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Asmita is an NGO based in Mumbai. It is an umbrella organization and, amongst other projects, runs a small vocational training centre for basti children/youth with paralysis/polio and similar physical disabilities in Borivali, Mumbai.
The centre targets slum dwellers who are immobile and hence are confined to their homes. Each batch consists about 20-25 students who are trained for about 18 months. Asmita volunteers go to the slums looking for such students and persuading their parents to send them to the centre. This is a tough task as there is a lot of inertia in these students’ households against letting them leave home.
Once admitted to the centre, the students are provided with hand-driven tricycles to commute from their homes to a designated pick-up point on the highway. The centre has a dedicated van to pick up and drop students at these designated points.
The activities in the centre include sewing, wood/board panel cutting and painting, making greeting cards, making paper plates etc. At the end of their training period, the students are provided with machinery and equipment to enable them to earn a sustainable living by earning INR25-50 per day. Aside from providing tangible skills to the students, the aim of the center is also to instill self-confidence in these under privileged students.
Sudha Tai has been running the center for more than a decade on a voluntary basis. The rest of the staff consists of teachers (most of whom are students who have passed out in earlier batches), helpers and a bus driver. The center also employs a physio to provide medical help to the students.
Institute students at work
Some products made at the institute
Prayaas involvement
The center’s monthly expenditure is about INR 30,000, including salaries, the physio’s honorarium, utilities, fuel and commuting charges. Prayaas has already collected and funded INR235,000 from 17 donors in HK/India to finance the operational expenditure for this institute, as well as for hiring an embroidery teacher to enhance the value and quality of their output.
We are proud of actively supporting this project since the last 2.5 years and been trying to expand its scope of activities.
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