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Sugandha Sukrutaraj talks about AMBA, a powerful, sustainable answer to the socio-economic needs of Indians challenged by autism.
What is a sustainable model that can help 35 million Indians lead empowered lives? Sugandha Sukrutaraj talks about AMBA, a powerful answer to the needs of India’s intellectually challenged.
AMBA is a business that employs over 60 intellectually challenged people to do back office work for other large businesses. It was founded with a vision to train, employ, and financially empower people with intellectual disabilities. And it has made a brilliant start in this direction, thanks to the Founder, Sugandha Sukrutaraj.
A typical working day at the AMBA office starts at 10 am, with the sound of phones ringing, keyboards ticking, and people talking. But what makes this organization truly unique is the fact that all of AMBA’s employees are intellectually challenged, i.e., every member of staff, barring the top two in the management, suffer from autism spectrum disorder.
Most people find it hard to believe that 3% of India’s population is intellectually disabled. For the most part, this is an ignored and disempowered section amongst us that depends on the immediate family, on institutions that care for them until they are 18 and on society’s charity thereafter. What we fail to recognize is that this population is ‘differently abled’, i.e., there are some things they can do and that they can do these things very well. In fact, the woman who trains the team at AMBA is someone with an intellectual disability.
What’s amazing about AMBA is that not only is it applying mainstream thinking to empowering people with disabilities, it is particularly focused on those within this community who have a lower ability. AMBA isn’t just an organization, it is the start of a sustainable model that can benefit 35 million Indians, if replicated right. Here’s a video from Chai with Lakshmi, where you get to see AMBA at work and hear Sugandha sharing about her pursuit. She is an amazing woman, watch her speak here!
An award-winning online talk show featuring people and ideas positively shaping India for the future. Anchored by Lakshmi Rebecca. Produced by Red Bangle. This show is over 120 episodes and 2.8 million views read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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