EnAble India

EnAble India works on livelihoods and inclusion for persons with disabilities, whom it describes as the largest minority in the world. It has worked since 1999 and states that it has served people with all 21 disabilities listed in the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act, 2016, and more.

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Its work covers jobs for persons with disabilities and also the employers, governments and communities that need to include them. It describes its role as bringing together the groups that work on disability inclusion, growing the "Purple Economy" and pioneering disability livelihood. The organisation says it has built more than 12 models and frameworks to train persons with disabilities to be employable and to train leaders to be includable. It scales its work through four routes: livelihoods, platforms, systems and narratives, and campaigns and collectives.

Headquarters: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Major Areas of Work

• Livelihoods: Self-employment, wage employment, and government and PSU jobs for persons with disabilities, along with direct services and an enquiry helpdesk for them.

• Inclusive employers: Support for companies that want to hire persons with disabilities and include them in their workforce.

• Work with government: Partnerships with central, state and local governments to scale disability livelihood models.

• Platforms: Community, innovator, learning, technology, fellowship and entrepreneur platforms that connect persons with disabilities, innovators and practitioners.

• Systems and narratives: Work under the Purple Economy and Purple Academy banners to grow the economy around disability inclusion and change how persons with disabilities are seen.

Major Initiatives and Programmes

• See A Million: A campaign for people with visual impairment and low vision, run through Parivartan Centres that offer digital literacy training, career counselling, assistive solutions and a guidance helpdesk.

• Hear A Million: An initiative with Deaf communities and other stakeholders across India that improves Deaf people's access to information and services, runs community events and develops Deaf leaders.

• GarvSe Centres: Hubs that work with local governments, NGOs and educational institutions to build sustainable livelihoods for persons with disabilities in rural India.

• Project Discovery: A platform that collects the solutions persons with disabilities have found to everyday barriers and inaccessibility, with submissions covering all 21 disabilities in the RPwD Act.

Impact

EnAble India states it has impacted 7,20,000 stakeholders across 1,480 locations and cites 830 corporate collaborations. Its site also reports reaching more than 1,03,000 people with visual impairment and low vision through See A Million, and running 45 GarvSe Centres in 12 states and union territories.

Partners

• Government: Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment), Government of Goa, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation

• Multilateral bodies: United Nations India, United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)

• Sector bodies and networks: Skill Council for Persons with Disability (SCPwD), Zero Project, Workability Asia, G3ict, Global Disability Summit, Incluzza

Leadership

• Shanti Raghavan, Founder

• Dipesh Sutariya, Co-founder

EnAble India suits people who want to work on jobs and inclusion for persons with disabilities across India. The work includes direct services, employer partnerships, government programmes, technology and community building, across all 21 disabilities in the RPwD Act. Staff work with companies, government departments, NGOs and disability communities, so they see how inclusion is built from several sides. It fits people interested in livelihoods, training, accessibility, partnerships or field programmes who want to join an organisation that has worked in this area for more than 25 years.