As soon as one sets foot inside Sagar Express, a cafe on the premises of the Delhi High Court, the bright yellow shirts of the staff – and the beautiful wall hangings made by them – offer a welcome relief from the black-and-white monotone of the campus. The cafe – which only employs neurodiverse staff – has come as a game-changer for its nearly one dozen employees, all of whom say it has changed their life for the better.
Each of the employees here has a different type of neurodiversity, including dyspraxia and autism. From the use of AAC (augmentative and alternative communication devices) to communicate and transact sales, to providing a platform to confidently interact with customers, the cafe is carving a path for neurodivergent individuals to face the outside world.
Sagar Express is an initiative of senior advocate Ravi Gupta, who is a parent to an autistic child, and his NGO Shaurya Foundation Trust (SFT).
The trust is a non-profit that seeks to provide a “balanced education… in functional academics, athletics, arts and service for persons with special needs”. The idea is not just to educate people with special needs but also prepare “them to be self-sufficient” and strengthen their life skills.
At Sagar Express, people with special needs run the counter, take meal orders, prepare the bills, serve delicious South Indian food, and sell fancy mugs and baked goodies.
Around 11-12 employees work at the cafe. They not only deliver services to lawyers and people coming to the court, but also look out for each other, with all their different sets of challenges.
Someone’s speech is a bit unclear, someone cannot speak at all and thus uses an iPad to interact with the customers, while another is autistic. But what other people might term a ‘disability’ is merely one weakness to them among their many strengths.
Cafe manager Arunima Bhaduri, 33, who has a developmental coordination issue that generally affects movement and coordination, volunteered to offer this reporter a tour of the cafe as soon as she was informed that a journalist was on the premises. She introduced all the employees like they were her family.
“We work from Monday to Saturday. We started a demo from July 25, that was the time I first saw this location,” she said. “This is an initiative by our NGO’s chairperson, senior advocate Ravi Gupta. The Chief Justice of India (CJI) had also come to inaugurate the cafe. We are learning in bits and pieces.” Arunima Bhaduri said.
Arunima said they look forward to coming to the cafe everyday.
Prerna Gupta, 34, the sales manager, has a slight issue with clear speech, but this doesn’t stop her from speaking up.
“This is my first job. Life has changed for good,” she said. “Humne bada change feel kiya, Rubina ma’am (director at the NGO) ne hume yahaan bhej ke bohot achcha kiya (we experienced a big change here, Rubina ma’am did a good thing by sending us here),” said Prerna, whose job involves writing down the bills, and who is always on her toes to help her co-workers.
When asked if they face any challenges working at the cafe, Prerna said no. “We face no problems here, people come and interact with us, buy mugs and coasters designed by us,” she added.
“I was bad at Maths, but now I am catching up with calculating bills as well,” Arunima, who has two Master’s degrees (history and tourism), said with a big smile.
Just next to the cafe counter is a stall of the Shaurya Foundation Trust, which is also managed by persons with special needs. They sell delicious cookies in at least seven flavours. All these are baked by them at the NGO’s workshop, along with other students at the foundation. They also offer small sample packets of these cookies, so you can get a taste before making a purchase.
“We have cookies in mocha, cranberry, chocolate, choco chip, coconut, and peanut butter flavours,” Arunima told ABP Live.
Other goods on offer include designer mugs and coasters, plants and more baked goodies, all prepared by people associated with the NGO.
Kuldeep Shivam, an NGO employee who accompanied the staff as they joined the cafe, said the team is now so well-trained “they even refuse to take my help at times”.
“Everyone wants to learn and work,” he added. “Same is the case with these kids. I am here to help them, but they refuse to accept much help from me.”
Tapti Dev Rathi, the mother of cafe employee Rhea Rathi (22), said her daughter had turned much more confident and developed better self esteem since she started working there. “Ab humko sikha bhi deti hai (My daughter now teaches me at times),” added Rathi, who had arrived to pick Rhea up. “They know what they are doing.”
Since the training for the project started, she said, the staff’s communication skills, behaviour and social interaction have changed immensely.
“They have to carry on with life after us also. Right now, the training period is on. We were apprehensive about sending our children outside,” Rathi said. “You know it is a big bad world outside. We, as parents, are especially concerned about their safety, but, at the same time, we have to make sure that they can look for themselves after us. This is the first step for them towards financial independence.”
She further emphasised the importance of safe spaces. “One of the reasons why I felt convinced that my daughter should work here is that the cafe is inside the Delhi High Court,” she added. “What place could be safer for them than the court?”
Rathi said no job is big or small. “Whatever gives one purpose is a great job,” she added.
“It is a very good feeling as a parent of a special child. While they were growing up, we were always worried about their future. What will happen to them when we are not there,” she added. “But, now they are being trained for something, they can make a living out of this. I cannot express what it means for us as parents.”
Going forward, she said, people need to become more aware.
“These children, nothing affects them. But regular people should learn how to interact with them. These children can give good competition to ‘normal’ people,” she added. “Sometimes you will not even realise that they lack something. Each one of them excels in at least one thing. They are very good with their hands.”
Senior advocate Ravi Gupta, the man behind the initiative, told ABPLive that his vision is to make this business a self-sustaining model, with a goal to make the specially abled students at SFT financially independent.
"Everyone who is working for us will get stipends,” Gupta said.
Speaking about the execution of this plan at the Delhi High Court, Gupta said Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and the Delhi Bar Association President Mohit Mathur were very receptive and supportive.
“It did not take much time to convince them of the idea. However, the execution of the idea did take time as it required utmost care and training,” he added.
His NGO had been working towards the idea for nearly two years, he said, adding that they worked on creating Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) that must be followed by the staff. They ensured that proper training was arranged for each employee, including the special staff, and the lessons began several months before the opening of the cafe.
Throughout the process, Gupta said, he was constantly in touch with all the parents to reassure and convince them.
When asked if they had plans to move outside the court premises, Gupta said they would go public soon. A cafe run by neurodiverse individuals will soon open at the Palwal Highway.
“We have a unit in Maharani Bagh and another at Palwal (Haryana) where they bake and produce food items like cookies, matharis, etc. They also design mugs and coasters,” he added.
Gupta further said that when an established business house like Sagar Ratna comes forward to back such an initiative, it sets an example for other businesses in the industry as well.
"I want to appeal to others in industry, as well as the society at large to come forward to support this initiative and help us make these kids self-sufficient and financially independent," Gupta said.
