This distributor is making mutual funds 'sahi' for hearing impaired

23-year-old Rahul Gala is empowering the deaf community with Indian sign language-enabled investing tips

- Sashind Ningthoukhongjam

If you don't have a finance background, it can be difficult to invest on your own. Most retail investors take help of a knowledgeable friend or turn to YouTube to understand the basics of investing. But what about the deaf community? There's little information on mutual funds that's available in sign language. In fact, six hearing-impaired people told Mint that they have never come across a guide to mutual funds in sign language.

Tushar Viradiya, who works with an NGO, wrote that he had seen the 'Mutual Funds sahi hai' advertisement but was not able to understand exactly what it was saying. Although he had met some mutual fund distributors 10 years ago, they weren't of much help as they couldn't communicate in Indian Sign Language (ISL).

Now, Viradiya and 41 others like him have started investing in mutual funds thanks to Rahul Gala, a 23-year-old mutual fund distributor who is also hearing impaired and can communicate using ISL.

Gala said he now has 45 clients, 42 of whom are hearing impaired. However, with just around Rs 20 lakh in assets under management, he is barely able to eke out Rs 800 a month from the business.

"One of my goals is to set up an organisation where I can collaborate with other AMCs (asset management companies) and regulators to provide services for our community by providing information on every product in ISL," he told Mint in an interview conducted through text messages and handwritten notes. Here are edited excerpts from the interview.

Why did you become a mutual fund distributor?

I decided to become a mutual fund distributor (MFD) to address the critical gap in financial accessibility for the deaf community. Growing up in a deaf family, I witnessed firsthand how financial knowledge was often out of reach for our community. Many relied heavily on family members for financial decisions, which sometimes resulted in less-than-ideal outcomes.