good afternoon everybody
it’s wonderful to be here and I would
like to thank TEDx enemies Bangalore for
choosing this topic outside out which is
I think very applicable to both my life
and to persons with disabilities
specially in India outside because we
are often outside the ecosystem and
ignored by society
governments and the world at large and
out because we need to think out of the
box to show our presence and I think
that’s really been the story of what my
life and the disability movement in
India so the team that I’m going to
speak about is disability my life and
the three years I’ve divided a talk into
two parts the first is where I’m going
to speak about myself to set the context
and the second is about the three is for
him work that I have developed to which
everything can solve a lot of problems
that persons with disabilities in India
face but more on that later I was a born
on 1st September 1987 it was 8:30 a.m.
in the morning when I mom went to a
hospital in Mumbai for cesarean surgery
she chosen first September strategically
because she knew she had to do cesarean
deliveries so and first September
happened to be Ganesha Chaturthi in that
particular year and she was a very
religious person and as all of you know
Lord Ganesha has considered the remover
of obstacles so I’m sure she went Oh
went in with a lot of hope that her
first child will remove a lot of
obstacles in her life and give her a lot
of joy and happiness but when I was born
and when I was taken out of my mother’s
womb I was bleeding my arms and legs
were fractured and doctors did not
really know what to do with me and one
doctor actually shouted Oh No and that’s
when my mom realized there’s something
wrong and she started inquiring whoa
what’s happened and doctors in order
they want to share that he knows
immediately with her because that would
be extremely traumatizing and I was
immediately taken to a baby incubator
and wrapped the blanket and as I often
say you know that the baby incubators
the only place where if you were wrapped
in a blanket and not naked there’s
something wrong with you
eventually my parents and I there was
something wrong with me and a lot of
doctors were invited to give a diagnosis
I was born with this disability called
arthrogryposis which basically means
that the muscles in my arms and legs
were not fully developed and they would
not develop throughout my lifetime
unfortunately at that time doctors were
not really sensitive on how to react
with a child to a child with a
disability there were some doctors who
were he told told my parents that
perhaps it’s worth keeping him alive
because his neck is straight but we
don’t really know what else can he do in
life there was another doctor that who
actually told my parents that they Putin
is going to live the life equivalent
okobu didn’t all and that’s why I write
here the story of a wooden doll but what
was the turning point in my life when he
was this one doctor who told my mother
that nippin is never really going to
deprive you of the joys of motherhood
and I think that ready was the turning
point in my life since then it became a
parent’s machine and like life to judge
me for what I can do and not what I
cannot do and they decided to fight
against society to give me a completely
normal life my first few years were
filled with operations injections and
various tough decisions that my parents
had to take and by the time I was around
four years old it was finally time to
send me to a normal school and there
were a wide variety of people who told
my parents that perhaps limpin should go
to a special school for the disabled and
not ready to a normal school because he
is not normal but what my parents told
everybody at that time and I think that
said that to one for the rest of my life
is that of course he’s normally just
happens to have a disability and we
don’t want to protect him by sending
into sending him to a special school
because eventually he has to face the
normal challenges in life and I’m lucky
that they thought that way and I think
that was the second best decision they
took in their life perhaps the decision
of marrying each other was the best
decision there were a wide variety of
schools that rejected me that they went
to around 20 schools that did not want
to really give me admission before there
was this one school that finally decided
to enroll me and see me for my abilities
and not my disabilities my school had a
very big theater and I wanted to
participate in plays and every year I
used to lend up for auditions but the
theater teacher was into
short how-to ready enroll me in the play
so the first year that I landed up she
said no one’s watching we don’t really
ever hold for you you will have to go
back the second year I landed up again
she again had to send me back because
she noted he thought of something but
the third day when I landed up she said
oh wow and it would thank you for coming
back he thought of a role for you you’re
going to be on stage throne to play more
than the needed actor and more than the
deed actress I was of course thrilled I
went back home and told everybody that
I’ve got a great role I’m going to be in
my school and in production the next day
when I landed up I realized that I was a
tree on the set of the play because the
teachers thought that perhaps I’m very
good at you know staying physically at
one place so why not and I really
enjoyed that experience and I think what
that taught me is that in life you of
course won’t always get what is ideal
but I think you should make the most out
of everything that you really can get
and I think that’s about thinking
outside out after my school I wanted to
get into the best of institutions but
most government colleges in this country
warrant to the accessible and I went to
a private college for a year which
wasn’t which was accessible but it was
in the best of education institutions to
study ill and at a nice of together and
I’m sorry for a scrap of paper and I
decided to reapply to Delhi University
and I remember to see and Steve in the
interview were the principal actually
told me nippon I love your CV but the
economics possum has been on the first
floor for around hundred and twenty-five
years and we cannot shift it down for
one person I said there are no problem I
mean I’ll go up on third every day and
for four days I actually took two
weightlifters with me and climbed up one
floor every day and finally did thanks
to my persistence the college shifted
economics classroom down and they also
thought out of the box where they could
not make the first floor accessible but
they shifted economics from down which I
think was great and I also became the
founder of the Enabling committee in st.
Stephen’s
through which or st. Stephen’s became
completely accessible during my time at
college and now st. Stephen’s is one of
the most accessible colleges in the
country apart from that I made a lot of
friends and Saints defense I was a
founder of the Entrepreneurship cell and
my life changed to a large extent when I
was in st. Stephen’s but I still
remember what other my third year at st.
Stephen’s I decided to apply for dedi
School of Economics for a master’s in
economics and even though I was working
hard for the end
I heard some people whispering that is
cut off physically challenged quote
America and I wanted to prove them wrong
and I locked myself into my room for a
couple of months and longed hard and
when the results came out I had scored a
52nd ranked nationwide and had actually
defeated two friends of mine who were
making those statements about me so I
think that was a proud moment for me
though Delhi School of Economics still
ended up becoming a major turning point
in my life because when I was in Delhi
School of Economics I decided to sit for
placements and when I sat for placements
I saw the discrimination persons with
disabilities face first and there’s this
one company that rejected me because
they wanted to see me sit sit on a
wheelchair 48 other day they couldn’t
believe I could do that and I refused to
do that
there’s a second that rejected me
because they did not have a disabled
friend he told it and that after going
through 7 rounds of interviews with me
and when I said that I it’s ok I can
control my bladder they said no you
might sue us tomorrow so I just say for
not oh hi you and there was a third had
actually asked me if I read a book with
my life these are just three anecdotes
of course I’m not going to go into many
other many other of the dozens of
interviews that I applied for but this
of course was a real low point in my
life I did not want to know what to do
in life I almost started pending my
obituary but and I locked myself in my
room for one month I was under extreme
depression but it’s then that I realize
that I’ve been very lucky where my
parents are gonna be so much and I can
use that to transform the life of other
people with disabilities rather than
just you know give up at life and that’s
when I started in the pen Foundation and
instead of talking about really the
initiatives that I have done in my
foundation over the last six years which
I’m sure you can you all can anybody
don’t line and I will touch upon a bit
through my framework I decided to
concentrate on the three years as I call
them which are the main challenges that
persons with disabilities face and I
think if these things are taken care of
persons with disabilities can have a
much more empowered life both in India
and worldwide the first one today is the
isn’t as a problem attitudes I think
people with disabilities are not really
treated as equal by others around them
and in society we as people with
disabilities do not really want
sympathy nor we want to be treated with
ignorance but we didn’t even empathy and
we wanted to be treated as equals just
like you would read anybody else I mean
for for example a couple of years back I
was actually denied entry by this
particular restaurant because they said
that as a policy we don’t allow people
with disabilities inside it was of
course an extremely shocking incident a
particularly humiliating experience but
when I sent out a tweet about it and a
tweet went viral I was shocked to hear
the similar stories that a lot of people
with disabilities face where they’re not
allowed to enter public spaces because
people just don’t want to be around them
even when they say enter a restaurant
that often not offered a menu many
families lock up the children with
disabilities because there are social
stigmas associated with them there many
in India who actually believe that
perhaps we don’t have I to Carmine
Appice life that’s why we have a
disabled child in a life today and just
to give you a simple anecdote or the
World Health Organization says that 15%
of the world’s population is disabled
but as for the official census in India
only around 2.2 1 percent of India’s
population is disabled I’m sure India’s
not what the country of Superman where
less disabled people are born it’s just
that India doesn’t report it’s disabled
population and that’s a lot because of
how people with disabilities are treated
in old families so I think in quality
right really comes from home I was lucky
that was born which give me the Braille
parents but I saw discrimination first
and to like that restaurant that I
mentioned in my school life where I was
not treated like an equal of actually it
in a comic on that called no red card
for the disabled a foundation as he’s on
here the words lost him I saw for the
partner we’re a recognized companies
that employ people with disabilities you
notice sir this photo of the Hajj on the
slide here – and that’s because of a
recent battle that 1/4 of the Government
of India where the government of India
despite the fact that the Hajj committee
internationally allows people with
disabilities to go for the Hajj the
Indian government was not allowing them
to go for a Hajj and I thought it was
just an attitudinal barrier because Hajj
has been made accessible and me and
other members of the disabled community
actually had to fight with the
government to ensure that people with
disabilities can go for the Hajj so
these are daily battles that people with
disabilities face and I think
the attitude battle can be won I think
people in disabilities can be much more
empowered both in India and the rest of
the world the second II that I’m really
going to talk about is accessibility and
again due to lack of time I’m not really
going to go into detail about
accessibility but I’m just going to try
to explain what disability in my way is
in my opinion that he is
I believe the solution model of
disability and the social mode of the
disability and he says the dispute is
not really a medical problem as such but
it’s a social problem and the social
problem basically means that disability
exists due to the bad years that exist
in society the barriers might be in
terms of physical infrastructure they
might be in terms of laws it might be in
terms of policies and I think making
physical infrastructure accessible is
the first step towards making India an
equal-opportunity country and I’ll give
you a simple example just from this very
room for that I can come here and speak
just like any other TEDx speaker you’re
on this stage because the organizers of
TEDx chose to build a ramp through which
I could come on stage if this ramp
didn’t exist I would not have managed
coming up on stage so this ramp actually
makes me somebody who’s just equivalent
to any other TEDx speaker who is on
stage and I think that’s really what I’m
trying to talk about through
accessibility and I think the next slide
has vanished so I’m not sure I pick
knowledge is very accessible yo can
somebody yeah thank you so talking about
accessibility some of the things that
we’ve done at a foundation are we well
to make various events accessible like
the J Poetry Festival the nh7 weekender
the serendipity Arts Festival and one of
our main reasons why we focus so much on
accessible events is because we feel
that a people who disabilities can come
out and celebrate in the open and people
realize that people disabilities who
don’t just read I need the physiological
needs but they complete individual who
can enjoy life to working attitudes in
society to will change but from that we
are CI as accessibility partner and
we’ve got a lot of access ordered so a
lot of private sector companies and I
guess I’m passionate about that because
of the discrimination I faced first time
when I was in Delhi School of Economics
another cool thing I did and this and
this particular thing that it that I did
along with Zomato was immediately after
that particular restaurant that I’d
mentioned or you
denied me entry today if you go on
Zomato you can actually see a wheelchair
access filter that identifies which
restaurants are accessible and this is
really done two things firstly you can
identify of course physically which
restaurants are accessible but secondly
when restaurants are made to answer such
questions they change their attitudes
towards disability too because it
incentivizes them to become accessible
and they of course won’t deny entry to
persons with disabilities other than
that of course people disabilities
continue facing with challenges in terms
of accessibility lasted itself for five
depierre against a Teddy government with
the deadly comment decided to buy 2000
buses that are not accessible and
doesn’t make sense why governments today
would still continue to buy buses and
invest in other infrastructure that is
not accessible so that’s a challenge
that continues to exist or did lack of
time I’m going to go to the next slide
and talk with dosti which is
affordability or two years around the
year year and a half back we started
this campaign called wheels for life
that connects people who need
wheelchairs to people who can donate
wheelchairs because what I realize is
that the cost of living with the
disability especially in a country like
India so high because firstly you need
your normal transport is not accessible
so you need to make h2 provisions you
don’t have easy access to attendants and
caretakers and something as simple as a
wheel check under the transformer life
too and that’s why I started this
platform that connects anybody who needs
wheelchair to somebody who anybody who
can donate a wheelchair and it’s called
a bit of you w dot fields for life
rotate I would have urge all of you to
go online on it and check it out
and through wheels for life with us one
year we’ve impacted close to 800 lives
we’re through a simple wheelchair there
are people who manage going back to
school there are adults who manage
taking up jobs in becoming economically
self-sufficient and wheelchair cost is
five thousand rupees I’m sure a lot of
us just spend that amount of money on a
meal at a five-star or on perhaps a pair
of jeans or something that we like but
something as simple as a disability aid
you can transform somebody’s life and
when I was doing this I was shocked to
hear that the government on the other
hand
when GST was introduced started taxing
disability aids disability aids like
hearing hearing aids various Braille
accessories wheelchairs etc and I do
think that a GST on such disability AIDS
is a Rainier tax on somebody walking
seeing or this thing and I decided to
fire the PIL against the comment on this
that case is still going on in court
but these are just two examples and
these are two examples on the slide
because I am posting holdin them but
affordability is a major challenge for
persons with disabilities in India and I
just mentioned two other things in terms
of attendance and transportation but you
can see that everywhere because physical
infrastructure itself is not accessible
so you have fewer options for example
when I travel out of town I actually
need to I mean I’m sure a lot of my
friends would look at pricing of hotels
first and choose whatever the most
affordable but for me
that does not even become a factor that
gets into consideration because I need
to look at which hotel is accessible
when I go to a movie hall I need to look
at which sea it is accessible it might
not and it might be the most expensive
seat but I don’t really have a choice
and those are the challenges vs persons
with disabilities often face so I think
if you if you can support the problems
on attitudes accessibility and
affordability India will become a much
more equal opportunity country and
people who disagree they will move from
outside out to inside it thank you [Applause]
it’s wonderful to be here and I would
like to thank TEDx enemies Bangalore for
choosing this topic outside out which is
I think very applicable to both my life
and to persons with disabilities
specially in India outside because we
are often outside the ecosystem and
ignored by society
governments and the world at large and
out because we need to think out of the
box to show our presence and I think
that’s really been the story of what my
life and the disability movement in
India so the team that I’m going to
speak about is disability my life and
the three years I’ve divided a talk into
two parts the first is where I’m going
to speak about myself to set the context
and the second is about the three is for
him work that I have developed to which
everything can solve a lot of problems
that persons with disabilities in India
face but more on that later I was a born
on 1st September 1987 it was 8:30 a.m.
in the morning when I mom went to a
hospital in Mumbai for cesarean surgery
she chosen first September strategically
because she knew she had to do cesarean
deliveries so and first September
happened to be Ganesha Chaturthi in that
particular year and she was a very
religious person and as all of you know
Lord Ganesha has considered the remover
of obstacles so I’m sure she went Oh
went in with a lot of hope that her
first child will remove a lot of
obstacles in her life and give her a lot
of joy and happiness but when I was born
and when I was taken out of my mother’s
womb I was bleeding my arms and legs
were fractured and doctors did not
really know what to do with me and one
doctor actually shouted Oh No and that’s
when my mom realized there’s something
wrong and she started inquiring whoa
what’s happened and doctors in order
they want to share that he knows
immediately with her because that would
be extremely traumatizing and I was
immediately taken to a baby incubator
and wrapped the blanket and as I often
say you know that the baby incubators
the only place where if you were wrapped
in a blanket and not naked there’s
something wrong with you
eventually my parents and I there was
something wrong with me and a lot of
doctors were invited to give a diagnosis
I was born with this disability called
arthrogryposis which basically means
that the muscles in my arms and legs
were not fully developed and they would
not develop throughout my lifetime
unfortunately at that time doctors were
not really sensitive on how to react
with a child to a child with a
disability there were some doctors who
were he told told my parents that
perhaps it’s worth keeping him alive
because his neck is straight but we
don’t really know what else can he do in
life there was another doctor that who
actually told my parents that they Putin
is going to live the life equivalent
okobu didn’t all and that’s why I write
here the story of a wooden doll but what
was the turning point in my life when he
was this one doctor who told my mother
that nippin is never really going to
deprive you of the joys of motherhood
and I think that ready was the turning
point in my life since then it became a
parent’s machine and like life to judge
me for what I can do and not what I
cannot do and they decided to fight
against society to give me a completely
normal life my first few years were
filled with operations injections and
various tough decisions that my parents
had to take and by the time I was around
four years old it was finally time to
send me to a normal school and there
were a wide variety of people who told
my parents that perhaps limpin should go
to a special school for the disabled and
not ready to a normal school because he
is not normal but what my parents told
everybody at that time and I think that
said that to one for the rest of my life
is that of course he’s normally just
happens to have a disability and we
don’t want to protect him by sending
into sending him to a special school
because eventually he has to face the
normal challenges in life and I’m lucky
that they thought that way and I think
that was the second best decision they
took in their life perhaps the decision
of marrying each other was the best
decision there were a wide variety of
schools that rejected me that they went
to around 20 schools that did not want
to really give me admission before there
was this one school that finally decided
to enroll me and see me for my abilities
and not my disabilities my school had a
very big theater and I wanted to
participate in plays and every year I
used to lend up for auditions but the
theater teacher was into
short how-to ready enroll me in the play
so the first year that I landed up she
said no one’s watching we don’t really
ever hold for you you will have to go
back the second year I landed up again
she again had to send me back because
she noted he thought of something but
the third day when I landed up she said
oh wow and it would thank you for coming
back he thought of a role for you you’re
going to be on stage throne to play more
than the needed actor and more than the
deed actress I was of course thrilled I
went back home and told everybody that
I’ve got a great role I’m going to be in
my school and in production the next day
when I landed up I realized that I was a
tree on the set of the play because the
teachers thought that perhaps I’m very
good at you know staying physically at
one place so why not and I really
enjoyed that experience and I think what
that taught me is that in life you of
course won’t always get what is ideal
but I think you should make the most out
of everything that you really can get
and I think that’s about thinking
outside out after my school I wanted to
get into the best of institutions but
most government colleges in this country
warrant to the accessible and I went to
a private college for a year which
wasn’t which was accessible but it was
in the best of education institutions to
study ill and at a nice of together and
I’m sorry for a scrap of paper and I
decided to reapply to Delhi University
and I remember to see and Steve in the
interview were the principal actually
told me nippon I love your CV but the
economics possum has been on the first
floor for around hundred and twenty-five
years and we cannot shift it down for
one person I said there are no problem I
mean I’ll go up on third every day and
for four days I actually took two
weightlifters with me and climbed up one
floor every day and finally did thanks
to my persistence the college shifted
economics classroom down and they also
thought out of the box where they could
not make the first floor accessible but
they shifted economics from down which I
think was great and I also became the
founder of the Enabling committee in st.
Stephen’s
through which or st. Stephen’s became
completely accessible during my time at
college and now st. Stephen’s is one of
the most accessible colleges in the
country apart from that I made a lot of
friends and Saints defense I was a
founder of the Entrepreneurship cell and
my life changed to a large extent when I
was in st. Stephen’s but I still
remember what other my third year at st.
Stephen’s I decided to apply for dedi
School of Economics for a master’s in
economics and even though I was working
hard for the end
I heard some people whispering that is
cut off physically challenged quote
America and I wanted to prove them wrong
and I locked myself into my room for a
couple of months and longed hard and
when the results came out I had scored a
52nd ranked nationwide and had actually
defeated two friends of mine who were
making those statements about me so I
think that was a proud moment for me
though Delhi School of Economics still
ended up becoming a major turning point
in my life because when I was in Delhi
School of Economics I decided to sit for
placements and when I sat for placements
I saw the discrimination persons with
disabilities face first and there’s this
one company that rejected me because
they wanted to see me sit sit on a
wheelchair 48 other day they couldn’t
believe I could do that and I refused to
do that
there’s a second that rejected me
because they did not have a disabled
friend he told it and that after going
through 7 rounds of interviews with me
and when I said that I it’s ok I can
control my bladder they said no you
might sue us tomorrow so I just say for
not oh hi you and there was a third had
actually asked me if I read a book with
my life these are just three anecdotes
of course I’m not going to go into many
other many other of the dozens of
interviews that I applied for but this
of course was a real low point in my
life I did not want to know what to do
in life I almost started pending my
obituary but and I locked myself in my
room for one month I was under extreme
depression but it’s then that I realize
that I’ve been very lucky where my
parents are gonna be so much and I can
use that to transform the life of other
people with disabilities rather than
just you know give up at life and that’s
when I started in the pen Foundation and
instead of talking about really the
initiatives that I have done in my
foundation over the last six years which
I’m sure you can you all can anybody
don’t line and I will touch upon a bit
through my framework I decided to
concentrate on the three years as I call
them which are the main challenges that
persons with disabilities face and I
think if these things are taken care of
persons with disabilities can have a
much more empowered life both in India
and worldwide the first one today is the
isn’t as a problem attitudes I think
people with disabilities are not really
treated as equal by others around them
and in society we as people with
disabilities do not really want
sympathy nor we want to be treated with
ignorance but we didn’t even empathy and
we wanted to be treated as equals just
like you would read anybody else I mean
for for example a couple of years back I
was actually denied entry by this
particular restaurant because they said
that as a policy we don’t allow people
with disabilities inside it was of
course an extremely shocking incident a
particularly humiliating experience but
when I sent out a tweet about it and a
tweet went viral I was shocked to hear
the similar stories that a lot of people
with disabilities face where they’re not
allowed to enter public spaces because
people just don’t want to be around them
even when they say enter a restaurant
that often not offered a menu many
families lock up the children with
disabilities because there are social
stigmas associated with them there many
in India who actually believe that
perhaps we don’t have I to Carmine
Appice life that’s why we have a
disabled child in a life today and just
to give you a simple anecdote or the
World Health Organization says that 15%
of the world’s population is disabled
but as for the official census in India
only around 2.2 1 percent of India’s
population is disabled I’m sure India’s
not what the country of Superman where
less disabled people are born it’s just
that India doesn’t report it’s disabled
population and that’s a lot because of
how people with disabilities are treated
in old families so I think in quality
right really comes from home I was lucky
that was born which give me the Braille
parents but I saw discrimination first
and to like that restaurant that I
mentioned in my school life where I was
not treated like an equal of actually it
in a comic on that called no red card
for the disabled a foundation as he’s on
here the words lost him I saw for the
partner we’re a recognized companies
that employ people with disabilities you
notice sir this photo of the Hajj on the
slide here – and that’s because of a
recent battle that 1/4 of the Government
of India where the government of India
despite the fact that the Hajj committee
internationally allows people with
disabilities to go for the Hajj the
Indian government was not allowing them
to go for a Hajj and I thought it was
just an attitudinal barrier because Hajj
has been made accessible and me and
other members of the disabled community
actually had to fight with the
government to ensure that people with
disabilities can go for the Hajj so
these are daily battles that people with
disabilities face and I think
the attitude battle can be won I think
people in disabilities can be much more
empowered both in India and the rest of
the world the second II that I’m really
going to talk about is accessibility and
again due to lack of time I’m not really
going to go into detail about
accessibility but I’m just going to try
to explain what disability in my way is
in my opinion that he is
I believe the solution model of
disability and the social mode of the
disability and he says the dispute is
not really a medical problem as such but
it’s a social problem and the social
problem basically means that disability
exists due to the bad years that exist
in society the barriers might be in
terms of physical infrastructure they
might be in terms of laws it might be in
terms of policies and I think making
physical infrastructure accessible is
the first step towards making India an
equal-opportunity country and I’ll give
you a simple example just from this very
room for that I can come here and speak
just like any other TEDx speaker you’re
on this stage because the organizers of
TEDx chose to build a ramp through which
I could come on stage if this ramp
didn’t exist I would not have managed
coming up on stage so this ramp actually
makes me somebody who’s just equivalent
to any other TEDx speaker who is on
stage and I think that’s really what I’m
trying to talk about through
accessibility and I think the next slide
has vanished so I’m not sure I pick
knowledge is very accessible yo can
somebody yeah thank you so talking about
accessibility some of the things that
we’ve done at a foundation are we well
to make various events accessible like
the J Poetry Festival the nh7 weekender
the serendipity Arts Festival and one of
our main reasons why we focus so much on
accessible events is because we feel
that a people who disabilities can come
out and celebrate in the open and people
realize that people disabilities who
don’t just read I need the physiological
needs but they complete individual who
can enjoy life to working attitudes in
society to will change but from that we
are CI as accessibility partner and
we’ve got a lot of access ordered so a
lot of private sector companies and I
guess I’m passionate about that because
of the discrimination I faced first time
when I was in Delhi School of Economics
another cool thing I did and this and
this particular thing that it that I did
along with Zomato was immediately after
that particular restaurant that I’d
mentioned or you
denied me entry today if you go on
Zomato you can actually see a wheelchair
access filter that identifies which
restaurants are accessible and this is
really done two things firstly you can
identify of course physically which
restaurants are accessible but secondly
when restaurants are made to answer such
questions they change their attitudes
towards disability too because it
incentivizes them to become accessible
and they of course won’t deny entry to
persons with disabilities other than
that of course people disabilities
continue facing with challenges in terms
of accessibility lasted itself for five
depierre against a Teddy government with
the deadly comment decided to buy 2000
buses that are not accessible and
doesn’t make sense why governments today
would still continue to buy buses and
invest in other infrastructure that is
not accessible so that’s a challenge
that continues to exist or did lack of
time I’m going to go to the next slide
and talk with dosti which is
affordability or two years around the
year year and a half back we started
this campaign called wheels for life
that connects people who need
wheelchairs to people who can donate
wheelchairs because what I realize is
that the cost of living with the
disability especially in a country like
India so high because firstly you need
your normal transport is not accessible
so you need to make h2 provisions you
don’t have easy access to attendants and
caretakers and something as simple as a
wheel check under the transformer life
too and that’s why I started this
platform that connects anybody who needs
wheelchair to somebody who anybody who
can donate a wheelchair and it’s called
a bit of you w dot fields for life
rotate I would have urge all of you to
go online on it and check it out
and through wheels for life with us one
year we’ve impacted close to 800 lives
we’re through a simple wheelchair there
are people who manage going back to
school there are adults who manage
taking up jobs in becoming economically
self-sufficient and wheelchair cost is
five thousand rupees I’m sure a lot of
us just spend that amount of money on a
meal at a five-star or on perhaps a pair
of jeans or something that we like but
something as simple as a disability aid
you can transform somebody’s life and
when I was doing this I was shocked to
hear that the government on the other
hand
when GST was introduced started taxing
disability aids disability aids like
hearing hearing aids various Braille
accessories wheelchairs etc and I do
think that a GST on such disability AIDS
is a Rainier tax on somebody walking
seeing or this thing and I decided to
fire the PIL against the comment on this
that case is still going on in court
but these are just two examples and
these are two examples on the slide
because I am posting holdin them but
affordability is a major challenge for
persons with disabilities in India and I
just mentioned two other things in terms
of attendance and transportation but you
can see that everywhere because physical
infrastructure itself is not accessible
so you have fewer options for example
when I travel out of town I actually
need to I mean I’m sure a lot of my
friends would look at pricing of hotels
first and choose whatever the most
affordable but for me
that does not even become a factor that
gets into consideration because I need
to look at which hotel is accessible
when I go to a movie hall I need to look
at which sea it is accessible it might
not and it might be the most expensive
seat but I don’t really have a choice
and those are the challenges vs persons
with disabilities often face so I think
if you if you can support the problems
on attitudes accessibility and
affordability India will become a much
more equal opportunity country and
people who disagree they will move from
outside out to inside it thank you [Applause]
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