Power to Participate in India's Democratic Processes
At Astha, we believe in the power of every vote cast within a democracy. With improving conversations surrounding disability rights advocacy in India, we are committed to improve access to voting rights among persons with disabilities. Astha's work in this domain is committed to creating barrier-free environments where Indians with disabilities can vote for their rights. Our current projects include improving awareness; enabling a smooth voter registration and voting process while educating local authorities; conducting research to enable framing of objectives, helping design effective and practical policies and laws at the grassroots level.
EMPOWERING ABILITIES THROUGH SPORTS
Astha is committed to building an "ACADEMY OF EXCELLENCE FOR RESEARCH AND TRAINING IN SPORTS FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILTIES" in or around Bengaluru to produce world class para athletes from India. The intent of building an academy committed to sports for persons with disabilities is to coach para athletes to achieve excellence in their respective sports and eventually create innovative Sports Programs that will enable more participation from Indians across the country. Ongoing research is informing us of potential opportunities to create integrated sports programs. A common purpose through sport will educate citizens without disabilities to better under the concept of inclusion from a practical perspective. The coming together for a Common Purpose is the opportunity to disappear the differences; when a team has a Common Purpose, the team is required to know each member and operate as one; it is required that each other understand mutual challenges and individual strengths. It is in this process that the people in a team start relating to one another. This will eventually lead to a self-supporting community of individuals enjoying sport and maximizing its potential through the lessons learnt.
EMPOWERING AND ENABLING PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES TO PURSUE HIGHER EDUCATION
As we are engaging in the two projects improve voting and sport opportunities, we are witnessing among the community of Indians with disabilities an improved interest to pursue higher education. Astha's programs are creating awareness and resources to enable a minimum of 25 persons with disabilities to complete professional education of their choice five years. Annually scholarships are announced by Astha to enable this project. So far X amount of scholarships have been awarded to deserving candidates. If you are interested in applying or know someone who is in need of scholarships, please complete the form (hyperlink a Google Form here).
OTHER PROJECTS/ACTIVITIES
ASTHA from time to time engages in other activities / projects that are of main concern and interest to the community of differently abled people
1. We are working on making railway travel more accessible
2. We are working on including a chapter on bodily disabilities at School Curicullum to create awareness and sentivity to this aspect in the socieyt
3. Along with various NGOs we are working on creating a reliable Database of people with different abilities with an intention to facilitate better policy making , project creation and optimising the resources.
