For the past five years, over 400 youth welcomed the New Year on a train circling around India. While hot daily showers are a rarity, these motivated youth have nonetheless signed themselves up to earn a spot on the two-week train ride out of 17,000 applicants.
Jagriti Yatra, or “awakening journey”, transports them to meet change-makers, leaders, entrepreneurs, and role models who are building a better India. Aboard the train, they bond with like-minded travel companions.
Since it was founded in 2008, Jagriti Yatra has developed young people to direct their purpose and hope into building productive enterprises for India. It has since sparked similar initiatives in France and the US. To mark the anniversary, Shashank Mani, the founder and chairman of Jagriti Yatra, reflects on the impact it has created in the past five years:
- 16 percent of our alumni have gone on to found their own enterprises;
- 20 percent have joined social ventures or commercial startups; and
- every year, former Yatris launch roughly 45 new enterprises throughout India;
Revealing future projects, Mani says Jagriti Yatra is building the Jagriti Enterprise Network to help young entrepreneurs build sustainable enterprises in small towns and villages across India. Another plan is to create four Jagriti Enterprise Institutes to provide entrepreneurial training and incubation support.
Aspiring to awaken the spirit of social and economic entrepreneurship, Mani says, “We hope that our Indian example will also provide a guiding light for other emerging nations.”