Empowerment toolkit by Abha Khetarpal helps women with disabilities advocate for themselves, addressing discrimination and healthcare challenges.
- Abha Khetarpal, a polio survivor with locomotor disability, has created a toolkit for women with disabilities
- The toolkit provides information about laws and policies created for women with disabilities, and the redressal mechanisms
- The aim is to empower them with information so that they can advocate for themselves
- There are Acts that support women with disabilities. They just need to know about those
- People must look at them as individuals who can contribute to society and economy, says Khetarpal
Women with disabilities, often marginalised in a society that fails to register their needs, can now find the power to steer change. They can do this using a toolkit which can help them shed their inhibitions and stand up for themselves as well as others. The toolkit is created by Abha Khetarpal, a prominent disability rights activist, who is a polio survivor and has locomotor disability.
With a vision to empower the women with disabilities to be their own advocates, she has equipped them with information in the toolkit. It brings together relevant provisions in the existing laws and policies, and the redressal mechanisms. It can help women with disabilities address their concerns that can be as wide-ranging as the need for accessible space, the challenges posed by discrimination, and disabled-unfriendly healthcare centres and hospitals. The toolkit focusses on the urgent need to encourage a dialogue on the often-neglected subject of sexual and reproductive rights of women.