Pieces of a Puzzle

“I soon found myself training a group of adults who were visually or mentally-challenged,suffered hearing impairment or had some other physical challenge. I realised that even though they had lost the function of a body part,they were gifted with the potential to enhance another sense,” says Deshpande.

He noticed that a visually-challenged person had an increased sense of touch and one who had hearing impairment had a hightened sense of concentration. Deshpande also observed that mentally-challenged people have greater strength and are capable of sustained physical labour.

With this insight,he formed a team that collaborated the various abilities and taught them how they could work together on factory machines. While those with orthopaedic difficulties filled in the dye,a visually-impaired person clamped the mould and rotated the spindle. A hearing-impaired employee was given the task of feeding in material into the machine at a regulated speed while a mentally-challenged worker rotated the wheel and applied pressure on the dye.

But Deshpande went a step further from just equipping them with skills and started an injection moulding unit for them to earn a livelihood. “I visited many NGOs before starting this centre and found that all of them provide financial assistance to specially-challenged people. But the need of the hour was to help these people help themselves. Only when they use their special skills to provide for their families will they live with a new sense of dignity in society. I wanted them to fetch for themselves instead of fetching for them,” says the 61-year-old.

While some candidates complete their training at EDACH and get jobs in different factories,others get absorbed at the unit. The products they make are graded by ISO and sold to multinational companies across Maharashtra and profits are distributed evenly among the workers.

“There are only 19 people working in the unit at present. Many want to join but we don’t have the means to acquire them. We do not get any compensation from the government because we do not come under its specific categories. Donations come in few and far between,but we are hopeful of expanding this project to the best of our abilities,” he ends.