Humour the best way to create awareness about how people talk to and behave with those with disabilities

New Delhi, August 1: Because of her confident walk and the ease with which she uses her phone and computer, people often don’t realise that Nidhi Goyal can’t see. ‘Waiters hand me menus all the time,” she says, laughing. “But once people know you are blind, the stereotypes kick in and you are assumed to be feeble, hesitant, in need of help.”

That’s what happened on a flight to Brazil last year. At some point, Goyal, the 30-year-old writer and gender activist needed to use the bathroom.

“Before entering, I told an air hostess, as a manner of speaking, that I would be a couple of minutes. Three minutes later, she began knocking frantically and crying out, ‘Ms Goyal, are you ok? Are you ok!!!’,” says Goyal. “By the time I emerged, everyone in the last few rows knew there was some Ms Goyal who had been in the loo for a really long time. It was embarrassing but still funny.”

The incident stayed with Goyal, and she used it as a part of a stand-up comedy gig she did in Kolkata, in December, called Can You See Me Now?. It was a light take on people’s reactions to disability. Last weekend, she performed at a similar event in Mumbai, says an article published in hindustantimes.com.

“I think humour is the best way to create awareness about how people talk to and behave with those with disabilities. Through my act, I hope people get the point,” she says.

Across India, the young and differently abled are attempting to shift focus away from their challenges and build full lives. They’re pursuing careers in everything from corporate communication to film production, and spending their free time dating, socialising, travelling, partying and pub-hopping.

“We still have to create opportunities for ourselves because the infrastructure here is so limited,” Goyal says, “but for many of us it’s important that people see us as more than our disabilities.”

Wherever possible, they unite their hobbies and their causes to campaign for greater inclusion — often in inventive ways. Mumbai-based Goyal does stand-up comedy gigs and conducts lectures around the world on gender, disability and sexuality. In Delhi, purchasing executive and music buff Nipun Malhotra, 28, has lobbied with the NH7 Weekender festival and restaurant reviews website Zomato to be more disabled-friendly. Content developer Sweta Mantrii from Pune wrote and performed a monologue on love, fidelity and disability.

“There is an attitudinal shift among today’s differently abled youngsters. They aren’t too occupied with activism or advocacy but would rather focus on which movie to see next, what’s their next online post that can go viral or what job will give them the most exposure,” says Javed Abidi, global chair of the non-profit organisation Disabled Peoples International. “In addition, they have a strong social circle that extends beyond family – friends, colleagues, people they meet at events or online. That is s changing the social life of a differently abled person.”

The internet, smartphones and social media are opening up to the differently abled a world of work and dating opportunities. “They have more exposure and they’re using it to change the mindsets of the people around them, including their parents,” says Anjlee Agarwal, co-founder of Samarthyam, an advocacy and research organisation that works to promote inclusion and accessibility.

Catering to this demographic are services such as Inclov, a five-month-old matchmaking app for people with disabilities and health disorders, and Umoja, a travel company for the differently abled that was launched in 2013.

“Inclov is not an NGO and it’s not about any sort of activism. We launched it because we felt there was a market for it,” says co-founder Shankar Srinivasan, a finance executive.

Encouraging as it might sound, activists point out that it takes significant means to access the technology needed to give a young, physically challenged person a full life, particularly in a country with little to no public infrastructure for this demographic.

There are 2.68 crore disabled Indians, as of the 2011 census. Of these, over 1.8 crore live in rural India, and 81 lakh in urban areas; about 4 per cent of the disabled population is under 30 .

“For most of these Indians, change depends on our government and society providing a more inclusive environment,” says Varsha Hooja, CEO of the non-profit organisation ADAPT (Able Disabled All People Together).