Amrita Roy Chowdhury, Disability Rights Activist & Founder, Transcendant Knowledge Society
Today we are honored to host one such activist, Amrita Roy Chowdhury who relentlessly works to rehabilitate people with intellectual disabilities. Amrita defines an intellectual disability as a communicative, cognitive, and social impairment. She explains how her foundation Transcendent Knowledge Society helps rehabilitate people with intellectual disabilities and help them retain their rights in our society.
Podcast
Overview
“A fine balance of sympathy and empathy is very important.”
Our world is home to diverse individuals. It is safe to say that we are slowly but steadily moving towards the inclusion and acceptance of every color, race, or caste. Many social workers are working hard towards creating a healthy and dignified space for every unique person. Today we are honored to host one such activist, Amrita Roy Chowdhury who relentlessly works to rehabilitate people with intellectual disabilities. Amrita is a disability rights activist and the founder of the Transcendent Knowledge Society. In this episode, she takes us through the multidisciplinary approach she follows to rehabilitate people with intellectual disabilities.
People with disabilities are often sidetracked from living and enjoying a normal and independent life. Amrita helps such people shape a life for themselves by following several therapeutic measures. Amrita defines intellectual disability as a communicative, cognitive, and social impairment. Her only mission is to give a dignified identity to people with intellectual disabilities and help them retain their rights in the community.
Amrita talks about the acceptance of ID in the fraternity of her organization. She explains that people who have no family background of helping an individual with intellectual disabilities are willing to work for her. She explains the challenges related to that and shares the challenges she faced while building her social enterprise. Amrita focuses on particular areas of rehabilitation. She explains the lives of an individual with ID when he/she is a young adult. What happens to their authority and livelihood when they are young adults? She opines that we need a strong and dignified bridge to help them stand on their feet.
Tune in to this episode and learn more about Amrita’s work in rehabilitating individuals with intellectual disabilities and get inspired!
Profile
Amrita Roy Chowdhury has spent 13 years in rehabilitating children with visual impairments before entering the field of Mental Health. She has impacted more than 3000 children to rehabilitate visually and to sustain their education in mainstream school. In 2010 she was selected to develop the vision department in the neurodevelopment unit of SSKM Government Hospital and from there she has started working for children with other multiple disabilities. She has done several courses from various reputed organizations of India to understand the rehabilitation process of children and young people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities. From 2016 onwards she has been taking extensive training from KEYSTONE INSTITUTE an US based Organization working on Deinstitutionalization and Community Based Rehabilitation programs in different parts of world. She has been associated with the organization and volunteering as a faculty member there in different workshops designed by them from employment to residential services Apart from that, she attended and undergone the training program ‘Leadership in Mental Health Course 2017’ organized by SANGATH (Goa).
