SHAPING INCLUSION THROUGH EXPERIENCE

One accident changed everything for Dr Sruti Mohapatra, a disability inclusion expert from Odisha.

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Overnight, she was not only injured but also removed from life as she knew it. Once someone who had cleared the civil services, she has gone on to become a leading disability inclusion expert, driven by a society that had never planned for difference. “After being excluded from social spaces, I chose to transform this personal loss into a force for social change,” she reveals. In 1996, she was appointed convener of Disabled Peoples’ International in India, marking her first direct engagement with the community. From there, there has been no looking back. She has travelled across the world, deepened her understanding of systemic issues, learned how to ask the right questions, and mastered the language needed to engage with bureaucracy and policy.