There were no laws in India in 1987 to protect the rights of the disabled. When Dr Sruti Mohapatra lost her job, she had no laws to protect it. When she was being disqualified because of her disability, there were no anti-discrimination laws to help her build her case. She learnt in training in New York that tireless advocacy at the grassroots level and determined community-wide education would prove to be essential agents for meaningful change. And back home, she started writing letters and raising issues. At one time, when Dr Sruti was in the secretariat, one of the section officers came to her and asked, “Madam, we have three huge folders full of your letters, how many more are you going to pen?” Every time she went out of the country, she returned and shared the happenings at the national and international level with the secretary of Women & Child Department (WCD) where disability was parked. Anything she read, she wrote to concerned officers enquiring about how many disabled were benefitting. The standard response was, “Please write to your concerned department.” And today each of these departments have to have a nodal officer disability, appoint 4% PwDs and have a component earmarked for disability.

 

Today, we have five strong laws (Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, National Trust Act, Rehabilitation Council of India Act, Mental Health Act and Right to Education Act), an international Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities and inclusive Sustainable Development Goals. The most powerful human rights law, our most-awaited and long pending, “Rights of Persons with Disability Act 2016 (RPwD Act 2016)” got passed as the law of the land by both the Houses of Parliament in December 2016. This landmark human rights law ensures that persons with disabilities receive the same civil rights’ protection as all other Indians. It was a game-changer. We also have the AIC, Made in India, Start Up India, Stand Up India and Skill India. Swabhiman takes great pride in that fact that Dr Sruti Mohapatra played a major role in this change from invisibility and exclusion to visibility and inclusion.

 

In 1995, the protest march to the Parliament gave us our first law, though weak. Sustained advocacy with right knowledge and patience, networking and awareness programs have changed the landscape of disability in Odisha & India. Then, Dr Sruti and others had gone for a budget allocation and were told that the numbers of disabled people are not known and that budget is as per numbers. Consequently, they went to Census Commission in 2000 where they were told that there is no time or money for training enumerators. Protest to burn themselves led to a meeting with the then Home Minister Rajnath Singh with Maneka Gandhi (WCD Minister), Arun Purie (Minister) and Mr Banthia (Census Commissioner) who led to a decision that disabled people will be counted. The counting was faulty, yet it was a matter of celebration as finally, disabled people were now a statistics for government–1.9%. In 2000, the visit by Stephen Hawking in India gave a big window. 

 

Over the past two-and-a-half decades, Dr Mohapatra has been at the forefront of many pathbreaking initiatives in the advocacy of disability rights. These include rights-based laws for disabled in India, a separate department for disability in Odisha, the inclusion of disability as a separate category in the national census, making polling booths accessible, and most recently, the formation of India’s new disability rights law, the RPwD Act, 2016. For anyone who is even about 40 or older will remember a time when there were no ramps on the streets, when trains and aeroplanes were not accessible for the disabled, where there were no wheelchair-accessible bathrooms in schools, airports and shopping malls, no schools where you had a sign language interpreter, no books in audio or Braille or other kinds of supports. These things have changed, and they have aided in creating an equal platform for people with disabilities.  Youth with disabilities are aspiring for greater things in life now. Achievements like these are what keeps Dr Mohapatra working relentlessly.

 

As an activist, the biggest problem Dr Mohapatra has to face was opening peoples' minds and changing ingrained social beliefs. There sometimes comes a point where the situation seems hopeless, where you think what you are working on is a lost cause. However, a situation is only hopeless if you don't believe in your cause—when you, as a leader, lose hope. Dr Mohapatra is constantly reassessing her values and making sure that her activities are in line with them.