Changing lives in rural India

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 India’s 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

• Unilever’s 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
company’s 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 Achieving
and
medium Interaction
Shakti Vani
• Social communication anchored on brands
• health and hygiene
• women’s 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