Celebrating Madhuji on Women’s Day
08 March, 2021 | 7 min
Christel Naomi Roberts
Helping somebody is appreciated but dedicating your life to it takes a lot of grit, courage and will power.
Ms. Madhu Singhal is a veteran in the Disability sector and the founder of Mitra Jyothi. She founded Mitra Jyothi in the year 1990 and has been working towards enabling persons with disability live independent and dignified lives and integrating them into the mainstream society ever since. She is a bright, cheerful person, filled with optimism and a pleasant smile.
In a conversation with her over a cup of coffee, we spoke about a lot of things, on how she started Mitra Jyothi, the hurdles on her path, her interests, her hobbies, her childhood and her thoughts on a lot of other things…
When asked about how and why she started Mitra Jyothi, she said, “the story of Mitra Jyothi, is my own story. At that time, there were very few NGOs working and their pattern of work was old. They were not accepting the new methods and ways which is needed for persons with disabilities. So, with this environment, we started Mitra Jyothi.” She says it was the result of her experiences in life growing up and the hardships she had to face, studying and finding a suitable job. Growing up Ms. Madhu didn’t have easy access to braille/audio books or special schools for the visually impaired, so she was admitted into a main stream school and college, where they weren’t even aware of how to teach a visually impaired person, she eventually went on to complete her Post-Graduation in Hindustani Classical music. Mitra Jyothi was founded on this experience; to address the difficulties she had faced and making it easier for Persons with Disabilities, especially the visually impaired to face their own challenges and overcome them.
Mitra Jyothi, started a Braille press and a Talking Book Library which has now become an Educational Resource center making thousands of books and learning material accessible to the visually impaired in the audio format and EPUB formats and has enabled thousands of candidates to study and realize their dreams.
When asked about her hobbies, she says, “Work has become my hobby! I love meeting Persons with Disability, and constantly thinking of how I can help them. This has become my hobby now. Along with this I also like to listen to auto biographies, old songs, visit historical places and so on.”
I asked her a question, that I had come across, on one of the social media platforms: “When was the last time, you did something for the first time?”
She answered it with a smile, she said “That is an everyday thing for me… Because we are faced with different situations and different people every day at work, that we need to be constantly thinking, how to address it!”
On Technology, she agrees that technology has helped so many of the visually challenged to get better jobs in good companies, but she’s a firm believer of human intervention, she says, “I personally feel that whatever it is, it’s the human intervention that will make a big difference in the life of anyone, either visually impaired or sighted.”
When asked about Mitra Jyothi’s future roadmap, Ms. Madhu believes in “one step at a time.” She says, “When we started our work in 1990, my focus was for the persons with disabilities in general, visually impaired in particular. And I don’t believe much in big numbers. We can take thousand people and can teach something or bring them out from their challenges. It is tough. I don’t look forward to forming big organizations all over the world. We can do that, but personally, I am interested in a small way, If we can make some changes in the society, I am happy. I am a perfectionist. If I must do something, I must do it properly, I will be happy if in a year, I help hundred people, 50 people to show them some way in life. I’m really satisfied with it. I’m interested to work with other organizations, have a collaboration and help each other, because I have seen that it makes a huge difference”
Her take on change in the society and the disability sector: “This my thought about it. We should not be negative in our way of thinking about this. We should be positive towards it. And we should think that the challenges are with everyone, Slowly and steadily, we have to come out from our challenges. I believe that every night has a morning. So, something good will definitely happen.”
As we concluded, I asked her, for a message she’d like to share to all the people; She said, “I always say everyone, whether they are persons with disabilities or not, hurdles and challenges will always be there in our life, But we must take the first step. Then, people will definitely come forward to help you. And if one door closes, another door will definitely open. The only thing is we have to keep walking forward, only then we will be able to achieve.”
Ms. Madhu Singhal, affectionately called “Madhuji”, is an inspiration to many. Her life, her journey and her pursuit towards her calling and purpose, one can always look up to. On this women’s day, WinVinaya Foundation is proud to celebrate and salute Madhuji and all the women around the world.