Flipkart Foundation supports MITTI Cafe to catalyze mainstream inclusion, through skilling and sustainable livelihood opportunities for persons with disabilities
Bengaluru, 23 March 2023: The Flipkart Foundation under the Flipkart Group, India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace, with its vision of facilitating an inclusive, equitable, empowered and sustainable society in India, is collaborating with Mitti Cafe, a chain of cafes that provides experiential training and employment to adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. Through this initiative, the Flipkart Foundation has supported the one-time set-up cost for one of the Mitti Cafes in Bengaluru. Additionally, ‘Flipkart Foundation’ is supporting Mitti cafe to train 249 PWDs at its training centers in Bengaluru and Kolkata, which will help create sustainable livelihood opportunities for people from underserved communities.
Through this unique collaboration with Mitti Cafe, the Flipkart Foundation, endeavors to contribute to the lives of PwD by creating a gateway to their financial independence and upskilling. This will also help create awareness of inclusive workplaces that can be run by Persons with Disabilities.
The newly opened Mitti cafe will be managed by persons with disabilities, with an intention to increase employability, and in turn self-reliance of persons with disabilities, through their skill development. By bringing training and employment opportunities, this initiative will in turn boost equity, inclusion, and awareness about disability inclusion.
Commenting on the partnership, Rajneesh Kumar, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Flipkart and Board of Directors, Flipkart Foundation, said “At Flipkart Foundation our focus is on enabling the disadvantaged communities and creating opportunities for them with appropriate knowledge and skills. We are happy and grateful to partner with Mitti Cafe and Give Foundation in this collaboration which aims to train, create employment and bolster opportunities for Persons with Disability at the grassroots level. This initiative aligns with the larger vision of the Foundation to provide skilling opportunities for underserved communities and PwDs for their financial independence. This project is a step ahead in our stride to be agents of change in society. We are optimistic for the trajectory of this partnership and will continue to build on our mission for an equitable future.”
Founder and CEO of Mitti Cafe, Alina Alam, said, “We take immense pride in collaborating with the Flipkart Foundation in this exceptional journey that is mission-aligned with the core beliefs of Mitti Cafe. As an organization, we provide experiential training to adults with physical and intellectual disabilities, with a vision to create awareness about inclusion and disability rights. This collaboration with Flipkart Foundation and Give Foundation will propel our journey closer to our goals of creating a more inclusive and equitable society that has enough financial opportunities for the marginalized sections of our community.”
With a focus on rural areas and providing equitable access to growth opportunities for women and other disadvantaged communities, the Flipkart Foundation aims to positively impact 20 million lives directly and indirectly in the next decade.
In the past year, Flipkart Foundation has worked with underserved communities across Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Karnataka, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal to serve, support, and empower unskilled and underprivileged sections of society in various sectors, to ensure maximum reach and sustainable impact.
About the Flipkart Group
The Flipkart Group is one of India’s leading digital commerce entities and includes group companies Flipkart, Myntra, Flipkart Wholesale, Flipkart Health+, and Cleartrip.
Started in 2007, Flipkart has enabled millions of sellers, merchants, and small businesses to participate in India’s digital commerce revolution. With a registered customer base of more than 450 million, Flipkart’s marketplace offers over 150 million products across 80+ categories. Today, there are over 11 lakh sellers on the platform, including Shopsy sellers. With a focus on empowering and delighting every Indian by delivering value through technology and innovation, Flipkart has created lakhs of jobs in the ecosystem while empowering generations of entrepreneurs and MSMEs. Flipkart is known for pioneering services such as Cash on Delivery, No Cost EMI and easy returns, which are customer-centric innovations that have made online shopping more accessible and affordable for millions of Indians.
