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“Celebrate who you are and keep learning every moment. Nothing is impossible”

When twins were born to B.L. Mangal and Savithri Mangal they named them, somewhat predictably, Sunil and Anil. But they could not have predicted what would happen to Sunil, the younger by 15 minutes. At six months, he was given polio drops (perhaps stored at the wrong temperature) that infected him with the polio virus and he was bedridden for two years. Homeopathic treatment restored his upper body but he couldn’t regain strength in his lower limbs below the knee.
 
The Mangals were not going to sit around bemoaning their fate. Discipline was the bedrock of their household: he had a Defence background (worked for an organisation that supplied items for the Department) and she was a teacher. Sunil was never given a chance to crib about his disability and was always encouraged to have hobbies and go outdoors. When he was five his aunt would carry him to and from school and by the time he was around seven he was fitted with calipers and, using crutches, he would accompany Anil to school. By Class 10 he was propelling himself to school on his disability tricycle. 
 
“We used to get three newspapers at home and I would read all of them,” Sunil remembers. (At 53 he still gets three newspapers at home.) “I would also listen to the radio a lot.” He sailed through college and completed his M.Com in 1992, winning a gold medal in his favourite subject: Insurance. That same year he started his career as an insurance agent. Even his forward-thinking parents were a little anxious about his choice because it was a ‘field job’ but he disliked being chained to a desk.
 
In 2002, a year after his marriage to Savita, Sunil gained membership to the prestigious LIC Chairman’s Club and also became a proud member of the Million Dollar Round Table, USA which later made him a life member for doing meritorious business in the insurance sector. He has been training insurance agents since 2018 and is now a Chief Agent, mentoring eight supervised agents and four back office staff. When you ask him whether online portals selling insurance have impacted his business he replies that it is still thriving because “insurance requires a personal touch”. His son, Aman (23), who is doing his Chartered Accountancy, also helps his father in his business. (The nameplate outside their house reads “Aman’s Castle”!)
 
Sunil recalls how his late father, while motivating him to be an entrepreneur, also reminded him to “do something for society”. In 1998 he had started a job orientation programme for Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), mentoring them and helping them find jobs. (He has imparted vocational training to 4000 disabled persons so far.) However he also realised that many could not work because accessibility was an issue. Therefore in 2008 he started developing workshops, interacting with PwDs to understand their challenges. This was the beginning of his journey to create awareness about accessibility, whether in offices or parks or buses or any of the countless spaces that impede the disabled in their daily lives. He saw no point giving vocational training if there was no accessibility. Creating an inclusive environment was the prime goal.
 
As a passionate advocate for accessibility, Sunil is a motivational speaker who has given over 250 talks – at seminars, in institutions, and on TV and FM channels. “People think that creating a ramp, or having a railing or installing a lift is adequate,” he says, citing seven key action points: no decorative pots on steps along railings meant for the disabled to hold on to; no moulded chairs or chairs with castors in offices; no carpet flooring at PwD meetings; colour change to indicate different levels of floor surface; lower cots and hard mattresses in hotel rooms for PwDs; public urinals at varying heights; accessible seating in auditoriums, theatres and all other public spaces.
 
When the Uttar Pradesh government launched its One District One Product (ODOP) scheme in 2018 to encourage local artisans, Sunil saw its potential to make disabled persons independent. He travelled across UP to study the business and employment opportunities that each place might offer for PwDs, and concluded that the ODOP scheme could benefit them. In June ’22 he and seven friends who were PwDs drove from Kanpur via Lucknow to Leh-Ladakh and back for a campaign they titled “Chalo Jeete Hum” (Come, let’s win). Wherever they halted they spoke to PwDs and disability organisations about the rights of the disabled, accessible environments, the ODOP scheme, and building confidence through sports. In 15 days they covered 4,400 km, meeting 40 NGOs in six states and two union territories.
 
Sunil, who won the UP government’s State award in 2020 for the empowerment of PwDs and is Kanpur’s PwD Icon for spreading election awareness, has travelled to 22 countries for professional and social work, and has driven 3.5 lakh km! Next he plans to drive to Goa for the International Purple Fest, the landmark annual event that promotes inclusion and accessibility, to be held from 9-12 October this year.