Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
I would like to dedicate
this Inclusive Story
to the parents and family members
of the visually impaired.
And our 4 storytellers today are
Dhanya, Dinesh, Suprita and Shanti.
I am Dhanya.
I met Dhanya
at a computer training
at Enable India in Bangalore.
And she shared with us
about the challenges she had to face
due to her vision impairment.
According to me
in my case
it's a very frustrating thing
of being visually impaired
is getting sympathy
from our own parents.
Because I am a late blind
when I was in 10th class
I lost my eye sight.
At that time
everybody sympathized with me.
'Oh, now she can't do anything!
She is sitting'
Even my mom and dad and my brother
speaking to someone
'Oh, my daughter got this thing!
What can we do?' something like this.
I feel so bad! Very bad!
They started avoiding me
because they can't adjust my blindness.
It's a very horrible thing for me.
Because before that
all things went on around me.
But after becoming blind
they are not even caring about me.
They think that
there is no such a person called Dhanya.
And that I am very passive in that house.
I want to treat me as a person
not as a visually impaired.
Hi! I am Dinesh K. Thole from Pune.
Dinesh today lives independently in Bangalore.
How was it to convince his parents
to let him leave and start a new life?
Basically it was difficult
because they never left me alone
and, you know, allowed me
to travel independently
using my cane or anything.
I don't, you know, blame them
I mean in the sense
They felt that
because we have all the facilities
of car and everything
so they always provided the same to me.
And they felt 'we should provide'
So that actually restricted my travelling.
and I could not move around freely
independently.
So there was always that concern
You know - 'How will you move around?
How will you go?'
Because I was never allowed to do that
I mean I am staying alone
for the 1st time now.
'And how is it? Do you like it?'
Yeah! Fantastic!
It's a great experience!
I have friends
And one of the major things
I wanted to learn
was mobility.
And now it is wonderful!
You know I am able to move around freely
everywhere I am travelling independently
So that has brought about
major change in my life actually
I would say this has been
one of the turning points for me.
Hello everybody!
This is Suprita
thousands of kilometres away
Suprita comes from Jharkhand
And today she lives
from her parents
and works at IBM.
India is a traditional country
so girls are supposed to get married
at a certain point
after completing their education and stuff.
But I would say
it totally depends on
the mentality of your parents.
How well you can convince your parents
and, you know, request them
if you want to study further
or you want to go for a job.
But it has changed a lot by now
and I am very lucky to be
a part of such a family
which is very open minded
and they really don't differentiate
between a girl and a guy.
That is how I got an opportunity
to come out
and be in a place away
very far away from my family
and put up myself alone
and then manage working
everyday go to office and come home.
So it's really a very nice experience
I would tell you.
And I didn't face a lot of challenge
in coming out of my house.
Of course it took 2 years
to convince my parents
I can work alone
I can do it.
But then they came down
They saw the place
they loved it!
And it's only 1 step away.
You need to explore things
and definitely I tell you
Once if you convince your parents
it's not that tough for you
to explore the world.
Hi! I am Shanti Raghavan
founder and managing trustee
of Enable India.
Shanti has changed
hundreds of lives
of visually impaired.
Let's listen to the wise words
she has to say
after 12 years of her experience.
Treat the visually impaired person
child or the adult
just like you treat others.
What I mean by that is -
Have the same expectation!
Tell them 'Bada ban ke tum kya banoge?'
What did I say? I said
'When you become older
what are you going to do with your life?
Come on! Do something about it!'
Because that is what
you will be telling your other child.
When you don't say this
to a visually impaired person
It is as if he doesn't exist!
You don't tell that
to a table or a chair.
You don't tell anything to them, right?
So what is the difference?
If you truly, really have love
and I am sure you do have love
for your visually impaired child or adult
have the same expectation!
Hold them to a higher standard!
Challenge them!
Tell them to go out there
do all the things!
Because that really shows real love.
Now obviously the second thing I would say is
for achieving this
you will have to get
a little less protective.
May be you have to think back
to your own journey.
What happened when you were growing up?
Did everything come easy to you?
Didn't you actually learn when you fell?
Didn't you actually learn
when you had problems?
Why are you denying that to your child?
Allow them to fall
Let them get, you know
all the issues that you got.
And when they get those experiences
they will be able to live a full life
with problems!
The more problems - the better!
The best gift you can give them
is a bag full of problems
that they get to solve!
[laughing]