pune mann deshi udyogini mdu the highly acclaimed bschool for rural women is all set to unroll its microbusiness schoolonwheels in northern karnataka with philanthropic support from sycamore networks cofounder and chairman gururaj desh deshpande designed with extreme sensitivity to the compulsions of rural women and their inability to leave their homes or villages for work the mduonwheels will travel to villages in the nippanihublidharwad region and impart microbusiness skills to themthe mdu was in the news recently when its innovative rural bschool programme grabbed worldwide attention after it was listed by the financial times alongside the best executive educational programmes in the world such as those at harvard university of chicago and the duke universitys fuqua school of business based at vaduj in satara district the mdu is an offshoot of the allwomen mann deshi mahila sahakari bank ltd mdmsb located at mhaswad satara which has been empowering women through various microfinance schemesspeaking to toi mdmsb founder chetna galasinha a yale and ashoka fellow said that the mobile bschool will be launched on september 16 in hubli karnataka she said that the deshpande foundation has been working with a few ashoka fellows in the north karnataka region and was keen that the mobile bschool programme be initiated there to get the benefit of scale through the cooperation of various projects initiated by ashoka fellows many women would complain that they could not travel everyday to take our courses we would also find it difficult to send trainers for different places so we thought why not design a bus and offer a mobile programme sinha said the mobile bschool based in a modified tata 709e turbo minibus has a generator backup sewing machines and computer tables installed inside the vehicle it will provide mdus popular courses in bag and purse making computer literacy setting up fastfood stalls improving cattle milk quality and a course in financial literacythe bus will visit large villages at least twice or three times a week and also station itself in the weekly rural markets to cater to women from small villages since many of the women who take our courses are loanees from our bank the bus will also interact with our bank agents who collect repayment on a daily basis and transfer it to the bank on a monthly basis sinha saidfounded in december 2006 with a rs 7 lakh grant from the hsbc hong kong and shanghai banking corporation the mdu has been encouraging and empowering rural women by helping them become microentrepreneurs offering courses ranging from two days to three months in duration course fees from rs 25 to rs 1200 the mdu demands no educational or age criteria for enrolment and has any day admissions more than 200 women have explored microbusiness opportunities through the mdu by learning how to market cellphone recharge coupons stitch and sell attractive bags and purses increase fat content in milch cattle or vend popular fastfoods such as wadapav pavbhaji chinese and the maharashtrian favourite misalpav