From making healthcare accessible in India to raising awareness about consuming healthy eggs: top SocialStories this week

There are many people across the world working to achieve various missions. However, most of these personalities are not so popular or often unknown to the masses.

SocialStory spoke to two such people this week who are also social entrepreneurs. While Dr Aqsa Shaikh, a trans doctor, is working towards making healthcare in India inclusive and accessible to all, Namita Satija and her husband Atul Mittal are on a mission to take healthier and unadulterated eggs to end consumers while also educating them on the importance of consuming the same.

Meet the rural artisans who got the opportunity to study at IIM-A

Mohammed Saqib is a fifth-generation artisan of the Rangrez (textile dyer) community in Rajasthan, a community that is famous for the creation of leheriya designs in myriad colours. Saqib’s family has been creating leheriya designs for the past 150 years. 

Saqib is one of 30 ‘agents of change’ in the current batch of the Creative and Cultural Businesses Programme (CCBP) at IIM Ahmedabad. The executive programme is focused on creative and cultural entrepreneurs in the country, especially those who are rooted in Indian artisanal craft heritage, and aims at upskilling them. 

“One of my colleagues sent me the link to this course at IIM-Ahmedabad, and it came to me at a point when I felt quite stuck as to how to move forward in the family business, and do something different. I applied, got selected, and once I went there, I realised there was more to business than what we had known all along,” shares Saqib.

Started in 2013, the CCBP has impacted businesses of over 200 entrepreneurs in fields such as fashion, fragrances, jewellery, art, performing arts, travel, hospitality, F&B, home decor and design.

How a trans doctor is fighting to make healthcare in India inclusive

“We need to see the queer community not just as recipients of healthcare but also as providers—as doctors, nurses, caretakers, and also as teachers, researchers, and students in the medical educational space,” says Dr Aqsa Shaikh, a transwoman and a doctor who serves as Associate Professor at the Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences and Research in Delhi.

Dr Aqsa is also a social entrepreneur and the founder of the Human Solidarity Foundation, which works on advancing the inclusion of transpersons across the healthcare value chain in India—from food security for marginalised groups to inclusion in national policy frameworks. The team also works with institutions including AIIMS, ICMR, and the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights to drive necessary changes in the system.

In a conversation with SocialStory, Aqsa talks about the challenges faced by the transgender community when it comes to accessing healthcare and the underlying systemic exclusions that need to be addressed.

This startup is raising awareness about consuming healthy eggs with its antibiotic- and hormone-free eggs

Second-time entrepreneur Namita Satija believes there is a lack of awareness about eggs in the market.

“Nobody knows what kind of eggs they are eating. The cycle between the laying of eggs and the person buying and eating is huge. There’s a lot of news and awareness about milk, but there is absolutely no information about eggs in the market. No one talks about antibiotic-free eggs or hormone-free eggs, nobody talks about it--not even bigger brands,” she says.

To help people make better choices with the eggs they consume, Namita and her husband Atul Mittal started Bettr Eggs. 

The Chandigarh-based startup produces organic, antibiotic, and hormone-free eggs. It is currently partnering with small farmers to produce enriched eggs and also helps them earn 30% more above their income. 

Fighting congenital heart disease: We hope our daughter could lead a normal life one day

This week in Survivor Series, we bring you the story of seven-year-old Lavanya Sutar, who suffers from congenital heart disease and has successfully overcome two surgeries.

I am Mangesh Sutar. My family—consisting of my wife and daughter—hail from Kumbharli village in Maharashtra's Raigad district. When our only daughter Lavanya was a few months old, she would often become breathless and cry constantly.

At the time, our hearts would sink with worry, and we would rush her to the nearby Anganwadi. After she turned one, we took her to a health check-up camp in our village organised by the Rashtriya Bal Suraksha Karyakram (RBSK), where a doctor suspected a case of congenital heart disease (CHD).