Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1. Introduction – Product Development and Needs Assessment
According to UNICEF, in India, 39 out of 1000 children under the age of 5 die annually, mostly
due to preventable diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhoea. Unhygienic practices and
unsanitary water acted as the major causes of diarrhoea. These diseases could, to an extent,
be controlled by the simple use of soap at regularly. Additionally, everyday millions of partially
used soap bars are discarded by hotels across India. With these facts in mind, we set out to
develop Project Soaprise.
We conducted various needs assessment surveys across backward regions in Delhi-NCR and
found that most children were unaware of proper hand hygiene habits, did not have access to
soap and even if they did, they were not in the habit of using it regularly. We knew that ordinary
soap bars would not cut it & we had to develop something that children would be excited to use
regularly – this became the foundation of our primary product – the TOY SOAP. The toy soap
is an antibacterial soap with a toy embedded in it. Our soaps are available in attractive shapes,
colours and fragrances with its highlight being the toy that has incentivized hundreds of children
to use soap regularly.
As the toy soap was sold at competitive prices to improve hygiene habits in backward regions,
it wasn’t profitable enough to sustain our project, due to which we developed our second
product – the LOOFAH SOAP - a moisturizing and exfoliating handmade soap with a natural
loofah embedded in it. This soap was targeted towards higher income sections of the society,
making our business model financially sustainable.
With the help of our NGO partner – Humana People to People India, we were introduced to our
community – Karkar Mandan in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. Here, we found not only a
community to market our product but also our 4 primary beneficiaries responsible for recycling,
production and packaging of soaps. These women are housewives belonging to low income
households, looking to improve their livelihood through an additional source of income.
Simultaneously, we collaborated with hotels to provide us with our primary raw material –
partially used soaps. This gave the hotels an opportunity to contribute towards a noble cause
and improve their image without incurring any additional costs.
2. Beneficiaries – [Video]
3. Flow of Operations/Business Model
In our model, the soaps are collected by our partner hotels and handed over to us on a monthly
or bi-monthly basis, based on the quantity. These soaps are then taken to our production unit
in Karkar Mandan in Ghaziabad where our beneficiaries thoroughly clean the soaps, boil them,
add essential oils as well as the toy or loofah. These soaps are sold in two different markets –
urban and rural at competitive prices.
4. Production
Before the initiation of formal production, the four beneficiaries were trained for a month to
follow a fixed procedure for recycling each batch of soaps uniformly. Soft skill sessions were
also conducted to make them more comfortable in conversing and answering questions about
their upcoming business. Our team also conducted an online crowd-funding campaign to
kickstart the project through which we were able to reach our goal of Rs 50,000 and
subsequently set up our production unit in Karkar.
Simultaneously, to ensure safe usage and provide credibility, our products were certified by the
ITS Laboratory, an NABL Accredited and Government approved laboratory. The products
successfully passed the quality test, the allergy test and the anti-bacterial test, thereby
maintaining the basic hygiene level.
Finally, with the aim to inculcate better sanitary practices, the beneficiaries began production
in July 2018.
5. Marketing and Sales
We undertook several efforts to introduce our product in the rural and urban market.
Within the vicinity of Karkar Village, the team conducted several awareness campaigns and
sensitisation drives on occasions such as World Handwashing Day, Children’s Day, Diwali, etc.
These campaigns involved the children and parents through various games and interactive
sessions. The aim was to educate them about the importance of handwashing thereby enabling
them to adopt better hygiene practices. In addition to this, a wall was painted in the village,
depicting our mascot - Bubbly purchasing and using our toy soap.
All these initiatives helped the project reach various families and local shopkeepers which
boosted our sales in the village. We tapped the urban markets for our soaps through various
Diwali mela stalls & college fests as well as offline retail stores. Social media pages for the
project were launched and actively updated to increase our reach and spread awareness
through various infographics, product pictures and posters depicting healthier hand hygiene
practices. We also tapped online selling avenues to have a more prominent digital presence.
6. Collaborations
Over the past year, we’ve collaborated with multiple hotels in Gurgaon and Delhi such as Ibis,
City Club, and several hotels in Paharganj with the most prominent collaborations being with
Umrao Hotel and Plazzio Hotel. Through these mutually beneficial collaborations, we’ve been
able to successfully recycle hundreds of kilograms of partially used soaps.
Our collaboration with Ultra international has allowed us to procure essential oils free of cost.
These essential oils impart important characteristics to our soaps, making them antibacterial,
moisturizing and luxurious. Furthermore, our NGO partner, Humana People to People India
has supported us every step of the way from connecting us to the beneficiaries to setting up
production.
7. Impact
Project Soaprise has successfully created a threefold impact.
Firstly, since July 2018, we have sold 3150 units of soap (2500 toy and 650 loofah). This has
helped in reducing the large amount of diseases which are caused due to poor sanitation and
lack of hygienic practices. Through interactive sessions and campaigns done by our team, we
have spread awareness amongst the less fortunate about better hygiene and sanitation
practices. It has, thus, indirectly impacted over 200 families of and around Karkar Village.
Secondly, the project has created employment for 4 women who earlier had no avenue of work.
It has made sales in rural and urban areas worth Rs.1.3 lakh since its initiation. As 90% of our
proceeds are channelized as income for the beneficiaries, they now have a stable source of
income which has enhanced their standard of living and made them financially independent.
Thirdly, through a monthly collection of 40-45 kgs of soaps from our partner hotels, Project
Soaprise has recycled over 400kgs of partially used soaps in the past year. The project has,
thus, achieved its goal of waste management by reducing the amount of soap waste which
would otherwise be disposed of in landfills.
8. Scalability
Working on a product such as soap allows us a massive scope for expansion. In the coming
months, we will be looking into increasing our range of products – introducing more luxury and
affordable soaps as well as liquid soaps. To support this expansion, we’ll also be collaborating
with more hotels in and around Delhi.
Furthermore, after maximising the income of the beneficiaries in Karkar Mandan, we’ll be
setting up another production unit in Seelampur, and we are in the process of collaborating with
an NGO operating there to support us in the same.
We have also been able to identify other backward regions in Delhi such as Yamuna Khadar
(a slum area in East Delhi) to market our soap and conduct awareness drives to improve their
hygiene practices as well.