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Hi, I'm Bhavya Vemulapalli, a Journalism student from O.P. Jindal Global University, India.
Hi, I'm Bhavya Vemulapalli, a Journalism student from O.P. Jindal Global University, India.
I'm here to share my personal and collective experiences and the knowledge I have gained during the Social Entrepreneurship Challenge in the Asia-Pacific (SECAP), a two-week program.
I'm here to share my personal and collective experiences and the knowledge I have gained during the Social Entrepreneurship Challenge in the Asia-Pacific (SECAP), a two-week program.
Oh, by the way, that's me, with my horse friend, Falcon! He prefers to be called "Imperial" Falcon, by any means! If you want to say Hello, you simply extend your knuckles towards his muzzle!
Oh, by the way, that's me, with my horse friend, Falcon! He prefers to be called "Imperial" Falcon, by any means! If you want to say Hello, you simply extend your knuckles towards his muzzle!
Social Entrepreneurship Challenge in the Asia Pacific (SECAP) - Jan 18 to 29th, 2021.
Social Entrepreneurship Challenge in the Asia Pacific (SECAP) - Jan 18 to 29th, 2021.
To the curious people who want me to quickly answer five W's in a paragraph before we go on to discuss my experiences in detail, here we go!
SECAP (Social Entrepreneurship Challenge in the Asia Pacific) 2021, the first-ever two-week-long project-based experiential learning program, is designed to work on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Simply put, according to the Brundtland Report, SDGs focus on "Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." From that, how I remember and define Social Entrepreneurship in a sentence is "Sustainable yet profitable." In these two weeks, Maker's Asylum, a community maker-space based out of Goa, India, in collaboration with 100 students from 3 countries – Australia' Monash University, India' Jindal Global University, and Indonesia' Atma Jaya University focused on local issues from a collaborative lens. Based on the "Principles of design thinking, frugal innovation, and rapid prototyping, the program focuses on not only finding solutions but making them tangible for the real world."
In teams (week-one), while looking at finding sustainable solutions, I had a conversation with 50 years-old, Uma Rani Vemulapalli, my mom from Vijayawada, India. She said, "Yeah, think about how I can carry all those grocery and meat bags at a go as a pillion. We go grocery shopping once a week due to time and busy schedule constraints. Sometimes my back hurts. We can use a car instead of a motorbike if we want to, unlike many out there, who can't afford a car. But the local market and lanes are small. Therefore, you can't even park a car in India or developing countries like India!"
Symbolic Image
This is how the target audience (pillion) sits on the motorbike while carrying too many grocery bags. The majority, the attire is an Indian saree.
That's when it hit me that I never thought of day-to-day problems, as simple as carrying too many grocery bags would be a problem that I would work on - with a team of six for the next two weeks! It is worth solving because many women or men per se, especially in India & Indonesia, might have the same problem.
Carrying these weights (many grocery bags) while being a pillion/walker can lead to backaches and potential health problems in middle-aged people. Not only health problems but also look at the safety issue aspect - as in unbalanced motorcycle.
That is why our primary sustainable development goal in action as a company and team "CarryBuddy" is Good Health and Well-Being. We can't change the grocery buying capacity of the customer. What we can change instead, is the "Posture" of the customer.
Introducing a "Posture correcting, dual-purpose grocery bag" would make the situation a lot better.
That is where CarryBuddy comes into action.
My team, the Buddies are versatile. We've learnt from each other, if not impacted the community with our final product yet.
While brainstorming and a discussion with Mentor Gunjan Chowdhary (week-two), we understood that it is essential to involve the potential customer, my mom, in this case, to understand them and create a customised product just for them. The problem is weight balancing. And the solution under the design thinking process as Mr Gunjan says is “Human ability to carry weight”.
During the initial stages, the main problem was we were looking at a vast audience - per se the vendors and people from Indonesia who could use our bags. The drawback here is that we didn't get anywhere with that approach. If we look at making a bag that caters to rainy Indonesia throughout the year, then the logistics and requirements will change.
On the other hand, if we look at making a bag for the vendors, the size varies. Nevertheless, we also had an idea of creating a bag with size variations. Small or medium size for people who walk to their grocery markets, large-size for the pillions and finally an extra-large for the vendors. "One-sized shirt cannot fit all, let alone a bag. You need something customised, a product personally made for your target audience to empathise with their problem", says mentor Vaibhav Chhabra.
His words are a moment of creativity (Aha!) for us. They made us realise we need to up our game and create a unique product of its kind. That is when we came up with what is called "Posture correcting, dual-purpose and compartmentalised grocery bag" after in consultation with Uma Rani Vemulapalli, the exact customer we are looking at. She liked the idea. However, she mentioned how she would like to try out the prototype and only tell her final verdict. As I already said, we can't change the grocery buying capacity of the customer. What we can change instead, is the "Posture" of the customer, which would make the situation a lot better.
Meme Representation! It be like this every time!
A lot better because, through our secondary research, we found out that; of the estimated 37 million motorbike users in India and over 107 million in Indonesia, riders have a 34 times higher risk of dying in a crash than other modes of transport, which becomes even more heightened when carrying an unbalanced load.
Furthermore, carrying tasks can lead to "Spinal shrinkage and height loss, due to the strain on the intervertebral discs, and abnormal compressive loads on the lumbar spine" ¹ - while back pain is also the number one cause of disability worldwide according to World Health Organisation.
This is when first week's "Design thinking - process + case studies" came handy - Case studies from Australia, India, and Indonesia that effectively cater to only the given target audience. These helped us narrow down our problem to a few/one specific user while also looking at "Assumption testing and effective user research".
Let me tell you, no amount of research, no matter how small, is ever wasted. The pre-research and expert opinion make you produce the best of its kind, "Jugaad & Frugal Innovation!"
Don't believe me? Take a look at the stop-motion video that I have created during the initial stages of solution brainstorming (part 1), for the mentor review, paper-prototyping-solution-pitch. Though the initial solution was okayish, we as a team got buddy points from mentors for creativity and for "Getting our hands dirty".
There are so many health issues when it comes to middle-aged people, especially women in India. They face back pain because of lifting heavy objects such as groceries, sweeping while bending and all. They have back pain and shoulder injuries or rotator cuff and neck pain due to these activities. When we carry heavy groceries with our hands, our shoulder will roll forward and down, stretching the muscle. A study called "Prevalence of low back pain and its relation to the quality of life and disability among women in the rural area of Puducherry, India" 2 explains this in detail.
Solution Brainstorming.mp4
Table: Prevalence of low back pain with associated factors among women from the mentioned study.
Look at the Table here: Prevalence of low back pain with associated factors among women from the above mentioned study.
While carrying a shopping bag or plastic bag(s), shoppers may experience marks, discomfort, and pain on their fingers and palms because of the exerted pressure of the bags' relatively thin flexible plastic handles.
Carrying heavy stuff affects our body and our safety, especially when we are riding a motorcycle. When we carry too much weight, it will unbalance the motorcycle's weight, leading to accidents.
Our CarryBuddy (the product) helps people carry weight without facing these unbalanced incidents. The product, as we call it, is a "Posture correcting, compartmentalised dual-use bag."
It was created to help middle-aged women pillions not suffer while carrying heavy groceries around. This product contains base straps and the bag attached to it. The straps are designed to help our body stay in an upright position, which will, in turn, reduce the effects of hunching and slouching and could improve scoliosis.
In this case, this product also assists SDG goal number 3, which is good health and well-being. Combining two different materials, latex and cotton (breathable materials), makes the product comfortable and durable.
With the help of the kit that we design, the bag will attach to the strap, and therefore it'll be easier to carry around without getting shoulder and finger pain. This base-kit makes the bag feel lighter as it corrects the posture.
Keeping in view the SDG 13; the climate action, we created a reusable bag. If the customer only wants to use the posture correcting base, they can detach the bag and use the base anytime. It is convenient that way. This bag can also encourage people to reduce the use of plastic bags.
Figma 101
The 4th Dimension // 2021
During the "Skill Bazaar" (UI & UX /Figma/ App design/ CAD & Additive manufacturing/AR/ Poster Making) workshops, one of our teammates created this kit. Our team of six learnt six different skills to make our CarryBuddy work!
Included here, are the images of work learnt by our teammates from a couple of software learning workshops, held on the day 5 - Jan 22, 2021.
Below are some sketches and the Prototype's 360° View, designed on CAD. These visuals represent the product's desirability and viability.
CarryBuddy is a more practical solution:
A longer compartmentalised grocery bag that clips on to the back of the bike but still allows consumers to do their desired shopping.
All in good time, I believe that CarryBuddy can hit markets one day! The CarryBuddy will work as a social enterprise by supporting women of the Kodhu Indian Tribe. We will partner with the Kodhu Tribe's women from Visakhapatnam, India, to create excellent designs on the bag and match customers' sarees - a marketing plug-in on point!
We will also partner with organisations like Goonj, who have a system of providing livelihood to various disadvantaged members of society within India. CarryBuddy will employ these people through such organisations as they already have a tried and tested method of teaching, organising and helping these individuals. We will naturally be involved in the payment of salaries.
New Indian Express
Kodhu Tribes from Visakhapatnam are social entrepreneurs themselves!
An article in Homegrown called "Masks Made Of Medicinal Leaves Save An Indian Tribe From Covid-19 Virus" discusses how tribals in Andhra Pradesh and Telengana have taken the initiative to make their own masks.
"These are made using leaves from plants with medicinal properties to keep Covid-19 at bay". What an inspiration for social entrepreneurs, especially who are starting out like us! "Jugaad & Frugal Innovation" right there!
That said, we will also use crowdfunding to partially raise funds and use it as a platform to gain beta users. The modern crowdfunding method involves the use of rewards as incentives.
The individuals who provide their money will obtain the privileges of being the first few users of the CarryBuddy and with their consent, they will become part of an exclusive forum where they can freely express their views on the product and help us develop the product. These members will also receive the final product for free!
At CarryBuddy, we prioritise providing absolute transparency, the best product quality and efficient customer service to our buyers. Every customer is considered a valuable member of the CarryBuddy community. We value customer feedback, and to facilitate this, each of our bags comes with a QR code, which takes them to the customer service forum on our website, through which they can leave their praises and criticisms of our product. We are highly customer-oriented, and there is no doubt that our customers' voices will never go unheard!
All in good faith, the story of CarryBuddy is here to live and let live! We at CarryBuddy promise you a better and green "Future" more than anything!
Everything said, social entrepreneurs work together to create "more value" to the given story. This means way more than just money. Unique stories, in the style of participatory journalism and storytelling, are absolutely necessary.
The powerful combination of social entrepreneurship and impact journalism can lead to a more inclusive and vibrant society. As an aspiring journalist and entrepreneur, this is my focus statement for years to come and any programs that help me work on this goal, I'm happy to experiment, learn and gain knowledge from them.
SECAP 2021 helped me connect with people, meet like-minded people and hone my design thinking ability and skills - which would help me stay on track and follow my focus statement for years to come!
References:
¹ Mohamed Z. Ramadan, Tamer M. Khalaf, Adham M. Ragab, AbdElatty A. AbdElgawad,"Influence of Shopping Bags Carrying on Human Responses While Walking", Journal of Healthcare Engineering, vol. 2018, Article ID 5340592, 9 pages, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/5340592
2 Ahdhi, Guna Sankar, et al. "Prevalence of low back pain and its relation to quality of life and disability among women in rural area of Puducherry, India." Indian Journal of Pain 30.2 (2016): 111.
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