Yesterday in Kullu, we met Shalini who runs the Kullu chapter of the National Association for the Blind. It was a holiday for her, but she still came to her office to meet us. The office is just adjacent to the main bus stand. We spoke of how we could collaborate especially for vocational training of the differently abled. 

Shalini shared the work they do and how many parents just get the disabled or blind child to the school and don’t even want them back home for the holidays :(. As part of our discussion she shared about a blind boy who got admission into B.Ed and had to pay approximately ₹20,000/- as the intial deposit. His younger brother in the meanwhile wanted to go to Mumbai to pursue some other course. When Shalini checked back with this blind child, he told her that his parents paid the money for his brother to go to Mumbai so he wasn’t able to join the B.Ed course. Krishnan and I were very upset and told Shalini that we are happy to support this boy and others like him. Apparently girl children that are blind or disabled are just not encouraged to study further. 

While there is a move to put disabled and differently abled children into regular schools, in Himachal, Shalini and others like her have worked actively for different schools because the terrain in Himachal doesn’t allow easy access to a differently abled student.  

Policies and pity won’t help these students … We need people with a heart and corporates that begin to actively hire the differently abled. We talk of diversity and inclusion but our actions are non-inclusive. Everyone has to make an effort, the disabled and differently abled won’t get anything as an entitlement, but equally, corporates and society need to make the effort to be inclusive.    

Shashaank and Rashi – hats off to you guys and the team at V-Shesh for the work you do in this space and we see how difficult it is to get “in”. Hats off to Enable India, APD, Arushi Bhopal too – you guys are heroes.     

The rest of us need to ask who is really the blind here ?