Inclusive Duniya: Celebrating Neurodiversity with Friends and Allies!

Roshni was asked to drop out of school, as soon as she turned 14 years old, and asked to join elsewhere because the school was worried that she was not scoring enough marks, which would affect their ranking when it came to 10th and 12th board examinations. Roshni wants to go to school to learn and play with everyone else, but she still has not been able to find another school that will accept her, because of her intellectual disabilities. 

Were you ever left standing on your school playground, and not picked by any of the teams? Or been in a social setting where everybody speaks in a language you don’t know? Or had your friends gone out to a party that you were not invited to? Then you know what non-inclusion feels like. And that is the feeling that people, especially kids with disabilities go through on an everyday basis. 

Work done by The Sarvodya Collective:

At The Sarvodya Collective [website / Instagram], we passionately believe that we can overcome this discrimination in society by sensitising our community and helping everyone develop an inclusive mindset. To do this, we have built ‘Inclusive Duniya’ as our flagship awareness initiative. Our work includes:

1. Publishing Naina’s Inclusive Duniya – we share sound information and showcase how one can be an ally in small but meaningful ways every day through beautifully illustrated original content. We have published 110+ stories in this Instacomic (https://www.instagram.com/inclusiveduniya/) over the last 14 months. 

2. Inclusive Duniya Circles – we host fun, interactive spaces, led by volunteer facilitators, to inform per-teens and teens about intellectual disabilities and help them discover ways in which they could be a friend and an ally. We have hosted ~100 conversations in schools and communities over the 6 months we have been doing these.

3. Inclusive Duniya Project – We offer knowledge partnership and capacity-building support to the parties that are interested to run Circles and other projects independently to build inclusivity that is relevant to their context that is designed for their specific purpose and audience.

Here is what Kirthi, Aanya’s mom had to say after attending one of our sessions: “To be frank, as a parent, I had tears in my eyes. I often yearn for allies and more of a support system for Aanya as she grows up, a much more inclusive world. Today, on the screen, I saw 10 kids from around India, who got it, in terms of understanding, kindness, and would make her perfect Inclusive Duniya!”

Founder’s Appeal:

“Inclusive Duniya is not just a hashtag or a cause to me. Someone extremely dear to me has an intellectual disability and I have personally seen how much it affects their access to education, employment and life opportunities. I have also seen personally, how much non-inclusion can impact their life outcomes. Estimates say that about 35 million people in India live with intellectual disabilities, and we want every one of them to live in a world where they feel included”.

We have reached over 1000 children across India, right from underprivileged children to children in private schools, and we have big plans to grow this ground-up movement to bring real-life change to the 35 million people living with intellectual disabilities in India. But we cannot do it without your help.

It costs us close to 3.5 lakh per year just to keep our office open, and ₹3,500 to run an online Circle with 10-15 children, ₹7,500 to run an offline session for an offline session in a school or community with 50 kids and in roughly ₹10,000 we can publish a new comic strip. Donate generously so we can make sure that no child ever feels left out, or misses out on opportunities because of their disabilities.