Third Gender of the Third Sector

Once
upon a time, a long long time ago lived a demon called
“Hardtosolveproblemu”

He
was the greatest problem ever born on the planet. Social workers far
and wide feared him – those who approached him went broke and
committed suicide.

No
one would dare to touch him. Funders did not have a category to
classify him. No monitoring and evaluation framework could ever
measure him.

Now
you will want to ask what gave him so much power?

For
that, we go back to even longer longer ago. It was a time when
problems were having a hard time surviving. They were getting solved
one after another and the world was getting better!

At
such a time, however, there was one problem, very small and
insignificant.

This
problem prayed to the evil demon “Seperatasur”.
Pleased by the penance, the demon asked this little problem what he
wanted.

The
little problem said, “Oh Seperatasur,
make me a HUGE problem that can never be solved.”

Seperatasur
said,“That is not be possible, my child. There isn’t any problem
that can never be solved.”

After
some thought, the little problem said, “Okay, in that case grant me
a boon that I become a problem that can be solved neither by a
charity nor by a for profit, not by law and legal entities nor by
governments and bureaucrats, not by self sacrificing social workers
nor by money splashing philanthropists. Let me be solved neither by
scale nor by niche, neither by analysis nor by measurement.”

“I
grant you the boon, little problem. From today, you shall be the
feared demon Hardtosolveprolemu,”
said the evil lord, and disappeared.

Over
time, the problem grew bigger – he became ferocious and gargantuan.

Many
tried to solve him. But they failed.

When
donors tried to support this work, they went bankrupt. When
for-profits came to support it, they saw no market. They all were
troubled. They prayed to Lord Togetherwearestronger, the patron saint
of the social sector.

The
lord, listening to their woes, took form on Earth as a unique entity
– the Social Enterprise (Socialenterpriseshwar).

This
form of the Lord had never been seen before.

It
did not make profits but did not rely solely on charity. There was no
legal entity that could fully capture it and it had varying
definitions. It fulfilled aspirations of the millennials financially
and yet, channeled their creativity to maximise impact.

After
a slow initial phase, Socialenterpriseshwar
gained momentum. It approached Hardtosolveproblemu.

What
a fight it was!

The
problem resisted in all ways. Its social, political and cultural
dimensions acted together to maximise its challenge.

But
nothing could stop Socialenterpriseashwar.
She changed
form based on the need. She was able to create solutions that went
viral and scaled up and yet had local contextual applications. She
grew to accommodate various ways of solving issues in new ways. She
could hold paradoxes beautifully.

Finally,
after a long battle, she brought forth a combination of all the
activities of her ecosystem. She was finally able to solve
Hardtosolveproblemu.

She
was hailed as the third gender of the third sector – a form that
would solve the most difficult problems that were faced by us.
Problems that no one would solve our touch, but needed to be dealt
with.

So
remember, dear readers – when a social enterprise appears before you,
it is Lord Togetherwearestronger
himself.
Remember to offer some prasad (organizational funding), recite a few
sacred mantras (theories of change) and avoid giving that strange,
bewildered look!

This article was contributed by CAP Member Abhishek
Thakore, who is the co-founder of The Blue Ribbon Movement, a social
enterprise with the motto ‘Together, We are Stronger’