In our country, about 3 crore people are physically challenged out of which about 1 crore are in their youth,” says Yajurvendra Mahajan, founder and executive director, Deepstambh Foundation. While some have access to the latest technology and advancement in science, a few others get sympathy from people. Like others, the differently abled too have dreams and aspirations, and want to contribute to society, but lack opportunities and tools do not allow them to realise their dreams.
Mahajan is the recipient of the 19th National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) — Mindtree Helen Keller Awards 2018. NCPEDP was started as an initiative to recognise and celebrate the good work done by corporates and individuals towards promoting employment opportunities for people with disabilities in India. On the eve of World Disability Day, which is observed on December 3, NCPEDP announced the awards.
The award has several categories. Mahajan received the award under Category B, which has Individuals from within the disability sector or outside who have contributed substantially to the cause of promoting employment opportunities for disabled people over an extended period of time. Talking to him, we find out more about the foundation and the need to provide quality education for the differently-abled youth of our country.
Mahajan, who left a well-paying job in Pune in 2005 at 24 years of age to work for the rural poor and tribal orphaned youth, realised that youngsters with physical and visual disabilities are more marginalised. To address the needs of this group, he started the Deepstambh Foundation. The foundation aims to impart quality education and training to youngsters with disabilities to appear for government and non-governmental jobs. With the help of public participation free residential training is provided to those individuals with visual, hearing, orthopaedic and multiple disabilities. “We provide free training to youngsters for competitive exams, soft skill development and skill development and higher education,” says Mahajan claiming that this is the only project of its kind in the country especially for the physically challenged.
“Our objective is to create good human beings out of this quality education because we firmly believe that the downtrodden sections of society need good quality education to solve their problems,” says Mahajan.
Ask him why he decided to start such a foundation and he replies, “I was inspired by Swami Vivekananda and his thoughts because of which I decided to devote my life towards society and chose the segment of education since it empowers individuals to be self-reliant.”
Mahajan further says that even if these youngsters or people with disabilities are marginalised, in one way or the other they do teach others to be better versions of themselves. He points out that his students taught him how to come together to learn together. “While these youngsters study, the visually and the hearing impaired and the ones with physical disabilities are each other’s strength. They know how to balance each other and help each other in their own ways,” says he.
Talking about the society we live in, Mahajan says that in a way people are not sensitised enough when it comes to disabled people. “This is not just the issue of government agencies or politicians but also the issue of citizens and their mindset,” he says pointing out that people who are ‘normal’ have weird misunderstandings about them.
“If we think and understand them, then it is very easy to create infrastructure for them and it is not even about the expenses but about the creativeness and lack of empathy that people tend to show towards the disabled community,” Mahajan points out.
He says that it is really upsetting because there is absolutely no infrastructure and opportunities that can actually benefit them. It all boils down to education. “The quality of education at the primary school level is very poor and these people are promoted on the basis of pity and not on their ability to learn and be successful,” he says.
“People with disability don’t need pity, they need opportunities to learn, to perform and to learn from their mistakes,” says Mahajan adding that there is nothing wrong with disability but it is the mentality and the narrow mindedness of society that is challenged.
