Teaching Mentally Retarded Children, Helping Handicapped Children

Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), a union of scrap collectors started by Dr Baba Adhav in 1993, has now become a force much larger than just a collection of waste pickers, mostly women. It serves as a platform for voicing grievances and as a medium for pushing developmental programmes to this highly marginalised segment of the society. From financial support, education and insurance facilities to intangibles like dignity of labour and quality of life, read how a collective can change lives. As they sift through garbage, they have to fend off rodents and stray animals, their hands get wounded by shards of broken glass thrown carelessly in the rubbish, and harassment by the police is part of their daily routine. In India, it's hard to miss the large numbers of waste pickers, who, armed with large plastic sacks, scourge the city streets and garbage bins for recyclable waste to earn a few bucks. Scrap collection is considered socially relevant, economically productive and environmentally beneficial "work". In fact, India has one of the highest recycling rates in the world, thanks mainly to this army of waste pickers, which are mostly women. In fact, as per World Bank estimates, 1 per cent of the urban population in developing countries earns a living through waste picking and recycling. Unfortunately, despite their very significant function in society, these self-employed women occupy the lowest rung in the informal economy and are generally treated with contempt. In Pune, however, waste pickers have discovered that there is strength in a union. [caption id="attachment_8528" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

As they sift through garbage, waste pickers, who are mostly
women, have to fend off stray animals, their hands get wounded by shards of
broken glass thrown carelessly in the rubbish, and harassment by the police
is part of their daily routine. (Credit: Amit Thavaraj)[/caption] The process of transformation started in May 1993 when veteran labour leader, Dr Baba Adhav organised a first-of-its-kind 'Convention of Waste Pickers' in Pune in a bid to enable them to fight for their rights as legitimate workers and rally for a better future for their children. This meet was attended by over 800 waste pickers from across the city, and from this process emerged the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), a union of scrap collectors. "Every woman in the union is amazing," remarks Lakshmi Narayan, General Secretary of KKPKP. A chance meeting with a child waste picker during an academic exercise in 1990 led Narayan and Poornima Chikarmane, an activist and academic, to delve deeper into the lives of these workers. The women, they realised, did not even think of their back-breaking labour as 'work', but were keen that their next generation be educated. What was needed was a change in their dismal working conditions as well as powers to negotiate a better income. Knowing that the collection and segregation of scrap at source could offer both, Narayan and Poornima helped 30 waste pickers to get an identity card from SNDT University, which enabled them to collect scrap from there. As anticipated, not only did their earnings improve dramatically - because source segregated scrap fetched better rates - they had to put in fewer hours of labour and the physical working conditions became better. Recalls Narayan:

But individuals and small groups have no power to counter the threats from other claimants to 'wealth in waste' and there was an imminent need to establish an identity for waste pickers as 'workers'.

The KKPKP proved to be a perfect platform. Once registered as a trade union, it not only represented the collective identity and interests of scrap collectors, it also gave them a platform to voice their grievances and concerns. And unlike conventional unions, it has also focused on social development activities such as credit provision, education and child labour issues. Suman Mariba More, who is in her 40s, recalls how she would toil from dawn to dusk, walking for miles with her sack to collect scrap and sort it with the help of her children. "All that changed after 1993 when I joined the union. Now I work four hours and I get more money since I collect waste from door-to-door. The quality and condition of waste is much better," she says. Door-to-door collection has social benefits as well. Simple pleasures like a cup of tea, a friendly chat or proper lunch breaks, in addition to getting soap to wash their hands and feet are just some of the unsaid benefits. [caption id="attachment_8530" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Members of the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP), a
powerful trade union of scrap collectors holds a rally in Pune. The union
not only represents the collective identity and interests of scrap
collectors, it is also a platform for them to voice their grievances.
(Credit: Amit Thavaraj)[/caption] Over the years, the KKPKP has evolved with the growing needs of its 9,000-plus members, 80 per cent of who are marginalised women. Their identity card, endorsed by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), entitles them to benefits like interest-free loans and educational support for children. Two insurance progammes have also been started for them. For life insurance, members pay a yearly fee of Rs 50 while the state government matches that sum and the central government contributes Rs 100. There is also a medical cover of Rs 5,000, the premium for which is paid by the PMC. For More, a higher income and health insurance has meant that she can afford proper medical care instead of indulging in self-medication. Not only are her sons educated, her daughter-in-law is a computer engineer from a Brahmin family. Even her daughter was married off only after she turned 18 and "that too with no dowry" declares More proudly. Where her work is concerned, she no longer segregates the waste at home but goes to her nearest municipal corporation provided sorting shed. The KKPKP takes a keen interest in the welfare of its members – be it when it aided 72 families of a ‘basti’ displaced under the Rajiv Awas Yogana rehabilitation scheme in 2009 or ensuring the enrolment of elderly members eligible for the Indira Gandhi pension plan. Says Maitreyi Shankar, Treasurer, KKPKP, "Enrolling in state schemes can be tedious. On an average, it takes at least 15 man days to put all the required documentation together. We assist them every step of the way." For the KKPKP, it has been hard work building up a reputation. Says Narayan,

Ensuring that waste pickers as well as the larger society saw this as work was the beginning. We had to quantify their actual contribution to the solid waste management (SWM) system. A study to prove that they indeed save the Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporations several crore rupees in waste handling costs was undertaken and it proved beyond doubt that these recovery operations were extremely valuable.

Armed with hard numbers, the KKPKP called for an integration of waste pickers in the waste collection/disposal system at the point of waste generation itself - that is, access to waste in homes, offices or businesses. The Management of Solid Waste laws of 2000, requiring segregation of wet and dry waste, door to door waste collection (DTDC) and processing, proved beneficial. In 2005, the KKPKP launched a pilot programme with the PMC, where waste pickers were integrated in DTDC work, paving the way for the establishment of SWaCH, a wholly workers' owned cooperative. The SWaCH DTDC initiative - based on recovery of fee from service users and provision of infrastructure support by the municipality - brings together two interests: Upgrading the livelihood of waste pickers and sustainable solid waste management. Through its 2,150 members, most of who belong to KKPKP, SWaCH services over 390,000 households in 15 municipal administrative wards of the PMC. Work benefits apart, last year, under the Right to Education Act, over 100 children and grand children of KKPKP members were enrolled in good local schools; this year efforts are on to raise the number to over 150. Further, a training programme to educate members on the cash transfer for ration and LPG schemes linked to the Aadhaar card has been initiated. "It's all about dignity, respect and quality of life," emphasises Narayan. Waste pickers have come a long way but many challenges still remain. Narayan says, "The fee for waste collection is as low as Rs 10 or Rs 20 and yet women do not get paid on time. People expect a high level of professionalism from these women without paying them their professional due." When 70 waste pickers were cheated out of half their daily wages by one of the contractors, KKPKP members had held a peaceful 'dharna' in March 2013 to resolve the issue. While that hurdle has now been crossed, there are always newer battles to be fought. As Narayan puts it, "It's never over.”

Written by Suchismita Pai for Women's Feature Service and republished here in arrangement with WFS.

Started five years ago, Educate Girls aims to get as many girls as possible into school so they can benefit from a good education, improve their lives and become an asset to their communities. And what started with just 500 schools has now spread to 4425 schools! Safeena Husain, the founder and Chief Executive Officer, tells us all about it. Educate Girls started five years ago when Safeena Husain decided to promote girls' education in rural Rajasthan. She designed a sustainable model where the whole community works hand in hand to enroll girls into government schools. As the whole community was meant to take part into the process, it was meant to succeed. No wonder, the number of school rose from 500 schools in 2008 to over 4,425 schools currently! [caption id="attachment_8618" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Educate Girls has designed a sustainable model where the whole community works hand in hand to enroll girls into government schools.[/caption] Safeena Hussain has always been committed to girls' education in India and has worked extensively in this field even in the third-world countries of South America, Africa and Asia. The lady has been born and brought up in New Delhi and holds a B.S. from the London School of Economics. She has also been elected as one of the Asia 21 Young Leaders by the Asia Society. When asked about how and why she became so concerned about girls’ education, she replied thoughtfully:

I have always felt that when you educate a girl, you end up empowering the whole society. Educated women contribute to improving the whole community; they have fewer and healthier children, are three times less likely to be HIV+ and marry three years later. 'Educate Girls' envisions to achieve behavioral, social and economic transformation for all girls towards an India where all children have equal opportunities to access quality education. We started by reforming government schools for girls’ education. The idea was to leverage existing community and government resources so as to improve access and quality of education for 4 million children living in marginalized communities.

We asked Safeena to share about the kind of people who have been associated with 'Educate Girls'. Has Indian youth and society’s intellectual population come forward to support the cause?

As Educate Girls welcomes all good will, we end up working with a wide variety of profiles. Most of our Team Balika members are young locals who feel strongly about the well-being of their community. They help enrolling girls into schools and assist teachers in the classroom. They usually volunteer with us several years and are well-respected inside their community. We try to open some volunteer positions to students from the cities and get them to participate in our communications campaigns.

[caption id="attachment_8620" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

In 5 years, Educate Girls has expanded from school rose from 500 schools to over 4,425 schools currently![/caption] Safeena also talked in detail about the TEAM BALIKA initiative.

Team Balika members are educated youth in the village who work as champions for girls’ education and catalysts for school reform. Team Balika animates the principles of ‘My Village, My Problem and I am the Solution’. They are at the core of our work in the field as they spread awareness on the importance of girl child education and strengthen girls enrollment, attendance and school management. We count an average of one Team Balika member per village where we operate.

Educate Girls has achieved tremendous success in Pali and Jalore village of Rajasthan and has recently started operations in Sirohi. In three years' time, they are aiming at working in 6 gender-gap districts. That means a total of 1.6 million children will be impacted and a whole society will be changed. Safeena elaborated on future plans:

We are about to open our programs in Sirohi, and will then launch in three other new districts starting in 2014. We rely on the communities and on the local government to scale. We help the villages improve their schools (adding female bathrooms and ensuring drinking water for instance), get parents to feel strongly about their daughter’s education and recruit dedicated volunteers in the field. After the activities are implemented over two years, Educate Girls works to handover the project to the community during the third year. By 2014, we aim to cover as many as 13,303 schools in 6 different districts. This means developing our programs in four new districts and recruiting more than 3,300 new Team Balika members to work in the field.

[caption id="attachment_8621" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Educate Girls aims to get as many girls as possible into school so they can benefit from a good education, improve their lives and become an asset to their communities.[/caption] It is worth mentioning that Educate Girls has set up a sustainable funding model that requires 2.41 INR per child at the moment but will only require 1.36 INR in 2016 as the costs will be divided by a larger number of beneficiaries. The initiative is financed by government contribution and private funding (individual donors as well as philanthropic foundations) to manage their large portfolio of activities.

In anticipation of rapid budget expansion, the organization has instilled robust accounting, control and reporting systems to accurately measure cash flow, track expenditures and government receivables. Secondly, an impact assessment system has been implemented to track the effectiveness of Educate Girls’ efforts, provide formal reports to current and future donors, and most importantly, enable senior management and the board to improve upon existing implementation by closely monitoring the programs.

A noble initiative like this can never remain unrewarded and unappreciated! Educate Girls is a winner of the 3rd EdelGive Social Social Innovation Honors 2011, The World Bank's India Development Marketplace award in the same year and the Dasra Village Capital award in 2010. The latest ones include Women Change Makers Award and Rotary’s Anita Parekh Award in 2012. But for Safeena, the biggest award is the public support she has garnered in all these years. [caption id="attachment_8622" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

In three years' time, they are aiming at working in 6 gender-gap district, impacting 1.6 million children.[/caption] We all can be a part of this initiative as well; let us come forward to support and promote Educate Girls. We stand up against gender-based discrimination in education because we can empower the future generation of women in India only if we give them quality education.

This post was published on Halabol Voices, which is an initiative of Halabol – a platform for initiating change, and reprinted here with permission.

A century old home whose service is ever increasing. In my last two decades of association with charitable organisations and social institutions, and studies in the areas of development economics, I have come across scores of wonderful NGOs and warm-hearted people. Some are doing excellent grass-root work and a few are pioneering social innovations. However, most of the NGOs either fail to scale up or sustain themselves after a decade or so. Be it the shift of focus, lack of new people & ideas or impact of external politics – these institutions stop expanding. Fortunately, there are exceptions too. I come across a century old establishment, which is not only expanding its domains of work but also increasing the number of beneficiaries each year. Ramakrishna Mission Students' Home (RMSH) in Mylapore, Chennai stands tall with its decades of contribution to the society. The organisation with its principle firmly rooted in the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekanenda that service to man is service to God was established in 1905. As an ardent disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Ramakrishnanda founded RMSH with 5 orphan kids. Initially, the aim was to provide free board and lodging for destitute and orphan boys allowing them to have their education in a nearby school. Later for a fuller realisation of the Gurukula ideal, a residential high school was started in 1922. [caption id="attachment_8648" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Ramakrishna Mission Students Home (RMSH) in Mylapore, Chennai[/caption] The Students Home is located at P.S. Sivaswamy Salai in Mylapore. RMSH comprises of four components namely, Residential High School, Residential Polytechnic College, Collegiate Section and Centetary Primary School (for girls & boys). The last one is a day school where kids are transported daily from their homes and are given free education along with free mid-day meal. At present, there are nearly 700 students studying in RMSH. They are provided free education, board & lodging. Almost all activities of the Home, like cleaning, washing, upkeep of the surroundings, serving food in the dining halls, maintenance of the gardens, management of the stores, maintenance of electrical installations, computers and water pumps, library management etc., are carried out by the boys themselves under the overall supervision of the wardens and teachers. So, how does RMSH contribute to the society? Our ancient scriptures mention that there are three types of services that are to be rendered to a man viz. Physical (food, clothing & shelter), Intellectual (learning, reasoning & concentration) and Spiritual (to manifest his real nature). In RMSH all these services are given equal importance. Since its inception, thousands of poor students have been rehabilitated. All of them reached self-fulfillment both materially and in the finer graces. In as much as they feel and declare that their stay in the Home shaped their attitudes for the betterment of their lives, the Home considers its efforts have been amply rewarded. The most amazing work of RMSH is that each year they scout for orphan & destitute kids across Tamil Nadu. They bring in these buds, under the shelter of the home, nurture them, show them the right direction of life, encourage their compassionate nature and then help them pursue a good profession for livelihood. So many innocent lives could have gone astray if RMSH was not around. They give a normal life to a helpless kid instead of letting him be exploited by the social system. This kind of noble work certainly has a multiplier effect to the society. The institution has an Alumni of eminent men comprising internationally renowned professors, scientists, defence officers, philosophers, senior administrators (both in Government and outside), doctors, engineers, technicians and last but not the least, monks of the Ramakrishna order. [caption id="attachment_8649" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

RMSH aims at providing free education, board and lodging to destitute children and turn them into well-rounded and capable adults.[/caption] In its glorious history covering over a century, the Students Home gave rise to and promoted the growth of several organizations devoted to education of the weaker sections of the society.

In 1938, an organization by name “Sarada Vidyalaya” was established for the alleviation of women in distress, by Sister Subbalakshmi. It was affiliated to the Mission through the good offices of the Home. Thus the Mission gave stability and continuity to women’s welfare.
In the 1930s a philanthropist donated 146 acres of dry land and transferred an additional 36 acres of trust property in a village called Malliankaranai, 81 KM from Chennai, to the Students’ Home. Starting from this base, the Home developed it into a rural centre consisting of an estate for agriculture, a High School and an Elementary School for boys and girls and a rural hostel for orphan and destitute boys aspiring for education.
The Home provided land, building and all the initial support for the startup of Vivekananda College, Chennai. This college established a reputation for great achievements and for inculcating a moral outlook.

RMSH is where spirituality enables selection of modern science and right policies Contemporary Education: A new mathematics lab was inaugurated in the High School campus. Math Lab offers Multiple Teaching and Learning Aids as well as a complete theme-based ambience which helps students to visualize and feel mathematics. Science Park is a cluster of open air Science gadgets installed permanently to facilitate an easy way of learning science. Technical Education: The Polytechnic College of RMSH was adjudged an outstanding educational institution during 2012 by the National Institution of Quality and Reliability. All the students who complete their Diploma courses were placed in different industrial establishments. Many reputed concerns (HCL, WIPRO, Ashok Leyland, Rane Group, Royal Sundaram, etc.) carried out campus interviews and took their students for further training and eventual employment. [caption id="attachment_8650" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Mathematics, Sciences, Technical Education, Community service are all given equal importance at RMSH[/caption] Community Service: Senior hostel students clean up premises of the temples located outside the RMSH campus during festivals. Sponsored by GoI, RMSH has been carrying out ‘Sustained Graded Value Education Programmes’ for 11 schools, touching 450 students’ lives. Environmental Initiatives: A solar photo voltaic power system of 5KVA has been installed on the terrace of the Polytechnic college. Rural Development Programme: The Home has launched ‘Vivekanenda Swasthya Parisheva Prakalpa’ to fight child malnutrition, and to give preventive and curative medical care to the needy mothers and children in the nearby villages of Madayambakkam & Perumalcherry in Kanchipuram district. RMSH has started ‘Gadadhar Abhyudhya Prakalpa’ in a slum near Kathivakkam, Ennore with a view to facilitate all-round devolopment for socially & economically deprived children. Currently 100 needy children are under the ambit of this programme. Impact Lastly, I would like to mention about one of the oldest students of the home - Mr. S. P. Srinivasan. Seven decades ago, a kid without home, parents & shelter, was brought to the Home from rural Tamil Nadu. The kid completed his studies, got a T.N. government job, and fullfilled all his responsibilities as an ideal father, husband and employee. Once retired, he was back to his ‘home’. He is 82 years old now, and still serving the Home each day. The home has produced such extraordinary personalities. This makes me feel confident that RMSH will continue contributing to the society in the coming days. In fact, we need more institutions like this, and many selfless students like Mr. Srinivasan for a better world. [caption id="attachment_8657" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

The home has been around for 108 years now and still continues to serve the society[/caption] The Home has just completed 108 years of useful service to the student community. In RMSH, old values are still afresh, brotherhood is abundant, service is carried out with joy, and above all the Home strives to inculcate the values of humanity in all. This makes me call the place a palace, where you find richness in the quality of lives. Website: http://www.rkmshome.org/ P.S. This article was reviwed by an old student of RMSH for factual errors, who is only 93 years old and serving his ‘home’ at his best capacity.

Saunak resides in Chennai and is a business consultant with an IT company. He has around seven years experience of volunteering work with rural orphanages, down-syndrome NGO's and corporate volunteering teams. Saunak is also a happy social investor with various community development funds aimed at poor women entrepreneurs. Lastly, he is a student of development economics who likes to learn the psychology, finance, risks, policies & use of technology associated with the lives of the poor and marginalized of the society.

Ensuring success of the RTE inclusion policy requires concerted efforts by all of us. Here is an organization that is working to spread awareness about the process and helping more deserving candidates from Economically Weaker Sections of the society get their seats in private schools. And if you know of any such deserving students, here's what you can do! A team of field coordinators in Andhra Pradesh asked 45 scholarship children a simple question - “What is the farthest place you know that you would like to go to?” These children aged between 10 to 12 years were from low-income families across five districts in Andhra Pradesh. Except for five students who named Mumbai, Kolkata, Mecca, Kuwait, and London, everybody else named a place within their district or state. Children’s “capacity to aspire” seems constrained by early family and schooling experiences. The Supreme Court’s April 2012 mandate of upholding RTE Clause 12, which mandates 25 percent of entering class seats be made available for 'weak' and 'disadvantaged children', provides an opportunity to bridge the growing rich-poor private schooling divide. Giving our children a chance to integrate with children from other social groups might influence among many things, their “capacity to aspire.” This video illustrates this fact: (If you cannot view the video here, please click on this link to watch it on Youtube). [embedvideo id="Jr2Ab_U4ZUQ" website="youtube"] Unfortunately, the pathways to entry into private schools are not straight-forward for families from Economically Weaker Sections (EWS). Only 5 percent of the 80 EWS families at the end of five years had awareness about Clause 12 in Andhra Pradesh. Access to information regarding the scholarship opportunity, data proves, is the first barrier to entry. Section 12 of the Right to Education, estimates show, has the potential of reaching 2 lakh children in Delhi in the next 5 years and cumulatively 10 million children across the country. Published reports of dismal awareness threatened to derail this progressive provision. The Team To urgently resolve this information gulf, a few Harvard and MIT alumni got together to conceive the idea of INDUS ACTION. Coming together in August 2013, the diverse backgrounds of the founding team of INDUS ACTION converged at their conviction for equal opportunities for all irrespective of socio-economic standing. Aniket Doegar, a commerce graduate, pursued the Teach for India fellowship and worked on school management committees in Pune. Debanshu Roy has a degree in medicine, research experience in designing public health projects and was a 2012 Young India Fellow. Richa Hingorani, a mass communication graduate has worked with NDTV and went on to manage media and communications for the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA). The Idea Project Eklavya, the premier project of INDUS ACTION was designed to provide a solution to the government and the society at large to implement section 12 effectively in Delhi to begin with and scale it gradually pan India. With diverse backgrounds, a team of 4 young people joined hands together to pull off the execution of their pilot project in South Delhi. Their baseline survey revealed that only 3% of the eligible families were aware of Section 12 and less than a percent knew about the documents required. [caption id="attachment_9226" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

INDUS ACTION's Helpdesk Manager at Sangam Vihar answering a parent's query.[/caption] With these stats and preliminary groundwork, a toll-free helpline was started with the idea that since most of the beneficiaries themselves might have limited literacy, easy access to a person who can walk them through their anxieties might be a more effective intervention than handing over a piece of paper with bulleted information. Our managers receive several calls a day ranging from enthusiastic admission queries for two-year-old kids to confusion resolution between a "janm patri"(birth certificate) and "kundali"(horoscope). As the timeline proceeded from December, through January, the calls transitioned from queries, to complaints about private schools, which now, being overwhelmed by applications, were looking for ways to contain them. What remained constant was the faith that they had on the organization to provide support. What evolved were their aspirations and their hope for a better opportunity. Partnerships Leveraging existing institutions and connecting the dots within existing service delivery structures was the strategy that was followed. In its first year, Project Eklavya bagged two key partnerships with government institutions - Mission Convergence and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Ministry of Women & Child Development. Mission Convergence aims to make Delhi a more inclusive city by integrating the existing social security schemes and delivering them through a unified structure in a decentralized manner. Operating Gender Resource Centres (GRCs) in vulnerable communities, Mission Convergence has created information hot spots for effective dissemination about government-related schemes. INDUS ACTION partnered with GRCs in South district of New Delhi to generate information about Section 12 of the Right to Education. Each of the 10 GRCs in the aforementioned district have INDUS ACTION volunteers providing form-filling support, clarifying doubts and providing a list of neighboring private schools for eligible families. [caption id="attachment_9227" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

INDUS ACTION's street play, on Section 12, in progress at Chattarpur.[/caption] Furthermore, their partnership with the Ministry of Women & Child Development gave them access to 19 Anganwadis in South Delhi. Anganwadis provide basic pre-school education and act as mother & child care centres. As such, these centres act as the feeder groups for their targeted interventions with eligible and motivated families. By their estimates, their on-ground team of 45 volunteers will help complete and submit 1000 unique applications for this admission cycle. What You Can Do INDUS ACTION firmly believes that education is an opportunity that should not be determined by birth. Every child deserves an opportunity for education irrespective of his or her socio-economic status. Their efforts need to be supported by yours! You can help enable an opportunity for education by sparing 2 minutes of your time. Ask your house help, driver and other service provides (milkman, washer-man) if:

1. They have a child between the age group of 3-6 years 2. Their family income is less than a lakh a year or they belong to a socially disadvantaged group (SC/ST/OBC Non-creamy) 3. If the child is physically or mentally disabled or an orphan

If they fulfill the criteria, then all you need for a successful application to be submitted in school is the following:

1. EWS Admission Form (available on www.edudel.nic.in) 2. A declaration of age of the child by the parent or guardian 3. If they earn less than a lakh a year then an Income Certificate. Under the prescribed guidelines, it takes a maximum of 21 days to obtain an income certificate but for admissions under Section 12, schools also accept acknowledgement receipts of income certificate application. 4. If they belong to SC/ST/OBC (non-creamy layer) then a caste certificate issued in Delhi needs to be annexed with the form. Socially disadvantaged groups are ONLY required to submit a caste certificate and NOT an income certificate.

Earlier on, all copies of certificates needed to be attested by a gazetted officer. Their interactions with parents and complaints on the helpline showed that this was fast emerging as a barrier. Taking cognizance, the Directorate of Education asked all schools to accept self-attested copies of certificates. With the process now simplified, you can help by holding meetings in RWAs, relaying the helpline number (1800-419-1019; 9am-6pm) to those who may fulfill the criteria. Two minutes worth of your time could translate into a colossal change in the life of a family. For more information, call us on our toll-free helpline 1800-419-1019.

Support DCCW, Make an Impact!

We have seen many a Bollywood film where a helpless mother leaves her crying infant outside a home or religious institution and vanishes into thin air. While those infants usually grow up to be Amitabh Bachchan, have you ever wondered if this happens in real life? And what happens to those unfortunate children left abandoned? Here we tell you about 'Palna', and its parent organization Delhi Council for Child Welfare, which has been taking care of such children from over six decades! [dropcap size=small]A[/dropcap]sha Dijkastra, 34, is a confident young lady. After completing her Masters in History of Education in Holland she is now an educational consultant organizing workshops for teachers doing Bachelor of Education in Holland. Today, Asha might be a Dutch national but she traces her roots back to Delhi, India, where she was born and abandoned. She was adopted by her current Dutch parents when she was barely 5 months old. She says: “Today, after 34 years, I still feel I belong to India because of my name.” [caption id="attachment_9633" align="aligncenter" width="363"]

Asha Dijkastra, though raised in Holland, feels a strong connection with Palna where she was nurtured for her first 5 months[/caption] Asha was adopted from Palna, a home for the abandoned, homeless and destitute children run by the Delhi Council for Child Welfare (DCCW). Today she is a successful professional in Holland but says she has two homes - one at Palna and one in Holland. Recently, when she was in Palna she organized a small excursion to Pratapgad Farms and took around 30 children for a picnic there. She says: “Although I haven't lived long in India, deep down I feel a very strong connection that Palna was once my home and still is. When I'm there I feel blessed with the unconditional love and spirituality among the people.” Apart from feeling close to the children at Palna she is also raising funds for Palna. So far she has sent about 130 euros besides clothes and toys. Asha’s is not the only success story there are many such success stories from Palna that was established in 1978, and located in Qudsia Bagh, Old Delhi Dr Sandhya Bhalla, CEO, DCCW says that Palna is an outcome of their own learning from the past. She explains:

The forming of DCCW dates back to the time of partition when many children got lost or misplaced during the riots. The families living along the Civil Lines used to take care of these children. They did all that was required for these children. In 1952, DCCW was established as an NGO. Then DCCW used to run a daycare centre for the Government called ‘Palna’. We used to work with various agencies and through this day care centre adoptions used to take place. Later the Government came up with a regulation to have a license for placing children in adoption. Today, we precisely have one home with a ‘Palna’ or cradle outside and we do not have any branches across Delhi for Palna.

Palna is a haven of peace, security and stability for the children who come here. Today on an average Palna looks after 90-100 children daily ranging in the age group of newborns to 8-year-olds. [caption id="attachment_9634" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Children who have been abandoned are taken care of at Palna. Palna has a physiotherapist, a special educator, a nursery teacher and a speech therapist to supervise the growth and development of a child. Seen in the picture is a Palna classroom.[/caption] The emphasis in Palna is on total care. Palna's multi-specialty medical programme, non-formal educational sessions and recreational facilities and activities, address all aspects of children’s development, good health and overall well-being. The Adoption programme in Palna started in 1978. Says Dr. Bhalla:

We at DCCW believe that a child does not belong in an institution, but in a family. The first effort is to trace the family and restore the child to its birth parents. When it is established that the child is abandoned or has not been claimed by its family, all efforts are made to place it in adoption.

On an average DCCW gives away 50 children in adoption annually within India and abroad. Over the last three decades the organization has placed over 2800 children in loving families, selected after rigorous screening and evaluation procedures. Once the cradle or Palna as they call it was kept out, DCCW officials also realized that a lot of parents left their disabled or mentally challenged child there. The number only kept increasing which then prompted DCCW to start Bal Chetna programme in 2002. Bal Chetna is DCCW’s Respite Home and Day-care facility for mentally challenged children. Apart from more children being abandoned at Palna, the other impetus to start Bal Chetna for mentally challenged children was surveys done by DCCW's crèche workers in the neighbourhoods in which they worked indicating that there was a high proportion of children with mental disabilities who were not getting the attention they needed. An increasing number of children with cerebral palsy and children with multiple disabilities had started to come to the Orthopaedic Centre at Janakpuri for help and advice. [caption id="attachment_9635" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Therapist checking a child at Bal Chetna -DCCW’s respite Home and Day-care facility for mentally challenged children[/caption] Today, Bal Chetna comprises residential facilities for homeless mentally challenged infants at Palna, as well as day care facilities for children from economically backward families at Janakpuri, New Seemapuri, Nithari and Sultanpuri in Delhi. Each centre has about 30 children. By providing individualized and specialized care, Bal Chetna facilitates the stimulation and development of special needs children, with the objective of making each child as self-reliant, competent and communicative as is possible. DCCW has also been doing a lot in the educational area for children from the under-privileged families. They started an educational scholarship programme wherein they provide financial support to academically bright children from low-income families who would otherwise be forced to drop out of school due to economic constraints. Academically inclined children - including physically challenged children - from families whose monthly income is no more than Rs.4000/- are eligible for sponsorship under this programme. At present about a 1000 children receive the scholarship [caption id="attachment_9636" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Day care facility for mentally challenged kids was established in 2002.[/caption] Dr Bhalla says the impact of this programme has been positive with the result that it has kept the children back in school without any drop outs and secondly other children who are in the vicinity of these kids and find that they are capable of getting this scholarship are also coming forward for it.

Parents and children are both seeing value in this programme not just from being at school and excelling but also from an overall development point of view as they also get career counseling. Many of these children are doing well. Some have even got into Engineering and Medical colleges.

That’s not all. In order to impart skills to enable differently-abled children, school dropout girls as well as other children from low-income families to support themselves, DCCW started a Vocational Training programme in 1976. Through this programme they conduct training in cutting and tailoring, embroidey, painting and Beauty Courses. Informs Dr. Bhalla.

Our focus for this programme has largely been on girls in the age group of 15-18 years. To a large extent these girls are married off by their parents forcing them to drop out of schools. But, the impact of our programme has been positive with most of these girls now having a job in large beauty salons like Lakme or L’O real or having started something on their own. It has also automatically deferred their marriage. The girls are more confident and have a sense of pride of being independent and earning for themselves and their family.

Sunita, is one such girl who has benefited from the vocational training programme. She came from a family who could barely dream of anything beyond one square meal. Sunita enrolled in DCCW's Beauty Culture Training programme and is today running her very own beauty parlour 'Madhu Beauty Parlour' in Dakshin Puri. [caption id="attachment_9637" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

In order to impart skills to enable differently abled children, school drop out girls as well as other children from low income families to support themselves, the vocational training programme was started. Seen in the picture are girls learning tailoring and sewing[/caption] Similarly, there is Tarannum. She belongs to a family of seven and her father is the only earning member. She came to DCCW to take a course in cutting and tailoring and now takes sewing orders from the community around her and brings in Rs. 2000 to 2500 every month. Tarannum is now dreaming big of becoming an entrepreneur, with her own shop and staff. Currently, there are about 400 youngsters from across Delhi who register with DCCW for the vocational training programme. Bhalla and her staff are now looking to add other courses in the areas of cooking and baking. With a mission to provide every child with a childhood and have a society where all children have all that is rightfully theirs and every opportunity to realize their potential, over the decades, DCCW's programmes have grown and diversified to cover medical services, nutrition, vocational training, adoption, rehabilitation of physically and mentally children and the provision of day care and non-formal education to the underprivileged children of Delhi and the surrounding areas. Today, these services reach approximately 2500 children daily and are provided virtually free of cost to them. While all these programmes are being run successfully with a staff strength of over 70 individuals, many of whom who have been with DCCW for almost two decades or more, Dr Bhalla says that they are still faced with challenges. Says Dr. Bhalla:

Our biggest challenge is that of finances. Cost of services is rising. We are thankful to our staff who have been with us for so long despite these challenges. They are with us because of our ethics and philosophy.

Running an NGO is a challenge in this country and the biggest challenge is that of raising funds and maintaining transparency. DCCW's Bhalla says they have no issues with transparency as everything is accounted for in the books. And, according to her, it's this working philosophy that has kept her staff here for so long despite the low salaries. [caption id="attachment_9638" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Working Children's Project was initiated in 1987 and reaches out to children working in the unorganized sector who are engaged in poorly paid and hazardous jobs. WCP provides these children with nutritious food, education, vocational training, health facilities, recreational activities and keeps them off the streets.[/caption] DCCW's idea is to now build a huge corpus so that they can provide the best for their children and also take care of their staff. Towards this effort, since March 2013, DCCW has been listed on GiveIndia as a Tier1 organisation after a rigorous audit and verification process. Dr. Bhalla explains:

The partnership with GiveIndia has specifically helped us to reach out to individual donors across the world who would otherwise not have known about DCCW and the various programs undertaken and the number of children reached out to and the impact on the beneficiaries. It also helps to immediately establish our credibility when we approach corporates for support.

Going forward, Dr Bhalla and the DCCW council members are clear that irrespective of the challenges, the effort will be towards making DCCW self-sustaining. We wish DCCW the very best in their efforts and hope that many more less-privileged children realise their dreams through them.

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About the Author: Anusha Subramanian, a British Chevening Scholar and an Award winning journalist started her journalism career 19 years ago. She has worked with Mid-Day, The Observer of Business & Politics, Business Standard, Hindustan Times and Business Today. Anusha is also a trained mountaineer and has started a social initiative called summiting4hope to help rehabilitate the flood affected victims of Uttarakhand.

Since his childhood, Saunak's school art teacher fascinated not only him but the whole school. He was a multi-talented person. However, when Saunak met him years after he left school, he learnt other facets of his life. Instead of the canvas, he was sketching beautiful villages and better lives for the Santhals. Here is the story of his beloved and respected Art sir - Mr. Debabrata Ghosh. The Santhal is the largest tribal community (adivasi, adi = old; vasi = inhabitants) in India. West Bengal is the second largest (38% of the total Santal population) home to these indigenous set of people. Be it the 1855 ‘Santhal Uprising’, or Pandit Raghunath Murmu’s Ol Chiki script in 1925 or pre-independence Santhali agricultural techniques or their unique music, this tribe has contributed to India’s history and culture in a number of ways. However, in the era of globalization – the Santhals have found themselves increasingly outcast from the core society. Here is Debabrata Ghosh, a good samaritan working with these tribal people for the last 25 years and making the change happen in their lives. [caption id="attachment_11071" align="aligncenter" width="1431"]

Santhals mixing with the city folks and getting a change in attire[/caption] Mr. Ghosh, an ex-teacher by profession has many facets as he is an artist, journalist and a sportsman. A resident of the industrial town Asansol in West Bengal, in 1988 he went to look after his ancestral land at Bonogram nearby to the group of Santhal villages of Dihika, Jorpara & Haramdihi. These villages are 8 kms away from Asansol on the banks of Damodar river. Mr. Ghosh could not stay away from the land because of the heart-melting void of basic facilities like education, health, hygiene, etc. Above all, the love of the people and warmth of the soil gave him an inner calling to become one of the Santhals. This alumnus of Narendrapur Ramakrishna Mission School started walking in the path laid by Shri Ramakrishna. Coming back to 2014, Mr. Ghosh is working with the larger chunk of Dihika block comprising of 8 to 9 villages and thousands of its inhabitants. I was struck by the depth and practicality of his work and vision. These tribal families are away from the mainstream development owing to lack of government machinery and the usual suspicion towards the new and the unknown by the Santhals. As a forward thinker and learner of society, he was quick to address the bridge between the urban people and these tribal. Witnessing the Naxalite-Maoist revolution – he understood that the only way to keep away those elements is to improve their livelihood and give them a better environment to live in. Thus started the journey of ‘Damodar Adibasi Development Society’, with the sole objective of social and cultural evolution, and disbanding the easy path of revolution. Once, the curtains of suspicion rolled over, the Santhals treated Mr. Ghosh as one among them. Mr. Ghosh recalls that his first project with these poor tribal people was to address the infrastructure issues. By 1990, he himself, along with the immense tribal labour power, constructed a bridge. The bridge shortened the journey to reach the nearby Damodar station and the bus route to the towns of Burnpur and Asansol. Next, being an artist – he truly understood and patronized the rural forms of art & craft of the villagers. He taught them the modern techniques of painting and usage of colour. Also, to create rural women empowerment he started teaching craft work using jute. After decades of hard work, hundreds of young girls are preparing carpets, jute bag and masks. The scale is yet to be reached – but the products are creating a huge demand in the neighboring states and with city people. Mr. Ghosh is now mulling on new go-to-market plans for these products. [caption id="attachment_11072" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

A young student creates a jute carpet.[/caption]

Back in the 90’s illiteracy was at its peak. Mr. Ghosh took time out from his teaching profession for counselling the Santhals and showcasing the usefulness of education. Next, he started mentoring a few educated youths and started running tuition centers in the villages. Now each year, before the Santal girls are married off they have studies at least up to the 10th or 12th grade. Few are showing even higher ambitions, like Boni Hembram who dreams to be the first graduate of the entire block. She is looking for financial assistance to pursue the graduation stream of her choice in the renowned Vishwa Bharati University in Shantiniketan.

To encourage and ease the journey to school – each year Mr. Ghosh and a handful of his friends have gifted cycle to these girls. Owing to the rising literacy, for the last few years Mr. Ghosh has encouraged them to start Santhali Little Magazine. This is helping to revive the rich Santali language, which is also being encouraged through translation work and some book publications. To grow culturally, the Santhals have formed formal groups of Folk Play (locally ‘Jatra’) and performed in the nearby districts. Riding on the popularity of the Santhali dance, Mr. Ghosh had offered platforms to perform in the cultural hubs like Rabindra Bhavan or at famous book fairs. These villagers are slowly witnessing the enthusiasm and mingling with city people. Further, these cultural troops are not only participating in but also winning sub-divisional level cultural competitions. [caption id="attachment_11073" align="aligncenter" width="1350"]

The villagers performs at the Asansol Book Fair[/caption] After trying his persuasion skills for the last two decades, Mr. Ghosh succeeded in gaining clothing independence for the women. Now, young girls do wear clothes other than Sari in the village and while travelling. Also, to discard social taboos, villagers are going out on picnics and touring nearby places. Further, he is training a couple of girls to drive a car. Mr. Ghosh wishes to widen their horizons through these initiatives. Football being the favourite sport of Bengal, Mr. Ghosh used it as a means of exchange and communication. The village team coached by him recently won the Madhukonda Shield tournament. Now, annual sports day is a regular affair for the inhabitants of Dihika block. To preserve nature, Mr. Ghosh has started tree planation with the kids. This is making them and their parent’s eco-sensitive in their day to day lives. [caption id="attachment_11074" align="aligncenter" width="1431"]

The kids have taken keen interest on plant cultivation[/caption] When I expressed my curiosity on the work in the health front, Mr. Ghosh shared a story. Twenty years ago, the Santhals were against blood donation. As an outsider back then, he could not just merely counsel them and expect them to change their views. He found high infant mortality because of a shortage of blood. So he suggested only grouping of blood, so that blood could be arranged from the district hospital. Next, after the grouping of blood groups, when the villagers found shortage of blood in the hospital – someone among the Santals came forward to donate blood. Mr. Ghosh smiled from a distance, as it saved life and served the purpose. Now, till date dozens of blood camps have been held and hundreds of villagers, irrespective of gender, have taken part. To take care of emergency situations – Mr. Ghosh has gifted the villagers an ambulance. He also conducted counselling classes along with the local police so that the alcoholics could get rehabilitated. [caption id="attachment_11075" align="aligncenter" width="1430"]

Display of art work on the walls of the community hall by the Santhals[/caption] In the above picture, using only village resources – starting from raw materials to civil technique to artisans – Mr. Ghosh and his Santhal family is constructing a hall. This would be used in the coming days as a workshop and community center. The center is coming up in the spirit of the Santhalis. This center would be used as a marketplace for their craft work, host tuition classes, awareness sessions and be used for other projects. Last but not the least, in a state where chit funds do rampant business – Mr. Ghosh’s financial literacy classes and awareness programs have kept these greedy fund owners at bay. All these 26 years, Mr. Ghosh has funded and tried to make most of the projects self-sustaining through his individual mammoth effort. This karma-yogi finds guidance in the words of Swami Vivekananda. Mr. Ghosh has treated the Santals in the light of his master – ‘Daridra Deva Bhavo’ (seeing God in all while serving). This one man’s effort not only created a physical bridge in the past, but a stronger connection between two cultures of our nation – bringing down social and superstitious boundaries. Mr. Debabrata Ghosh can be contacted for this project at dbrata2005@yahoo.co.in. Boni hembram needs Rs. 24,000 per annum for the next 3 years to fulfill her dream of becoming the first graduate of the village. You can help Boni become the inspiration for hundreds of others in the village.

Saunak resides in Chennai and is a business consultant with an IT company. He has around 7 years experience of volunteering work with rural orphanages, down-syndrome NGO's and corporate volunteering teams. Saunak is also a happy social investor with various community development funds aimed at poor women entrepreneurs. Lastly, he is a student of development economics who likes to learn the psychology, finance, risks, policies & use of technology associated with the lives of the poor and marginalized of the society.

This unique programme started as an experiment with the introduction of an unknown therapy and a method that promised no definite results. Today, after almost two decades, AURED stands out for the kind of aid and self-sufficiency they have been providing to scores of young lives. [caption id="attachment_13122" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

A student who has benefited by the AURED program, with his mother.[/caption] Sunny was born with a hearing impairment and came to AURED at the age of 16 months, where he received a never-heard-before treatment called the Auditory Verbal Therapy, which enabled him to listen and speak. But, his speech was not clear due to profound hearing loss. He was given cochlear implants at the age of seven and continued formal therapy until age 10. Today he is a self-assured, confident 18-year-old young man who has enrolled in an engineering college in America. Hearing impaired children are said to have a problem learning new languages, but Sunny chose French as his second language in school and speaks it with panache. He plays the tabla and is also learning to play the saxophone. Sunny is just one of the many hearing impaired children who came to Aural Education for Children with Hearing Impairment (AURED) supported by Concern India Foundation, with little hope and have gone back renewed and transformed, eager to start their lives afresh. [caption id="attachment_13118" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

A teacher with the student and his father engages them in therapy sessions.[/caption] Started in 1986 with six profoundly deaf children, AURED was a 'mission with a struggle'. Their experiment with a revolutionary new concept called the Auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) was not very well known then and had not been practiced ever in India before. The method, introduced by Australian therapist Alan Kelly, enabled deaf children to develop their auditory pathway that resulted in children listening and speaking. Among many skeptics, the parents of these six children put trust in this innovative treatment and decided to give this fresh idea a try.

“When we first switched to AVT, we knew so little about the final result. We knew it in theory but not in practice. We started with six children and I explained to the parents that it was an experiment, a very serious one, but it could not guarantee the outcome. We told them that technically, at the end of 3-4 years, their children should be able to ‘listen and talk’ but we could not predict the extent of success,” says Aziza Tyabji, co-founder and director of the organisation.

And fortunately for her, they agreed! In the last two decades, AURED has provided support to more than a thousand children with hearing impairment. The centre that started in a modified kitchen currently has 700 beneficiaries enrolled at their present premises. More than 350 of these children are between the ages of 3 months - 3 years. [caption id="attachment_13119" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

Aziza Tyabji makes sure that the students do not use any sign language during sessions.[/caption] AURED works on the philosophy that 95 per cent of the hearing impaired have some residual hearing, and if identified young, with the help of a pair of good hearing aids or a cochlear implant, a child can develop sufficient auditory skills to enable him or her to 'hear' and communicate through spoken language. Recent research indicates that the critical period of 'learning' starts from the sixth month of pregnancy up to 2 years and therefore early diagnosis and intervention is essential. Children with significant hearing loss who receive hearing aids before the age of 6 months, and a cochlear implant between the ages of 7 months to 1 year can develop language skills similar to those children with normal hearing. Those who receive implants between 18 to 24 months of age, acquire only two thirds of language skills in comparison. However, once the child is diagnosed with hearing loss, immediate audiological management and fitting of appropriate amplification devices i.e. hearing aids or a cochlear implant, along with skilled and effective aural habilitation is required. This is where AURED comes in to fill the gap. [caption id="attachment_13120" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

The earlier you detect the impairment in the kid, the better chances there are to get it fixed.[/caption] Here children take part in one-on-one teaching sessions. Therapy is conducted in four major languages - English, Hindi, Marathi, and Gujarati. Parents are the primary caregivers, and are required to participate in teaching sessions to enable them to learn how to use the Auditory Approach in their homes. No sign language or lip reading is ever used here. This approach enables a child to 'LISTEN AND SPEAK' by making use of every bit of residual hearing. The organisation aims to integrate children with hearing impairment to become independent and contributing citizens in mainstream society. [caption id="attachment_13124" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

The amazing team of teachers at AURED.[/caption] The seemingly straightforward task requires explicit patience and perseverance. Aziza tells us a story of a child who was two-and-a-half years old when she joined AURED and after almost 2 years, could imitate whatever one said, but could not talk spontaneously.

“Around this time, a friend of mine visited and I was talking to her while this child kept interrupting our conversation. A little irritated I just told her to shut up, and to my surprise I heard a little voice saying ‘You shut up’. My friend was aghast saying how rude the children were, but I was ecstatic as this was a big breakthrough for me. It meant that she was processing conversation and was reacting accordingly. This was really the beginning of us believing in the method,” she says animatedly.

Clearly this process requires a huge input for long durations before there can be any visible response. Once children have sufficient receptive language, they start expressing themselves, like 'normal' children who absorb everything around them before they start talking. [caption id="attachment_13121" align="aligncenter" width="3511"]

A few months of sessions and the kid manages to respond in spoken language. Isn't it amazing?[/caption] A very important and omnipresent component of the entire process is the parents who Aziza terms as the “primary caregivers.” They need a lot of counseling from the time of diagnosis, which they are often reluctant to accept, through the years the child spends in therapy. At AURED, counseling every parent is a crucial procedure. They need to understand that even with cochlear implants, deafness cannot be cured. Once the implant is taken off at night the children are deaf again. Their struggle is undoubtedly the hardest. Deepali, mother of five-year-old Om who has been coming to this centre every month for the last two years, says, “I take an overnight train to Mumbai every month just for a day. My son who currently attends the balwadi (pre-school) in our village was suffering from profound hearing loss and has shown a lot of improvement after coming here.” [caption id="attachment_13123" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

Parents are also trained to practice regular therapy sessions with the kids.[/caption] For now, AURED continues to work at its unsaid policy of trying to help all who come to them with or without the adequate finances. With awareness about their new methods amongst those who matter, their task may have become a little easier, but for the indomitable Aziza Tyabji, this is but just the start! For further information on AURED, contact- info@aured.org

Like this story? Or have something to share? Write to us: contact@thebetterindia.com, or connect with us on Facebook and Twitter (@thebetterindia).

Ever wondered what "inclusion" is? Is it accepting things which you are not too comfortable with? Or is it being open to "different" people, cultures and traditions. Here are five takes on what inclusion means to these five individuals and five questions you should ask yourself.

1. Would you learn sign language for a friend who couldn't speak and hear?

A few months back, I was asked by one of my friends to help with a photo shoot for her dance company in a rural setting. We went to a small village on the outskirts of Bangalore and that’s where I met these three lovely, enthusiastic kids who followed me all around. I spent some time with this playful bunch, and learnt a beautiful thing about them. The little boy in the middle has a hearing impediment and so his friends learnt the sign language to be able to communicate with him. The other two attend school and come back to teach him the alphabet and basic English words in sign language. They told me that they do it because he is their dear friend and they do not want him to miss any chance in life. I was thrilled to learn about their passion of supporting each other despite all odds. Inclusion means many things for many people. For me, the half hour spent with these kids taught me about 'Inclusion' better than anything else. What is your idea of Inclusion?

2. Would you make your voice heard if you are denied your basic rights?

“Government keeps crunching numbers and policies year after year. But where are the disabled children in schools and where are the opportunities for them? What purpose do the policies serve if children with special needs are still forced to stay devoid of education? Not getting education is not my fault, it is the society’s fault. You know how unless a baby cries, the mother cannot find out if she needs something? I have come to realize that it is very important to express. To ask. To demand. It is important to make others aware of our needs. I was invited as chief guest for a Disability Day celebration and to my horror I found that there was no ramp for me to move up the stage. Just imagine, a venue for Disability Day which is inaccessible itself! I simply refused to go up the stage until the secretary personally ensured that the place was made accessible for the disabled. One has to ensure that their voice does not fall on deaf ears. The key is to be assertive, not aggressive.” -Dr. Sruti Mohapatra

3. Would you let a person with disability make his/her own place in the world and not treat them 'differently'?

Ruchir epitomizes optimism. Lacking in vision but not in his attitude towards life, he has steered his life through accomplishments that most of us consider unattainable. He insisted on dropping out of the ‘special school’ that his parents initially enrolled him in, and convinced them to put him in a regular school with others. After completing his BCA, he went on to crack the highly competitive CAT exam and made his way into Alliance University for MBA. An exciting opportunity to work as a brand manager with a leading jewellery design company brought him to Bangalore, where he lives on his own. Described as a go-getter by his friends and family, Ruchir strongly advocates the need for people with different abilities to take the initiative in building an inclusive society. He finds it more pertinent that they face their challenges, find out solutions and break the barriers to establish their own place in the world, instead of expecting the society to treat them ‘differently’. Technology plays a great role there. With smartphones and tablets today, it is easier to access information and to meet others. While I was chatting with him, Ruchir showed me how he reads the daily newspaper from his phone’s scanner and watches Bollywood movies through visual narration tracks. Meet Ruchir Falodiya, a rockstar who has turned his disability into a super power.

4. Would you take your child's 'different' behaviour seriously and accept the harsh reality?

“I was born with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Autistic children show different kind of symptoms, which are mostly misinterpreted by others. My teacher took my hyper activeness and inhibition to speak up as my naughtiness and would often reprimand me for that. It was my mother who observed my behavioral patterns and understood that I needed help. She made me undergo therapy and encouraged me to overcome my challenges. I love to read a lot. There is no novel by Dan Brown that I haven’t read. I also like mathematics. I am great with numbers and arithmetic. So I decided to do B Com after school. I know statistics, accounting and many more things and now I have joined a multinational company. All this would not have been possible without the constant support from my mother. She is my mentor and my best friend. She also runs a therapy centre for about 20 children with Autism. I help her with the classes and also take care of the finances and other logistics. She calls me her special advisor.” - Rohan Athreya

5. Would you be able to consider life on a wheelchair to be as simple as wearing spectacles?

."After a spinal injury on a road accident 14 years ago, I landed on a wheel chair. With the hope that it is all going to be easy, starting a new way of living wasn’t difficult. I have been working as SAP Programmer for the past 10 years. With a good job in hand and with all that I need to live an independent life, I’m managing to live my life much better than what it used to be without a wheelchair. I love going on long drives in my car and the recent one was the trip from Bangalore to Hyderabad and from there to Pondicherry (my home town) and then back to Bangalore. When we find it difficult to read books and newspapers, we use spectacles; similarly, since I cannot walk, I use a wheel chair. It makes it all easy for me (and people like me) if everyone understands the concept of inclusiveness in this simple way. Life is good and it is all in the way you take it." - Robert George This photo story has been compiled by Geetanjali Kaur, a volunteer for the India Inclusion Summit.

The India Inclusion Summit 2014 is being organized on the 28th and 29th November, 2014 at the Park Plaza Hotel, Bangalore. Check out their website for more details and to register.

Diwakar Sharma left his visual impairment behind as he not only won many hearts in a television music reality show but also topped in the 12th grade CBSE board exams. As he transformed from being a 'regular' boy to a celebrity, Diwakar shares with us how he did not let his disability come in the way of his life. If you want to know the power of a voice, meet Diwakar Sharma. We all saw and adored him on a television music reality show where he won millions of hearts with his melodious voice. What has made Diwakar stand out is his tenacity to succeed in spite of a rare condition that caused progressive low vision which went up to a point of 100 percent visual impairment at a very young age. "Regular" people often lament their fate and spend a large part of their lives trying to come to terms with their disabilities or misfortunes. But, did we mention that Diwakar is not a "regular" person? Disability was never a word in his dictionary, and with his amazing achievements, he has proved that nothing can come in the way of genuine talent and passion. [caption id="attachment_16586" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Diwakar Sharma shot to fame when he was in finals of a television singing reality show.

Diwakar Sharma shot to fame when he was in the finals of a television singing reality show.[/caption] Born and brought up in Delhi, Diwakar has always been a talented child and started singing since the age of two. “It came naturally to me. Though I took professional training, I did not plan to make a career out of it. But then SaReGaMaPa happened, and it changed my life,” he says. He bagged the second place in that competition and since then he has never looked back. Currently pursuing B.A in Music from Delhi University, Diwakar is a celebrity now. “Life has changed tremendously. Earlier I was just a normal kid; today people know me because of my voice. It feels great,” the young champ grins. Diwakar’s achievements were not restricted to just music - he excelled in academics too. He became CBSE topper in his 12th grade board exams and scored 91 percent marks.

“My family and I never treated my visual impairment as a challenge. I live a normal life, go to a regular school, have some wonderful friends and spend a lot of time on Facebook like any other person of my age,” he laughs.

Though the journey has not been a bed of roses for this young lad, he has found ways to look at the best in every situation. He managed studies and his music together and excelled in both fields. “But, music has always been my priority,” he says.

“Of course, the disability does bother and affect me at times. It has not been an easy journey; everything was very hard initially. But gradually, I am getting used to it. Things look much better now,” he says.

Having faced a few insecurities at first, Diwakar is a confident performer when he is out there on the stage today. “Earlier, whenever I would hear my recordings, I would get embarrassed and feel that I sound so different. I would run away to another room. But now, I am okay with it. I guess confidence comes with experience and time,” he says. A diehard fan of Lata Mangeshkar, Rafi, A.R Rahman and KK, Diwakar loves to experiment with his voice and tries to sing with different variations and styles. Currently going gaga over the tunes of a Hindi movie Ashiqui 2, Sharma can’t stop humming the 'tum hi ho..' song from the flick. “I am in love with Arijit Singh’s voice. All the songs are amazing,” he says. [caption id="attachment_16587" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

Apart from being an excellent singer, Sharma also topped CBSE 12th boards.

Apart from being an excellent singer, Diwakar also topped CBSE 12th boards.[/caption] Having achieved success in the dual fields of academics and music, Diwakar sometimes gives five performances in a week and even manages to perform on the night before an exam, still acing the exam! Going forward, he aims to become a famous playback singer and wants to learn more contemporary music. Diwakar is an inspiration to all of us and a true embodiment of how your actions rather than your fate define the course of your life. It is heartening to see that he has handled his disability with such maturity and has never let it come in the way of his dreams. We wish this young wonder good luck for all his future endeavours.

Watch Diwakar perform at the Charity Dinner hosted by India Inclusion Summit on 28th November and hear him share his experiences at the Summit on 29th November. Click here for the event details.

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They don’t hold flags nor shout slogans. They are not the heroes movies will celebrate. These three men are just like you and me, working hard to keep their family happy, especially the little ones in their lives. But by simply choosing not to fill a small box in the admission form, these doting fathers have chosen to free their children from the century-old caste system. Read more about why India needs to have more such men and women to teach the young India to love and live without prejudices or barriers. If you have a child at home, you would know very well how important the first day of school is. T. Gopinath was every bit that anxious father, he recalls it like it happened yesterday,

“We were fortunate to get admission in one of the best schools in Chennai. There, I stood in a line with my wife and three-year old son Devnath. We had just filled the admission form when the lady in charge returned it with a smile, ‘Sir, you have, by mistake, given NA in the caste column. Please check it.’ I replied, ‘No, I didn’t forget it. I don’t know what caste he is.’ The lady gave me a confused look wondering if I had gone mad. I went on, ‘I don’t know my wife’s caste so how am I supposed to know my son’s. She shook her head and said that I need to fill something. ‘If you don’t give a caste then your child will not get any Government benefits slotted for that caste.’ I laughed, ‘He is my child and not the government’s, so I trust I can take care of his future.’ His admission was sealed and hopefully, a new path has been set for my next generation, all thanks to my supportive wife.”

[caption id="attachment_16965" align="aligncenter" width="1536"]

Gopinath with his son.[/caption] His six-year old son is currently studying in the first standard in the same school. This 38-year-old creative media professional says it was a natural decision, “I never believed in the caste system.” He believes books have had a major influence in his formative years and that may have prompted his decision.

The two sides of the story

While caste-based reservation has been receiving brickbats for wealthy people misusing it, the other more disheartening story is of people being lynched and women raped due to caste-based ostracism. As on 2012, there have been 12,576 cases registered under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and 1,576 caste-based rape cases in India (source). The spate of the so-called honour killings of inter-caste couples is another tragedy that showcases the severity of the caste-bias entrenched in our mindsets. Gopinath shakes his head, “I feel saddened and ashamed of our society when I hear of such caste-induced crimes. First, we need to be human-beings. When we look at the bigger picture, we are all just too small and insignificant.” By birth a Naidu, he married a woman of the Saiva-pilla caste, he says that caste has never entered their daily lives. He smiles, “Hopefully, my child will grow free and never know such things.”

No more oppression

For Haran Suba (35), it was a conscious decision to keep his seven-year-old daughter Surekha out of the caste equation. With a MA, M.Phil (Tamil) and UGC NET in hand, he had knocked the doors of several colleges, only to be turned down by minorities who preferred candidates from their own religion. [caption id="attachment_16964" align="aligncenter" width="640"]

Haran Suba with his children.[/caption] Again, approaching Hindu-run management didn’t work as he hailed from a community that was different from theirs. Many of them openly commented that government quotas were available for people like him. He says that he faced a similar situation while hunting for homes in Coimbatore, “In fact, even people from the so-called lower castes treat certain sub-castes within their community as secondary citizens. It is just pathetic.” He adds, “Government gives reservations for jobs but if you look at the private sector, the doors are pretty much closed and you cannot always rely on the government to help you out.” Haran Suba currently runs his own firm ‘Hello Talent’ academy that encourages extra-curricular activities in children. He says for equality to prevail we need to remove caste-based oppression of every kind. “Till date, we use people from certain communities to do menial jobs like cleaning the sewers or septic tanks. This should be stopped and these jobs need to be mechanized.”

The legal angle

R Chandrasekaran, advocate, Coimbatore confirms that not mentioning caste in any educational admission form is a matter of personal choice, “except for the fact that you might lose out any caste-based reservations or quota, there’s no other downside to it.” Govt.policy also enumerates only SCs and STs in census for positive action. Last month, The Supreme Court set aside orders of the Madras High Court, directing the Centre to conduct a caste-based census. Read the full judgment here.

Ask him about people who claim that caste is a part of our culture, and he smirks about the hypocrisy we flaunt, “Traditionally, 'navithar' community used to practice medicine but now people from all walks of life are in it for money and sadly, these very traditional medical practitioners are at the lower end of the caste spectrum, subject to discrimination. People change the caste system according to convenience (as it was job-based earlier) but still stifle the oppressed from having better lives; the whole system is now simply irrelevant.” Haran Suba who comes under the Adi-Dravidar community doesn’t want his daughters (his younger kid Isaisarithra is yet to join school) to use caste-based reservation, but hopes some financially challenged child gets it instead.

For the sake of love

For Chennai-based P. Kishore, it was a social outreach programme in college that opened his eyes to the status of Dalit communities in villages. Education was still a far cry for many of them despite reservations. This software professional believes that one cannot hold on to traditions and do more wrong. [caption id="attachment_16966" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

Kishore with his daughter.[/caption] His own origins further made him a firm believer of equality, “My parents come from different castes and religions and yet that never was a problem at home. They have never shared their life story but I have watched them lead a peaceful life. Social equality is possible; we just need to remove our resistance to change.” He adds, “My daughter Shauna will not have a caste and I know she needs to compete under the open category without any quota, but so be it. I believe the next generation will change for the better.” While reservation may be needed till caste-based discrimination is fully erased, these men have taken a small step towards a bigger dream – a society that discriminates none. May their tribe thrive.

Unsung hero of our past

You may have heard of Gandhi’s and Ambedkar’s campaign for equality, here’s one more hero who made a rather forward-thinking proclamation for his time. Read more about the King of Travancore who broke caste barriers here.

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While a major portion of India is not easily accessible for differently-abled people living in the country, there have been some very thoughtful attempts which can be replicated for a more inclusive society. A large part of our country is inaccessible to India's differently-abled population in terms of infrastructure. Be it hospitals, movie theatres, schools or even parks - many people living with disabilities cannot even think of visiting such places without being dependant on others, simply because the buildings or public spaces are not equipped according to their needs. But in recent times, voices have been raised and heard about increasing accessibility and creating a more inclusive society. We are not there yet, not by far, but there have been attempts towards an inclusive India and it is time that they are acknowledged, applauded and encouraged so we see many more in the future.

1. City of Gwalior

Photo Credit: Flickr

As a landmark achievement, the city of Gwalior is now 95% barrier-free. You will see ramps and railings for accessibility and ease everywhere, be it schools, hotels, ATMs, hospitals, etc. It is widely known as the barrier free city or the accessible city of India. The efforts of people behind reaching this stage have also been recorded in an episode of Satyameva Jayate, titled 'Persons with Disabilities'.

2. The Golden Chariot - India's first disabled-friendly luxury train

Source: Flickr

Indian Railways has always tried to provide some relief and support to the differently-abled persons and senior citizens with the help of wheelchairs and ramps available at the stations. However, there are still many hurdles. Amidst those, The Golden Chariot came up as India's first luxury train to have a cabin that is friendly for differently-abled people. The train does not charge any extra amount for its use or for any other supportive service.

3. Facilities for people living with disabilities

Glad to see toilet for differently abled/disabled people at the Marina beach light house. Well done pic.twitter.com/ASOr6W4rN1
— Srini Swaminathan (@srini091) June 30, 2015

People often underestimate the little that could help differently-abled people and ease their experiences in certain places. For example, inclusion of disabled-friendly toilets in public and tourist places makes a great difference. From malls to certain institutes, this facility makes public spaces more accessible to persons with disabilities. And as is clear from this brilliant find in the tweet above, there is always a feeling of relief and hope when we spot one.

4. Red Ramp Project

The project was about making beaches more accessible for differently-abled persons so that they could visit on their own terms - in a way that makes them self-dependent. For this, one organization built a temporary ramp that enabled people on wheelchairs to access the Kiri beach in Goa for a day. Though what the project did was temporary, it was a good thought and initiative overall. They also created a video which explored what inaccessibility meant to people. Beyond their attempt at the beach, the Red Ramp Project is also inviting people to a web platform to share images of places which need ramps in India and are requesting people to sign a petition asking for more accessibility. Find the petition and the video here.

5. Travel agencies that are disabled-friendly

Photo Credit: Flickr

Though most travel agencies that offer tour plans to India for persons with disabilities are based outside the country, they do cater to Indians who wish to explore India as well. There are different plans for different challenges, and are categorised as such, with wheelchair vacations, hearing impaired vacations, etc. There are a few based in India as well, that offer wheelchair vacations. For example, Travel Another India offers wheelchair vacations in Himalayas, specifically in Ladakh, Sonapani and Spiti.

6. A Taj Mahal for everyone

Source: Flickr

Though the monument is still not accessible completely because the main mausoleum has steps that wheelchairs cannot climb on, there have been efforts to make it more accessible to the differently abled people. The Taj Mahal now has 9 ramps with optimal gradient installed at various spots in the premises, and they also have a dozen wheelchairs that could be used by differently-abled people.

Don't they say that little drops of water make an ocean? These attempts inspire us to be more sensitive and tell us that achieving accessibility is not that tough - all it needs is a little thought and a drive to do something about the situation. Do you know of more such attempts? We'd love to hear about them in comments below.

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Gopi Shankar does not fit in any prescribed male or female gender. Refusing to be categorized as “he” or “she,” Gopi asked us to use the gender neutral pronoun “ze.” And ze is indeed a free soul who is helping hundreds of people from the LGBTQIA community through an organization ze set up called Srishti Madurai. “Since childhood I never felt like a girl. I was always an outsider among girls and never mingled with them. Initially, I thought I was a tomboy. I used to indulge in boyish activities with my brother. I did not question my gender at that young age but as I grew up and started getting bodily changes like other females of my age, I could not come to terms with them,” shares Duncan Kingsley, a 25-year-old transboy from Tamil Nadu. There are hundreds of people like Duncan who struggle with their gender preferences for years before finally coming out of the closet. And Gopi Shankar is here to help them. “I don’t identify myself as male or female. I consider myself as a loving human being who is beyond gender,” ze says. What is 'ze', you ask? Ze is a gender-neutral pronoun, and Gopi prefers that we use it when addressing him. Gopi is passionate about the issues confronting the LGBTQIA (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer Intersex Asexual) community. Ze knows the troubles of this community inside out and has been supporting it for a long time.

Gopi came out of the closet when ze was 19. Unlike many who continue to struggle and hide their true preferences, Gopi did not just choose to openly accept it but is also rigorously working to support others in need.

[caption id="attachment_39183" align="aligncenter" width="605"]

Gopi Shankar does not like to be described as either male or female.[/caption]

“Gender is related to the physical and emotional perception of an individual. Restricting gender in the binary categories of female and male is erroneous as we have to be aware about the existence of more than 20 categories of gender,” says Gopi.

Ze is the founder of Srishti Madurai, an organisation that counts amongst its members human rights activists, independent scholars, and genderqueer activists who spread more awareness about the LGBTQIA community. Srishti Madurai runs a 24x7 helpline and provides face-to-face counseling services to community members in need. It also has resources, research material and literature on LGBTQIA. Started in 2011, Srishti Madurai goes to schools and colleges and conducts seminars and workshops to not just raise awareness but also make the younger generation more empathetic towards the often-stigmatized LGBTQIA community.

“Here we do not want to narrow down our emphasis on homosexuality, rather we want to emphasize gender-variants. Gender and sexuality are the rights of an individual and interfering in those is like interfering in personal freedom,” says Gopi.

Gopi has also been supporting Santhi Soundarajan, an Indian athlete who was stripped off her silver medal after a gender fail test in 2006.

[caption id="attachment_39182" align="aligncenter" width="800"]

Gopi has organized many workshops and seminars to spread awareness about LGBTQIA community.[/caption] Deeply moved by Santhi’s plight, Gopi has been fighting against the system to help restore her dignity. Ze recalls the issues faced by Santhi as she was insulted in front of the crowds at the 2006 Asian Games held in Doha. She was told that she could not compete in sports in the future and sent back to her village. Unable to bear the humiliation, Santhi tried to kill herself by drinking poison but was saved at the last moment. “Everyone looked down on me. Everyone was looking at me in this new way: Is she a man? Is she a transvestite? It's very hurtful. It ruined my life and my family's life,” Santhi recalls. Gopi has stood like a pillar with Santhi and is fighting to get her medal, prize money and respect back.

“She is a woman. Just because Santhi doesn’t conform to their preset standards, it doesn’t mean she is not a woman. It is extremely upsetting to see that the International Olympic Association doesn’t understand that gender is a complex issue. All we want now is for Santhi to get her rights back, along with a permanent job, so that she can pursue her dream of training underprivileged athletes,” says Gopi.

To spread more awareness about the issues faced by the LGBTQIA community, Shankar wrote Maraikappata Pakkangal (Hidden Pages), the first book on gender variants, in Tamil.

[caption id="attachment_39181" align="aligncenter" width="800"]

Gopi has also been supporting Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan after she failed the gender test.[/caption] The book is a scientific, sociological, anthropological, psycho-analytical, religious, philosophical, and political take on gender, according to Gopi. This book also interprets references to alternative genders in Hindu mythology, the Quran and the Bible. Gopi is also the youngest panelist to share the chair in UGC and ICSSR sponsored national seminars. Ze has conducted more than 80 seminars on gender and sexuality and also organised Asia's first Genderqueer Pride Parade inhe 2012. The Srishti Madurai helpline number is +91 9092282369.

All pics: Gopi Shankar's Facebook page

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The LGBT community hopes that the upcoming hearing will be a step towards granting it positive rights in India. In 2009, in a case brought forward by the Naz Foundation, the Delhi High Court had passed an order which had the effect of ensuring that the provisions of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1865, were not applied to consenting adults. The order was welcomed by all those who believed in India’s desire to ensure equality and tolerance as hallmarks of its identity. Section 377, that criminalises “carnal intercourse against the order of nature”, had by then been a part of the code of penal laws enacted by a colonial administration for more than 100 years. Like many other outdated imperial relics, the code continues to be used, and some of its more ridiculous sections have been sporadically brought out and dusted for the purpose of harassment by misguided individuals who, in their ignorance, feel that they are somehow upholding high standards of morality and Indian culture.

They fail to realise that this culture endorses tolerance that has existed for thousands of years and is one that is replete with legends of homosexuality.

[caption id="attachment_46019" align="aligncenter" width="690"]

Although it’s been a long fight for their rights, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community in India is holding on to hope.[/caption] The relief, however, was short-lived. Because in 2013, after hearing the appeals brought against the Delhi High Court judgment by various individuals and groups, who all claimed to be acting in the interests of the ‘Indian public’ and protecting the Indian way of life, the Supreme Court passed an order striking down the Delhi High Court judgement. The Apex Court observed that the Delhi High Court order relied heavily on judgments of foreign jurisdictions.

This order stated: “(I)n its anxiety to protect the so-called rights of LGBT persons and to declare that Section 377 IPC violates the right to privacy, autonomy, and dignity, the High Court has extensively relied upon the judgments of other jurisdictions. Though these judgments shed considerable light on various aspects of this right and are informative in relation to the plight of sexual minorities, we feel that they cannot be applied blindfolded for deciding the constitutionality of the law enacted by the Indian legislature.”

Even though the campaign for the rights of the LGBT people has been going for nearly 25 years now, the reality is that the debate on sexual tolerance in India has not progressed beyond the struggle for the very right to debate this issue. While the United States with its very public debate on the rights of LGBT communities has also legalised same sex marriages in 2015, in India, we have not even progressed towards de-criminalising the act.

The 2013 Supreme Court order clarified that “(W)hile parting with the case, we would like to make it clear that this Court has merely pronounced on the correctness of the view taken by the Delhi High Court on the constitutionality of Section 377 IPC and found that the said section does not suffer from any constitutional infirmity. Notwithstanding this verdict, the competent legislature shall be free to consider the desirability and propriety of deleting Section 377 IPC from the statute book or amend the same as per the suggestion made by the Attorney General.”

Of course, the Legislature has not acted till date and now, finally, three years later, the Supreme Court has heard a curative petition on the issue. A curative petition essentially means that the Supreme Court will take another look at an order, that has otherwise attained finality, if some conditions exist. These conditions are: firstly, if there is violation of the principles of natural justice; secondly, if the judgement affects the person but this person was not party to that case; and thirdly, if the judge has not disclosed his connection or interest in the case leading to a fear of bias. This is an extreme step as the principle of ‘Interest Reipublicae Ut Sit Finis Litium’ or public interest, in the finality of a judgment, is considered desirable and conducive to the rule of law. Nonetheless, the Court has ensured that this maxim has proven exceptions, allowing the cause of justice to be paramount. One of the arguments that has been put forth in justifying the intrusion of the State into a citizen’s private life is public interest. So, it is only fitting that the fate of this penal section will now be decided by a mechanism that is itself balancing on the fine line between public interest and ensuring complete justice as per the Constitution. The curative petition is a construction of the Supreme Court. The Article 137 of the Constitution allows the Supreme Court to review any order and Article 142 allows it to make any order, which ensures the securing of ‘complete justice’, in any cause or matter until Parliament passes a law on the issue. This is in keeping with the Court’s self-imposed description as a “problem solver in nebulous areas” and one that “has always been a law-maker and its role travels beyond merely dispute-settling.”

It is in this spirit that it has carved out the realm of the curative petition, where it reviews any of its own judgments and orders in case a gross injustice is perceived.

[caption id="attachment_46020" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]

The Supreme Court recently took in a curative petition to rethink its 2013 judgment on reinstating Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.[/caption]

Photo source: Flickr/Vinayak Das

The safeguards for a curative petition have been kept flexible to ensure that its aim of securing justice is achieved. But the hearing on February 2, 2016, went a step further. Whereas, traditionally, curative petitions are closed hearings in the judge’s chambers, this time, the proceedings were opened up to the public. A curative petition is meant to be heard by the three senior-most judges at the least and so it is that a Constitution Bench of five judges will now review the order in open court. It is hoped that this hearing will set right some long-standing legal wrongs and might even go a step further in granting positive rights to a community that should have been treated no differently from any other in India. Lesbians and gays have not been recognised even though the transgender community has had a cursory legal nod their way in 2014, when the Court finally recognised them as the third gender.

Featured image source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

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Written by Lavanya Regunathan Fischer & Devadatt Kamat for Women’s Feature Service (WFS) and republished here in arrangement with WFS.

Mirchi and Mime is an innovative restaurant in the Powai area of Mumbai. It boasts of a friendly wait staff of 27 servers, all of whom are hearing and speech impaired. I have often heard my parents and others from the previous generation grumble about how eating out has lost it charm. The focus, they feel, has shifted from a diner-centred experience to a money-making enterprise. Another complaint that I often hear from them is that servers these days rarely smile. And given that I cannot remember any server flashing me a genuine smile while taking my order or serving me, I am forced to agree. Mirchi and Mime then is a game-changer in more ways than one! Nestled in the Powai area of Mumbai, not only does this restaurant boast of a friendly waitstaff that offers service with a smile (a rarity in itself!), but all 27 servers are hearing and speech impaired (SHI, for short). While one might be tempted to assume that having a meal in this restaurant is a complicated process, experience shows otherwise.

The process is simple - all menus list not only the food available, but portion sizes and other eating paraphernalia like salt, pepper, spices, sauces, and even cutlery. Every point of information has an accompanying illustration that depicts the hand-gesture for the same in sign language.

Diners are required to simply mimic these hand-gestures to place their orders. What’s more, a placard announcing the name of the dish accompanies every dish brought to the table. This unique 80-seater bar and grill restaurant was started by Prashant Issar and Anuj Shah. Alums of the Henley School of Business (UK), these MBA graduates were driven by the values taught at their alma mater: “One of the core values we learnt at our B-School was that while generating individual wealth is important, it is far more important for every business to generate wealth for the society as well. That was something that stayed with us,” Issar says.

“Both of us were thinking of starting a business. I have been in the restaurant business for 22 years now and Anuj also has experience in the same field. So, we thought we will open a restaurant because that is what we are good at,” said Issar.

That is when the duo heard of Signs, a Toronto-based restaurant that functions on a similar concept. And just like that, a restaurant like Mirchi and Mime became a distinct possibility.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing though. “We decided to test it out since we were a bit sceptical of it working in India. You see, India is very different from the West, the societal gap between the diners and the servers is a lot wider in India. So we were wondering whether it will work out well.”

They started by meeting the boys and girls who would go on to become the most popular fleet of servers in the restaurant business. Their first hurdle was communicating with the SHIs. Initially, Issar and Shah would communicate with the parents of the SHIs, who would then sign to their children. The replies of their children then had to be translated for Issar and Shah. “It was getting a bit too much so we decided to learn the sign language ourselves. Once we started communicating with them directly, it helped us understand their mindset much better,” Issar recalls. The hearing and speech impaired boys and girls were more than enthusiastic to be a part of this initiative. They saw an opportunity to prove that they were just as capable as others. Convincing the parents however, was a different story!

“Being a parent of a different child makes you much more protective. It took a lot of convincing to get the parents to send their kids out into the world,” Issar added.

Once everyone was on board, the ball was set rolling. Mirchi and Mime became a reality in March 2015.

In the short span of one year, the eating joint has already carved a niche for itself, pushing the owners to explore the idea of more outlets. This is no easy feat in a business where new restaurants open and close in the blink of an eye. What is their secret?

“The key attributes to succeed in the service industry are focus, intuitiveness and friendliness. Our servers have all of this. In my 22 years of experience in the restaurant business, my main struggle has been to get the servers to smile. Here, that is an attribute already present in these boys and girls,” Issar says. “We also remind ourselves constantly that it is not a social enterprise, it is a business. If it does not make money, it will be a flash in the pan and will shut down and people will forget about it. It is not about sympathy or empathy. We define our restaurant as a stylish, global, cutting-edge dining space, which happens to be served by SHI people,” he says.

According to him, when a customer complains about something he actually feels happy since that means that people are treating their restaurant as just another restaurant, and not as a charity that demands pity. "Dining at Mirchi and Mime is an experience in itself and not only for the fact that you need to use sign language to order your food. Going by the rave reviews it is getting (it has a whopping 4.8 rating on Zomato!), the food is well worth your time and doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket.

"There are some restaurants that serve great food, there are others that have a beautiful ambience and setup, while yet others are known for their innovative ideas in food, service and design. Never before have we seen all these together under one roof, and that too in a restaurant that has its heart in the right place!" – says one of the reviews of the restaurant.

[caption id="attachment_51085" align="aligncenter" width="5780"]

The owners - Prashant Issar and Anuj Shah[/caption] It is clear that Issar and Shah - who want to open 21 more restaurants with SHI employees - are doing something right. “In our company, we employ people for their abilities and not their disabilities,” says a proud Issar. Check out their website to know more. Call: +91 (0)22 41415151 Email: interact@mirchiandmime.com Their address, if you want to visit them: Trans Ocean House Lake Boulevard Hiranandani Business Park, Powai Mumbai - 400076

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About the author: Sonam Gulati is a freelance content writer keen to explore uncharted territories. She comes from a mass communication background and dons various hats of a reviewer, writer, editor, blogger and more.

The Government has recently launched the Inclusiveness and Accessibility Index to benchmark and evaluate readiness of various stakeholders for making the workplace accessible for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).

Government of India recently launched the ‘Inclusiveness and Accessibility Index’ as a part of the ‘Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan’. The Index was prepared in collaboration with The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). The ‘Inclusiveness and Accessibility Index’ helps the industries and corporates to participate in the Accessible India Campaign (AIC) by voluntarily evaluating their readiness for making the workplace accessible for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs)

Inclusiveness and Accessibility Index

Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan is a nationwide campaign for achieving universal accessibility for PwDs and to create an enabling and barrier free environment.

Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan Accessible India Campaign

The campaign focuses on three verticals: Built Environment; Public Transportation and Information & Communication Technologies.

The index will measure inclusiveness and accessibility of PwDs across different kinds of organisations. The composite index is split into two independent sub-indices that separately measure inclusiveness, and accessibility (I&A). A toolkit has been developed that helps in measuring these indices. The government has made it clear that these indices are not a substitute for the legal obligations that exist under national or international regulatory regimes. The indices are aimed at assessing the current stage of inclusiveness and accessibility of PwDs.

Inclusiveness Sub-Index

This has three major components namely

Inclusive Policies & Organizational Culture
Inclusive Employment
Awareness & Adoptions

There are sub components for each of the component. Each of the sub components is rated on a scale of 0 to 4. The ratings mean the following 0-1: Needs Significant Improvement Up to 2: Average Up to 3: Good Up to 4: Excellent

Accessibility Sub –Index

This also has three components namely

Accessibility Related Practices
Infrastructural Accessibility
Products & Services

Proposed Methodology

The methodology for determining the position of an organisation on the inclusiveness and accessibility index is as follows,

Each of the sub-indices Inclusiveness and Accessibility has equal weightage in the composite index.
Both Inclusiveness and Accessibility sub-indices have 3 components each.
Each of these three components has equal weightage in the related index.
The Inclusiveness and Accessibility sub-indices, are computed by calculating the average of the subcomponent rating scores.
Each sub-component has various indicators which carry specific rating points. The rating for these indicators at a particular rating scale (1 to 4) add up to 1.

Rating each component and their sub-component is based on three dimensions:

Availability of an approach or a policy or an SOP
The degree of implementation
The outcomes or results

The toolkit has a detailed questionnaire that will help with arriving at these ratings.

The government feels that the recognition of the Index by the Corporate Sector and public sector organisations will benefit them immensely by

Being the benchmark
Take Progressive steps to increase support
Fully utilise diverse talent pool
Reduce employee turnover, increase employee loyalty and increase morale and productivity of other employees in the organisation
Create a positive brand image
Expand customer base through new products and services
Enhance shareholder value
Above all, the Inclusiveness and Accessibility Index shall promote human dignity and social cohesion where all citizens have equal access to opportunities to fully realise their potential

What about Government Infrastructure?

The government has fixed the following targets under this campaign with respect to its buildings, transport agencies and websites.

25 to 50 of the most important government buildings will be converted into fully accessible buildings by July 2016 in 50 cities of the country.
Accessibility audit of all the international airports and converting them into fully accessible international airports by July 2016 and that of all the domestic airports and converting them into fully accessible airports by March 2018.
All A1, A & B categories of railway stations in the country will be converted into fully accessible railway stations by July 2016 and 50% of railway stations in the country will be converted into fully accessible railway stations by March 2018.
10% of Government owned public transport carriers in the country will be converted into fully accessible carriers March 2018.
The accessibility audit of 50% of all government (both Central and State Governments) websites and converting them into fully accessible websites will be done by March 2017
Training and development of 200 additional sign language interpreters will be done by March 2018.

The government has also enrolled 18 access auditors to lead the access audits across the country. These auditors will audit 1124 public buildings in 32 different cities.

Featured Image: designtoimprovelife.dk

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Marginalised communities in Tamil Nadu are getting the chance to build a better life for themselves, thanks to the NGO, Manithan, and its commitment to ensure empowerment through education. "It was the Parent-Teacher Association who approached the school headmaster on my behalf and requested that I be made a teacher at the school. I have just completed by Class 11. No one gets to become a teacher just like that, especially at a government school! But it all started when I began working at Manitham’s Child Resource Centre (CRC), a little less than three years ago," said Maheshwari, a mentor with Manitham. Manitham is a non-profit located on the outskirts of Madurai in Tamil Nadu. The organisation is working to make education more accessible to students in a community where one’s caste still governs the seemingly archaic rules of purity and pollution. It is 2016 and yet, there are many pockets of India, such as the ones in Manamadurai (which is where Manitham runs its projects in 15 villages of the Sivagangai district), where children are still first generation learners! What's more, the fight for the right to education has not gotten any easier. From ‘stories’ of Sumangali Thittam (where Sumangali means 'married girl' and Thittam means 'scheme') - a form of child labour and soft trafficking where young girls are sent to cotton mills as labourers for a contract period of three to five years in return for which she - or rather her family - is promised a lump sum amount that goes towards her dowry; to stories of caste segregation within village communities for access to basic utilities such as water... these are the everyday realities of a significant number of people who are considered inferior, simply because of their caste.

In spite of it all, the situation isn’t as bleak or grave as it apprears, thanks to the other ‘stories’ that are making the rounds - stories of invincibility and resoluteness, like those of Manitham's mentors.

[caption id="attachment_62580" align="alignnone" width="5120"] Mentors at Manitham's Child Resource Centres

Manitham Mentors - Maheshwari and Sharath Kumar[/caption] In order to realise its focus on improving learning outcomes of students by providing them with individual attention, Manitham runs an after-school support project – also known as the Child Resource Centre – for students from the most vulnerable sections of our society. Mentors are the village level youth who are entrusted with the responsibility of operationalising the CRC from an end-to-end perspective.

Meet Maheshwari

Maheshwari is one such mentor at the Periyakottai village where Manitham works. Talking about her journey over the last three years, she said:

“I could not study beyond Class 11 due to the socio-economic condition of our family. I am not qualified neither do I have any experience of working, let alone teaching. My sister would tutor children at home and, after she got married, I briefly took over, but gave it up when I got married soon after. But the PTA had observed that with me as a mentor at the CRC in this village, not just the grades but even the behaviour of the students had begun to change for the better. So the PTA did not relent until the headmaster complied and obtained special permission to allow me to teach at the government-run school. I am also the mother of a three-year-old and being away through out the day took me away from my child, so I have reduced the number of hours I teach at the school.”

Today, Maheshwari is a class teacher to students of Class 3 and is going to attempt the Class 12 exams in the following academic year. She is realistic in that she does not know what the future holds but not too long ago, she realised that she could begin to right a few things for herself, her family and her community and she has not looked back since!

And meet Sharath Kumar

Sharath Kumar, also a CRC mentor, belongs to the nomadic tribe of street circus performers who have been living a settled life for the past fifty years in Manamadurai. Although the community is no longer nomadic, many of them still perform. Children often accompany their parents to beg for food and money at the end of the show; this takes them away from attending regular school. The community is forced to resort to this since they do not have an alternative means to livelihood and are yet to be completely integrated with the ‘mainstream’ owing to the difference in their way of living, appearance and language (which, owing to their nomadic ways in the past, is a mix of Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil and Oriya.) As a consequence, education is as alien to these children as walking the tightrope would be for anyone who does not belong to this community. Sharath Kumar began his journey with Manitham when he joined the CRC as a student while in Class 9. After completing Class 12, he was keen on further pursing his education and, with guidance from Manitham, he is currently a student of Electronics at a nearby government-run Industrial Training Institute (ITI). But his ‘story’ does not end here. Sharath is also a mentor for the CRC of his village. As the second person in his 139-family village to have continued education beyond Class 12, he is also a role model to his students. Today, he does not perform at any of the street-circus events that members of his community may perform at.

And this shift is immense, not just at the level of an individual, but also for the entire community as a whole as they collaboratively pave the way into the future for themselves and, most importantly, for their children.

[caption id="attachment_62581" align="aligncenter" width="4608"]

Students at one of Manitham's Child Resource Centres in the Sivagangai district of Tamil Nadu[/caption] Manitham has 15 such inspiring youth leaders, each with a story that humbles you a little more. This post was written in collaboration with Travel Ticker. Elita is a freelancer and tweets @NomadicThunker

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A young girl's story of her best friend demonstrates that, once we look past physical or intellectual disabilities, we're not that different after all. I vividly remember the day we got transferred to Visakhapatnam. Upon reaching there, the gentle breeze, the setting sun and the greenery mesmerised me. I wandered into the garden of our bungalow when suddenly, I heard squeals of animated laughter. Turning around, I found my first friend amidst the unfamiliar surroundings. There she was, waving to me from the garden next door: Atreyee. I was eager to make friends, so I jumped in glee and wasted no time in running towards her. She was sitting on a chair with her mother by her side.

The awkward way in which she waved to me bewildered me a little, but I was too happy at having found a friend to pay much attention.

[caption id="attachment_66815" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Best friends see past disability

Two friends[/caption]

Source: Amrit Foundation of India

The next day, I went to play with her after school. I had not seen Atreyee in my new school so I asked aunty and came to know that she went to some other school. I went inside her room, eager to play ludo with her. She was happy to see me too. During the game, I noticed that she was having difficulty in shaking the dice and her words were sometimes slurred. Later, when aunty made us a snack, Atreyee took her hand and aunty had to support her to walk to the table and sit on a chair. I wondered why aunty had to help her to walk and sit… Days went by and finally, I decided to ask my mother about Atreyee’s unusual behaviour. It was then that I came to know something which was a big blow to me at that tender age: my mother told me that Atreyee has Cerebral Palsy. Cerebral Palsy is a neurological disorder caused by a non-progressive brain injury or malformation that occurs either when a child’s brain is under development or during birth. It affects body movement, muscle control and coordination, muscle tone, reflex, posture and balance. It also affects fine motor skills, gross motor skills and oral motor functioning. The extent of physical impairment varies from person to person. Simple tasks such as walking, sitting or tying a shoe lace may be difficult. The disorder is sometimes also includes vision or hearing impairment. It is incurable as brain damage cannot be fixed. There are three main types of Cerebral Palsy:

Spastic: muscles appear weak and stiff; this is also the most common form of Cerebral Palsy
Athetoid / Dyskinetic: this type is characterized by involuntary movements
Ataxic: this type is characterized by shaky movements, affecting the sense of positioning in space and making it hard to balance or coordinate movement.

Atreyee had Ataxic Cerebral Palsy. It made me want to be a friend to her more than ever. Of course, at the time, I was too young to fully understand this definition. However, what I did realise back then was that the things I took for granted – being able to run, jump and roll around in the grass – were more difficult, if not impossible, for Atreyee to do. My parents advised me to behave normally with her; to not show pity but treat her at par with others. That would boost her courage and empower her in the days to come. I had endless questions for them and to each, I had an answer to the extent of my parents’ knowledge of Cerebral Palsy.

Grasping whatever I could, I wanted to help Atreyee in my own way.

[caption id="attachment_66824" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Differently abled girls playing together

Young girls playing together[/caption]

Source: Amrit Foundation of India

Now, I fully understand the vulnerability of those dealing with Cerebral Palsy. There is no cure and treatment is a lifelong process focused on the management of associated conditions. The earlier treatment is started, the more successful it will turn out to be. The various therapies in this regard include speech therapy, water therapy, massage therapy and occupational therapy. Communication aids, home programmes and, at times, surgery help a lot. All these should basically entail fitness and goal directed training. Medication includes mainly anticonvulsants.

The therapy and medication jointly aim to improve the physical, mental and psychological well-being of the individual.

[caption id="attachment_66825" align="aligncenter" width="500"] Physiotherapist helps a differently abled boy

A physiotherapist helps a young boy with mobility problems[/caption]

Source: Amrit Foundation of India

Once I learnt that Atreyee had Cerebral Palsy, I started to notice how often she went to various doctors, and how often therapists visited her home to put her through rigorous training programs. Whilst I played outside in the garden, carefree, I marveled at her patience and the tenacity she showed when developing her skills, mastering the tremor that shook her arms and legs. Sometimes I did get annoyed when I suggested a game of hide and seek and Atreyee couldn’t join because her mother wasn’t around to help her move; or when she slurred her words so much that I couldn’t understand what she was saying. But that did not prevent Atreyee from being the best friend one could hope for: her laughter was so innocent and infectious that it removed all sadness instantly. She told jokes so well that I would roll around on the floor laughing, and she came up with the best new games. Atreyee was not only my first friend in Visakhapatnam, but also my best. To help children like Atreyee get the help they need to overcome their challenges and fulfill their potential, please support Amrit Foundation of India with a small donation

About the author: Godhuli volunteers at the Amrit Foundation of India and is a graduate in B.Com. (Hons.) with specialisation in Accountancy and Finance from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata; currently pursuing MBA (Rural Management) from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar. She and her team were recently declared as the winners of the Runway Social Business Plan Competition hosted as a part of Impact Conclave 2016. She has a keen interest in the use of analytics and big data as a tool for understanding the feedback loops between insights from data-driven analyses and the policy-making process across the world.

Featured image for representation only. Source: Amrit Foundation of India

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“I make the most of whatever I have,” that’s what Vikram Agnihotri, the man who has no arms yet drives with his legs, says! Vikram has lived by this philosophy since the age of seven when he lost both his arms to an electrical accident. Through the years, he taught himself to do a host of things with the two limbs that he has. He writes, shaves and uses his laptop with his foot. He is an avid swimmer, a passionate footballer, and a serial entrepreneur too. It was just last year that he decided to learn driving. And he confidently sat behind the wheel of an automatic gear shift car and taught himself how to drive!

Now, at the age of 46, Vikram has created history by becoming the first Indian who drives with his legs to get a valid driving licence.

It was not easy for him to get the driving licence. The authorities were foxed as to how they could grant a licence to someone who uses his right foot to steer the vehicle and the left to switch between the brake and the accelerator. They gave Vikram a learner’s licence but were hesitant to give him a permanent one. But Vikram made sure the authorities had no reason to reject his application. As required by law, Vikram had his car modified to suit his physical requirements. He now drives an automatic car that has no clutch pedal. Since Vikram uses his left foot to operate the brake and accelerator pedals, the distance between the two was slightly inconvenient for him. He had to stretch and reach the accelerator with his left leg. But he got this solved by getting a parallel accelerator made in the place where a clutch normally is. This made the pedal operation easier for him and took care of the technical aspect of the vehicle. Now the authorities had almost no reason to doubt Vikram’s driving skills. He drives like a professional, so much so that he plans to train himself to race. But there are no clear provisions in the existing law to grant a licence to someone who drives with his legs. It took a year of relentless pursuit, including approaching ministers, for Vikram to finally get his driving licence.

Driving has been one of the most liberating experiences ever, says Vikram.

He has driven over 14,500 kilometres in the last 15 months. His driving posture might look awkward to others but Vikram says he is completely at ease. He was initially conscious of people staring at how his leg was placed on the steering. But, he says, “Now people do not even notice that I’m driving with my leg. And I completely enjoy driving. I sometimes tell myself, ‘How can you drive so well?’” Vikram has a great zest for life and he is committed to passing on this spirit to other divyang people as well, he says. He started an NGO called WIL (Winners in Life) to support and guide physically disabled individuals in exploring their potential.

“I want the physically challenged to know that there are tons of things they can do,” says Vikram.

To raise funds for this cause, Vikram is planning to drive on the tough roads of Ladakh next June. He’ll probably create history again by becoming the first man to drive with his legs on the highest motorable road in the world over Khardung La. As he prepares for this ride, he is also pursuing his Bachelor’s degree in law. Yes, he is indeed making the most of his life! Vikram lives with his parents in Indore. You can write to him at vikram.agnihotri@gmail.com

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Last week the Supreme Court directed the Centre to fulfill promises under the ‘Accessible India’ campaign. This campaign – launched a year ago – seeks to make half the buildings in each state capital accessible to persons with disabilities. Meanwhile, the chief legislation for persons with disabilities is being tabled in Parliament, which holds great potential to reshape our surroundings and systems. On December 3^rd 2016, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, India has special reasons to celebrate. A stronger new law for persons with disabilities – which increases reservation, recognises more disabilities, and puts forth better grievance redressal mechanisms – is being tabled in Parliament. On November 24, 2016, the Supreme Court reprimanded the centre for not doing enough to meet the aspirations articulated in the Accessible India campaign. As a result of the Apex Court’s observations, as well as a new law in the making, we can hope that the Accessible India campaign will take momentum, and bring about much needed inclusion of the millions of persons with disabilities. With a law that has greater teeth and a judiciary that has shown itself to be a watchdog for disability rights, we hope to soon see much awaited changes on the ground, and greater accountability of all stakeholders, especially the State.

Autosave-File vom d-lab2/3 der AgfaPhoto GmbH

Accessible India Campaign

The Accessible India campaign, otherwise known as the Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan, is an ambitious project that was launched in December 2015 to enable persons with disabilities to gain universal access, equal opportunity for development, independent living, and participation in all aspects of life. The campaign seeks to enhance accessibility by making significant changes to the infrastructure, transportation, information and communication systems. Its most prominent goal is to make at least 50 % of all government buildings in the national capital and all state capitals “fully accessible” by July 2018. With respect to transportation, the campaign has a target to make all the International airports and railway stations of A1, A, and B categories fully accessible by July 2016, and by March 2018, at least 10 % of all government-owned public transport carriers are to be converted into fully accessible carriers. An audit of 1,099 buildings across 31 cities – India’s first accessibility audit – was conducted in buildings and public places under this campaign. The audit revealed the deplorable state of facilities for the differently-abled in public buildings, hospitals, railway stations, and educational institutions. It found that not a single building was disabled-friendly; almost 95% of the buildings did not have a toilet for the disabled – even of those that did, the majority were reported to be in an abysmal state.

Supreme Court Direction

While hearing a petition filed by Rajive Raturi, which sought the implementation of the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995, in providing facilities at public spaces, the Supreme Court gave some refreshing insights. It took notice of the fact that the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, though responsible for the implementation of this campaign, has hardly done anything towards creating an accessible environment. Chief Justice T.S. Thakur noted that apart from the campaign, no steps were being taken towards the implementation of the disability law, with the Central Coordination Committee not having met for the last four years. Furthermore, the Court did not mince any words in stating its disapproval of this execution by the government. The Court also demanded a list of the 50 buildings in which the Government had claimed to have completed work, as well as submission of the targets set for the years 2017 and 2018 in all the capitals. The Court also directed the Centre to hold meetings on a regional level for a review of the existing schemes, and adjourned the case to December 14.

Role of the Judiciary

The highest court has unequivocally recognised the need for a barrier-free environment. It has therefore played a zealous role in ensuring protection and right to access for the differently-abled. Through its direction, the Apex Court demonstrates a commitment to recognising the rights of a minority. This goes beyond its traditional role of settling disputes and interpreting the law. Sometimes the judiciary needs to push the other two branches of the Government out of their inertia. So, there is a clause – progressive realisation – in the CRPD, under which States cannot use the excuse of lacking resources for eternity. Instead States need to make plans and set timelines to meet treaty obligations.

The Social Model and Rights-Based Approach

Many decades ago, we pitied persons with disabilities and reduced them to subjects of charity. This mindset is now rapidly changing, as reflected by new laws and judicial pronouncements. The social model approach to disability holds that disability is not an individual tragedy, but a social construct. It recognizes that society creates infrastructure and systems that debilitate those who do not fit the able-bodied norm. Failed limbs are not unnatural. But a flight of stairs may be.

Thus, we move away from the charity model, which aroused sympathy, to the human rights model, which demands changes. The first international convention for persons with disabilities – the UNCRPD – showcases a rights-based approach. India has been one of the first countries to sign the treaty. Article 9 of the UNCRPD has wide provisions on accessibility. These extend to the physical environment, transportation, information, and communication, including communication technologies and services open to the public. Disability is socially constructed. We design and construct buildings with the able-bodied in mind. Yet, we often do not foresee that we may lose our limbs’ functionality, a likely outcome of old age. We may not always have the ability to climb the stairs we so ambitiously build. The new law and the Supreme Court’s observations will usher in a fresh era for disability rights. Changed mindsets will stop looking at people with disabilities as unproductive and as being a burden on others. With the right ecosystem, all can surpass perceived limitations. The Apex Court’s interventions have been welcome in shaping a human-rights discourse to address disability. This article is written by Vinoothna Vinjam, Smriti, and Vidushi Kothari from the IDIA Research and Policy Programme. For more information on how to contribute to making education and law accessible to all, visit the IDIA support page.

Featured Image Source: Pixabay

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Through a strongly worded post on Facebook, Mir Afsar Ali (RJ Mir) has taken on trolls who attacked him on social media for celebrating Christmas. Mir, who is a popular comedian and an RJ based out of Kolkata, had earlier posted a picture of his family's Christmas celebrations on his Facebook page. The pictures drew ire from some of his followers who derided him for being Muslim and celebrating a festival based on Christian faith. Not one to take it lying down, Mir hit back with a message about inclusivity.

He wrote, "I spent 15 years of my life at a Christian missionary school: The Assembly of God Church. I went to a masjid on Ripon Street and learnt the Holy Quran and several other Islamic books for three years. And I married a Hindu Brahmin who was NOT forced to convert to Islam..." (sic).

Photo source: Facebook

He also published screenshots of some of the troubling messages he had received over the course of the day and said that this was indicative of a "troubling" trend he has seen worldwide. Thankfully there were many who agreed with Mir because his message has gone viral and has been shared over 1,100 times. People commenting are commending him for speaking up and taking a standing against bigotry.

While defiant in the beginning, Mir ends his post on a hopeful and forgiving note. Borrowing a verse from the Bible itself, he writes, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

Had a great Christmas this year... well almost.. Posted a pic of my family on my official page this morning wishing... Posted by Mir Afsar Ali on Sunday, December 25, 2016

Read the full post here: Had a great Christmas this year... well almost.. Posted a pic of my family on my official page this morning wishing everyone on this very special day... Over 28k likes, 400+ comments and close to 200 shares in a matter of 12 hours (at the time of posting this one).. But that's NOT what this post is about..

😊 It is about a few morons who started giving me advice on why a MUSLIM should not be 'celebrating'/'wishing' on Christmas... I was advised by one to seek forgiveness from the almighty Allah.. I was told by another that this certainly was very unsuitable for a person who's religion is Islam.. (screenshots attached of 3 such imbeciles; there are many more that I had to delete/block for obvious reasons) NO... I am NOT angry. I am not even retaliating. I am just thoroughly amused at the state of affairs all around. I sadly realise where we stand today.. I realise that tomorrow if I wish to donate something to The Missionaries of Charity or Ramkrishna Mission, I will most certainly be criticised by some fellow Muslims... "Arrreee... Tauba! Tauba! Aap kisi Yateemkhaane (orphanage) yaa madrasah ko paise de sakte the!!!" (let me not get into an explanation on this as I don't want to disclose anything on my philanthropic commitments) I also do realise that tomorrow if I wish to donate something to a Muslim organisation (which should be the norm, according to several fellow Muslims), I would be criticised yet again by several 'others': "Arrreee.. He's a Muslim; obviously he would only patronise his own caste.. what else could one expect of him??!" Friends.. it is a strange world indeed and we are living in stranger times.. and maybe the people who have commented are from a neighbour country, but believe me... Believe me.. there are truly no boundaries/borders for religious fanatics... this is a worrying trend all over the world.. And trust me, it was always there.. the minds were always this narrow... it's just that today, you get to read/speak about it more often than you breathe air and drink water! I spent 15 years of my life at a Christian missionary school: The Assembly of God Church.. I went to a masjid on Ripon Street and learnt the Holy Quran and several other Islamic books for 3 years.. And I married a Hindu Brahmin who was NOT forced to convert to Islam... All I can say at the end of this post for these scumbags is ironically in the words of Lord Jesus Christ... "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Book of Luke; Chapter 23, Verse 34) Wishful thought of the season: Yeh Christmas jitni 'Merry' hai, utni hi hai 'Teri'.. Par Afsos, tu samjhegaa nahin...

🙏

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