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“If you are financially independent, your will is strong and your senses are alert, you can lead a normal life”

In 2018 Neha Yadav was among the first few employees, all Blind or visually impaired, of Saarathee CRM in Gurgaon which hires, trains and nurtures professionals with different disabilities. Richa Bansal, who had just founded Saarathee that year, remembers how Neha had joined fresh from training in basic skills and computer at the National Association for the Blind (NAB) in Delhi. Her mother Sunita Yadav used to drop her to office every day and pick her up in the evening.
 
After almost two years of her mother escorting her, one day Neha arrived on her own. “I was happy and extremely proud of her,” Richa recalls. “She is an example of someone who evolved from being dependent to someone who is truly independent in all aspects today. Always extremely poised and confident in speech and demeanour, she became our trophy employee, gradually moving from tele-sales to a recruiter role. Today she independently drives hiring for our large clients across all job roles.”
 
Neha, who is now 30, had to travel a long and thorny path before she could become the self-sufficient individual she is today. As a child with poor eyesight she used to wear glasses but her vision started deteriorating when she was in 10th standard. She somehow cleared her 10th board exams and enrolled for 11th, taking up Commerce. However by then her vision was so limited she would use a magnifying glass to read her textbooks. After passing 12th grade with low marks she tried enrolling in a college to do B.Com but had to drop out after doctors declared her as incurably and 100 per cent blind; the optic nerve was apparently damaged.
 
Neha was heartbroken. She spent almost two and a half years completely dependent on her parents or siblings for all her needs, and doing “nothing else except rona-dhona (weeping and wailing)”, she recalls. She slowly started regaining her interest in studies. An instructor would come home every Sunday to train her. Her father Ashok Yadav, who worked in marketing, got her a laptop so she could access e-books. She learnt to use the mobile and its talkback option. She joined the Amity Institute of Education to pursue a diploma in elementary education, with the aim of becoming a primary school teacher. Assisted by a scribe she answered her exams and scored 75 per cent.
 
In around 2016 Ashok came across a pamphlet describing NAB and its residential programme offering skills training. He was reluctant to leave Neha to live by herself in a hostel but Sunita was supportive, and the couple often argued over this. Finally they came to an agreement and admitted Neha into the hostel. She started training but faced initial hiccups because she had to concentrate on listening rather than reading. She almost gave up but ‘Rajani ma’am’ encouraged her to stay on.
 
What radically changed her life was a six-month residential programme she did at the NAB Centre for Blind Women and Disability Studies in Hauz Khas. Each batch had 25 women. They were taught everything from cooking and baking to yoga and English communication. Supervisors would distribute chores among them such as kneading dough, cutting vegetables, cleaning tables, and washing dishes. Neha learnt to board the metro and cross the road using the white cane, and how to use the cane as a whip when needed. When Saarathee came looking for people to hire she was ready to take the interview.
 
Today Neha uses an auto that regularly picks her up and drops her, and on days when it isn’t available she books a cab. “Travel across Delhi NCR is easy,” she says. “I’ve also travelled to Shimla and Mussoorie with my disabled friends and also with my boyfriend.” Technology has really helped her overcome obstacles, she says.
 
Neha thinks that corporates in India should be made aware of what the Blind are capable of. “All they need to do is to give us an accessible environment,” she says.