Cafe with differently-abled staff is breaking stereotypes

MUMBAI: A café in Mumbai with all differently-abled staff is breaking the stereotype and brewing a new change. Yash Charitable Trust in an initiative to help differently-abled people opened the Arpan café in suburban Juhu. Located in a small area near SNDT College, Arpan cafe has a staff of 13 differently-abled workers. The café, which remains open from 8 am to 8 pm, has its own delivery system where the specially-abled staffs take orders themselves. They also make burgers, coffee and pizzas by themselves.

Anand, one of the specially-abled staffers said, "It’s fun working here, my parents are in Qatar I work here."

Sushama Nagarkar, trustee of Yash Charitable Trust said that initially, it was a bit difficult to create an understanding between the staff and the customers, but gradually, with the help of understanding customers, it became easy for the staffs to run the café smoothly. “The vision and mission of Yash Charitable Trust started in 2014 was to bring the people with developmental disability into the mainstream community. In 2015, we started a ‘dabba service’ and included people with a developmental disability. We realised that these people have a lot of potential but they cease to get opportunities. Hence we started this café as another project to help these people” Nagarkar added.

The customers also lauded the initiative and said that it will help the kids to improve their innate ability in the field of catering and hospitality. "I have raised a special child myself and I know that these kids hold a lot of potentials. I think this initiative taken by Yash Charitable Trust is very nice," Aishwarya Baride, a customer, said.