MADRAS SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK

(An autonomous institution affiliated to The University of Madras)

32, Casa Major Road, Egmore, Chennai-600008
_____________________________________________________________________________

P.G Department of Social Entrepreneurship

CONSOLIDATED REPORT

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the degree of

M.A in Social Entrepreneurship to
Suchismita Goswami

Head of the Department

P.G. Department of Social Entrepreneurship

Submitted by
Akshaya.S
MA.SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
MASE-18-06
 FIELD WORK

CONTENTS

1. Background
2. Objectives
3. Activities Undertaken
4. Tools and Practices of Social Entrepreneurship applied in Field.

5. Observation and Evaluation.

6. Challenges

7. Professional and Personal Learning

8. Suggestions/Recommendations

9. Conclusion
 BACKGROUND

Name of the organization: KABADIWALLA CONNECT

Internship Coordinator: Mr.Prajeeth

Duration: 19th December to 20th March

In partial fulfillment of the degree of Masters in Social

Entrepreneurship, I did my second internship in Kabadiwalla
Connect through a period of three months, in the field of plastic
recycling. During this course, I learnt about the prevailing problems
in environment basically about the plastic waste management.

Kabadiwalla Connect helps leverage a city’s existing informal waste

infrastructure in the collection and processing of post-consumer
waste. Their research is into the informal sector and commercial
pilots in India, Indonesia and the Ivory Coast provide strong
evidence to the commercial, environmental and social benefits of
forming mutual partnerships with stakeholders in the informal
waste supply-chain.
 OBJECTIVES

 To demonstrate my knowledge and practice my skills whilst getting

acquainted with the organization’s activities

 To understand how their social enterprise works

 To get an overview of the current environmental problem especially

plastic pollution.

 To contribute my best possible efforts for the progress of the

organization.

Activities Undertaken

 Developing questionnaire and conducting survey

 Door to door advocacy in apartments that was involved with Kabadiwalla

 Creating awareness campaign

 Tools and Practices of Social Entrepreneurship applied in Field

The organization concentrated on smart waste collection and

processing solutions for cities in the developing world powered by formal sector.
Their process was majorly based on Schumpeter’s theory of social entrepreneurship.
According to that theory their new good introduced was URBIN which is a smart
plastic waste collection bin. Their new method of production was installing these
bins in 30 locations in Chennai and opened a new market for curbing of plastics.
Their main source of supply was for the betterment of the livelihood of kabadiwallas
by making them to collect once the Urbin gets full through an app called recycle.
The nearest kabadiwallas will get a message once it’s full through a censor which
has been placed on the bin. They have set up a new path in the development of a
product which reduces the plastic pollution.

The major skills that I acquired from my course during my internship includes social
intelligence that is I started building strong relationships when I was undertaking my
survey at different apartments. Secondly I became more optimistic since I was the
only person who did my internship alone and also became more confident when I
conducted the awareness campaign. Thirdly I started having the grit towards the
organization and finished my tasks quickly and even worked in the weekends to
increase my efficiency. Lastly I became socially adaptable to all situations
throughout my internship period by understanding different people’s behavior and
then making them realize to start using the URBIN effectively.
 OBSERVATION AND EVALUATION

My initial work was conducting survey on waste segregation practices

at individual households at the apartments which had URBIN. Came to know that
most of them were practicing while few weren’t aware about such practices. Those
who knew had two bins in their home and collected dry wastes and wet wastes
separately. Gave them brief knowledge about waste segregation to those who didn’t
know about its methods.

When I went to Women’s Christian College to find out their usage and
understanding level of the students about URBIN found that most of them knew very
well about it and were using it in an efficient manner. While they were answering
my survey questions I observed that all the students were eager to know about waste
segregation practices in detail.

On my visit to see the various apartment’s usage level of URBIN, came to know that
few of the residents didn’t even recognize what it was about. So gave them
pamphlets and explained to them individually to make them aware about its method
of using. Few apartments in Raja Annamalaipuram like Jains Sagarika, Lords
avenue, Ceebros were the most effective, regular and proper usage of URBIN. One
of the lady in an apartment was very outspoken and was a born social worker who
liked the initiative taken by kabadiwalla in reducing plastics. She was proud that I
took up such work for my internship and helped me out in conducting my survey at
their apartment.
On the other hand there were few apartments in mandhaiveli where most of the
residents were reluctant to know about URBIN since they felt it I sonly the duty of
their house keeping who took care of their day to day wastes. More than the
households their staffs were more interested to know in detail about its usage. They
were so happy that a private organisation is taking such a good initiative.

When I went to a café named Soul Garden Bristo in mylapure where they had placed
the URBIN, found that all the customers came to know about it and appreciated it as
a good initiative. Also I gave a brief explanation to all the working staffs at the café
and was happy to see that within two weeks they started making effective use of it.

Once I had to even go to the MLA’s office at Mylapure to check their low
performance in the usage of URBIN which was placed few months back. Found that
they were taking out the plastics which was collected in URBIN and were grinding
it in their store room behind the office and using it for some other purpose. Told
them that URBIN was a means to earn income for the kabadiwalla’s survival. From
the next week they started using it in a proper manner and even the nearby shops
were using it for dumping their plastic wastes.
 CHALLENGES

1. Travelling was a major challenge since in a day had to visit so many places.
In the beginning found it very difficult to find out the bus routes and reach the
destination. Since I didn’t have two wheeler I had to walk a lot even though I
took the bus. Later got to know the routes very well since I kept travelling to
the same areas seeing google maps.
‘
2. Making the residents, students and the house keeping staffs understand about
the URBIN was also a bit difficult but after explaining them through
pamphlets and by conducting surveys regularly they understood it clearly.

3. Making people to use the URBIN as a habitual thing was another big
challenge. Initially they were least bothered to use it but later after my frequent
awareness campaign they understood its importance and started to make the
best use out of it.

PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL LEARNING

1. Preparation of a good Questionnaire skills

2. Conducting a professional survey
3. Communication skill
4. Awareness campaign ability
5. Self-awareness
6. Interpersonal skills
 SUGGESTIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS

More Social Enterprises like kabadiwalla should come up into existence so that
the society will come to know about even the smallest problem prevailing and
consider to bring about some change. Though kabadiwalla gave me the idea to learn
advocacy and create awareness it didn’t have prior objectives for providing
internship opportunities for the students. I was the first student to work as an intern
at that enterprise so didn’t have much scope. It would be great if they provide a
platform for the students to learn in detail about their projects.

CONCLUSION

As an intern at Kabadiwalla learned to explore in the field of advocacy and

creating awareness on plastic recycling and waste segregation. Got to know how
much effort is needed to make the people to keenly understand the nature of an
innovative waste collection bin. They made the best use of the latest technologies
for constructing the bin. Felt proud to be a part in making a change in our city by
doing a small help but solving a big problem prevailing in our society. I realized that
only those who really understood the need for protecting our environment were
willing to make use of such innovative practices like URBIN. Overall I learned to
self-evaluate myself when my awareness wasn’t effective and altered my way of
communication. Though there are enterprises which focus on plastic eradication it
can be fully reduced only when the individuals start to segregate their wastes at their
home. In the context of Social Entrepreneurship the enterprises which concentrates
on wastes, can actually earn a lot because once the wastes are collected properly and
turned into recyclable useful things that is even the garbage can be turned into a gold.
ANNEXURE