Thilakam Rajendran – NEDAR Foundation

In this film, Thilakam Rajendran, Founder-Director of NEDAR Foundation, shares her extensive experience as an advocate for self-employment of persons with disabilities. She highlights the importance of entrepreneurship as an alternative to conventional job placements.
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I am a special educator, as a special educator, I have been in the sector for almost now three decades.
Our NGOs, any organization working in this field, we usually begin with a vocational training unit.
Our aim has been to teach a skill – you know, anything with, a kind of a skill which will help them to get economically empowered.
We’re not sure about employment, but I’m saying this because nowadays, skills and employment need to align and match with industry sector requirements.
In sheltered workshops and vocational units, across India, what we teach as special educators – there were more than 900 registered NGOs under the National Trust, and when I worked there – its product-related, handicrafts, eco-friendly items, these are what we focussed on mainly.
Often, special educators or teachers worked on what they believed would sell well, like candle-making, which was and still is a popular skill, So such skills were taught to young adults, and then we’d wait for Diwali or similar occasions to sell the items.
Products would be made, young adults would learn the skill, and special educators even designed assistive devices to help them.
For example, if we were making block-printed wrapping paper and needed to align blocks alternately, we created grids to guide them.
We also innovated our teaching methods – how do we teach the skill, and we innovated the assistive devices even for those areas and lot of effort has gone on teaching, and lot of time has gone, especially when we talk about people with autism or cerebral palsy, and with limited hand functions, they also became experts in that particular skills, and products started, you know, becoming better and better, but still, they were not ready for the markets.
The products were primarily sold on a charity model, and this thought has always troubled me.
How long can we keep on perpetuating a charity model?
If there is no income from the products, no bank accounts get opened for our young adults through this, then there’s no livelihood, no employment, no self-employment either, this was a real concern.
Every institution, RCI, and our government institutions need to pay attention to this.
With adults, we need to know how to talk—I mean how to do placements, how to build skills inside the institution which match the corporates.
So that’s where our entrepreneurial journey began.
If we’re working on product-related things, then the Entrepreneurship Development Training program is very crucial.
Today, incubators have sprung up all over the place.
They’re in the government, in the private sector, there are Atal Incubation Centers.
So wherever there are conversations around self-employment, we should be talking about inclusion there too.
And this, we feel, is also a challenge in our sector, where we identify someone through their UDID card or disability card, and there I feel that, like we ask our children what they’re doing – they say doctor, engineer, or maybe lawyer – then why don’t we give that same identity to our persons with disability?
They’re an entrepreneur, an artist, or an artisan – we want them to be at par with any professional, you know, world and also to be getting that identity.
So here, we need to give them that level of recognition, we also need to empower them with the corresponding skills.
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How does the NEDAR Foundation support skill development for people with disabilities?
So our current organization, NEDAR Foundation, is India’s first virtual incubator.
So whatever we start or do, we want to do it at par…whether it’s persons with disabilities or entrepreneurs, we are talking about giving them a distinct identity.
So, under MSME, we work with the National Small Industry Corporation, and we run entrepreneurship training programs.
After COVID, we started it online as well.
Because of that, a woman sitting behind a curtain in Bihar, while making roti with her child, is able to take EDP training and ask questions like, “Madam, I know stitching and embroidery, can I start a business with that?”
So we give this training online, and it is government certified.
And this certificate carries a lot of value when it’s given by MSME.
Why? Because it gives them the identity of an entrepreneur.
And then, once they get their Udyam registration, their journey takes a different path.
Like, for artisans, there should be an artisan ID.
So NEDAR stands for Network of Entrepreneurs with Disability for Assistance and Rehabilitation.
We observed that in India, there are trader associations in every corner.
There are women entrepreneurs’ networks, there’s DICCI, Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, so many organizations have formed for entrepreneurs to have a collective voice, but for entrepreneurs with disabilities, there is no voice even today.
There’s no collective voice where they can present their perspectives.
So, everyone agreed, “Ma’am, this should definitely exist, we didn’t have an idea about it!
That’s when we started writing Network of Entrepreneurs with Disability, and while it was forming, as we finished writing “NEDAR”, they all said in unison, “We are NEDAR”!
And the moment they said, “We are NEDAR”, something within me felt this is exactly right.
Whether it’s disability or financial challenges, if they take the risk of running a business, then only someone who is NEDAR (fearless) can do that.
Because we don’t easily choose business.
We usually choose employment, not self-employment.
But employment is not available for everyone.
So what do they choose then?
It is by, not by choice, it is by chance.
But if they want to stay in their village, and there is no employment available there, then they open a small grocery store, or they open a CSC (Common Service Center), or if they have mobile training, or mobile repair training, they open a mobile repair shop, or they open a beauty parlour.
So when they start something, then the real issue begins, to sustain it.
Because even now, in the ecosystem, they are not bankable, they are not credit worthy.
So all these problems that an entrepreneur faces, NEDAR Foundation works to address them.
After giving them this virtual training, we provide mentoring.
We assess their bankability, provide financial linkage in the form of returnable grants, which are of “no interest”.
And after that, market support is given too.
We even have an online “At Par Global Mall” where they can upload their products online.
And now the government has also started the Divya Kala Mela.
It has already been held in 21 states.
So all these platforms are opening up now.
The most important thing my partner Mr. Rajendran and I – we are both business and life partners, and he is from the corporate sector – believe and say is, self-employment is a way through which “disability vanishes”.
Why? Because the customer comes to see your product, not to see what kind of disability you have.
Whether you are on a wheelchair or with crutches, they don’t notice that.
I always give this example of Abhineet, he’s in the catering business.
His jalebis are so good that the customer comes and says, “Give me a quarter kilo of jalebi”, takes it and leaves, they don’t notice whether he can walk or not, or that he is in a wheelchair.
So self-employment is very important – it gives life, it gives hope, it gives livelihood – it’s a strength that we cannot ignore.
The NEDAR Foundation follows three mantras: Start, Sustain, Scale Enterprises.
So, those who want to start – what is their idea?
During our training sessions, when a kirana shop owner suddenly hears about what a market survey is, what a customer is, how to make money – like Pranab in Assam, he started a kirana shop. Then rented a small pond, put in fish, and in 10 days, within a month, he earned ₹10,000.
We’ve seen many such stories – someone started applying for tenders.
Someone found a new business opportunity.
Because what we talk about is how to find the “gap” (the problem).
Identify the problem, then fill the gap, find a solution that earns money.
So, we teach how to discover business opportunities and how to sustain them, and what you need to prepare to sustain your business, be it- business plans, making it bankable, branding the market.
NEDAR is a small step, but it holds a big dream.
We want organizations to join us, seek support, or even start a NEDAR chapter in their state.
The idea is to bring entrepreneurs together and showcase their strength.
I want to share a fact I recently came across, that 1.35 lakh people have generated ₹1.5 lakh crore of revenue.
These are invisible contributors, why don’t we see them?
Just 80 NEDAR members have created 400 jobs.
Only 80 people – just a handful!
If they remain invisible, how will policies include them? How will budgets be made? How will they even open a bank account?
It is every institution’s responsibility to bring their entrepreneurs forward and give them the support they need.
Ecosystem should also be equally supportive to these organizations who are nearby.
Maybe even government is thinking of how to include entrepreneurship as a skill, because they are job creators.
We need to concentrate on how to strengthen this journey of institutions, of special educators, of rehab professionals, and people with disabilities.
So let’s strengthen each other, and you know, take it for…forward.