Make an Inclusive Duniya for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Roshni has an intellectual disability. She was asked to drop out of school as soon as she turned 14 years old. The school was worried about how her scores would affect their rankings in the 10th and 12th board examinations.

Roshni wants to go to school to learn and play with other children, but she simply stays home most of the time. 

Work done by The Sarvodya Collective

We are a non-profit organisation with a mission to build informed, enabling and inclusive communities around every person with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDDs).

Why? An estimated 35 million people in India live with an intellectual disability and many more with other developmental disabilities. Many of them face challenges in their everyday life and are marginalised and isolated from mainstream society. The root cause of this is a lack of sensitization and awareness amongst the general public. 

Inclusive Duniya is our flagship programme to build awareness and cultivate allyship for the cause. 

Why awareness and allyship? Allies are a powerful catalyst to creating inclusive environments where people with IDDs can thrive and feel valued.

Despite the best of intentions to be allies, many people do not know how they can meaningfully engage with PwIDDs and contribute to the cause. 

We bridge this gap and help people become allies for PwIDDs. 

How do we do this? 

Conversations: Through storytelling and light-hearted, candid conversations, our Inclusive Duniya Circles sensitise children about IDDs and get them to think about how they can be allies to PwIDDs. 

Content: Our Insta-comic, Naina’s Inclusive Duniya, is India’s first and only comic series on the issue area. It showcases the life experience of PwIDD and what allyship looks like in small everyday ways. We also run 

Capacity-building: We believe in empowering young people and adults to talk about neurodiversity and allyship. All our Inclusive Duniya Circles are facilitated by volunteers, taking them on a learning journey along the way. 

Our work in schools:

The earliest experiences of exclusion and isolation begin in schools so it is crucial to ensure inclusion there. Through the Inclusive Duniya Schools Programme, we support members of the school community with creating inclusive learning environments.

The work we do includes:

• Conducting trainings and workshops for teachers and school leaders
• Creating informative content for teachers (including resource packs and our ‘Tuesdays for Teachers’ series)
• Developing the Inclusive Duniya Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Curriculum that teachers can use to cultivate inclusive qualities in students
• Nurturing students into allies through learning opportunities such as social internships and Inclusive Duniya School Club

Our work in communities:

Through our Awareness and Allyship Programme, we spark more conversations about the issue area and engage volunteers to hold Inclusive Duniya Circles.

We empower our volunteers by helping them discover how they want to show up as allies and what the allyship journey means to them.

We also engage people at the grassroots level as we believe that they are change makers within our community - be it youth from schools and colleges, residential societies, or employees and corporates. We sensitise them as knowledge partners and work with them to develop solutions and ideas for inclusion for their contexts.

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. I hope that every PwIDD is supported meaningfully in our society, especially in schools, where their chance at a fulfilling life begins.

Here are some key figures depicting the impact of our work so far:

• Our content has reached over 300,000 people online.
• We have sensitised and upskilled more than 936 teachers and learning facilitators, impacting over 10,200 students via them. 
• Over 23,000 children have participated in conversations about neurodiversity and allyship through Inclusive Duniya Circles.

With your donations, we can continue our work to ensure that every PwIDD is embraced and included in our society. 

It costs us:

• ₹350,000 per year just to keep our office open.
• ₹750 to run a volunteer-facilitated Inclusive Duniya Circle with one class of students.
• ₹10,000 to publish a new comic strip on Instagram 

Your contribution matters! Join us in building an Inclusive Duniya!