14th February, 2022

Author: Preeti Sharma (Content Writer)

Priyank Patel belongs to Narsinghpur district of Madhya Pradesh is an Entrepreneur who is born on 15th August 1985 in a modest family of four members. His parents are retired from government sector and living in Narsinghpur, (M.P) at present. Priyank is graduated from Shankaracharya College of engineering in Electronics and Telecommunication in 2007. Passed engineering with flying colors and got placed in Tech Mahindra in Noida in 2007,but had a desire to be a part of social work and during working , he alongside worked as a Volunteer for educating the unprivileged children’s. Priyank worked with various other firms for the next four years in IT sectors. During the time of volunteering for NGO, the seed for the foundation work has been taking interest and satisfying him and got the things rightly when one fine day he saw an advertisement of ICICI Fellowship. When he joined this fellowship, his parents were quite skeptic about his new job. Priyank was very much determined in his new role and was confident about the path he has chosen for himself. Although this Fellowship program was only for 6 month duration.

After joining, he learnt many aspects about rural demography and challenges. There were some heartbreaking incidents he felt with in village which forced him to make himself committed to think upon the need of social change in the society and he should be enough equipped to help someone in dire need. He was assigned his first project for Foundation of Ecological Security (FES) in Anand District of Gujarat for Revind Declaration of Rivers. The task was to educate people to reclaim their lands from revind declaration of rivers and also make use of the plantation economically for their livelihood. After spending almost a month, he than created the Ruler Information Center, which was about to educate the villagers about the government schemes.

Priyank was always open to work for challenges and this habit has given him lot of learning’s for future projects. His second project was in Orissa in Koraput district. This has been the most challenging project for him due to the obvious amount of poverty and inadequate infrastructure in that area. He was now more committed towards his goals for setting up the infrastructure wherein the people should get to know about their rights to resolve the issues prevailing in the community. He worked for all these incidents were taking him in the direction of his future venture. In his two years, he ended up working on sustainable livelihoods and the gap in our system.

In the year 2012, when he came back to his home town, after completing the fellowship. Soon after, he discovered there was an instant need for an engaging community space that provides as a motivation to the most neglected people of society, he brainstormed it for few months and end up with the idea of a Chai café that will utilize and encourage the society's marginalized part. The vision of hiring people with disability to make them empower and economically confident on their own the Café Nukkad has been started in the year 2013 in Raipur. The motive of Nukkad, the social enterprise is to engage with the primary purpose of improving unequal opportunities for employment to the most vulnerable marginalized members of society.

The café, Nukkad, has already been actively involving, utilizing, and empowering people of the dwarf, Transgender deaf and learning-disabled communities for the past 7 years. It is basically known for its artistic ambiance social experiments such as Tea&Tones (An initiative where guests can share their writings or interact with socially influential personalities), digital detox, where one can get a discount by submitting your cell phones while relaxing, Gyaan Daan for book exchange and anti-depression movement Bol do that provides vocal assistance for people want to vent out. It also have initiated sessions for discussion and debate about social taboos.

It was 2017, when the hiring for Transgender taking shape, it was a way challenging and it took 6 months for Priyank to convince them to join Nukkad. After joining they were groomed on etiquette and even they have outraged the myths of the society with their way of working. Now the people celebrate their days with them and they too even feel the economical independence and respect in the society. The notable achievement of working with Trans people is that it is very important to break the stigma of society about these people and somehow Nukkad has proven by employing them and retaining them successfully. Nukkad has created a safe platform for financial security and respect all sorts of people with disability.

The journey of Nukkad Café is an experimental journey, which has impacted the lives of many and proven that the people with disability have potential and can be an amazing workforce. It is not only a business venture rather act as a helping hand for all the communities around. Nukkad has targeted the people with intellectual disability along with Deaf, Dwarf and Transgender people. Other than employing them, the café also groom them on basic skills to help them in grow in all the aspects of life. Priyank believe in thinking out of box but also feels that one should not ignore the learning’s and beneficiaries getting from the present times and improvise them time to time. The new Nukkad Café coming up is named as “Second innings” for Elderly people who are living in old age homes for their social, financial inclusions. At present they have 4 Nukkad Café running successfully in Raipur and Bhilai.

In COVID -19 crises, the project Rahat initiated with the support of volunteers and team, they raised funds of Rs 3.80 Lakh and have made and distributed food packets to around 29,000 migrants.