Patna: Irfan Alam, a 28-year-old IIM-Ahmedabad graduate from Bihar, has kicked off a rickshaw revolution across eight states. Red is the colour of Irfan Alam’s rickshaw revolution as the IIM-Ahmedabad alumus speaks with ease to rickshaw pullers in Patna. His business concept has changed the lives of almost 5,00,000 rickshaw pullers in eight states of north India.
Irfan’s company SammaaN Foundation facilitates loans from nationalised banks to rickshaw puller for buying a rickshaw. SammaaN Foundation then ensures collections of loan repayments and helps the rickshaw puller generate additional revenue through advertising on the vehicle and selling products like mineral water bottles.
The concept has become a revolution today but not many thought Irfan’s concept made sense when he started SammaaN Foundation in 2008 with just 100 rickshaw pullers.
“There were people who told me its rubbish and not going to work. People told me I was mad. There were people who told me that if I get one advertisement they would quit their job,” says Irfan.
To prove all of them wrong Irfan’s first challenge was to get banks to give loans to a rickshaw puller. The rest he believed to would fall in place.
“It took our blood to convince bankers that these men will repay the loans,” he says.
And the rest is history. Today Irfan’s business model has even been adopted by the Madhya Pradesh Government. The 28-year-old had always had shown enterprise since he was a child. He invested in the stock markets when he was just 13. But today his mission is to help change every Indian rickshaw puller’s life
“The beauty of this company is that majority of the share is with the rickshaw puller and I hope this will change the nature of this large community,” he says.