Training Persons with Disabilities as Successful Entrepreneurs

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Introduction

This monograph draws attention to the much-neglected plight of Persons with Disabilities in India. In spite of several legislative initiatives and governmental schemes, much more work needs to be done by the government, community organisations and educational institutions.

It is now well-recognised that disability is an issue of social justice. Persons with Disabilities are entitled to all Constitutional rights. The right to life includes the right to health under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The lives of disabled persons are diminished by stigma and eventually it is up to the community to grant full acceptance of these individuals. Marginalisation in India is complicated by religion, caste, age, and gender. Unfortunately, many persons with disability live on the fringes of society as beggars, homeless and poor, often exhibiting their handicap as a means to ask for alms.

Fortunately, our society is becoming more enlightened, mainly because of the yeoman work of voluntary organisations. Media and cinema in recent years have adopted a more empathetic attitude to disability, thus playing an important role in community acceptance and reduction of stigma.

The Skill Council for Persons with Disability (SCPWD) was incepted in 2015, to fulfil the mission of mainstreaming 'Persons with Disability' (PwD) through skill training to enable them to earn a livelihood, and lead a life of dignity in mainstream society, and in turn contribute to growing the economy of the country. This body has created national occupation standards and model curricula for 75 occupations, each with pedagogies separately created for the categories of locomotor disability, speech and hearing impairment, low vision, and intellectual disability.

The responsibility of educational institutions is eminently clear. Not only must educational institutions lead the way in creating disability-friendly environments and attitudes, they must also include disability awareness in the curriculum and community projects. Universities must also develop and offer specialised courses.

This monograph highlights the importance of creating self-reliance among disabled people, showing the way to enable them to earn their own livelihoods through an entrepreneurial spirit and strategy. Through this commendable monograph many will acquire the knowledge and tools to encourage and train disabled persons to stand on their own. The commitment to improve the quality of life of our fellow-citizens is a worthy and fulfilling effort, which we must all support.

I am certain that this monograph will provide the stimulus and means for educationists, community organisations and motivated individuals to take the initiative in support of the disabled among us. Our university fully supports Dr. Marina Marwein's scholarly effort, through which we look forward to expanding our contributions to disability education.

Foreword

I deem it a privilege to be invited by Dr. Marina Bethany Marwein of Martin Luther Christian University, Shillong, Meghalaya to write a foreword to her monograph entitled "Training Persons with Disabilities as Successful Entrepreneurs".

Dr. Marina Bethany Marwein spent a year in the Roilang Livelihood Academy of Bethany Society, Shillong and undertook a thorough study of the programme offered and also the various gaps which her keen entrepreneurial eye was able to detect. She interviewed the staff and the trainees.

Her initiative in writing the monograph for students, so as to mainstream disability is truly commendable. It is scholarly and presents both the traditional and current understanding of disability. She is promoting the "Social Model" of disability which is in line the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 1995 (RPD Act 1995), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). All these continually focus on the barriers within the physical and social structures that prevent persons with disabilities from accessing their rights on an equal basis with others.

Dr. Marina Bethany Marwein weaves her magic by leading the student along a journey that covers both the identification of and removal of barriers while not diluting the challenges of entrepreneurship. I am sure that it will be a wonderful resource for students, skill development centres, Government and other institutions wanting to pursue such courses.

As per the National Education Policy 2020, skill development and entrepreneurship are integral parts of education and learning and the focus is not on entrepreneurs but on job creation for others by entrepreneurs.

While congratulating and thanking Dr. Marina Bethany Marwein to pioneering this effort, I wish the publication every success and hope that our sharing and learning for empowerment of Persons with Disabilities will continue for long.

Preface

More than one billion persons in the world have some form of disability. This corresponds to about 15% of the world's population, who with proper training, guidance and support would contribute significantly to 'build a fairer and healthier world', the theme for 2021 of the World Health Organisation.

I had the unique privilege to spend a year as a coordinator to Bethany Society in Shillong, Meghalaya state, an organisation doing yeoman service that has created opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs) through Roilang Livelihood Academy for over two decades. Over the past two decades more than two thousand students have passed from this academy and have successful careers. Many more organisations should take up the challenging task of training Persons with Disabilities to become successful entrepreneurs. One drawback seems to be the lack of general guidelines for training, and this has inspired me to write this monograph for university students, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), training institutes and families of PwDs to educate and motivate them to start similar ventures.

Although there are general books on entrepreneurship, none of them deal specifically with empowering PwDs to become successful entrepreneurs. This monograph is meant to fill this gap to stimulate, encourage and initiate relevant effective training programmes.

The major objective of this monograph is to provide the readers who may be students, NGOs, training institutes, and families of PwDs with a logical, feasible, essential learning experience to organise and promote an entrepreneurship development programme for PwDs in Indian settings. Since we are in a dynamic changing situation, the reader should be able to gather necessary resources, and using community participative approaches, involve critical stakeholders to initiate core training for Persons with Disabilities, especially visual, auditory, locomotor, intellectual and developmental disabilities, covering most of the 21 disabilities listed in the Government of India white paper on disability rehabilitation.

Using theory and classroom practical methods with suitable examples and field experiences, it is hoped that this monograph will encourage, educate and motivate graduate students, NGOs, well-wishers and vocational training institutes to provide specialised and inclusive training for any persons with a disability, with no exceptions, regardless of caste, creed or educational or social status, to be successful entrepreneurs, benefiting themselves, their families and the societies in which they live. The outlook is optimistic and will become even better in the future. I wish this monograph will succeed in this mission.

The organisation of the monograph is kept simple and logical. After briefly defining disability and entrepreneurship in the first two chapters, Chapters 3-6 deal with training persons with visual, auditory, locomotor, intellectual and developmental disabilities giving practical guidelines on classroom arrangements, assistive devices, pedagogy and supporting activities. Chapters 7-8 deal with basic knowledge and skills in management including accounting and some grounding in principles of sociology, psychology and communication needed for being successful in doing business in a contemporary society. Chapter 9 deals with recruitment of right teachers, their nurturing and support as they are the building blocks of any successful training. Summing up, Chapters 10 and 11 deal with guidelines for evaluating the training programme for PwDs and looking optimistically into the future panorama of development. Each chapter aims to provide appropriate knowledge in a step wise manner, reorienting the attitudes and helping the reader in gaining confidence to train PwDs to be successful entrepreneurs. I hope this monograph will not merely provide knowledge but will also change attitudes and develop skills through selected exercises.

I have benefited much by my interactions with the Director and faculty of the Roilang Livelihood Academy, Shillong and also with the current students and alumni. I express my humble thanks to all of them for enlightening me with the ground realities faced by Persons with Disabilities.

I thank Dr Glenn C. Kharkongor, Chancellor, and the administration of Martin Luther Christian University for introducing me to Bethany Society, Shillong, which inspired me to write this monograph.

I am most grateful to Mr Carmo Noronha, Executive Director, Bethany Society for his support and encouragement that enabled me to complete this monograph. I also wish to express my gratitude to Ms Bertha Dkhar for her foreword.

Finally, I acknowledge God's enduring blessings and guidance I received right from the time I planned to write this monograph and through every step I took to complete it successfully.

I believe that this monograph will be useful to all the readers and trainees alike. I look forward to comments and feedback from the readers and others who have used this monograph to help me prepare the subsequent improved editions.