I have learned that people with disabilities are great innovators because they have to figure out how to navigate life.”

Shruti’s Story

Shruti Pushkarna was born with a weak eye muscle, which impacted her eyesight and resulted in high myopia. Then, when Shruti was about 3 or 4 years old, her mother was diagnosed with a form of rheumatoid arthritis that confined her to bed; she was immobile and in constant pain. It was a challenging world for a child, but Shruti’s experience dealing with disability from her early years shaped her journey into becoming an empathic disability advocate as an adult. 

Today, Shruti works as a disability awareness consultant for organizations and changemakers, as well as counsels people with different disabilities and their caregivers/parents.
 

First role model

Her mother was Shruti’s first role model. “I never saw my mom as disabled, but… I thought my mom was very smart.” Her mother devised ‘homemade solutions’ to address the barriers that constrained her, says Shruti.

“She set up a frying plate next to her bed so she could make some lunch for me. As a child, I complained that all mothers cooked for (their children) but not mine. So this was her solution.”
 

Her parents also got a carpenter to build a wooden stool with wheels, the same height as her mother’s bed and the toilet seat, to enable easy transfers. “At that time, there were no slim wheelchairs available in India, and the houses were not designed for access needs,” explains Shruti, “So despite her immobility, she could wheel herself.”

Her mother’s ingenuity left a strong impression on Shruti. “I have since learned that people with disabilities are great innovators because they have to figure out how to navigate life.”

Watching her mother navigate the complexities of her environment deepened Shruiti’s understanding of the need for disability awareness, education, and inclusion. When COVID derailed her career as a journalist, she became a disability advocate, a vocation that flourished in the innovative work she next did with George Abraham, a disability advocate for the vision-impaired community.

“Journalism was reaching a point of sensationalism in the country, and I felt my work was not making any impact, so I turned to the social sector. When I met with George Abraham, he was looking for someone who understood impact and storytelling, and I was a good fit. In fact, he couldn’t afford to hire me and offered to pay me half my salary, but I was so desperate to do something meaningful that I took up the job, and there was no looking back,” says Shruti.

Shruti Pushkarna (r) with George Abraham, (center), a disability activist, and advocate for the visually impaired (image source: Kani Illangovan)

George Abraham’s Story

George Abraham was born in London in 1958 and lost his vision after suffering a severe bout of meningitis at 10 months old. His privileged upbringing in Delhi, attending inclusive schools, followed by a career in advertising, made George oblivious to the life lived by an average vision-impaired person in India.

Then, on a family trip to Dehradun in 1988, George visited the National Institute for the Visually Impaired, where he first realized that the visually impaired community was under-resourced and underserved. Yet, they did not let that stop them from enjoying a game of cricket. Playing cricket became a passion for George, and in 1990, he founded Cricket for the Blind in India.

“He took it to different levels, state and national,” said Shruti, “then realized other countries are playing, so why not start a worldwide blind cricket association?”

An intrepid entrepreneur, George rounded up representatives from seven countries – Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, England, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India – and in one day, established standardized rules for international games of cricket for the blind, says Shruti. In 1996, George was elected Founding Chairman of the World Blind Cricket Council he co-founded. In 1998, he envisioned and organized the inaugural World Cup of Cricket for the Blind in Delhi.

Changing perceptions

A social entrepreneur, disability activist, and advocate for the visually impaired, George went on to establish the SCORE Foundation and Project Eyeway. His advocacy focuses on changing the perception of blindness, emphasizing that the main challenge is the societal mindset rather than the disability itself. 

The Eyeway Team (image source: Kani Illangovan)

Shruti joined his nonprofit when George began scaling up a national helpline for blind people across India. She helped put together a project working with NGOs from different states, including Mumbai, Kochi, Bangalore, Jammu & Kashmir, and Delhi.

“We trained people from these organizations to be helpline counselors. We brought the technology in, taught them how call centers work, and we made the software accessible for blind people,” explained Shruti. Users can call a toll-free number from anywhere in India and speak to another blind person and be counseled about their life options.

“We had a tagline saying ‘Life does not stop with blindness.’ Now the program is running beautifully.”

Shruti Pushkarna works as a disability awareness consultant for organizations and changemakers as well as counsels people with different disabilities and their caregivers/parents. (image source: Kasni Illangovan)