GUJARAT: Every Sunday, Anju Majethia goes for a walk and meets disabled people in Ahmedabad. She notes down the issues they face and invites them to her house for any assistance they need. Someone may need food grains. Some others may require a hearing kit. Someone else may want a tricycle. If someone desires a walking stand, Anju pays for it from her own pocket. She is not alone in her endeavours. Anju’s US-based friend Jigna Patel, also with physical disabilities, provides her able support.
Anju, through her NGO ‘Khushi’, has so far helped more than 5,000 disabled people. The 53-year-old auditor for the ‘Gujarat Khadi Gramme Udyog Board’ started the NGO with the intention of giving back to society.
Sharing her own story, Anju said: “When I was two-and-a-half years old, the polio vaccine had not yet been developed or made available. I had fever, so the doctor gave me an injection. This resulted in cramping and limb shortening in my left leg, which started struggle with disability.”
Public spaces were not disabled-friendly that time. Many of the places are not even now. There are, of course, special facilities in schools, hospitals and public transportation. There wasn’t any back then, she said. “My first struggle in life started in school when I had to climb the steps to the classroom; everyone stared at me as a helpless little poor girl, but they could do nothing to help me.”
Anju recalls the struggles she faced. “Once you’ve sat in the class, it’s challenge to stand up and attend the prayer on the ground floor…. You must wait to see who will accompany you if you need to use the restroom. In 1989, in the midst of many such minor and major problems, a job vacancy in the Gujarat Government Khadi Board was published. I passed the exam and got the job.”
But she faced tough challenges from her co-workers. Officers often drew the red line in the muster because she was late to office. The difficulties of climbing stairs were never taken into account.
But nothing deterred her from her Mission Khushi endeavour. “I constantly wanted to do something so that no one else would have to face the struggles I had seen in my life. And my nature is such that if I see a crippled person going down the street, I immediately take him into my car. If someone is in need, I will provide food grain; if a disabled person requires medicine, I will order it with my own money. Thus, I began to aid disabled people on a small scale.”
‘Khushi’ was born out of her desire to assist the disabled people in whatever ways possible. “But the first concern was where to acquire money to help people on such a vast scale. Jigna said we will start Project ‘Khushi’ with our own money, without asking anyone for assistance. Jigna now provides her own money for the large-scale assistance provided to the disabled through through ‘Khushi’. And I donate half of my pay. That is how Project Khushi operates,” she said. Jigna Patel, with disabilities, is her classmate and friend, who now resides in America.