Alina Alam

Founder

Founder of Mitti Social Initiatives Foundation

Alina Alam is the founder of Mitti Social Initiatives Foundation [1], an Indian non-profit working on disability, livelihood and hunger from Bengaluru.

Alina Alam is an Indian social entrepreneur and the founder and chief executive of the Mitti Social Initiatives Foundation, which runs Mitti Café, a chain of cafés in India staffed and managed by adults with physical, intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. She started the venture in 2017 while completing a master's degree, and it has since grown to more than forty locations across India.

Mitti Café trains and employs adults with disabilities, particularly those from economically deprived backgrounds, in the hospitality sector. Its outlets include one on the premises of the Supreme Court of India, and cafés at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai and Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru, as well as corporate campuses.

Early life and education

Alam grew up in Kolkata and was educated at Modern High School for Girls. She studied psychology at Sophia College for Women and later took a master's degree in development studies at Azim Premji University in Bengaluru.

The first Mitti Café opened in August 2017 after the Deshpande Foundation provided space for it in Hubballi, Karnataka. The organisation also runs Karuna Meals, a free meal programme, and Mitti Good Gifts, a corporate gifting line made by people with disabilities.

Career

While studying for her master's degree, Alam volunteered with the Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled in Bengaluru, where she concluded that people with disabilities had considerable potential but few opportunities for employment. She opened the first Mitti Café in August 2017, on the campus of BVB College of Engineering and Technology in Hubli, Karnataka. The name comes from the Hindi word for soil, chosen to convey the idea that everyone is equal.

The organisation trains adults with physical, intellectual and psychiatric disabilities to run its cafés, and provides training and enterprise opportunities to mothers of adults with intellectual disabilities from low-income households. During the Covid-19 pandemic Mitti Café distributed several million meals to homeless and vulnerable people.

By 2025 the chain operated dozens of outlets across India and employed several hundred people with disabilities. Cafés have been opened at the Supreme Court of India, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, and at Rashtrapati Nilayam in Bolarum, Telangana.

Recognition

Alam was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in the social entrepreneurs category in 2020. She has received the Rotary Exemplar Award, the NCPEDP–Mindtree Helen Keller Award and the Times of India She Unlimited Award, and has been a finalist for the Commonwealth Youth Award. She also received the Microsoft–Nipman Foundation award.

Mitti Café has won the BMW Group Intercultural Innovation Award and Deutsche Bank's Made for Good award. In 2024 it received the National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities in the category for organisations empowering persons with disabilities, and Alam and Bangalore International Airport jointly received the FAB Humanitarian Award for the first airport Mitti Café.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]

Mitti Social Initiatives Foundation

Mitti Social Initiatives Foundation, which operates the Mitti Cafe chain, works on employment and livelihoods for people with special needs, pursuing economic independence and dignity for adults with physical, intellectual and psychiatric disabilities and people from other vulnerable communities. Founded by Alina Alam and based in Bengaluru, it runs cafes staffed by adults with disabilities inside institutions including the Supreme Court of India, Rashtrapati Bhavan, high courts, airports, colleges and corporate campuses, alongside its Karuna Meals programme for the economically vulnerable, experiential training and a Good Gifts line.

Mitti Social Initiatives Foundation reports the following, on its own site: