Life changes

From an invisible life begging on the streets of Calcutta, cripples and lepers in India are transforming themselves into visionary entrepreneurs and impacting those around them. Thousands of differently-abled people in India are now leading fulfilling and autonomous lives thanks to a Ghandian inspired project called the “Trace and Treat Campaign.

Professor of Anthropology at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium, Jao Coelho has been investigating the success of the project in Anandwan in the Indian State of Maharashtra. There, in satellite communities across the State, more than 5,000 lepers, cripples, blind, or mentally challenged people have been empowered by pioneering projects in agriculture, fish farming, education, industrial production, and environmental protection. Many of those involved in the project are deaf.

Prof. Coelho says the Deaf offer a unique contribution to the community because they can be the eyes and helping hands for those less fortunate.

“The deaf are a gift of God to the community and the planet. The deaf are potential leaders, born leaders. The able- bodied society has to create space and opportunities for them to contribute in the planet-making, world-reshaping, community remaking projects. There’s a strong responsibility on the able-bodied society not to keep them out of the main centers of the planet. They have to be included so that they enrich (society) with the gifts God has given them in building a community of all brothers and sisters living together in harmony – so there is a challenge for able-bodied society to include them as early as possible.”

RV: In the developed world, the differently-abled lament they are often stigmatized and ostracized in their communities. How are their physical differences perceived in India?

“Stigma is a very strong weapon in Indian society. We have this caste system which is already stigmatizing people as born in a better circle or a weaker circle. Then, these illnesses like deafness, blindness are also a big stigma. And, if people know there is some deaf person, then the family is stigmatized, not only the person. A family will have difficulties in say, getting brides and grooms for the other siblings if there is a deaf person. Because they feel that the deafness may be in the family and it could be coming to the offspring...This family would be restricted in its choices: economic, education, profession and social circles.”
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