NGO brings hearing impaired youth into professional path

Lucknow/Gorakhpur: Aamir Lulia and Aniket Bhanushali, both born with hearing impairment, were destined for mundane jobs like making ladoos or embroidery after completing Class 10. But that was not to be in this case.

A chance interaction of their mothers with the co-founders of an NGO helped them get higher education and enter the formal job market. With extensive help from TEACH, which works towards building an equitable ecosystem for the deaf and hard of hearing students, both now have a BCom degree. Aamir Lulia now works in the HR department of TEACH, while Aniket Bhanushali manages accounts for a company in Thane.

Training and Educational Centre for Hearing Impaired (TEACH), co-founded by Deepesh Nair and Aman Sharma in Mumbai have been working since 2016 to bridge the gap between higher education and employment opportunities for deaf and hard-of-hearing students.

Less than one per cent of the universities and colleges in India are only accessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing students and it underlines a significant gap in access to education for such people, Nair told PTI in a telephonic interview on Sunday.

He said TEACH aims to bridge this gap for the deaf and hard-of-hearing-students after they complete their class 10th by going beyond academic support and by offering a comprehensive holistic development model that influences all other stakeholders.

Amir’s mother Hasina Lulia and Manjula Bhanushali, mother of Aniket, recalled how bleak the future once seemed for their children. Hasina Lulia’s elder son, who also suffers from hearing impairment, ended his education after Class 10 in absence of adequate opportunities due to his disability. But Aamir was lucky to have the support of TEACH, who worked very hard for him, and made him achieve something substantial in life, Hasina Lulia told PTI.

Nair, for his efforts in building an equitable ecosystem to facilitate higher education for deaf and hard-of-hearing students, he has been

selected for the Professor Yeshwantrao Kelkar Youth Award 2024. The award initiated by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in 1991 recognises outstanding work in education, society, environment, and science by young individuals.

“In 2016, we started TEACH in Mumbai, and have currently expanded over Pune and Delhi, serving 400 students. So far, 60 students have passed out, and are employed in various jobs such as HR, finance, accounts and audits,” Nair said. The idea of ‘TEACH’ came in 2014, while volunteering in one of the special schools, only for hearing impaired children, in Mumbai, he said.

In special schools like these instead of imparting education in mainstream subjects like English, Mathematics, History and Geography, children were learning about laddoo making, saree embroidery, milk and milk products after they cleared class 10th, Nair said.

Upon enquiring, it was told that these students could not do much in their lives, so the maximum they can do is get a normal job or an odd job or do some housekeeping job, he added. “This mindset came as a challenge to us,” he said.