Who Am I ?

Malini Chib is the Senior Events Manager at the Oxford Bookstore in Mumbai. She is also freelance writer, activist and advocate of equal opportunities and full participation for the disabled. She is the Honorary Secretary and one of the Trustees of ADAPT (formerly the Spastics Society of India). She has travelled extensively in India and abroad, published several articles and presented papers in international and national conferences. A graduate in History (Honours) from Bombay University, Malini has an advanced Diploma in Publishing from Brookes University, Oxford. She has a Masters Degree in Women’s Studies from the Institute of Education, University of London and a second Masters in Information Technology from the University of Central London. Malini is Founder Chairperson of the ADAPT (Able Disabled All People Together) Rights Group of the organization, that looks at issues concerning access, attitudes and empowerment.

ADAPT

All over the world Disabled People's Organization (DPOs) have been set up consisting of groups of organizations of disabled people. ADAPT is new and innovative in that it is looking at an inclusive society which consists of disabled people and non disabled people working together with disabled people 's voices being dominant. The central message of ADAPT is "nothing about us without us" The ADAPT team strongly condemns segregation and believes that that is one of the reasons why it is so difficult for adults with disability to blend into the society. ADAPT is different from many other disabled people's groups, because it believes that both "able" and "disabled" should work together for an inclusive society and none should be excluded. It does not approve of disabled people being ghettoised in a single organization only including the disabled.

Political Charter

The disabled in India have been left out of the development and progress in our country due to lack of political will, conflict of resources, coupled with a lack of conceptual knowledge of how to include them results in their massive exclusion across the length and breadth of the country.