Muskaan has been working in the field of education for the last two decades. After working in this field we realised that children from a very young age go for scrap collection and after reaching a certain age they drop out of school in order to support their families financially. To ensure children continue with their education, a livelihood program was initiated.
With the challenges of Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns, ruptures in public health, food security, livelihood and education were traumatizing. We believed that there is urgency to address some of these challenges and focussed more on livelihood based interventions. The aim was to support families of urban poor who are majorly involved in scrap work to create new diversified livelihood opportunities and reduce food insecurity.
We started to work on enhancing (adding value) the existing skills of people and providing new skills for better income and to lead a dignified life. One of the intentions behind commencing the livelihood program was to create entrepreneurial traits among the people so that self-sufficiency and sustenance can be realised. Since 2020 we have been able to ensure that following enterprises and activities are being functional in different bastis (slums) of Bhopal.