Can and able

Dance and sport were her life but when Naseema Mohammed Amin Hurzuk turned 16 she became a paraplegic Suddenly she found herself bedridden and wheelchairbound and she lost her will to live Naseema Hurzuk wants to focus on public infrastructure at schools and colleges which are illequipped for physically challenged students and civic hospitals where rehab centres are needed within the premises that can be manned by the physically challenged Thatrsquos when she met Babu Kaka Diwan a fellow paraplegic who ran his own industry He showed her how she could be independent despite her infirmities Computer lab with special provisions at Samarth Vidya Mandir With a renewed zest to live Hurzuk in 1984 registered the nonprofit organisation Helpers of the Handicapped in Kolhapur Her main focus was to redress the lack of a comprehensive rehabilitation programme in Maharashtra Cashew Unit at Swapna Nagari Guts all the way Over the years the organisation has expanded to form a Vocational Training Centre VTC 1993 Gharonda 1996 a hostelcumrehabilitation centre and Samarth Vidya Mandir 2001 an integrated school for such children with customised infrastructure At Swapna Nagari an agricultural project in Sindhudurg the differently abled are involved in cashew processing and furniture making they also make customised furniture for the physically challenged among other activities Her work has won her several accolades including the FICCI Ability Award for Eminence 2003 and most recently the Woman of the Year award from the IMC Winning for Hurzuk means more responsibility to reach out to more physically challenged people ldquoThey must be integrated into society and be able to make a living There needs to be mental rehabilitation as wellrdquo she explains Hurdles galore Her work is centred in Kolhapur and Sindhudurg While shersquos keen to launch such facilities in Mumbai and other cities the lack of support hasnrsquot helped her expand She is dismayed with government apathy ldquoApart from the two acres of land for the hostel and two acres for the school therersquos been no help Only foreign funding and corporate sponsorships have made all this possible We tried operating incomegenerating ventures like running an LPG agency but the bureaucratic harassment made us reconsiderrdquo sighs Hurzuk She was also part of the National Commission For Women and appointed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment as a member of a welfare committee but the experience left her feeling disillusioned ldquoThere was no change and no vision for change so I dissociated myself from it It is the governmentrsquos responsibility to look after the physically challenged but theyrsquove been shrugging it off For eight years we ran a residential centre for the mentally challenged in Pune but the government shut it down citing lack of manpower there have been many such instancesrdquo Hurzuk is presently working to get a bill passed that offers tax exemptions for the physically challenged ldquoTheir production capacity is less and to meet the demands they end up working more Eventually when taxes take away a large share of the revenue it demoralises themrdquo she explains adding that they paid lakhs of rupees in taxes and havenrsquot got 50 of the refunds yet Log on to wwwhohkorginu00a0