Yes, it is reaching to the list.
On 10/16/10, Mohammed Asif iqbal <asifmaiq...@hotmail.com> wrote: > I am not sure why my Email not reaching the list. So trying once again with > hopes that it reaches the list. > Print Close Window > > He lost his sight, lends a vision to the UID story > Chinki Sinha Posted online: Sun Oct 10 2010, 04:09 hrs > New Delhi : Mohammed Asif Iqbal once tried hard for acceptance, for his > teachers at his Bhagalpur primary school to understand that he couldn't read > clearly what they wrote on the blackboard. They asked his father to withdraw > him from school because "with only 50 per cent vision," the boy was whiling > his time away. He wasn't going to make it, they told his father. > Of course, the teachers were wrong. At 16, after he lost all his vision, > Iqbal's uncle took him to Oregon, USA, where he enrolled in a special needs > school with special educators. And today Iqbal, 34, is trying to bring that > acceptance - denied to him long ago - through the Unique Identification > Authority of India which launched last month to give every Indian resident a > 12-digit identity number. > Iqbal, a consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, is the first blind person > to have taken a sabbatical to join the UIDAI to lend his "perspective" to > the project, which is now considering pulling in people from the disabled > community to better meet their special needs. > For example, says Iqbal, he can now see the power of what a biometric > identity can do. "For the disabled, it is difficult. Just to even access > healthcare services. Or to get a disability card from the state after > procuring certificates. Even for railway concession, you have to produce so > many documents. A UIDAI number will eliminate that," he says. "I can see it. > I see it as a transformative moment - of creating history." > The UIDAI's first roll-out among families below the poverty line in a > Maharashtra village and the homeless in New Delhi served to underline its > "inclusive appeal," says Iqbal. "I was part of that darkness and I had moved > out and I needed to and now for others, I needed to figure a way out," he > says. > So he met UIDAI Director General Ram Sewak Sharma in Kolkata who got him to > join the civic outreach programme. As part of that, Iqbal is now working to > make UIDAI website disabled-friendly and conducts awareness workshops. > "Iqbal is very committed to the project and he brings in a unique > perspective, something that we could have missed. Inclusion and empowerment > are the basic motivation," says Sharma. > For Iqbal, his own story is a powerful testament to hope and inclusion. His > uncle, Mohammed Q. Hoda, an orthopedic surgeon in the US and aunt Rebecca > Bordreaux offered to take him to Oregon, admit him to a school with special > educators. His father agreed to let his son go. "I remember the first report > card. I had passed in a couple of subjects but my American mom (his aunt) > said I did a good job. I started to believe I could do wonders and could get > 90 per cent in all classes," he recalls. > His next big hurdle was getting into business school. For a blind student, > it was difficult finding a tutor or convincing business schools to allow him > to get a writer so he could appear for the examinations. > "I got through Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource > Development and became the first blind person to get the MBA degree from the > institution," he says. Then he joined PwC and when UIDAI was envisaged, he > knocked on its doors. > Iqbal will work with the UIDAI for a year. After Dusshera, when the UIDAI is > launched in Howrah, he will prepare NGOs to reach out to the disabled, > understand their unique needs and address their questions. > "I have thought through it. My experience so far with the project has taught > me a lot," he says. "When a disabled person walks in, he is looking for > answers, he is looking for someone to understand." Someone like Iqbal. > > Source: http://epaper.indianexpress.com/IE/IEH/2010/10/10/INDEX.SHTML > > > To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with > the subject unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > -- Thanks and regards Himanshu Sahu Reach: 09051055000 To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
