Can neurodivergence be a young activist’s superpower, as social crusader Greta Thunberg, 22, seems to exemplify? Those living with it in Mumbai tell us about the rewards and the toll it takes
Mohammed Ali distributing food on Friday right before the weekend when midday meal are not available.PIC/SAMEER SYED ABEDI
When Dhaval Shah was 11, his school was visited by members of an NGO just before Diwali. They explained the exploitative nature of the firecracker industry in India and that they were made by children just like them. This had a lasting impact on Shah, now 37. “I have never burst firecrackers since,” he says.
He eventually realised that he perhaps felt the pinch of injustice more keenly than most people because he is neurodivergent. Shah has battled anxiety and depression all his life, but things changed when his therapist told him that his symptoms seem to go beyond these two mental health challenges. In 2023, he was tested for ADHD, and began medication for it. “Last year I thought I was doing well on my own, so I went off them.
Things got bad with my mental health,” he says. “I restarted them in January of this year, but I am just taking a break and only concentrating on my health for now,” adds the photographer. For most who are neurodivergent, staying mum and not standing up when a social injustice is being perpetrated almost feels like being physically choked. Social justice crusader Greta Thunberg, who has most recently been in the news for her efforts to provide aid to displaced Palestinians, has famously spoken about how her neurodivergence is her “superpower”.
This, when coupled with the inability to do something about it, leaves many, just like Shah, more discouraged than the average neurotypical person. Shah took a major hit in 2020 when he went back to his native place in Kutch to teach English to more than 50 children in the neighbourhood who were out of school and restless. “After the lockdown eased I wanted to open a school in my village, but there is so much corruption; despite making efforts I realised it was not possible to open the school so I came back. It has been too painful for me to revisit,” adds Shah, who keeps getting messages from the children he taught, like “When are you coming back?” Many of them have followed him on Instagram, but he recently uninstalled the app given the horrific visuals coming out of Gaza. “I will eventually go back to my village one day. I need to get better to go and help someone. People often think it’s the other way around, but it’s not,” he adds.
Snehal Desai was active almost in every march with regards to CAA in the city
The flashpoint for many people closer to home, including neurodivergent persons, was the CAA protests back in 2019-2020. In fact, Snehal Desai, a 30-year-old physiotherapist, was about to fly out to Delhi when the lockdown was announced days before. Desai was diagnosed with ADHD only last year and has been through the wringer with medication that initially did not work for her, finding some stability only recently.
“When I was a part of the CAA protest, I hadn’t been diagnosed with ADHD yet and was working with my therapist for depression and anxiety. Until CAA, I wouldn’t share my opinion very easily. Looking at the polarising view, it was the first time that I spoke up and started going to protests and being vocal about it on social media,” says Desai, a resident of Andheri. Her opinions cost her friendships and even a few family ties, but she does not mourn their loss. Instead, she talks about the mental toll it took to feel so deeply about an injustice. “For now I don’t post much and choose to have productive conversations with people to spread awareness instead of just posting. This way I conserve my energy or rather channel it productively,” she adds.
Snehal Desai
For now, her focus has been on self-advocacy, which is when the neurodivergent person explains possible reasons for their behaviour which a neurotypical person may not understand. “I am now trying to basically self-advocate and tell people why it takes me time to do things,” she adds. Self-advocacy has become the key in the neurotypical world to gain more insight into someone who might be dealing with a diagnosis, and Greta Thunberg’s self-advocacy has been pivotal for many in the community.
Balram Vishwakarma, one of the mangers of “Andheri West s**t posting”, has been taking some personal time off social media. He tells us that he has been posting less than he used to, especially in 2025, and wants to concentrate on mental health. “Back in 2022, I was almost on a self-destruction rampage. My friends did an intervention and told me that, at this rate, I will end up in jail, and that they’d rather see me at the therapists.
Dhaval Shah (blue shirt) with children whom he taught English during the lockdown
Soon, I got diagnosed with what but part of my neurodivergence is that I cannot tolerate injustice. Which essentially translates into my positioning about issues we as Mumbaikars face. For example the assumption that Metro will solve all our problems, but the fact is not everyone can afford it or when a community is ill-treated and no one says anything,” he says. Grappling with these injustices has cost Vishwakarma a lot, from a lack of mental bandwidth to difficulty holding down a regular job. “I realised that I am unable to do tasks with just ADHD tools and needed medication. I have just been on them for a month and know it’s still a
long way to go, but it’s time for me to earn some decent money,” he adds in his characteristic Vishwakarma way.
Holding down a “regular” job might be difficult for many, but a few like Mohammed Ali, 29, a resident of Versova, have tried to find balance by being a part of something bigger than themselves. “I am an engineer for five days a week, and on Saturday and Sunday I volunteer with the NGO Robin Hood Army,” he tells us over the phone. A self-professed foodie, Ali would go around the city and experiment with food, but it was in the months of Ramzan when his mother took him around to give to the needy, that he realised food is a luxury for many kids in the city. “This NGO takes surplus food and redistributes it to children, mainly on the weekend, because they often do not have midday meals available on the weekend and their working-class parents would be out at work or in search of daily-wage jobs, and might not be able to get any,” he adds.
Tayzeem
Ali is one of those people who gets calls at 1 am and drives out to collect surplus food from a wedding or party. “My ADHD diagnosis happened only two years ago, but I knew at a really young age that I saw things differently from other people my age. It’s probably the reason that my weekends are as busy as my weekdays. If I get a call about surplus food, I have to go and give it to the kids,” he adds.
Tayzeem, 34, made a shift from photography to helping teachers understand kids who might be neurodivergent, and to explain that they don’t need to be put in a special school. “I myself have autism, and the turning point came when I was working as a photographer in Delhi and a family said to me that their son [who had similar challenges as me]was ‘lazy’,” he adds.
“I told the parents that he is not lazy, he just looks at the world differently, and you need to support him and learn how he sees the world,” he says. Soon, he quit his job and became a full-time volunteer for a school for special needs. “I realised that I don’t agree with the thinking that children with disabilities need a separate school. So I came to Mumbai and did a two-year fellowship with Ummeed Child Development Centre and worked with the school services team,” he says.
“Teachers often tell me that a student cannot sit still; I have to explain to them that it’s not a bad thing if the child moves around in the one hour of class. It’s just that academic structures are so rigid; we have to look at them differently,” he adds. We also need to make room for neurodivergents who may not be diagnosed, he says; his point is that support — medicated or non-medicated — is more important than diagnosis. “It’s not like anyone who might have any neurodivergence needs to have a sort of certificate,” he says over the phone. Before ending the call, Tayzeem tells us that we can give out his contact to anyone who might need help, or just a listening ear. “I am always there to listen,” he says.
Deep empathy
Priyanka Agarwal, Occupational Therapist, Autism Intervention Services at Ummeed Child Development Centre
Priyanka Agarwal
“Children on the spectrum or who are neurodivergent often may be triggered on reading the news, especially about crimes against persons with disability, or even when they see injustice towards people they love. Their empathy runs very deep, and it may veer them off course in a day, and we try to support them and give them tools to deal with this.”
What is neurodivergence?
Neurodivergence describes individuals whose brains function and process information differently from the societal norm, or “neurotypical” standard. Neurodivergent people often have unique strengths and challenges, and the goal is to promote acceptance, understanding, and accommodation rather than attempting to “fix” these different ways of experiencing the world.
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