Imagine living in a perfect world where people treat each other with kindness and every single space remains accessible to everyone? One can get a glimpse of this utopia through ‘Naina’s Inclusive Duniya’, an Instagram-based comic that is created by Gurugram-based non-profit organisation The Sarvodya Collective—they aim to raise awareness about persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities in India. Scroll through their page (@inclusiveduniya) and you will come across several posts featuring a five-year-old Naina who goes to an inclusive school, and talks about various developmental disabilities—such as cerebral palsy, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and the importance of acceptance in an effortless manner.
Founded by Gurugram-resident Pooja Sharma in January last year, ‘Naina’s Inclusive Duniya’ tries to bring issues around learning disabilities to the mainstream. “All my life, I have seen how under-served this area [community of those with developmental disabilities]was. Amid the lockdown, with the learning lapses, I realised the impact on the community,” shares Sharma who grew up with her brother who had an intellectual disability.
Vision for a better world
The stigma associated with disability is gradually being addressed and shattered. However, we still have a long way to go, with several lapses to be filled. In fact, when Sharma decided to direct attention towards development disability during the pandemic, she realised that several middle-aged professionals had little or no knowledge about the same. “I realised there is a need to have an ongoing campaign to raise awareness about this community,” shares the 42-year-old.
Through ‘Naina’s Inclusive Duniya’, Sharma and her team—an illustrator and a writer—try to endeavour to offer answers to the questions about developmental disabilities that they receive from people. The team picks one aspect of the disability and helps the audience understand how they can become an ally. “Be it something as basic as what is autism, questions about sensory overload, or how to create a safe space—we just want to show how, in little ways and without really spending much money, one can be a friend and an ally,” explains Sharma.
By means of comics, the team is able to reach out to numerous people and, in the process, also talk about other concepts such as menstrual health, gender fluidity, etc. “Our target audience is the entire world because we need to get these stories out there. Even though these topics are very difficult to deal with, we try to make them light and easy to communicate,” says Arundhati Deshmukh (29), a Bhopal-based illustrator of the comic.
Taking conversations ahead
Along with the ongoing comic series, the team has also been organising sessions with students, teachers as well as parents to strike conversations about disability acceptance. “We got great responses from students and parents alike. In order to scale the programme, I thought we could facilitate such conversations in groups to take the idea forward,” shares Sharma. The organisation has conducted several such sessions across various states including Bhopal, Chennai, Bengaluru, etc.