Innovative Practice 2021 on Inclusive Employment and ICT
Fast-growing café chain with a majority of employees with disabilities
MITTI is an Indian social enterprise that provides hospitality and catering training as well as employment opportunities for adults with disabilities. It runs accessible cafés established on the premises of educational institutions and private sector companies in Karnataka, West Bengal, and Orissa states. As of 2020, there are 13 MITTI Cafés that are managed and staffed by 116 employees with all kinds of disabilities. The organization is constantly looking for partners to open up new cafés.
| Name of Innovative Practice: | MITTI Café |
|---|---|
| Organisation: | MITTI |
| Country of Implementation | India – Karnataka, West Bengal, Orissa |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Sub-Category | A project of the Business Sector |
PROBLEMS TARGETED
Persons with disabilities in India have limited employment prospects and few opportunities for social inclusion.
SOLUTION, INNOVATION, AND IMPACT
In MITTI Cafés employees acquire hospitality skills such as food handling, billing, and customer service. Employees, who are usually the sole earners in low-income households, are paid more than the minimum wage, receive workers’ insurance, and are provided with accommodation, food, medical care, and assistive devices as needed. In addition to its 116 current employees, from 2017 to 2019 a total of 318 people were trained and supported to find positions in the hospitality sector.
Cafés are accessible and designed to facilitate interaction between employees and customers with and without disabilities. There are tills with audio features and menus in Braille for employees with visual impairments, and flicker lights alert employees with hearing impairments to customers’ needs. MITTI only opens cafés on the premises of educational institutions and private sector companies that commit to an active and long-term partnership to promote inclusion.
The team at one of the 13 MITTI Café locations.
FUNDING, OUTLOOK AND TRANSFERABILITY
MITTI’s partners provide space for the cafés rent-free or at a reduced rate and cover the set-up costs. Cafés are only opened where there is high customer traffic to ensure an attractive location and economic viability. Generally, cafés become financially self-sustaining within a month of opening.
This model has been used to set up 13 cafés and can be further replicated. Once a memorandum of understanding is signed with a host organization, MITTI has a standardized process for setting up a café, informed by its experiences to date. MITTI is looking to expand further, and in the next five years plans to employ 1,000 adults with disabilities.
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