SPIRIT TO SERVE NEEDS NO CRUTCHES

Despite 60 per cent disability, Jalandhar’s Kaushalya Devi has been fighting for the rights of the differently-abled and has helped hundreds of such people get their pensions

- Harpreet Bajwa

Kaushalya Devi was afflicted by polio when she was just three. With 60 per cent of her body disabled, Kaushalya would struggle to even climb the staircases of her house. Eventually, she had to take the support of crutches.

Despite the hurdles, Kaushalya didn’t give up her goals. Today, Kaushalya, a resident of a small village in Punjab’s Jalandhar, is a well known crusader for differently-abled. In the last 10 years, the 40-year-old social activist has helped over 800 such people get their pensions.

The wheelchair-borne has also been running campaigns to make people, especially those with speech and hearing impairment, aware of their voting rights in elections.

A post-graduate in vocation training for deaf and dumb and a trained ITI instructor, Kaushalya took her first step into social service after her father, Sohan Lal, who was also disabled, introduced her to a friend, Kashmir Singh Sanuwa, in 2008.