He also noticed that while many villagers made a whole host of products (organic jams, creams and shampoos, woollen products, herbs), they all had only one buyer: Fabindia. Many producers had no idea how to make their products reach even the next town, let alone the bigger cities or metros.
That’s when Himjoli was born, an umbrella brand to aggregate and market all products made in Uttarakhand. “We look at ourselves as a supermarket where you can access all the local products under one roof,” explains Wadhwa, now 54.
In 2008-09, just before he launched Himjoli, he’d been working on a project with the Tata group mapping incomes in central Kumaon. They found that the average “earned” income was an abysmal Rs 1,100 a year. The locals simply lived off their land, ate what they grew, went to government schools and tried not to fall seriously ill.
Wadhwa started scouring the area for producers, weavers and planters — NGOs, self-help groups and small enterprises, mostly run by women. What started with 4-5 groups now has 28 brands under its umbrella. Products are aggregated by Himjoli at Kathgodam, where they have a large warehouse, and are then distributed. There are four main categories: food, cosmetics, handicrafts and woven products. The organisation has three or four main sales channels — their own shops and outlets; shops in resorts like Mahindra Resorts or rafting destinations like Atali; online retailers such as Amazon and Flipkart; and direct corporate sales.
Wadhwa put in his own savings to get the operation started and had hoped to break even in around five years but it has taken three-four years more than anticipated. If a customer buys worth Rs 100 from Himjoli, Rs 80 goes back to the self-help group or NGO (the producers of the goods) and 20 per cent is retained by Himjoli.
After eight years of operations, a second mapping of incomes showed that they have now risen to around Rs 6,000. “It’s a combination of factors — we can’t claim that the whole income spurt is on account of what Himjoli has been doing but we have been one of the many factors,” says Wadhwa.
Rahul Nainwal, an IRMA graduate who started iVolunteer and is on the Himjoli board, says that one of its biggest contributions is that it let the local brands — SOS Organics, Aarohi, Devbhoomi, among others — live. It didn’t brand everything under the name “Himjoli”. Sridhar Iyer, national director, CSR for E&Y, argues that thanks to Himjoli farmers have got a much better price for their products and middle-men are eating less into their margins.
But even as Wadhwa markets Uttarakhand’s products, living in Kumaon for two-thirds of the year has exposed him to a host of other problems the hillsfolk grapple with. The lack of health care in the region, for one. “I was in a village in the Pindari region and the last time a doctor had been there was 1973,” he says. Since September 2009, Wadhwa has roped in Aarohi — one of the NGOs he works with — to run medical camps in the relatively remote Namik and Pindari valleys. The camps have been held every quarter for 7-10 days each, covering five to six villages at a time.
Poor infrastructure in local schools is another unfortunate reality. So, for the last five years, Himjoli has organised a marathon in Mukteshwar to raise money for local schools. In five years, money from this event has built two schools, one playground, one computer lab and provided desks, books and scholarships to many poor students.
Wadhwa has also roped in 10 people with successful careers in Delhi and Mumbai to mentor and provide initial seed capital for ventures — from computer centres to beauty parlours — that unemployed rural youth can kick-start. Fifty-seven youngsters were interviewed by the panel of 10 recently and nine have been shortlisted to be given guidance and mentorship. Surabhi Bikhchandani, partner, executive search, Quadrangle, and one of the mentors, says that the “idea is to reduce migration of the unemployed or underemployed to the cities”.
With unemployed youth, health care, education and livelihoods all on his plate, Wadhwa’s walk in Kumaon may have ended some years ago but his journey there has only just begun.
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