Making the most of who we are: Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled

For the past 20 years, this non-profit has been empowering people with disabilities through its various initiatives in the fields of education, livelihood, environment, health & nutrition, sports, culture and rehabilitation.

Mahantesh G K was the first child born to his parents in 1970 in Belgaum, Karnataka. At the age of six, he was diagnosed with visual impairment.

My family was heartbroken. Initially, I went to a school with no proper infrastructure for blind children. In 1981, I moved to an English medium school for the blind in Bangalore, recalls the 47-year-old over a telephone conversation from Bangalore.

At his new school, Mahantesh found a strong support system. He and his friend, Nagesh S P, played cricket. It was here Mahantesh discovered that blindness was not the only impairment that these children suffered from.

Lending a helping hand

In 1997, Mahantesh established Samarthanam Trust for the disabled along with Nagesh. “Along the way, we found people who wanted to help.” says Mahantesh. And since then, the trust has expanded its scope from primary and secondary education to rehabilitation, sports, social entrepreneurship, livelihood and more. The organisation is affiliated to the World Blind Union.

Both Mahantesh and Nagesh being cricket enthusiasts, the sport has played an integral part in the organisation and their personal lives. The special cricket ball for the visually impaired was invented only in 1989, before which they would brave the fields with ordinary equipment. They worked tirelessly to develop cricket for visually challenged players and registered Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI) in 2010.

The trust was selected for the Citi India Innovation Grant Program under the auspices of The Citi Foundation in 2016. Under this, it will work towards empowering 600 disabled youth through a residential programme and a higher education drive.

Innovation for inclusion

Samarthanam believes in an inclusive society where opportunities are universally available.

Mahantesh witnessed that the youth in our society did not just face the challenges that came from visual or physical impairment; but also faced social estrangement.

His organisation, therefore, fights this battle head on. It works towards higher education, equipping the disabled with skills and including them as a part of the workforce. “People with disability are a potential workforce,” he asserts. “Technology should be helping them.” His belief, then, is in complete independence. It is not on each other’s sympathy that we must base our lives on, but our own capacity to work, innovate and earn. His vision of inclusivity is all-encompassing.

In 1999, Samarthanam Trust established an IT centre for people with visual impairment. It also initiated Samarthanam School (senior section) in 2004, Swadhara (a centre for women in distress) in 2007, and Samarthanam School (primary section) in 2008. In 2011, Kirana, a BPO was established to provide jobs to the disabled and to economically backward people. Two years after registering CABI, in 2012, Samarthanam was launched in the United States.

Along with skills training, education and employability, the organisation also works towards engagement of the disabled and the economically backward, in the fields of sports, health and nutrition, art, and environment. Its free residential school for the differently abled is currently under construction in Bangalore. The school will feature cutting-edge infrastructure and plans to be home to 700 students.

Besides, there are 10 livelihood resource centres spread all over Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand under the Samarthanam banner. Till date, 7,500 unskilled youth have been trained there, with 60 percent of them successfully placed in different jobs.

The importance of togetherness

“The word ‘together’ is very important,” says Mahantesh. “Our society needs to be inclusive so that disability does not become a problem. Living together is essential.” When asked about his dreams for the future, he talks about spreading awareness on disability and creating a society where people live inclusively, together. We are who we are, and there is no point in denying the challenges we face, he believes. He wants his children to be patriots – to serve the country, contribute to its betterment, and feel confident by earning their own living.