Kolkata, WEST BENGAL:

When we talk of youngsters in their early twenties, of course, we think that it’s time for them to work hard and party harder. Right? But we are seeing a lot of youngsters take up entrepreneurship at a young age to make it big. But there are some like Alina Alam from Kolkata, who took to social entrepreneurship to make the world a better place for the differently-abled. All of 27 years of age, Alina started with her ‘Mitti Cafe’ when she was 23, which is run entirely by a staff of persons with a disability, ranging from visual and hearing impaired to Asperger’s and to Down’s syndrome.

The Mitti Cafe

While pursuing her graduation from Azim Premji University, Alina volunteered in an organisation that works with adults with a disability. That’s when she realised that the problem is not their ability but the disability in our perception, which needs to change. Talking to us about the cafe, Alina said, “I started with the Mitti Cafe in 2017, with an aim to create platforms for adults with physical, intellectual and multiple disabilities to showcase their abundant potential for productive activity and create awareness for the cause of equal opportunities in employment.”

Not every enterprise needs a VC funding, as Alina started this venture with funding from her friends, family and partnerships with Deshpande Foundation, NSRCEL-IIM Bangalore & N-Core Foundation. And now she has several branches of the cafe in both Kolkata and Bengaluru.

Facilities Enabling The Staff
One can find menus printed in braille, food orders written on sheets of a note pad, self-explanatory placards and flicker lights that signal the staff when a customer calls for them, and more such unique ideas to facilitate the differently-abled staff at the Mitti Cafe.

Apart from remuneration, Alina explained how they have additional benefits like accommodation for the staff, “Since most of our employees along with having a disability come from a low-income background, apart from salaries, we also provide them with accommodation, food and logistics. We provide wheelchairs to those who cannot afford it. There are placards in the cafe for communication with our HSI staff and menu as well as instructions in Braille for our staff with visual impairment. The training methodology for our adults with an intellectual disability involves innovative techniques that involve songs, poetry and pictorial training.”

Impact & Help With The COVID-19 Outbreak
Talking about the impact of her venture, Alina said, “We currently have a total of 71 adults with disability employed at the various cafes branches and we provide experiential training to adults with a disability who is placed in the hospitality sector, retail sector or decide to start their own business.” Not only that, currently Alina and her team is also helping the vulnerable sections of the society affected by the Coronavirus lockdown. Talking about the same, she added, “The MITTI team is working on a war footing currently to help in the COVID 19 crisis by providing the most basic of the necessities: food to 2000 of our Frontline Heroes-daily wage labourers every day.”

Alina runs the social enterprise with the help of her amazing team members who left their cushy corporate jobs for the cause, including the COO & Director- Swati, another Director- Anjani Gupta and Area Operations Heads- Sanidhya Bindal & Amruta Wadekar.

She also shared her future plans with us which include, “Creating awareness about economic empowerment and dignity-one cafe at a time, till Mitto Café becomes outdated. We are hopeful that should be soon.”

source: http://www.inclusiveindia.in / Inclusive India / Home> Feature> Inclusivity / by Shobita Dutt / April 17th, 2020