With unemployment likely to be a key issue in the 2024 polls, the Sangh Parivar is pulling out all the stops to change the narrative from, what it defines as, “seeking jobs”. For two years now, this has included a focus on self-employment and on helping youngsters along that path.

On January 12, 2022, close on the heels of the government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, the RSS launched its own Swavalambi Bharat Abhiyan in an effort to persuade youngsters to become entrepreneurs under the aegis of its economic wing, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM).

In the past two years, the SJM and other organisations associated with the RSS have conducted 4,413 programmes in 511 districts, securing participation of more than 82,000 youths, engaging 400 industrial units and felicitating 3,938 entrepreneurs. It has now also opened 448 Zilla Rozgar Kendras (district employment centres) that help youngsters raise funds for their businesses, arrange required training, provide legal advice and help with government clearances.

“To make this country self-reliant and to obliterate unemployment, we will have to change the mindset and narrative of seeking jobs. Due to Jawaharlal Nehru’s policies, people started running after government jobs. Then, due to globalisation, people started running after jobs with MNCs. But given that crores (of people) enter the job market every year, neither the government nor MNCs can give so many jobs. The only way to deal with this is to create entrepreneurs. India was once a land of entrepreneurs. We have to recreate that India, and this can only happen with the cooperation of society at large,” SJM national co-convenor Ashwani Mahajan says.

As part of this, the SJM has conducted Entrepreneur Development Programmes across 2,701 high schools and intermediate colleges, 1,555 institutions and colleges, and 155 universities.

“We are trying to help youngsters develop risk-taking ability. We are sharing with them success stories of young entrepreneurs. We are helping them raise funds through private equity funds such as TVS Capital, or through the government by way of bank loans or Mudra loans. We are trying to create an ecosystem that will sustain this entrepreneurial advance. We have roped in all sections for this, ranging from politicians to corporates,” Mahajan says.

Various Sangh associates like the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, Laghu Udyog Bharti, Akhil Bhartiya Grahak Panchayat, Sahkar Bharti, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the BJP, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Vanwasi Kalyan Ashram, Rashtriya Sewa Bharti, Vidya Bharti, Paryavaran Gatividhi, Hindu Jagran Manch, Bhartiya Shikshan Mandal, Deendayal Shodh Sansthan, Vivekananda Kendra, Saksham, Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh and Kreeda Bharti, are part of the endeavour.

Other participating organisations include the Zoho Corporation, Gayatri Parivar, Kaneri Math, De Asara, Vakrangi, IID, Jagriti Yatra, Sapio Analytics, Choyal Group, CRISP India, Association of Indian Universities, and Bachpan Group, says Mahajan.

Amid the entrepreneurial set-ups which Mahajan claims the SJM and associate organisations have helped established over the past two years include “thousands of tailoring centres, beauty parlours, computer centres, Krishi Vikas Kendras and FPOs (farmer producer organisations)” across the country.

The organisation has also published multiple books on the theme of self-employment, and even released a song, titled “Hum sabko aage badhna hai (We all have to advance)”, sung by playback artiste Kailash Kher.