A 24-year-old revolutionary from Chirawa, Rajasthan, is taking on the likes of TVS and Bajaj – leaders in India’s competitive 2-wheeler segment – by kickstarting his own e-scooter assembly business.

On the occasion of World Youth Skills Day, held on 17th July every year, ACF’s SEDI team organized a virtual event showcasing rural youth who are first generation skilled workers in their family.

Ambuja Foundation’s SEDI Chandrapur won the Best ITI Award under the Nagpur division awarded by the Department of Skill, Employment, Entrepreneurship & Innovation. There are over 870 ITIs part of the Nagpur division, out of which SEDI Chandrapur was the only one to win the award as a Private ITI.

Supporting the Skill India directive, Ambuja Foundation’s SEDI program (Skill & Entrepreneurship Development Institute) has now trained over 1,00,000 rural youth till date, creating a skilled workforce for various industries and helping tackle rural unemployment.

Ambuja Foundation won the Indian Chamber of Commerce Social Impact Award 2023. The foundation has been awarded for its work in skills and women empowerment category in Sankrail, West Bengal and Bhatapara, Chattisgarh. The ICC Social Impact Awards is an initiative of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in which the Chamber engages with Corporate entities, NGOs and implementing agencies to recognize them for exemplary work done in the field of social investment, CSR and sustainability on a PAN India basis.

"I used to despair about my life. I’m not like everyone else, and what are the chances in life for a disabled guy like me? I soon started drinking and even began selling liquor like everyone else in my village. The only respectable thing I did was shoe polishing, which did not earn me enough money.

“Shamsher was our first child and you won’t believe how I was dancing with joy at his birth. But we could sense something was not right while he was growing up. Finally, my wife and I accepted that Shamsher was different.

“I love working for myself. Every day I open my shop and stand with pride, looking at my sign board and the business I’ve created – It’s hard to believe it’s mine! See, I was a high school dropout – as an only son I felt a huge pressure to help my parents in some way.

“I got polio when I was a child and struggled to walk – forced to walk on my knee which made everyone treat me differently. I felt I was a burden in the family as I couldn’t help my father in our field and wondered how I’d ever get any other opportunity in life with this condition.

“Aquaculture has been in my family for generations. My father grew fish, my grandfather grew fish, my great grandfather did the same. Like many other families in this area, we have a large pond right next to our house, but fish were always seen as a ‘side’ thing.

“I grew up watching my mother stitch clothes and scrub floors till her hands were red raw, just so we could survive. I wanted to pursue higher studies but there was just no money for that. So I took a course in Smartphone Repair and a fire was lit in my belly.

In Chirawa, Rajasthan, most of the women are bound to their homes, with families bestowing the responsibility for earning an income on the men of the house. But 19-year-old Monu decided to buck the trend by pursuing a career in Food & Beverage.