Kishore and his group run a camp named ‘Shyam Massage Parlour’ every Friday at Nehru Place. Kishore, came up with the idea to employ the likes of him. “Although the income from the weekly camp is not enough, it has helped us increase our client base. Many satisfied with our work take our contact number and call us.”
Kishore charges Rs 600 for a 90-minute massage at home, while at the camp the price is Rs 60 for a 20-minute service. Kishore has taken the help of sighted Vinay to issue tokens to costumers at the camp. “Vinay is also a part of the team. Whatever we earn at the camp is distributed equally among the members of our group. The income from home service is personal.”
Priti Man, 29, a member of Kishore’s team, is student in Delhi University. She also joins their camp as part time job and handles female clients. “The people who come here send more people as we provide them with better services at a reasonable price,” she said.
Kishore is considering to run the camp for more than a day in a week. Not only this, he is even thinking of setting camps in other markets of Delhi.
The camp at Nehru Place was facilitated by Jitender Gupta, the president of the Nehru Place’s Market Welfare Association.
“In December 2015, we had met the president of the Market Association at Select City Mall in Saket. He assured us that to facilitate setting of weekly massage camp at Nehru Place,” said Kishore. From February, with Gupta’s help, they have been regularly setting the weekly camp at the busy electronic market.
Behind their success is the training in professional massage he and his friends received from a Delhi-based NGO, Blind Relief Association (BRA).
Speaking with Millennium Post, Kailash Chandra Pande, secretary of BRA, said: “We at BRA provide counseling and direct help in employment to the visually impaired. Shyam Kishore enterprise is an example of our effort to make these blinds students self-reliant.”