A social entrepreneur, Kabita thinks that social service is not about being a savior to people in need. Rather it’s about enabling them to find solutions to their problems on their own in a self-sustained manner.

Kabita Ghimire is a social worker and social entrepreneur. She has been working in the social sector for the past eleven years now.

Kabita hails from Haflong, Assam. She grew up and studied till grade nine in Haflong itself. Later her family shifted to Guwahati and she completed the remainder of her school education there itself.

Kabita says that hailing from a self-sustained village, Haflong, and then moving to a city like Guwahati made her see poverty and slums for the first time.

Kabita shares that she started doing social service when she was in grade eleven. She started by doing some charity work. But later realized that charity alone doesn’t count as a social service. To understand more about social service, she went to TISS, Guwahati to pursue an MA in Social Work (Livelihoods and Social Entrepreneurship).

Kabita says that she was an average student academically and therefore opted for the Commerce stream in high school. Later, she also tried her hands at CA and CS along with doing a B.Com. She shares that after completing her bachelors, she did a course on CSR offered by the Ministry of Human Affairs, GOI. Thereafter, she did an M.Com.

After completing her M.Com, her parents advised her to either do a job or prepare for CA, CS, or banking examinations. But she was interested in something else. She moved out of Guwahati to explore other avenues like law. and that’s when she got to know about TISS and the courses it offered.

Kabita says that during her masters at TISS, she got to work in the field and live with tribal communities. And it made her realize that social service is not about being a savior to people in need, rather it’s about enabling them to solve their problems on their own in a sustainable manner.

Talking about her inspirations, Kabita says that the people from the communities where she lived and worked inspired her the most to take to social service.

Talking about her challenges, Kabita says that she came from a privileged background and got a good education. But being an average student academically resulted in self-doubt and low self-confidence which impeded her growth. However, she worked hard to improve on her shortcomings.

To the youth, her advice is that it’s okay not to know about everything. Besides, she advises them never to compare themselves to others as everyone comes from different backgrounds and has different circumstances.

Kabita thinks that to understand the practicalities of things one must work on the ground and with the people who start from scratch.

Besides her work, Kabita likes to visit places to experience different cultures.

To people, her advice is to believe in yourself and to find good mentors for yourself who can guide you in the right direction.

To aspiring social entrepreneurs, Kabita tells them that initially it’s very tough to survive as a social entrepreneur and it takes time to hit break-even. She says more than money, it’s cultural and social capital that is more important to work in the social sector.