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ADAPTing with the adept
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The daughter of Mithu Alur, founder of the Spastics Society of India, Malini Chib, is in the forefront of the struggle to make the world more friendly to the disabled. She talks about her life and vision to <145,4>Shyama Rajagopal.
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"NOTHING FOR the disabled without the voice of the disabled,'' said Malini Chib, trustee and chairperson of ADAPT or Able Disabled All People Together. When able-bodied people go about seeking changes on behalf of the disabled, these never get done. Only when the disabled make their voices heard do things happen, she added.
Just like what the city hotel, where she is stayed, did to make this place disabled-friendly, when she pointed out certain requirements during her last visit. It has already made some changes to make life easier for disabled people. She had roamed around the whole hotel on her own and also ordered her breakfast with her communicator this time.
She feels totally at ease handling computers and says that she spends quite a lot of time sending e-mail. ``My disability does not come as a barrier in communication here,'' she says.
She is in Kochi, participating in the ongoing conference organised by the National Resource Centre for India, an Indo-Canadian project of the Spastics Society of India and Roeher Institute, Canada. She is a keynote speaker. On a wheel chair, with a communicator, Malini feels as independent as a normal person. It is only for long talks with strangers that she would need a helper by her side.
Her quick replies with the communicator actually puts a normal person at ease. One needs to get used to her way of communication because of the speech problem. But Malini replies to queries with as much alacrity and alertness as any normal person.
Class disparity determines the situation of woman over here, she says about the status of women in India. But all over the world she finds one similar aspect about women. ``Their prime job is to cook and do all the chores at home. And men only want their mothers for their wives,'' she remarked.
Malini has studied about the status of disabled women who are in a minority. She did her masters in Women's Studies from the Institute of Education, London. Before that she took a diploma in publishing from Brooks University, Oxford after studying history at St. Xavier's College, Mumbai.
``At college some were good to me while some did not how to treat me. They used to pat me like a little girl. Some would rather talk to my helper than to me because they never thought that I understood,'' says Malini.
These social problems will be solved once the disabled are more visible, she says. When they become more visible and seek change, there will be changes, she reiterates.
ADAPT, formed in 2000 in Mumbai, aims to create awareness regarding such aspects. It has undertaken a project to survey the accessibility of various public places and also approach the authorities to modify these places to make them more disabled-friendly. Elevators, ramps, rods at appropriate places will help the disabled, Malini says. Society's attitudes are also rooted in religion, myths, prejudices and ignorance. ADAPT hopes to bring about changes in this regard too, she adds.
Born to Mithu Alur, her high IQ sent Dr. Alur searching all over the country and abroad for a solution to educate her disabled daughter. She founded the Spastics Society of India in 1972 which gives special training to cerebral palsy afflicted children.
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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