As per Statistics of Census 2001, about 21 million people are physically challenged in India which comes to 2.1 per cent of our total population. The disability rate is 2130 per lac population. Home studies and various reports show that 12.6 million are male and 9.3 million are female. Among the five types of disabilities on which data has been collected disability in seeing is 48.5 % emerges as the top category. Others in sequence are in movement 27.9 %, mental 10.3 %, in speech 7.5 % and in hearing 5.8 %.
It is observed that family members of the disabled are reluctant to send their children to NGOs as they firmly believe that they are of no use. To convince the parents to send their children to the Centre is a great task.
We arrange counseling sessions for the disabled as well as their parents. The orientation of counseling is towards the acceptance of disability. The disabled person has to accept his or her disability & should not make a big deal out of it. Mostly they are depressed and to bring them out of depression, we need to give them positive strokes from us and also from their parents.
A medical checkup is done and Doctor’s expert opinion is obtained on whether disability can be reduced to some extent. It is our experience that small surgery or regular physiotherapy helps people to walk on crutches rather than crawling on hands.
Many times people can’t even afford to buy the necessary medical equipment. In such cases, we provide them crutches, wheelchairs, tricycles, prosthetics, etc.
The objective of this program is to create opportunities & scope for talent and to identify new areas for training & skill development for the disabled people.
We consider their existing skills and liking before we finalize any type of training for them. At present, we give training in tailoring and craft only. A course of training includes the basics of tailoring, and alteration work in the early stage. Our advanced tailoring course consists of stitching gowns, dresses etc. which will generate a good income for them.
During training, we give them the stipend which works as an incentive to put in more effort. A craft training includes making of flowers, bouquets, paper bags etc.
Any kind of skill which is developed in these students will help them to sustain on their own in any circumstances…even without us.
After training is over, we provide our students with the necessary capital in some form to start their own business or get self-employed. We advocate for them to get self-employed near their house so that the traveling won’t be a hurdle for them. We are always in search of new ideas and opportunities which would generate income for them.
Proper and good education is very important for all of us. It is the process of achieving knowledge, values, skills, beliefs and moral habits. We assure that not only disabled people are educated but their next generation also gets a good education.
We are creating a database of their children and ensuring that no child is deprived of education due to financial issues. Thus every child’s right to education is protected. We believe in improving their standard of living and upliftment of the poor in a true sense.
During the pandemic, whole world was struggling to survive. In our country, particularly those who are on daily wages have suffered a lot. Many divyang people & their families had a problem getting meals. We distrubuted foodgrains, and provisional items to nearly 50 families per month for almost 1.5 years.
During the pandemic, due to the shortage of vaccines, there was a long waiting for getting vaccinated. It was not only very tough to schedule an appointment for the divyang people but also to travel to the vaccine centres, especially for those who stay alone without any help.
We arranged special vaccination drives for them & our volunteers made sure that maximum divyang people would get vaccinated.
Physiotherapy plays a vital role in the life of a disabled person. But unfortunately, its strength hasn’t been realized to the desired extent. Also, the cost of regular physiotherapy can’t be afforded by a layman. We associate with the physiotherapist who has social awareness & provides necessary treatments to divyang people at a reasonable cost. Early age physiotherapy not only helps to strengthen the limbs of a child but also avoids or elongates the future degradation of the body.
21st of June is celebrated as World Yoga Day. Yoga helps to heal not only physical illness but also strengthens the mental ability to deal with stress. So we decided to introduce the power of Yoga to our divyang students.
We arrange a One day Yoga camp on 21st June every year. Eventually, our volunteer Dr. Manjush Shewale who is a trained Yoga Teacher started free online yoga classes, especially for physically disabled people. Latestly Dr. Manjusha completed her 3rd batch.
During this monsoon season, we have distributed raincoats and umbrellas to the needy divyang people.
We had organized a sports event on 5th December 2021 of Divyang people keeping in view of World Disability Day i.e.3rd December. It was held at Dahisar Sports Foundation Ground, Dahisar (East) and approximately 100 Divyang people participated in it. The purpose of this event was to give them confidence that they can also participate in the sports and find happiness from the sports. On this occasion, we honored three Divyang people who have proved themselves in the field of sports namely,
Ms. Khushi Ganatra – National Para Weightlifter
Mr. Rahul Ramugude -National Para Cricket player
Ms. Geeta Chavan -National Para Basketball player.
Most of our beneficiaries come from poor families. They live their life hand to mouth. Where getting meal two times a day is uncertain, the question of celebration of the festival doesn’t arise. So in the year 2021, we distributed Diwali faral to 65 Divyang people. The purpose was to let them celebrate the festival along with all and bring joy to their family during the festival.
The Snehajyot Divyang Seva Pratishthan celebrated International Women’s Day i.e. 8th March in some different way. We arranged a picnic of 35 Divyang ladies on 13th March, 2022 at Kalyani Resorts, Ganeshpuri. The expenses of picnic were borne by some volunteers and generous donors.
These Divyang ladies expressed their feelings that they haven’t gone for any picnic in the past. Due to their disability, their parents didn’t allow them to go out of the house for such activities. On this day, they enjoyed rain dance, swimming, played games and shared their views/experiences with others. It was really a memorable day for them, some refreshing change from their day-to-day hard life.
This year on the occasion of Maharashtra Day i.e. 1st May, 2022 the Snehajyot Divyang Seva Pratishthan took 44 physically challenged people for a Metro Fun ride from Dahisar to Aarey, Goregaon and back. The happiness and the smiles on the faces of Divyang people speak about their enjoyment.
Many of them have travelled for the 1st time by metro. We are forever grateful to MMRDA for ensuring the safety of our Divyang people cherishing every moment of this journey.
Snehajyot Divyang Seva Pratishthan
Plot no 53, Flat no.001,
Sai Leela Apartment,
Shree Krishna Nagar,
Road no.- 4, Borivali (East)
Mumbai – 400066.
Talk: +91 – 9270321556 / 7977001783
Write: seva@snehajyot.org
