Truth stories

At a time when the economy,industry and the market are not perceived to be in the best of health at home and abroad,India Inc has a tale of successful aspiration to tell. While its not an overnight development,this is as good a time as any to discover,describe and dissect the story of Dalit entrepreneurs who not only embody industrial and business professionalism of a high order but also constitute a discourse in socio-economic change for the best. As reported in this newspaper on Thursday,the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce amp; Industry DICCI Trade Fair 2011 at Mumbais Bandra-Kurla Complex will place Dalit entrepreneurs beside the captains of Indian industry,such as Ratan Tata and Adi Godrej. The three-day event will host about 1,000 Dalit business people and showcase nearly half-a-dozen of them who have become multinationals.

As Milind Kamble son of a schoolteacher and now managing director of a Rs 101-crore company framed the issue,Dalits have leaders but what they need now are business leaders. Thats where the DICCI comes in,and the likes of the Tatas. From a time when Dalit entrepreneurs would hesitate to disclose their caste for fear of business being adversely affected,their companies have come to be worth as much as Rs500 crore or 2.5 million. There are two significant factors underlying this success,or progress the affirmative push from the state that helps uplift Dalits from their centuries-old denial and oppression,and the opportunities created by the free market to help enterprising individuals learn and grow and subsequently help others do the same. Without the former,these success stories would not have begun. Without the latter,they wouldnt have reached their logical trajectories.

Globalisation outsourced ancillary production to such companies and the state has fixed a 4 per cent sourcing from Dalit small and medium enterprises in its new procurement policy. There is no better accumulation of facts to counter,at the same time,activists who decry globalisation as an evil imposed on the unsuspecting masses and also those who denounce affirmative action. The moral of the story: every opportunity counts,especially where there was none to begin with.