6 Days. 1200 kilometres. A Bike Ride To Help Over 50000 Rural Women #FightPoverty

Rang De’s work with rural women shows that they are instinctive entrepreneurs! Avid biker and former actor, Aditya Raj Kapoor now sets out on a 6-day #fightpoverty ride to support Rang De’s women entrepreneurs. 

“I’m proud to serve India through Rang De. I hope this will be a ride to remember. Biking for me, is more than just a passion and being on the road for a cause makes the journey sweeter,” says Aditya Raj Kapoor, a former corporate honcho and avid biker.

Aditya Raj Kapoor has embarked on a ride on March 30th, on behalf of Rang De, a not-for-profit organization based out of Bangalore. Accompanying him on this ride is Deepak Ananth, CEO of ScoutMyTrip, a Mumbai-based trip planner for road travellers.

Yasminbano Ajahar, Rama Keshav Bodade and  Jayshree Surendra More are just three of over 50,000 women from rural India who are now able to run businesses after availing micro-loans through Rang De. A year back, twenty people pooled in Rs 15,000 to support these women and they have already repaid two-thirds of their obligations to these social investors.

Talking about his ride, Aditya says, “Funding a woman to run her business will not only make her financially independent, it will also ensure that the entire family leads a dignified life.” Click here to get a glimpse of the 6 day-long #FightPoverty ride.

Born to actors Shammi Kapoor (Junglee, Andaz, Brahmachari) and Geeta Bali, Aditya is a former actor and filmmaker. Aditya successfully operated a truck and warehouse business and also a construction company. Now retired, he regularly partakes in travel-related philanthropic efforts. In 2014, he participated in the bike-ride – India Hai – that covered several Indian states, Nepal and Bhutan in a bid to get everyone to discover India first before heading to foreign shores.

“We are thrilled to have Aditya Raj Kapoor join the #FightPoverty ride as its ambassador. A retired corporate honcho, Aditya is now a writer and an avid biker. He is keen to help us create some buzz and bring in investors who will help us raise Rs 4,00,000. The money raised can potentially fund about 85 women entrepreneurs from the same district and Aditya will also show the lives and challenges of women in rural India through social media. Aditya joins a community of 12,000+ Indians who do a lot more than contributing money on our platform,” states Smita Ram, Co-Founder & Managing Trustee, Rang De.

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Along the way, Aditya will also meet members of Samagra Gram Vikas Sanstha (Sagras), a social development organisation founded in August 1998 with the support of the Ratan Tata Trust. Since February 2009, Sagras has helped raise capital for over 8,000 women in the Vidarbha region.

“Women who take these loans are trained for a month in financial literacy and business planning so they can utilise the funds appropriately for their businesses,” says Sagras Founder Madhukar Bhangey. “Even after disbursing the money, we keep in touch with these women to ensure the money has been put to proper use.”

Such holistic focus on women development through impactful rural partners has enabled Rang De to achieve a stellar 93% repayment rate over the years on collateral-free loans.

Rang De is working to fight poverty by providing microloans to underserved communities. It empowers individuals and corporations to lend to rural entrepreneurs across the country and help them step out of poverty. Constantly striving to bridge the gap between rural & urban India, Rang De has raised over 55,000 loans totalling over INR 54 crores, from over 12000 individual social investors and 25+ corporate partners.

Click here if you are interested in backing Aditya’s efforts to #FightPoverty.

Top images via Rang De

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