Transforming Waste into Compassion: A Case Study of Jagjit Singh's Social Entrepreneurship Initiative for Sustainable Animal Care

Abstract

Urban India faces two interconnected challenges: rising volumes of solid waste and a growing population of stray animals requiring shelter and care. Social entrepreneurship has emerged as an effective approach to addressing such interconnected societal problems through innovative and sustainable solutions (Saebi et al., 2019). This paper presents a qualitative case study of Jagjit Singh, a social entrepreneur from Gurugram, Haryana, who transformed discarded fibre paint drums into weather-resistant shelters for stray dogs, through his organization, Stray talk India. Beginning with a simple observation in 2017, Singh's initiative evolved into a community-driven movement that has distributed 28000 of recycled shelters free of cost so far. This study aims to examine how a waste-upcycling initiative for animal welfare emerged, scaled, and sustained itself as a community-driven social enterprise, and to identify the key factors underlying its success. Drawing on secondary data from media reports, news narratives, and social media content, the study examines how a simple, low-cost idea grew into a sustainable, community-driven movement through upcycling, volunteer participation, and digital outreach. The findings indicate that resource innovation, environmental sustainability, compassion-driven leadership, and community engagement are critical factors underlying the initiative's success. The paper concludes with recommendations for scaling such models through collaboration with municipalities, animal welfare organizations, and citizen groups. Overall, the study demonstrates how waste materials can be converted into valuable social assets through entrepreneurial innovation, generating measurable environmental and humanitarian benefits.