Born to a poor family—his father was a peon in Wai near Pune—Lokhande graduated as a private student. But when the idea of building a rural marketing database struck roots, he forsook a cushy marketing job and his own trading outfit to scour 4,000-odd villages, ploughing back his nest egg, piling credits with everyone from the local grocer to his daughters’ school, striking direct contacts with opinion leaders in villages and recording obscure details of the local economy.
In 1996, he got his first customers for the data: Tata Tea and Parle. Today, his roster prides clients like HLL, P&G, Marico, Asian Paints, Telco and DSP Merrill Lynch. "I help them spread their message, get paid and use that money to further this work. I’m a businessman enamoured by the untapped potential of rural markets," says he.
During his rural run-ins, Lokhande realised that students there had only seen computers on TV and an introduction to the gadgets could bolster their self-confidence. A whopping 3,78,000 responses to 31,000 computer literacy mailers addressed to rural schools concretised his belief. Lokhande set about in 1998 by requesting 28 prominent Indians to donate used computers. None responded. He then took it upon himself to acquire used computers and provide them to schools for free, absorbing most expenses. "The gleam in the eyes of the student at the first sight of a computer makes it worthwhile." The movement that began with the Mandardev village school in 2000 today has 225 schools and another 4,700 requests are awaiting donors.
Besides cost advantages, the rationale behind used computers is to keep them from languishing as mere exhibits.
Recently, a CNN team was amazed to see a village girl performing advanced functions on a computer only six months after it had first filmed her sweating profusely while struggling to type her name. The computers have come courtesy a research organisation, private firms and individuals. Lokhande is also supported by his friends, including Chandrakant Kumre, who works for a sales-tax journal in Pune.
Tepid response (only three of 900 corporates responded to Lokhande’s appeal) doesn’t squelch his march. Much like English keyboards or inordinate power outages failing to deter young beneficiaries. For students who’d often plod several kilometres to the school, the computer has come as an incentive to make school a wont.
His infectious enthusiasm crests as he cites instances like a US-based iitian donating a computer to the village school his late father went to. "We’ve identified 28,000 feeding market villages with a population of 2,000-10,000, where hundreds more interact during the weekly bazaar. Donors can benefit from our database of 35,000 schools."
You can contact Pradeep Lokhande at: Rural Relations, Pune—411013; Tel: 020-6821034; Website: www.ruralrelations.com; e-mail: rural@ruralrelations.comc
