Haqdarshak: The Social Enterprise Helping Millions of Indians Claim What's Already Theirs
- yanabijoor
- 7 hours ago
- 3 min read
What is the problem?
Each year, the Indian government allocates several hundred billion dollars to welfare programs that support poor households, farmers, and small businesses. However, much of the funds never reach the intended beneficiaries.
This is primarily because most citizens who could benefit from the programs are unaware of their existence. Furthermore, even those who learn about them face obstacles such as paperwork, complex eligibility criteria, or the need to earn a living, which means a wage worker cannot afford to miss a day's pay just to stand in line at a public agency.
What is the solution?
Most anti-poverty efforts focus on making new resources available to the people who need them. Haqdarshak is taking an alternative approach. It focuses on unlocking the resources that already exist but never reach the people who need them the most.
Haqdarshak uses its mobile app to connect citizens to 7,000 existing government and private welfare programs. But technology is only one side of this business model. The other half is people. Haqdarshak trains locals, mostly women from the same community served by the application, to help their fellow citizens access government benefits using the app. The company calls this a “tech-and-touch” model, which means a citizen does not have to figure out the system alone. Someone they already know and trust helps them.
What is the business model? Haqdarshak operates under a dual revenue model that aims to be sustainable without making the service unaffordable for the people it serves. Individuals pay the local agent a small fee, often less than one dollar, to assist with filling out the application form. At the same time, big companies and non-governmental organizations sponsor Haqdarshak for use in their supply chain management or corporate social responsibility projects.
As of February 2026, the company had secured approximately $3.3 million in seed funding from impact-focused investors, including Acumen, Beyond Capital Fund, and Village Capital.
Why is it innovative?
Haqdarshak introduced the Yojana Card in 2022. The card contains a QR code that carries details about a citizen's eligibility for various government services and programs. When someone’s circumstances change, such as the birth of a child, job loss, or relocation, the card helps a citizen apply for services with ease. It turns a one-time application into an ongoing relationship.
What is the impact?
Haqdarshak is one of the most expansive social tech platforms in India:
Over $1.5 billion worth of governmental benefits and subsidies have been made accessible to citizens
More than 6 million households and small businesses were assisted in 24 states within India
Over 30,000 women are employed and earning a livelihood as Haqdarshak agents
What needs to improve?
Scaling comes with its own set of issues, and there are some unique to India that Haqdarshak has encountered. The language issue is the first such problem. The app provides services in several languages, but India's dialect map can make one's head spin, and scaling to reach villages with unique dialects can be challenging. The second problem is bureaucracy. If a government agency takes time to process a request, the local agent loses credibility. Third, there is the problem of infrastructure. Accessing some of the remotest corners of India requires an offline capability that can run for long periods.
Haqdarshak's bet is simple but counterintuitive. The money to lift millions of people out of poverty already exists. The missing piece is not capital, it is access. By turning information into a product and trusted neighbors into agents, the social enterprise is proving that the cheapest way to deliver welfare might be to help people claim what was already theirs.
Sources:
What sparks Aniket Doegar, co-founder of Haqdarshak?Co-founder of Haqdarshak wants to end intergenerational poverty in India
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