December 3 is celebrated all over the world as the “International Day of Persons with Disabilities”. On this day, Let’s take a pledge to enable the differently able people.
Have you ever envisioned your life with brain dead that could not think, eyes that could not see, ears that could not hear, and legs that could not walk? You may probably feel you are in a living nightmare feeling trapped and horrified by your limitations!
The pure mystical and wondrous seven wonders of the world are to see, to hear, to touch, to taste, to smell to feel, and to love. This is just enough for normal living and the majority of people in the world are endowed with these natural great gifts.
There are millions of people who are not as fortunate as you in having these natural marvels and consequently suffer greatly, stumbling throughout their lives bearing heavy loads enmeshed with disabling difficulties. Do they require your pity? No, they do not need your pity and certainly not your sympathy, but they need your empathy, which is a potent weapon to empower them topped with compassion. They need you to empathize enough to envision them living their lives without a sensory organ and rely on your sensitive response to their needs; one human to another.
The most valuable things in life cannot be built by mortal hands or bought by humans. If a human is not endorsed with full functions to perform normal activities of daily living and is physically limited, the person is deemed disabled, also known as ‘differently abled’. It is a catch-all word encompassing shortcomings, activity constraints, and participation restrictions.
The wonder of this is despite being ‘differently abled‘, there are countless success stories where people with disabilities have done miracles proving to the world that with proper training to refine their skills and talents, they too can transform the quality of their lives, elevate it to a greater level, and contribute to society in the same way that others do.
On June 12, 2015, a call came from the office of the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India informing BenoZephine that she was selected for the Indian Foreign Service. She inenthralled ecstasy could hardly believe the exciting news she received and kept wondering if it was a fantastic dream. For the first time in the history of India, a completely blind girl was selected for the Indian Foreign Service!
Her parents had poured out their full efforts to her academics, treating her no differently than other children despite the fact that she was born blind. She went on to earn a Bachelor’s Degree in English, be selected for Bank PO exams, and serve in the State Bank of India all while maintaining her morale to reach the pinnacle of her success. She eventually passed the UPSC exams, and after assessing her social training and abilities, the Government of India proudly amended the laws for foreign servants, inducting the first blind female foreign officer in Indian history.
Stephen Hawking
A few days after his birth on January 8, 1942, there was mourning instead of celebration at his home. The sad reality was Hawking was born with an incurable mental ailment, due to which many parts of his body were beyond the control of his brain, rendering him incapable of speaking or hearing. His eyes could see but could not send messages to his brain to enable coordination and gait.
Fortunately, Hawking’s parents saw their child as a special gift from God and loved him and cared for him rightly so. Due to their unwavering support and belief in him, Hawking went on to study at Oxford and then received his Ph.D. in Physics from Cambridge, both being extremely prestigious world-renowned universities.
Stephen Hawking became a professor at just 35. He author numerous books and because of his theories, he is considered the most influential scientist after Einstein.
Looking down the road of history, there are hundreds of people like Hawking and BenoZephine in the world who are getting trained to excel in life. They are getting good jobs and living independently. Regrettably, in the state of Bihar, there is a huge dearth of institutions or training centers where such people can be trained properly, the irony being that Bihar has a huge population falling under this category.
NUMBER OF DISABLED POPULATION AND TYPE OF DISABILITY
| Population | Percentage (%) | |
| Total population | 1,028,610,328 | 100.0 |
| Total disabled population | 21,906,769 | 2.1 |
| Disability rate ( per lakh population) | 2,130 | — |
| Type of Disability | ||
| (a) In seeing | 10,634,881 | 1.0 |
| (b) In speech | 1,640,868 | 0.2 |
| (c) In hearing | 1,261,722 | 0.1 |
| (d) In movement | 6,105,477 | 0.6 |
| (e) Mental | 2,263,821 | 0.2 |
| Source : Census of India 2001. | ||
In the State of Bihar alone,2.33 million people are disabled, which is 10% of the total disabled people of India. Out of this, 549080 people are blind, 572163 people have a hearing disability, 170845 people cannot speak, 369577 people have a locomotive disability, 89251 people are mentally retarded, and nearly 200000 people have different disabilities. (Census 2011)
What Can We Do?
We run a residential training center for differently-abled children. We believe that proper training and care can make them fully independent and enrich their lives marvelously. Thousands of disabled students in different parts of the country are doing extremely well in their studies and their professional lives, and there is no reason why the children of Bihar cannot do the same as well. All they need is awareness and your continuous support to continue their studies and training programs.
How Can You Help?
You can help the organizations and institutions, working to enable the people with differently able, by sponsoring a laptop, an orbit reader, Braille TLMs, or by paying the rent, teacher’s fee, food, and lodging costs.
Your contribution, no matter how big or small, will have an influence on people’s lives in wonderful ways you can never imagine and will enable them to transform their lives and bring them joy.