Impacting Lives by Creating Sustainable Livelihoods

Livelihoods

With Livelihoods, AIF envisions a world where the poor and vulnerable communities have access to digniﬁed work opportunities, empowering them with sustainable livelihoods. Since 2006, the Livelihoods program has, directly and indirectly, impacted the lives of 1.4 million beneﬁciaries. Livelihoods - leverages technology to provide knowledge, skills, and opportunities to vulnerable people, enabling them to secure jobs, manage enterprises, and make a decent living.

What the sector needs

The biggest constraint in India’s growth story is the lack of adequate economic opportunities for the poor. The pandemic has further worsened the situation exposing the various inequities in the system.

The Livelihoods Program works closely with the public and private sector to create inclusive and sustainable livelihoods for individuals, families, and communities across India with a long-term goal of equalizing the informal and formal sectors to provide equitable opportunities for all citizens. It works to create a re-imagined job and entrepreneurship ecosystem in India that not only rebuilds but also uplifts the livelihoods of vulnerable communities.

What we do

The initiatives under the Livelihoods portfolio cover several integrated community-based interventions providing the poor and vulnerable access to dignified work opportunities.

The Market Aligned Skills Foundation (MASF), incubated by the AIF as a social start-up under the Livelihoods Program works closely with the public and private sectors to create inclusive and sustainable livelihoods for those at the margins.

Since 2006, the Livelihoods program has, directly and indirectly, impacted the lives of 1.4 million people around the country.

Programs

ABLE

Ability-Based Livelihood Empowerment (ABLE) aims to create an ecosystem for the inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) as an active workforce in the job market. Empowering India’s differently-abled, ABLE builds skill sets and facilitates access to employment, while also promoting acceptance of disabilities in the larger community.

MAST

The Market Aligned Skills Training (MAST) Program works to address systemic inequities by leveraging technology to equip underprivileged youth, marginalized rural women, Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) and nano-entrepreneurs with the knowledge, skills, financial and market linkages they need to find employment, run businesses, launch micro-enterprises, earn a dignified living and meet the demands of local industries across the country.

Impact of the Livelihoods program:

1,449,608 Lives served
460,304 Underprivileged youth, women and Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) provided program
247,326 Livelihoods impacted

Impact of the ABLE initiative:

10,260 Jobs created for PwDs
17,465 PwDs trained in workplace readiness and industry skills
1,742 Employers hired PwDs

Impact of the MAST initiative:

99,951 Jobs created for disadvantaged youth across retail, IT, geriatric care, electrical, automotive, and other industries
246,088 Disadvantaged youth, women trained in market-relevant skills
236 Skilling centers established
75,987 Street vendors trained in digital payments
16,351 Street vendors linked with loans under PM SVANidhi Scheme