AFTERTASTE
Art for Empowerment
Transformation of the women from meek homemakers into artists and artisans, generating a sense of identity, agency and confidence in self
AFTERTASTE
Dignified Livelihood
Economic and social independence through art, which not only helps them earn money but also generate a strong, respectable social standing in their homes and communities
AFTERTASTE
Breaking the vicious cycle of poverty
The inequity of poverty is dissolved and the families are leading a dignified life having access to opportunities
AFTERTASTE
Empowered women leads to empowered family
Women earning a dignified livelihood has led to a complete change in the developmental trajectory of the family
AFTERTASTE
Nurturing the next Generation of Aftertaste
As the working women take care of the needs of the home, the next generation of Aftertaste is able to focus on their life path, educational and medical needs.
Aftertaste Foundation
vision
We believe in an idea of a developed India where every individual has access to a dignified life and opportunities. Aftertaste was started with the vision to empower women from economically disadvantaged communities and empower them to break the vicious cycle of social and economic poverty. Aftertaste makes opportunities that come with knowledge, exposure and economic means, accessible to marginalised women from the urban low-income communities of Mumbai.
Economic Poverty
The slums of Mumbai are inhabited by migrant daily wage earners from different parts of India who come to the city with dreams of a better living. They constitute Mumbai’s workforce but are compelled to live in a habitat with no access to drinking water, drainage system, basic sanitation and hygiene or even proper shelter or roads. The migrant population adjusts with a poor quality of life offered by a space crunched city as an alternative to offering livelihood to the male members. The livelihood of the unskilled male members of the family are mostly daily wage labourers in places of construction and those who can persist the hard work gradually rise in the ranks to become masons. But there is no stability of work and often they work for few days of the month only and this leads a fluctuating financial condition of the family. The skilled male members comprise of tailors who have seasonal spikes and auto drivers who mostly drive someone else’s auto and need to work 14 hours a day every day for a decent earning.
State of the Women
The women deal with a patriarchial setup which limits movement and opportunities. They are involved in menial labour jobs like assembling keychains, stone pasting which pay meagre amounts, and in order to meet daily deadlines, the women involve the children in the same. A family of 5 members, 3 children and the mother put in 3 hours per person which is a total of 12 hours each day to earn Rs 50 to 70. The communities are the sweat shops for mass manufacturing. The women and children essentially are part of a vicious cycle in the unorganised sector with unfair wages, unreasonable hours and child labor and lack of benefits. These fulfil the economic deficit temporarily but cannot alleviate poverty in the long term and creates a parallel system of social poverty: income which is transient and driven by daily needs devoid of any long term thought and bereft of dignity. Mostly the women are uneducated or dropouts at an early stage from school and there is no other livelihood opportunity available in the vicinity of their homes.
Social Poverty
Due to lack of knowledge and awareness of government schemes and policies, the hard-earned money gets misused by several racquets which operate in the slum and dupe the people in the name of saving. Some families do not have the economic means to educate 3 to 4 children and coupled with the lack of knowledge of what possibilities education can lead to, makes it even more difficult to build aspiration for educating the children beyond a certain grade. The availability of hundreds of options to earn quick money, without much education, seems more lucrative, that investing in a child’s education beyond the free grade.
This encourages a mindset which is used to living in deficit. Many families receive freebies donated from time to time – an impediment in the way of actual poverty reduction and social change. This perpetuates the cycle of poverty and the victim mindset which prevents people from owning the problem and thinking of solving it themselves.
Theory of change is based on
Empowered women leads to empowered family
At Aftertaste we are trying to address problem of economic poverty and social poverty using a 2-pronged approach. We realised that women in the community can play a significant role in economic growth and overall social upliftment of families and communities.
Aftertaste's work started with economic empowerment of the women of the community using art and craft as a medium and enabling the women to earn a dignified livelihood. Subsequently through the process of skilling the women and generating a livelihood, Aftertaste works with the women and their families continuously, to bring about social change by empowering them with knowledge and exposure to build capacity in the areas of education, healthcare and financial literacy leading to an improvement of the socio-economic condition of their families.
Most Liked Product
The festival of lights is upon us and we see that the world needs this light now more than ever. We bring to you our Diwali Catalogue full of products created with the love, perseverance, determination of the artists of Aftertaste. When you choose us, you support the women and children of Aftertaste to break out of the vicious cycle of poverty and earn a dignified livelihood.
OUR PARTNERS
