Samarthanam Trust-Eradicating Discrimination Against Differently Abled

In many countries around the world, a person with a disability faces multitude of stigma, discrimination, and marginalization. Unfortunately, in India, the scenario is no different- persons with disabilities comprise at least 4 to 8 percent of the Indian population and they are subjected to multiple deprivations and limited opportunities in several dimensions of their lives.

People who are differently abled do not seek sympathy rather they want their ‘disadvantages’ to be assimilated into the ‘mainstream’. or how the mainstream can be broadened to accommodate all kinds of diversity. They are often denied basic rights such as education and often forced to be excluded from all aspects of society, including with respect to education, workplace, transportation, and access to public places.

Changing the mindset of society is a mammoth task; however, Samarthanam Trust with help of Deshpande Foundation’s support has been successful to scale the rehabilitation task in the Sandbox region. By introducing Techvision to the Sandbox, they trained more than 250 visually impaired and physically challenged people and assisted them in securing job placements in human resources, chartered accountancy, teaching, social entrepreneurship, data processing and self-employment.

Through innovative approaches, many differently abled individuals have been successful in developing the confidence and skills they need to pursue careers that otherwise would have been impossible for them. It’s imperative that our country’s disability sector recognizes the need for dignity, respect, inclusion, participation, equalization of opportunities and empowerment as key issues of rehabilitation.