ET Evoke Social Entrepreneur Award: Neelam Chhiber of Industree first to bag new award

Neelam Chhiber, cofounder and managing trustee of Industree Foundation, emerged as the first recipient of the ET Evoke Social Entrepreneur Award 2020. The new category formed under the ET Awards for Corporate Excellence aims to celebrate the very best in the field of social entrepreneurship.

Chosen by a specially constituted jury, which met virtually on Wednesday, Chhiber was the unanimous choice for crafting an exemplary model that has made a positive impact on the livelihood of artisans, promoted sustainable and responsible sourcing while also providing scale and growth for the enterprise.

The jury led by Rohini Nilekani, founder-chairperson of Arghyam Foundation, included Anu Aga, chairperson of Teach for India; Sunita Narain, director, Centre for Science and Environment and FabIndia’s chairman William Bissell. From a shortlist of five candidates, the jury concluded that Chhiber’s leadership of Industree, which also encompasses the Mother Earth brand, was an “ outstanding” example of social entrepreneurship.


‘This will Help Open More Doors’
“It feels great to be selected by such an eminent jury. Awards like these are important in raising awareness and also help open more doors,” Chhiber told ET. “There is a trust deficit in the sector and people don’t know who they can trust. Awards like these are important for the trust deficit to go down,” she added.

Industree works with artisans in rural areas — particularly women belonging to the backward communities. It provides design, technical, marketing and management solutions to bridge the urban-rural divide.

“This (Covid) was a period where we recognised that our model works. We take work to the artisans in their homes and they don’t have to deal with the issues around reverse migration,” said Chhiber.

Jury chair Nilekani was of the view that it was important that The Economic Times recognised the social sector not just as corporate social responsibility, but as a sector aligned to the market as well.

‘A Lesson for Corp Businesses’
“Social sector entrepreneurs have something corporate business groups can learn from in terms of sustainability and co-creation of goals by the whole team,” Nilekani said.

An aspect highlighted by CSE’s Narain was the connection between artisans and nature. “One of the ways to ensure sustainability is high-value use of nature in building sustainable livelihoods,” she said.

Pointing out that artisans need support even at the best of times, Aga said that “Industree and Neelam helped the very poor earn a living during Covid,” aided the jury in coming to a “satisfying consensus on selecting the winner”.

The shortlist was drawn up by ET’s knowledge partner for this category — Dasra, a strategic philanthropy organisation that works with NGOs and funders. “We looked at a combination of scalability, sustainability and innovation, all of which would be critical in a post-Covid India,” said Anant Bhagwati, director, Dasra.

Underlining the importance of recognising work that uplifts the needy during a time of global turmoil, FabIndia’s Bissell quoted American author John Steinbeck: “The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits for success. And while men admire the quality of the first, they love the produce of the second.”