ChanginglivesinruralIndia

Unilever in India
Unilever has been in India since 1895
Hindustan Lever formally incorporated in 1956
A subsidiary of Unilever (51.5%)
Most sought after recruiter among Indias B schools

Source of employment
15,000 permanent employees
200,000 indirect jobs

Unilever
One of the largest consumer goods companies in
the world
Global, regional and local brands
223 000 employees world-wide
Brands on sale in 151 countries
65.3 million spent on community projects in
2003 (1.7% pre-tax profits)

Mission
Unilevers mission is to add vitality to life. We
meet everyday needs for nutrition, hygiene, and
personal care with brands that help people feel
good, look good and get more out of life.

Introduction
Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) to tap this
market conceived of Project Shakti. This project
was started in 2001 with the aim of increasing the
companys rural distribution reach as well as
providing rural women with income-generating
opportunities. This is a case where the social goals
are helping achieve business goals.

 The recruitment of a Shakti Entrepreneur or Shakti

Amma (SA) begins with the executives of HUL
identifying
the
uncovered
village.
The
representative of the company meets the panchayat
and the village head and identify the woman who
they believe will be suitable as a SA. After training
she is asked to put up Rs 20,000 as investment which
is used to buy products for selling. The products are
then sold door-to-door or through petty shops at
home. On an average a Shakti Amma makes a 10%
margin on the products she sells.

Objective
The Shakti entrepreneur program creates livelihood
opportunities for underprivileged rural women.
The Shakti Vani program works to improve the quality of life
in rural India, by spreading awareness of best practices in
health and hygiene.
They are also studying the consumption habits of the rural
people.

Shakti Vani

An initiative which helps support Project Shakti is

the Shakti Vani programme. Under this programme,
trained communicators visit schools and village
congregations to drive messages on sanitation, good
hygiene practices and women empowerment. This
serves as a rural communication vehicle and helps
the SA in their sales.

 In 2001, the company embarked on an ambitious

programme, Shakti. Through Shakti, HUL is creating
micro-enterprise opportunities for rural women,
thereby improving their livelihood and the standard
of living in rural communities. Shakti also includes
health and hygiene education through the Shakti
Vani Programme, and creating access to relevant
information through the iShakti community portal.
The program now covers 15 states in India and has
over 31,000 women entrepreneurs in its fold,
reaching out to 100,000 villages and directly
reaching to 150 million rural consumers.

Communicate
Searching for a

medium

and

Achieving

Interaction

Shakti Vani
Social communication anchored on brands
health and hygiene
womens empowerment

Village women are recruited as Vanis and trained to

communicate
Vani audience: key opinion leaders, schools, SHG meetings,
other village gatherings
Specially designed communication material
easy-to-carry kit: flip-charts, leave-behind posters, banners
content developed after in-depth understanding of local context

Hand-wash demo in schools

Shakti Activities

Free Health Camps in Shakti Village

Free Dental Camps in Shakti Villages

i - Shakti
In 2004, we started i-Shakti an IT-enabled
community portal across the state of Andhra Pradesh.
i-Shakti is designed to give rural people access to
information via a network of village kiosks containing
internet linked computers run by entrepreneurs.
Villagers can access free content, developed in their
local language, or email questions on a wide range of
topics, including Unilever products, health and
hygiene,
agriculture,
education,
finance
and
employment.
The aim is to have 1 500 i-Shakti kiosks on stream by
the end of 2005 covering 7500 villages and 10m people.

iShakti Contd
Rural community portal that creates access to
information
Villagers can register as users and surf content areas:
Agriculture, health, veterinary services, education,
employment opportunities, education, personal grooming,
entertainment, games

All content backed by local language voice-over

On all content areas, users can pose queries
1,000 kiosks in AP, partnership with government

Vision 2010

100,000

500,000

600 million

Entrepreneurs

villages

Consumers

Shakti shall reach every home in every village,

create sustainable livelihood opportunities, and
enhance the quality of life in rural India