Shoppers Stop!

Today, 18-year-old S. Vengatesh, of our Muttrampet Village Resource Centre, sits in his shop, talking to his customers and counting out change. He has been successfully running the shop since April, with the help of his mother and siblings. Vengatesh has been a student at Satya for the past ten years, and his father, the sole breadwinner (until the petty shop), works at a jewellery store. No one would have known he would be running a shop when he was participating in the centre’s World Consumer Rights Day program in March, where the staff set up a mock petty shop, to make the students understand the concept of weights and measures, and expiry date. That night, he told his parents his intention: he wanted to start a petty shop. His supportive family decided to take the plunge and set a shop up for him. He loves his new business and his father, Shanmugam, says that apart from certain physical fine motor activities like handing over eggs to customers, he is able to do everything on his own. The community too, supports Vengatesh’s shop! R. Kalaiyarasan, in charge of the Muttrampet centre, says that Vengatesh was always good in maths, and did not enjoy some of the other vocational activities that we tried, such as agriculture. “We are so proud of him. It was a surprise to me as well, that he took to the shop concept so well! In fact, his shop is modelled similar to our mock shop,” he says. Another Satya youth moves towards self-reliance!