NSRCEL Startups: Mitti Cafe

MITTI Cafe, as a part of its livelihood development initiative for the economic independence and dignity of persons with disability, provides training, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for adults with intellectual, physical and multiple disabilities through the creation of training cafes within institutional spaces.

Mitti Café is incubated at NSRCEL through the Social Cohort program and has received grant support from the Ford Foundation. While the grant support fueled and accelerated research and development at Mitti, the connects to an amazing pool of mentors, startup founders and experts through the NSRCEL network have immensely benefited us to develop and implement disability-friendly workspace design, standardized menu, and customized equipment in our cafes.

24-year-old Alina Alam started Mitti Café two years ago. Today, there are nine Mitti cafes empowering 61+ adults with disabilities within organizations like Infosys, IQVIA, ANZ, JP Morgan, etc. During this short span of time, Alina and Mitti Café have won awards like the Rotary Exemplar Award, Microsoft Nipman Award, Tiecon Young Female Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Promising Social Enterprise Award from Mr. Manish Sisodia, Deputy CM of Delhi, Best CSR Initiative at Annual Restaurant Congress Award, Emerge India Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Samvida Social Enterprise Competition, Janhit Jagran Award in the field of poverty alleviation and so on. This year, Mitti Café is spreading its wings in other cities like Hyderabad and Kolkata.