Self-employment among LCDP members in Self-Help Groups is encouraged to provide them with sustainable financial support and help them lead empowered and dignified lives. Many LCDP members benefiting from Math’s economic rehabilitation services are already engaged in small businesses such as selling clothes, toys, pooja items, and more. In addition, several LCDPs manage micro-businesses involving textiles, selling fruits, vegetables, and flowers, footwear, groceries, preparing and selling leaf plates to nearby hotels and shops, tailoring and stitching, painting, carpentry, and similar trades.
Unlike other disabilities, leprosy, even after cure, can result in a range of deformities in LCDPs. Therefore, a systematic assessment is necessary to evaluate their physical ability to perform hand-made tasks that support their livelihood. In cases where LCDP members are unable to prepare or sell handmade goods or engage in self-business, their family members are encouraged to undergo vocational training offered by Math with the support of skilled individuals and organizations.
To promote sustainable livelihood opportunities, vocational training is provided to both LCDPs and their family members in areas such as homemade product preparation, stitching, tailoring, screen printing, manufacturing household items (e.g., plastics, phenyl, soap powder, sandal sticks), MCR footwear making, etc. Over the past 20 years, more than 300 LCDPs and their family members have been trained through this initiative. Notably, 24 family members of LCDPs received certified training in stitching and tailoring, organized by Math, at the Silver Jubilee Government Leprosy Clinic, Saidapet, and were awarded certificates and sewing machines upon successful completion on 5th March 2022. As a result, despite their physical challenges, many of them have successfully established and continue to run their own small businesses. They have also displayed their products at several cultural gatherings and rehabilitation events, where LCDPs have been appreciated by government officials and dignitaries. Once seen as a burden, they are now financially empowered and support their families.