by providing a sustainable micro enterprise opportunity, and to improve rural living standards through health and hygiene awareness.

Shakti-Empowering Women in Rural India

To create income generating capabilities for underprivileged

rural women ,by providing employment. To improve rural living standards through health and hygiene awareness through the Shakti Vani programme, and creating access to relevant information through the iShakti community portal.

 HUL invited women of these SHGs to become direct to

consumer sales distributors. The company provides self help group women with training in selling, commercial knowledge and bookkeeping, teaching them to become fully-fledged micro-entrepreneurs. The women who are trained can then choose to set up their own business or to become Project Shakti distributors or Shakti Ammas. Each woman who becomes a distributor invests 10,000 15,000 rupees (US$220-330) in stock at the outset usually borrowing from self-help groups or micro-finance banks facilitated by Hindustan Lever.

 Most generate sales of 10,000-12,000 rupees a month, netting a

monthly profit of 700 1000 rupees.

The project started in a few pilot villages in Andhra Pradesh in

2000.
In 2002 it expanded to two states and by the end of 2004 had

grown to over 13,000 Shakti women entrepreneurs covering 50,000 villages in 12 states, selling to 70 million consumers.
This represents a 30% increase in rural population reached.

Working
Villages with a population of about 20003000 are selected Personnel from HUL approach SHGs Selection of the Shakti Amma HUL vouches for Shakti Ammas with banks for credit One Shakti entrepreneur is appointed for one village & villages

that are about 2 km apart from her village (satellite villages ).

Pricing
Sachets and small packs of premium products. Price doesnt exceed Rs.5 per sachet. Lux at Rs.5, Lifebuoy at Rs.2, Surf Excel sachet at Rs.1.50, Pond's Talc at Rs.5, Pepsodent toothpaste at Rs. 5, Fair & Lovely Skin Cream at Rs.5, Pond's Cold Cream at Rs.5, Brooke Bond Taaza tea at Rs.5.

Distribution
Distribution is done in 3 ways: Door to door selling (11% margin on sales) Sells from own home (11% margin on sales) Retailers (3% margin) Averages sales : Rs. 10,000 - Rs. 15,000/month, profit - Rs.1,000 per month

iShakti
Project Shakti went a stage further by launching iShakti (Community

Portal) with the support of Government of Andhra Pradesh.

Mostly housed in the homes of Shakti entrepreneurs, i-Shakti kiosks

provide villagers with free information on a wide range of topics, including health and hygiene, agriculture and horticulture, child and adult education, finance, employment, and entertainment.
Shakti has been developed to provide information and services to

meet rural needs in medical health and hygiene, agriculture, animal husbandry, education, vocational training and employment and women's empowerment
The vision is to have 10,000 kiosks across the state by 2011

Shakti Vani
Shakti Vani is another initiative in which Hindustan Unilever is

training rural women to give talks to villagers about basic health practices, such as good hygiene, disease prevention and pre- and post-natal care.

Lifebuoy Swasthya Chetna

It is rural health and hygiene initiative which started in 2002.

LBSC was initiative in media dark villages in (UP, MP, Bihar, Orrisa )with the objective of spreading awareness about the washing hands with soap. Being Indias leading personal wash health brand lifebuoy saw a role for itself in propagating the message of hygiene and health in village . LBSC is multi-phased activity which works towards effecting behaviour change amongst the rural population it touches. It target children as they are the indications of change in society they are the custodians of health. The first interaction with students is then replicated with women and finally the rest of the community.

States covered in Project Shakti

Issues
Low margins Difficulty in acquiring finance. Transportation Low disposable income (dependence on monsoon ).

Other Activities by HUL

Improve the business skills of the SHG women, extensive

training programmes are being held . Workshops have already covered a large number of Shakti Entrepreneurs in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Chattisgarh and Orissa. As part of their training programme, all HUL Management Trainees spend about 4 weeks on Project Shakti in rural areas. The factories that HUL continued establishing in less-developed regions of the country have been engaged in developing rural market in adjacent villages. These factory-centered activities mainly focus on training farmers, animal husbandry, generating alternative income, health & hygiene and infrastructure development.

Conclusion
Project Shakti is enabling families to live with dignity and in

better health & hygiene, education of the children and overall betterment in living standards. It creates a win-win partnership between HUL and the rural consumers for mutual benefit and growth.