Our mission in India is fourfold:

(i) to provide entrepreneurial and consumer literacy education for low-literate, low-income adults in urban and rural Tamil Nadu,

(ii) to develop and implement an e-educational platform to provide entrepreneurial and consumer literacy education for low-literate, low-income adults in urban and rural India,

(iii) to train non-profit organizations in India to provide entrepreneurial and consumer literacy education,

(iv) to disseminate educational materials and guidelines for entrepreneurial and consumer literacy in different Indian languages.

We pursue our mission through a training program that is administered by the SDV Educational Trust located in Chennai, India. The curriculum for this program was developed on the basis of rigorous, qualitative research of low-literate, low-income buyers and sellers in urban and rural Tamil Nadu in 2002. Using this research as a basis, a curriculum for business and consumer literacy was developed, which culminated in a training package that was pilot –tested in June 2003. The curriculum was the result of extensive discussion among the members of a research team who combine nearly 2 decades of experience in business education and consumer research at a leading university in the US, and over 3 decades of experience in social work and community development organizations in urban and rural Tamil Nadu.  Basic research and curriculum development was conducted by Madhu Viswanathan in his individual capacity as an academic researcher.  Our program is documented in a forthcoming book, Enabling Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy in Subsistence Marketplaces: Research-Based Education Across Literacy and Resource Barriers (2007), Springer.

Our philosophical orientation is to enable participants to learn how to learn and create their own opportunities. We use training programs of different lengths depending on a variety of factors.  Our 5-day training program, is the most elaborate version,.  We currently offer a marketplace literacy program that is 6 hours to a day long and an entrepreneurial literacy program in either a 1 or a 2 day format. 

Our approach uses teaching methods such as picture sortings, group discussion, and role-playing and assumes that the typical participant cannot read or write.  Part 1 focuses on the process of exchange and its evolution over time. We cover the concept of a value chain from production of products to consumption.

In Part 2, participants assume the role of consumers. We focus on consumer literacy by using simulated shopping environments with common “traps” identified in our research as being issues that illiterate consumers are vulnerable to. We use the notion of value for a product as the guiding concept to communicate the importance of informed consumer behavior.