Mo - Maya Organic

Maya Organic is a systemic initiative to address livelihood issues of the working poor through an institutional approach that focuses on organising the informal sector workforce into worker owned enterprises.

Maya Organic perceives poverty not only as ‘not having enough’ but most importantly as not being able to respond with what one has. Over many years of working with livelihood issues, Maya has attempted to understand how can support human beings, without having to become incapable or helpless in order to avail such support.

Maya Organic follows the capability model wherein it holds that building inherent capabilities of individuals and institutions eventually makes them competent to respond to future challenges of markets, social conditions, environment and politics. Realising the capability model, Maya Organic has taken into account the inequities of access, opportunity and the inherent inequities formed out of caste, gender, and other exploitative practices and is attempting to create a platform that provides opportunities for people to partner with each other; and in the process learn to build and succeed as an enterprise by developing the required skills and capabilities.

Maya Organic also partners with markets and develops designs for products and services so that the efforts of the worker-owned enterprises are dovetailed with professional inputs, backed with contemporary and relevant designs and market approaches.

Maya Organic recognises that merely with inputs of finance/ technology or even some kind of knowledge, little is likely to change since it may not be possible for people to depend on these continuously. Building capabilities thus not only becomes essential but is perhaps the most sustainable and effective way to alleviate poverty.