Project RAHUL

by
Gaurav Kumar

Its always been an internal verbosity which curbs any kind of confusion or conflict to get into so called difficult movement of social change and philanthropic work, but today it was the silence. A silence which has lots of questions within it, a plethora of inferences inside.

The decision of entering into disability sector was never so difficult as I understood that the problems are apparent and the need is too. The challanges have never been detrimental , never got any feeling of discouragement as I always knew its worth even to do 1% of the need for the betterment.
The issues which have not been looked at and the challanges which are not even recorded are not hidden from anyone who has even a miniscule interest and awareness of the situation in India for special needs. Every kind of limitation stands as a different monstrous challange for the people who are involved in facing it.

It was always question of finding the right way of fighting with a certain kind of disability so far. Today, it was a different experience , an experience of silence as I described above, an interaction with the making of a disability. Dr. Bhatia might be just talking of a subject when he said there is no hope for Rahul to get back to the condition of exhibiting dexterity, Rehabilitation is the only hope, for me it was a whole human life getting LIMITED in front of my eyes. It was not a fear of not keeping up to the expectations of Deepak bhai to give complete ambulatory privileges to his 4 yrs old toddler. it ws not the fear of facing Rahul's mom, look into her eyes and say a NO, it was not the fear of getting another sleepless night for one more heart touching incident... the question was "Will Rahul get what he can, are we ready for facilitating one more life with the opportunities which has no limits".

The anxiety needed a word of wisdom, meeting with Mrs. Brinda Nanavati, I know, is a panacea. Her confident discussion gives me an energy to keep the light burning inside me. She talks about lack of early intervention programmes for differently abled kids across the country. There are no dedicated and reliable centre which can evaluate and plan the facilitation for special children. Rahul is one such case, I have to find the best way to serve to a promise made to myself.

On my way back , I saw deaf kids dancing on the tunes of ZOOBI DOOBI, To dance on a tune without knowing it is POSSIBLE, it is not just possible it is awaesome, exemplary. With my eyes mesmerized at those small feet beating in harmony and serene faces which could even acknowledge my appreciation, I decided, Something will be done for the early intervention fo kids with special needs, for the planning of supporting parents like Deepak bhai for knowing that their child is SPECIAL and will be treated specially in this land.

This DARE will be named "PROJECT RAHUL"

Social Entrepreneurship, Social service and Business

Gaurav kumar

Entrepreneurship has been as widely confused with business as Social entrepreneurship with social service. As entrepreneurship has business value in its core or as main output, social entrepreneurship has social service as its main deliverable. But these minute relationships have been largely mapped to major confusions.
Social entreprepreneurship is percieved by many entrepreneurs as a balancing act between generating revenue and creating social value at same time but it is not so. As the term sustainibility defines entrepreneurship, social enterprising also demands for a sustainable effect with prolonged value creation. If you work on 10 ideas and your 10th idea succeeds, you will be recognized as as "Serial entrepreneur" and if you stop at 9th you without any success you will be classified as a "Risktaker".
The word which differentitates the two sides of coins are "Leadership" and "Activism". A social entrepreneurship should lead to a leadership activism which gives start to a trend of uplifting the conditions of underprivileged or ameliorating a social stigmatic condition. If not so, it should be only termed as localized social service.

Social entrepreneurship differentiates itself from business in terms of utilizations of profits generated. While a business creates opportunities for revenue generation, a social enterprising does so by restricting the loss of resources or avoiding the non utilization of resources at the same time. A business creates a value which benefits the consumer in a better way, a social enterprise makes better consumers for better necessary consumptions.

Diversity needs a DARE

Gaurav Kumar

"India- Unity in Diversity"
It might look as one of the most repetitive and banal affirmation for anyone who has grown up reading in and about indian culture.
I do not know how many people agree with my questions on this adage.
Aren't we done with just boasting of what all we have and how did we manage to remain a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY (I am sorry for being rude).

I beileve it's time to act , time to use this diversity towards development. We are land of innumerable cults and religions, almost 1600 languages including dailects. We are a country where a significant population of the land doesnt understand national anthem.Do you know why do we have cloth stiching business going on in India.. because how many types of dhoti, lungi, ghagra, bandhez will you form readymade companies for.

Having all this retiterated, lets face some bitter facts:
-India ranks 114 out of 134 countries on gender gap which calls for a reality check on equality complaince in employment, health and education.
- There are no mandates on diversity as such for companies in India
- only 14% of disabled population has an employement
- There are still no mandates on reservation for disabled people in private companies.

Keeping the discussion with context to diversity at workplace
Diversity refers to the variety arising out of educational, cultural, racial, ethnic, age, religious and gender differences. The essence of diversity is the acceptance, exploration and leveraging of these differences in a safe, positive and nurturing environment. That means having an open mindset, being inclusive, giving legitimacy to these differences and accepting them with a positive mindset.

Many companies look at diversity from a very narrow perspective. They focus on helping disadvantaged groups, essentially with the objective of being politically correct. That is unfortunate because diversity is a much more powerful concept that if leveraged effectively can yield tangible business benefits. Indeed, diversity initiatives will not be sustainable unless they are designed to make an impact on the business.

Extending to it, at all our companies we should be awarness how a differently abled person makes it to sit next to us, why should we not put one step ahead to ensure his/her inclusion and why should the disability empowerment not only be limited to recruiting a miniscule percentage at work places, rather than how we build a barrier free world around us with all of us being sensitized to the difference , the Diversity around us.

DARE INDIA has accounted of the historic statement and wish to modify it to "Development with Diversity"

Inspirational

A good day in the life of DARE INDIA

"I am calling from XXXX Company, Is this Gaurav Kumar?, Sir , this is regarding your venture DARE INDIA and we wish to list our company as an employer with openings specific to people wih special conditions" The words over the phone last evening were just enough to make my heart thumping with the joy of acceptance of DARE INDIA.
Today's meeting with the marketing person at XXXX company gave a new insight and scope of work towards employment. The company says we are running short of people to recruit and I have personally met atleast ten people who said there is no one to employ people like us.....Yes there is a NEED GAP..... DARE INDIA sees a rays of hope to fill that gap...

I am sure there are more companies/people to listen to the argument of DARE INDIA...
DARE INDIA is happy, the Diversity recruitment portal at DARE INDIA is very soon going to be up and running ...... Watch out.

DARE to employ special people.

The Launch Story

By
Gaurav Kumar, Founder & CEO


17th April, 2010 has been embossed on the golden pages of my life as I realized the satisfaction I got after the labor pain before DARE INDIA was born.

A hectic schedule on 16th April was not stringent enough to impact the excitement in anyway.
As I stood by the podium, A screen appeared in front of my eyes and started running as a story board. I saw myself standing near the old scooter of my dad , in a short half pant and wondering at the possibilities in the world, I saw myself sitting in the verandah of our incomplete house with my mom knitting a sweater with old used yarn, I saw myself paddling on wretched old AVON cycle in a fog covered small town Motihari, in east champaran district of Bihar.
And the flash kept on moving, Engineering days, friends, rewards, exams, Typhoid..then the day when I got my first job, then Infosys, corporate culture..and so on..

On the same screen a small figure of mine was growing slowly , grieved over a certain issues, a continuous thought process to do something for people in need , to DARE. Within a fraction of seconds this figure captured the whole screen and nodded "Go Ahead, everyone is with you".

I presented the idea of DARE India in front of various distinguished people from the Industry and social sector. I am lucky to have so many people around me, supporting me. Presence of Mr. Hiten Vasant, Mr, Parag Desai and Mrs. Brinda Nanavati was great strength for me. Everyone reaffirmed the commitment to the cause.

The launch was followed by a sensitization session and workshop by Ekansh group from Pune.
I must congratulate myself for sending atleast one message to all the people present in the workshop "We all are same".

DARE has just begun, it has a long way to go, I have to hold my emotions , have to fight the situations and traverse this way towards inclusion and development of the nation.

I dedicate this post to my dear mom who might not understand what inclusion means but she is the one who taught me to love humans, I dedicate this to my dad who made me stand for a cause always and I want to dedicate this Post to all those who have shared their love, hatred, concerns, criticism with me at any point of time in my life.

I swear to DARE
Gaurav

Launch of DARE INDIA

DARE - From silence for silence

DARE INDIA was not ideated as a quick step towards success with lots of noise and turbulence, touching the ears of a few romans, it was thought fromthe deep roots of heart, polished with emotions , strengthened with serenity, silence and love.
Every morning when the sun ray touches my face and my cerebral accesories wake up, the first thought goes in a direction to DARE.
DARE INDIA was a restless, very much influenced kid when he slept last night, today morning, he saw himself phlegmetic, cool, satiated with sanctity and excited with a new thought.
A thought to learn about the world of silence, to hear a voice not spoken, DARE INDIA had an acquaintance with UMANG, an NGO working with Deaf kids. Brinda ben , the president of the school interacted as a new ray of hope. Deaf Community is most ignored community in all the special condition communities. An interaction of more than 3 hours has set up a context for the scope of work to be done in the world of no voices.
DARE is commited, let people shout, let people grin, DARE will have a silent mirth on his face, he will observe, act, associate, spread love and be the voice of "the UNHEARD".
May god give one more life to DARE as the world of different ability has so many colors that DARE will like to see all of them

A Challenge which intimidates all doubts

DARE INDIA is in Quest to launch it's first public effort towards inclusion very soon. There have been lot of challanges in the journey , right from commitment to see the life with a different eye, sight of which created the vision to strive for the empowerment and inclusion.
We always aspire to reach the pinnacle of succes without realizing that the most enjoyable and promising part is always the journey.
In the journey towards different foreseen achievements of DARE - INDIA, the most enjoyable part is meeting with the peole whom we strive to bring change for.
Meeting Blind People Association with Vimla Ben was an experience of contentment and service. Proposal to include non - hearing students in the upcoming seminar could have been an easier matter of concern for both of us, but she proposed me to include non hearing people along with other special consdition like limited vision and cerebral disorders. "I am afraid if it would be a problem to include..." and it deserved an interruption. "Why are you afraid of doing something which can really bring more joy and will show new paradigms of inclusion. Would you like to try it out, with all your guts".
"Yes , We take this challenge, lets do this". I replied instantly , puffing in sense of courage inside my lungs.
A bunch of students with multiple disabilities will attend the seminar and will be included with warmth and DARE.

A two way Approach to inclusion

A new thought has arrived to look at both the sides of inclusion, expediting the process by involvement from both the sides. There have been effort in teaching differently abled people the things which are practiced by others. Can it not be other way also? How about a course on Sign language used by deaf people and all of us try to learn the same. How about everyone of us learning braile as an additional language as we learn different languages.
I am sure ,a culture of two way learning will ensure a complete effortless inclusion.

DARE- INDIA you have another dream!

Inception of DARE INDIA

It all started with a small wound in the corner of the heart while watching a TV show where a 7 yrs. old girl was performing on the tunes of garba without any hands down her shoulders. The word Inability was refuted and was scratched off the dictionary then and there. The algorithm in the head of an IT engineer started pondering over the possiblities of defining the stints of capabilities and failure was obvious. The conclusion of a sleepless night resulted into an Idea. An Idea towards redefining capacities, an idea towards a new definition for the existence of 65 million people in this country.
Lot of things happened, a transition from 9-6 job to college life again, lots of new happenings, lots of new ideas, but this idea about substantial inclusion of differently abled people never died, always haunting at the back of mind.
It was feb 17th , 2010 when a discussion around social entrepreneurship was going at the canteen at MICA, Ahmedabad and Mr. Abdul Mujeeb Khan, President , Bhumi, was surrounded by students and facing the questions from various fields of Interests. I was listening to the insights and thoughts and the idea about inclusion was getting all the minerals to grow. After being a silent observer for almost an hour, I got a chance to share the idea with Mr. Mujeeb and..... rest was a D.A.R.E . This idea has to develop, this cannot be buried only in your head , the words were enough to collect all the energy to move away from everything else and stick to the soul of the idea for inclusion of 65 million people in mainstream Indian society.
12th March, 2010, almost one month after the decision happened, the idea was taking shape in Wanowari, Pune. The positive energy from 4 people was revolving around the idea to give it a shape of working model, a pathway to the dream.
DARE- India , Differently Abled Remain Empowered in India is a journey towards providing a platform of self esteem, leadership, excellence and empowernment to 65 million differently abled people of India. DARE- India will strive to prove to the world that differently abled people are equally contributors towards development of the nation.
May God give all the courage to DARE.