Each time I pass through the security check points at the airports, I am treated like a criminal by CISF, the security staff, just because I use a prosthetic limb (artificial leg) for my mobility.
Having not received any training on the screening of persons with prosthetics, the security staff is generally clueless on how to handle my screening. I am asked and many times, even forced, to strip and to remove my prosthetic because they suspect that I might be hiding a gun or a knife in my prosthetic. The security staff then picks up my prosthetic and puts it on the x-ray machine as if it is a piece of luggage, while I am left immobile and in a state of agony praying that I receive my prosthetic undamaged. I have to then go through the process of putting on my prosthetic, which by then does not have enough suction to stay in place thereby putting my mobility and safety in jeopardy.
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Let me tell you that the suction of a prosthetic does not allow even the air to pass through it. Then how can I hide a weapon in my prosthetic? Imagine being harassed this way since October 2012, each time I have undertaken air travel! How would I feel? Even several women amputees, including Sudha Chandran, have been harassed in this manner. On October 8, 2013, while I was leaving with my family for a vacation to Thailand from Delhi’s IGI airport, the metal detector beeped owing to my prosthetic. I showed them my disability certificate. Yet the security staff seemed confused. After turning down my request for pat-down or ETD frisking, they forced me to strip in front of their entire staff and a CISF officer asked me repeatedly if I got married before or after my amputation. I want to make it clear that CISF is not to be blamed. It is a puppet in the hands of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security India (BCAS), the organization that has laid down such humiliating screening procedures for PwDs. The dictate of BCAS to CISF to regard PwDs, including amputees who use prosthetics, a bigger security risk; to ask them to strip and remove their prosthetic and, to make wheelchair users stand up - as they all may be carriers of explosives and weapons - is a violation of their human rights. I have been informed by several PwDs that they do not undertake air travel for the fear of being humiliated. It has been my goal since my first harrowing experience with frisking in 2012, to be the voice of millions of PwDs in India. I would never like them to go through similar trauma with airport security. For that reason I launched my petition against BCAS on change.org and even my campaign’s Rajesh Speaks’s Facebook in 2013. I have not received any response from BCAS from the signatures on my petition. I have also written several letters to former PM Manmohan Singh, PM Narendra Modi, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), CISF, CCPD (Office of the Chief Commissioner of PwDs) and others. Yet I got no response from them and in exceptional cases when I did hear back from them, including to my RTI and my letter to PM Narendra Modi, their offices ignored my concerns and simply passed on the buck to another organization. I have travelled worldwide including to Europe, Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, Romania, Belgium, United States and Russia. The airport security at each one of these places treats me respectfully and simply frisks me with a pat-down process. The entire screening procedures for PwDs and the insensitivity of BCAS and CISF need a humane face. They need to be sensitised. Isn’t that more important than building fancier airports?
I am not asking that the national security & the security of fliers be compromised. I am asking BCAS to:
1) Lay down clear guidelines in its Standard Operating Procedure, SOP, for the security screening of PwDs;
2) Sensitize and train CISF in the respectful screening of PwDs;
3) Install full body scanners at Indian airports of the kind that are used at the airports in United States;
4) Enforce zero-tolerance policy for any discrimination of PwDs.
Raja Srivastava, Additional Director General BCAS, had given his word to me at a CISF training workshop on March 30, 2014, at which I was invited to present my thoughts on the frisking of people who use prosthetic, that he would be open to incorporating my suggestions in the SOP for screening of PwDs. However, even he has backed out of his word to me.
In May 2014, my sister Smiti Bhatia and I had conducted extensive research on the international security norms for PwDs and had written a manual under the guidance of disability advocates, on the “Screening Guidelines to be Followed by CISF for PwDs at Indian Airports.” The manual abides by the world class screening procedures, and by the language of Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). It was also laid out by our teammate in a PPT with visuals. I had handed over the manual to Mr. Ajay Kumar and Mr. O.P. Singh, senior CISF officers, in June, 2014. They had approved the manual. However, BCAS has not included it in its SOP.
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In May 2016, Supreme court had passed a judgement in Jeeja Ghosh’s case against her discrimination by Spice Jet that “there should be a full recognition of the fact that persons with disability were integral part of the community, equal in dignity and entitled to enjoy the same human rights and freedoms as others.” Jeeja Ghosh has Cerebral Palsy. She was de-boarded by the flight crew because of her disability. By violating the human rights of PwDs, BCAS is in violation of the Supreme Court’s judgement. It is a shame that such repeated assaults on the most vulnerable citizens of India are allowed in a democracy. Following the ruling, Supreme Court had directed Director General of Civil Aviation to consult with civil society to ensure that air travel was non- discriminatory for PwDs. On June 27, 2016, the disability advocates, including Smiti and I, had submitted our comments, including our manual to DGCA. We have not received any response from DGCA.
I am asking BCAS and MoCA that my rights and those of PwDs be restored. I am not asking for charity. I am a law-abiding, tax-paying citizen of India.
“We all wanted to pursue our dreams and set up something that reflected our vision. We wanted to motivate people to follow the path they choose and hence came up with Echoes. We worked on building a place with high level of interactivity, motivating interiors, scrumptious food and a social purpose,” says Sahib.
With a seating capacity of close to 40, the café currently employs six to seven differently abled persons who manage the guests by taking their orders and making them comfortable.
“We will soon be expanding and increasing the number many folds. The staff is indeed wonderful to work with. With procedures designed to suit them, they are fully capable of managing the guests on their own. We will soon be training them in other areas as well,” says Sahib.
"We then trained them on our procedures and now we get people through our existing staff contacts and open online sources. There are no special tie-ups with any group,” he shares.
He adds that they the staff just need to be trained in certain soft skills. “We believe that domain-specific skills can be imparted on the job. When they are hired we train them using our standard set procedures for a few days and few days of on the job training,” he says.
“Students are the building block. We wanted to start with this market so that our message reaches the right ears. However, we don't serve any specific community or age group. The place is open to all and we managed a place where all age groups can have a good time together. From families to corporate staff to students, you can see all enjoying at Echoes,” says Sahib.
However, every success story has its share of stumbling blocks. And Sahib agrees that they too faced challenges while setting up the place. Among the major ones, he points out, was the communication gap and designing the system that allows customers and staff to be able to interact efficiently.
Talking about their pleasant memories, he says, “There have been many interesting experiences like customers learning sign language from our staff. It is a pleasure to see differently abled people visiting the cafe to have a good time. Daily challenges are there but we make sure we are getting permanent solutions for such challenges.”
Twenty-three-year-old Ajay, who has been working at Echoes for a year now, is more confident than he ever was. “I love to serve the guests and interact with them. And what gives me utmost happiness is when our customers try and talk to us in our language, using signs,” he says.
After making their presence felt in the capital city, Echoes is aiming to be up and running in Bengaluru’s Koramangala area in first week of March, which will have a seating capacity of 70.
You can get more information about the cafe from their Facebook page 
For some this will mean treating their children the same; for others, it will mean treating their child in a different way. However, it is in the actual working out of how it should be the same and how it needs to be different that parents need to make the “difficult day-to-day decisions.” These decisions are an outcome of their own parenting experiences with their child, and need not be the same as anyone else’s. The NDCS study further indicates that “there is an authority with which parents can speak about their child which nobody else can, and this is a source of inspiration and hope” and of strength.
Each child is has individual strengths and needs, and individual coping and adjustment skills. It is hardly likely that every child will respond to the same intervention strategies. This is seen often as a “failure” in the child. It also adds to the parents’ “pre-existing sense of inadequacy”, especially the mother, who is the person who spends the most time with the child. She feels she is not doing what is expected of her as a mother.
Fortunately, a section of parents in India have begun to realise this, and are now making discernible efforts to identify their child’s needs and the best ways of meeting those needs.
Kingsley David (left) with his colleague Sanu Chukkri[/caption]
Sign TV is aimed at educating the hearing impaired in the Indian sign language and keeping them informed on the latest developments in news, healthcare, education and more. The channel also features health segments with information about different diseases and their prevention.
An employee at an IT park, “Techno Park,” in Kerala, he has also started the initiative “Talking Hands: Creating Conversation,” wherein he conducts sign language classes for the able-bodied employees. Techno Park has over 45 hearing-impaired employees, and thanks to the efforts of Kingsley and his hearing-impaired colleague Sanu Chukkri, over 100 able-bodied employees have completed the first level course in sign language.
Kingsley, who was raised by his hearing-impaired aunt, had seen the issues she faced on a day-to-day basis very closely. Later, when he graduated and started working, Sanu joined his company. The two became friends and Kingsley realised that there was so much that could be done for the hearing-impaired community.
Team Talking Hands[/caption]
As much as it was necessary to make the able-bodied aware of the challenges faced by the hearing impaired, it was also important to create awareness and opportunities among, and for, the hearing impaired.
But, from a parliamentary question answered in Lok Sabha in November, 2016, we find a great fluctuation in actual expenditure as a percentage of budgetary allocation for this Department, which shows that a higher allocation isn’t necessarily translating into increased welfare.
Budgetary AllocationActual ExpenditureActual expenditure as a % of budgetary allocation
In effect, with just a 44 % increase in funds allocated to different scholarships and fellowships, the government hopes to increase the number of beneficiaries by almost 2,900 %. This, while keeping in mind the backlog of payments as admitted by the government in an answer given in Lok Sabha, as per which the actual expenditure on scholarships in 2016-17, as shown in the table above, is actually scholarships given for the year 2015-16, the increase in allocation made by the government is grossly inadequate to meet the ridiculously high targets.
The government needs to seriously review and reinvigorate its efforts towards education support for differently-abled students because, as this image explains, considerable work needs to be done for education to be made fully accessible.
Kalpesh is a diamond trader and his disability never came in the way of achieving his dreams.[/caption]
Kalpesh's family has been his biggest support.[/caption]
The company has just two employees since diamond trading doesn’t require much staff, says Kalpesh.
Kalpesh and his wife Deepali.[/caption]
They have two sons who are currently in school.
The competition was organized in Mumbai and Kalpesh received much appreciation for his efforts.[/caption]
He is also a regular performer at garba events in Gujarat.
Asked what keeps him so motivated and positive, he says: “All one needs is dedication and strong willpower because people will bring you down. They will demotivate you. They will sympathize with you but talk behind your back. But you have to stay strong and keep moving.”
She started speaking with parents of other children with Down Syndrome. Soon, she put Devdutta in a school for children with special needs. She worked double-time, being there for her family, dropping and picking up Devdutta from school, and giving him special attention after school as well.
She even learned speech therapy, “He had problems with speech and pronunciation. I knew he needed extra help, so I learned speech therapy myself and trained him at home.”
Slowly, Asha’s hard work and dedication started to pay off. Devdutta could soon go to school on a bus on his own, and to a large extent even take care of most of his daily needs.
As part of a CSR initiative by an MNC, Devdutta now goes to work in Pune, and is paid a decent salary. Asha smiles, “I was so happy when I knew that he was making a living for himself. It’s not enough for him to live alone and take care of himself, but it’s something!”
Asha is now 70, and all her daughters are married and lead happy lives. As for Devdutta, Asha says, “He’s 43 years old now, and I live with him. He makes me proud every day.”
YourDOST celebrates the indomitable spirit of the #WomenOf2017. Read more amazing stories of courageous women 
Image for representation. Photo source: 
Patrick Rajkumar
A student of Pearl Academy Delhi, Parul’s inclination towards working for the visually disabled led her to develop 6 DOTS, a clothing line that keeps the specific needs of those in mind who cannot experience clothing by sight. Combining tactile qualities with specific cuts and tailoring, she has put together design that are both sensible and wearable.
Image source: 
Image source: 
Sargaalaya is a unique tourist destination, a soothing experience for every visitor. 
Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India, Dept. of Tourism, Govt. of Kerala and NABARD, SZCC, Thanjavur are supporting Sargaalaya for the Sargaalaya International Arts and Crafts Festival.
It is at Sargaalaya that Arun honed his skills. He participated in the Puthukotta-style terracotta workshop, which was organized at Sargaalaya during May 2015. Arun had the opportunity to experience the making and moulding of the unique terracotta sculptures.
Through such workshops and other training programmes, Arun got the necessary exposure to different techniques of Fired Clay Sculptures, detailed training on techniques involved in making Terracotta Crafts and he got opportunities to interact with senior artists and sculptors. His sculptures of birds, animals etc., are drawn from nature and are extremely realistic. Thanks to the dedicated team of Sargaalaya, raw material for all the 60+ artisans, including Arun is arranged by Sargaalaya and marketing is also taken care of by the organization.
Arun has been provided a separate stall with all facilities and given full freedom to pursue his craft. He is now earning around Rs.20,000 per month, and is also provided housing at Sargaalaya. The artisan is grateful to Sargaalaya for the opportunity.
The ideal combination of Sargaalaya and the artisans is a win-win situation for both. Sargaalaya provides the infrastructure, raw material, stay arrangements, training inputs, marketing platform and the artisans blissfully create their craft in a serene atmosphere. For the visitor, it is an amazing experience to witness first-hand the skill of such renowned artisans. Let us hope such initiatives are replicated elsewhere.
Know more about Sargaalaya 
Ramya and Hari Hara Kumar conducting a session at DEF[/caption]
It is extremely stressful for the hearing impaired to search for and find employment. Specialised education for people with disabilities is still limited to certain pockets in India and therefore, many basic skills that other children acquire in schools at a young age, like operating computers, basic knowledge of English as well as general knowledge, hearing-impaired persons don’t get a chance to acquire.
DEF conducts free-of-cost, three-month workshops for the hearing impaired, which include basic computer skills, English language skills, general knowledge, workplace readiness and training in Indian Sign Language.
Computer training classes at DEF[/caption]
Image for representation. Photo source: 
Rajini, who got married when she was 16, had never had a chance to learn swimming until recently. It was in 2005, when a new pool opened in her locality that her dormant wish to learn swimming awoke.
Rajini teaching backstroke to Gopichand[/caption]
“It feels awesome to be able to swim. I love being in water. I am now learning backstroke and butterfly stroke,” says Gopichand.
Geetha and her son, Om
The campaign comes from the couple’s personal experience with their son Om, now seven years old, who has autism spectrum disorder. “It is a sensory processing disorder, so for instance, what is soothing flute music for me in a restaurant can cause him great distress,” says Geetha, who quit her job to take care of her son. She confesses to entering a long stage of depression, guilt and blame. “It took us almost a year, but we finally enjoy life as it is.”
Determined to expose their child to a conventional upbringing, Geetha and Rathish began to take Om on outings and weekend excursions. Friends and family members also played an important part, bringing their kids to play with Om. But there were many hiccups too. “One time, a woman walked up to me and said ‘Please mother your child better’. I was angry, because it wasn’t because I managed things badly or I was a bad mother.” Such episodes made Geetha both angry and sad, but the couple decided to face the situation with dignity.
Mary Ann George (extreme left) and other participants of the #baketosupport challenge
In just three weeks, 100 bakers — a mix of professionals, home chefs, junior bakers and cake artistes — made cakes to participate in the campaign. The bakers came from not just around India, but other countries too. Geetha help campaign participants in reaching out to special needs individuals or organisations in their vicinity.
Bakers, from Kolkata to Malaysia, participate in the #baketosupport campaign
Encouraging participants to share their cake photos with hashtags on social media pages, the campaign aims to create widespread awareness for special needs individual. “We need people to come forward and spend time with the children” says Geetha, recalling stories of how the campaign has brought smiles on the faces of many a special child.
Ghatam Suresh Vaidyanathan during a performance.[/caption]
Ghatam Suresh Vaidyanathan with his favoured instrument.[/caption]
A Ghatam Suresh Vaidyanathan performance.[/caption]
Almost two decades later, Suresh believes he made the right choice. He says, “The younger generation look to me as someone who can guide them with just one performance.” At a recent performance, he was thrilled to see a band of young musicians who admired his work and waited to meet him after the show.
He says, “All this is possible only because I was able to work more on the technical side, and now I’m being celebrated as someone who has revolutionized ghatam techniques.” He credits his success to Vinayakram and his other guru, Narayanaswamy Iyer. Both his teachers had distinct styles which influenced his playing, and have helped to mould his skills.
Today, Suresh has his own students who are influenced by his unmistakable style. He says, proudly, “Now, when people hear them playing, they can say, ‘They’re following Ghatam Suresh.’ This is what I would call my humble achievement.”
Radhika Kavathkar[/caption]
I go silent, rewording my questions in my mind. For the past 15 minutes, I have seen this woman break all the stereotypes about being a visually impaired person. She is an entrepreneur, a social leader and an independent woman. That’s her only identity that I have seen so far. Sensing my silence, she takes the conversation in her own hands.
