South Asian Disability Rights Activists You Should Know About
July is Disability Pride Month! This month, we at Hindus for Human Rights celebrate the achievements, strength, and bravery of individuals with disabilities.
Here are some of our favourite South Asian disability activists whose wonderful, inspiring work we want to highlight this month:
Shani Dhanda
Diagnosed with Brittle Bone Disease at the age of two, British-born Indian Shani Dhanda frequently struggled with broken bones. As a teenager, she experienced systemic rejection from jobs due to her disability. Dhanda founded the Asian Disability Network as well as the first Asian Woman Festival in Birmingham, UK. The Network is a support platform that helps Asian individuals with disabilities explore and navigate how their condition intersects with their ethnic and cultural identity. She also created and launched Diversabiity Card, a discount card for people with disabilities. She is now a broadcaster on BBC Asian Network.
Javed Abidi
Abidi was born in Uttar Pradesh, India, with a diagnosis of spina bifida (a incomplete closing of the spine). He worked as a journalist for several years; however, in the 1990s, he began working for Sonia Gandhi, who invited him to found the Disabilities Unit of the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. Abidi also founded the Disability Rights Group, a political lobbying and advocacy group. During the 1990s, a large disability rights movement rose within India, and Abidi was at the forefront of this, even leading a protest to Parliament to push for a bill for people with disabilities. The protest was successful, and led to Parliament passing the People with Disabilities Act. Additionally, Abidi worked closely with business executives across the tech industry to ensure disabled individuals were represented in these workforces, and he got wheelchair ramps installed at major Indian monuments.
Tiffany Brar
Tiffany is the founder of the Jyothirgamaya Foundation, a nonprofit based out of Kerala that empowers individuals with visual impairment. Tiffany herself became blind as a child due to oxygen toxicity. Her organization, which holds a special consultive status with the United Nations, began as a mobile school for the blind in which Tiffany would travel through rural India, connecting with blind individuals, and helping them explore and learn of the world outside of their homes -- something they often could not do due to limited resources. Her initative was to rehabilitate, integrate, and bring blind individuals to the forefront of society. The Foundation’s philosophy is, “if the blind cannot go to school, let the school go to them.”
Cara Yar Khan
Cara Yar Khan is a disability advocate, public speaker, and United Nations humanitarian. In 2001, she began her career as a humanitarian when she traveled to Ecuador with the United Nations World Food Programme. For 15 years, she worked in humanitarian roles in 10 different countries, including working as a child protection specialist for UNICEF. At age 30, Yar Khan was diagnosed with a rare disease, hereditary inclusion body myopathy. While she was advised to quit her job and move in with her parents, she continued her humanitarian work, continuing to travel to assist with humanitarian crisis responses in Angola, China, Haiti, and more. Today, Yar Khan works at the International Human Trafficking Institute.
Malvika Iyer
As a child, Iyer picked up a grenade, resulting in the loss of both hands as well as severe injuries to her legs, nerve paralysis, and hypoesthesia. Iyer had a penchant for academia from a young age, securing state rank in the Secondary School Leaving Certificate following her injuries, which resulted in her being invited to the Rasthrapati Bhavan by the President of India. She went on to obtain her Bachelor’s, Master’s of Social Work, M. Phil, and PhD in Social Work, where her dissertation focused on the stigmatization of people with disabilities. She is an advocate for accessible fashion, and a member of the United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development's Working Group on Youth and Gender Equality. In 2017, she co-chaired the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit.
Kanubhai Hasmukhbhai Tailor
Kanubhai contracted polio as a child, which caused permanent disability in both of his legs. In 1979, he began his career as an activist by starting a hunger strike, demanding free travel facilities for individuals with disabilities. After 11 days of striking, his cause was successful, and the Government of Gujarat provided free travel to individuals with physical disabilities. In the 1990s, Kanubhai founded the Disable Welfare Trust of India, a nonprofit that aims to provide education, vocational training, and rehabilitation to children with disabilities. The Government of India honored Tailor in 2011, with the fourth highest civilian award of Padma Shri.