Bengaluru, February 5, 2021: Instamojo, a product for small businesses to adopt online commerce, today announced its partnership with ATPAR (Alliance To Promote Abilities & Rehabilitation LLP), a social enterprise, empowering Entrepreneurs with Disabilities. As part of this partnership, Instamojo will provide six-month free access to their online premium store to budding entrepreneurs of the ATPAR community. Merchants will get access to digital tools which will help in setting up and gaining the knowledge to build their online businesses, along with the opportunity to engage with potential customers. This initiative is part of ATPAR’s ‘Business Beyond Barriers’ national programme.
Reports from across the globe have shown that the number of People with Disabilities taking up entrepreneurship as a livelihood is double when compared to those without any disability. However, most of these entrepreneurs set up businesses without adequate knowledge, skills and access to finance which eventually lead to their enterprises becoming neither sustainable nor scalable.
It is with this objective ATPAR is initiating this dialogue, as a National Conference on the theme – ‘Business Beyond Barriers’ Empowering Entrepreneurs with Disabilities, through a series of Webinars. The event is being hosted with eminent partners NHFDC, NCPEDP along with NEDAR members. NEDAR (Network of Entrepreneurs with Disabilities for Assistance & Rehabilitation) is the first-ever Network of Entrepreneurs with Disabilities was launched by ATPAR in 2019 supported by PVRnest and UMMEED, Ray of Hope. This event would witness the meeting of key stakeholders from Government, Skilling EcoSystem, Non-Profits, Corporate, Industry Associations, Banks and Market Linkage Providers participating to enable the much-needed convergence for the growth and success of Entrepreneurs with Disabilities to build, innovate and sustain their businesses.
Sharing his thoughts on the association, Akash Gehani, Co-Founder & COO, Instamojo said, “India’s entrepreneurial ecosystem has grown stronger than ever before, with over 63 million MSMEs contributing to the GDP. With a growing number of specially-abled entrepreneurs, creating a nurturing ecosystem which will support these businesses in a digitally evolving world is key. At Instamojo, we are happy to be enabling our specially-abled entrepreneur champs in building their businesses online and hand-hold them in their initial journey. This is going to be a proud moment for us, and we are looking forward to being part of their growth story.”
Thilakam Rajendran, Founder ATPAR said, “India’s landscape has been changing since the past few years in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Young India is also gearing up to take up the challenge, by developing innovative solutions and providing employment to many and contributing to the growing economy. However, amidst all this, there is still a large group of people who are left behind – the specially-abled section of society.
In fact, we find that Entrepreneurs with Disabilities are the emerging ‘Invisible Contributors’ not only creating income for themselves but also are job and wealth creators for the Nation. For example, 23 of the enterprises of NEDAR* members are providing jobs to 230 persons of which 37 are PwDs. Even though there is no comprehensive statistics, but Persons with Disabilities supported by NHFDC for business loans could be over 2 lakh and even if we consider only 50 per cent of them, each employing five persons, they would be employing close to five lakh jobs, which is a significant contribution. Apart from this, the wealth created in the form of sales/profits is an additional contribution.
It is time we highlight and make them visible and bring them to the forefront with acknowledgement and support from key Stake Holders across various segments – be it Industry, Society or Government.
We thank Instamojo, its team for relentless support in understanding the need of this community and we hope this association benefits our budding entrepreneurs to achieve greater heights, independently.