To what extent can social entrepreneurship be seen as a motor of radical changes in societies? The case of social tourism through the Reality Group in Dharavi Slum

Abstract

“Social entrepreneurs are not content just to give a fish or to teach how to fish. They will not rest until they have revolutionized the fishing industry”1 . Drayton, the founder of Ashoka, a global organization that identifies and invests in leading entrepreneurs, made here a powerful statement. A social entrepreneur’s job is to acknowledge when a society is stuck somewhere in order to provide solutions to get it unstuck. But, it has to be done with a simple goal in mind: having an impact that would provide inherent changes in this society. As an exchange student interested in social entrepreneurship, I am writing this paper in order to analyze its impacts on a specific society. Studying the repercussions of social entrepreneurship was innate as its aims are to provide changes through a long term help. Social entrepreneurs, as individuals, bring innovative solutions to society’s most pressing social problems. They try to solve issues by changing systems, finding solutions and make societies move in different directions. Social entrepreneurs should progress toward systemic social changes and, so, be a motor of changes in societies. Changing societies seems to be a tough task for oneself. Indeed, by definition, a society is a structured group of people that gather under a set of values, beliefs, customs and traditions that are usually in its roots since a long time. It appears then a bit contradictory to think that other people, external to a particular society come inside and try to change it. However, some societies need help. Our world is now evolving toward more and more carefulness for the poorest, especially from people coming from the western countries. Those last twenty years, social entrepreneurship seems to hit the lines. Social entrepreneurs are investing in sectors that have been put apart either by the common business market due to their low profitability or by the public sector in this context of austerity. Social entrepreneurs tried now to come up with brilliant and innovative ideas to bring changes to people that are in need. It is then a tough task for them to come into a society, shape their need in harmony to their culture. As they often come from outside these societies, it is always tricky to bring help without interfering. Among innovative ideas of social entrepreneurship lies social tourism. Social tourism is a term used to describe a different kind of holidays, offered by small charities to make holidays accessible to lowincome people but it also refers to tours conducted with the aim of helping people from a touristic destination in a situation of need. Our study will focus in the second aspect that is deeply enhanced by slum tourism. This concept has been used since the 19th century, starting in New York City when by 1884, wealthy people started to visit the Bowery and the Five Points area of the Lower East Side in order to see their way of living. It especially started to be popular in slum in Brazil. The story of the Reality Group began with Chris Way, who was doing a tour in the favelas in Rio de Janeiro and came back to India to convince his Indian friend Krishna Pujari to start a similar project in Dharavi Slum with one important difference: he wanted to conduct it with a community benefit.