Shweta Chooramani fulfils her love for writing by contributing to several blogs, along with being a full-time mother. Previously, she has worked for more than eight years in the international NGO and corporate sectors. When not listening to nursery rhymes, she freelance for public health, disability, education, corporate social responsibility, social audits, community development and rehabilitation projects.
– lookalikes, pale and boring. You choose who you are.It was the first time that I was seeing a woman with a visible impairment marching happily towards parenthood.
Often, the disability and parenthood combination is viewed with negativity. The notion being that if a woman is not able to take care of herself, how is she going to fulfil the responsibilities of motherhood? After all, she faces enough physical and emotional turmoil without having to go through childbirth and raising a child!
But the question really is, how equipped are we as a society to fulfil her dreams without blaming her for her decision to embrace motherhood? Society involves her spouse, family, friends, gynaecologist, maternity centre, support services, assistive devices, special care givers, employers and general public at large. Empowering a PWD demands a lot from society after all – identifying them, making the family accept them as they are, making them go to school, encouraging higher studies, waiving off fees, giving scholarships, subsidising their cost of living, giving access to assistive devices, making them link with employers, allowing them to marry and as a culmination, to have children.
Very well described!!
Thanks Sandeep.
Salute to this!!! Beautifully written and wonderfully expressed.Shweta thank you for creating awareness about this ignored but very important subject in the society.I hope and pray that people should come out of societal pressures and stigma attached to it.Time to be human,behave human and think Human!!!!
Thanks Chetna. We need to move from sympathy to empathy for such issues.
Well-written! I know what you mean when you say “if a woman is not able to take care of herself, how is she going to fulfil the responsibilities of motherhood?” My aunt has suffered from partial paralysis but she has raised two beautiful daughters all by herself. It must have been challenging, especially when the girls were small, but she has managed just as well (if not better) as a “normal” mother would have. I think being a mother gives you that strength.
Thanks Shuchi. I salute to all those woman who have undergone this. As you said rightly, being a mother gives you that strength.
This is a lovely post. This and giving birth to a disable child is constantly on mind. Being a physiotherapist and a public health person, treating a child with disability was always difficult, especially, when the outcome was known to be not very positive. How does one balance ensuring the child that he/she has the same opportunities as the next child and aalso prepare the child for societal challenges? And not to forget the parents’ turmoil. Nevertheless, they are beautiful and just being a child.
Thanks Annapurna. The dilemma a mother goes through plus the societal pressure. Will keep coming back to you for more clues on this subject to write about.
Thanks for touching upon this sensitive issue.. This definitely is food for thought…
Thanks Poonam. We need to circulate such issues more and more on the public forums.
Hi Shweta,
Nice to be here,
Here, I am via A to z Fb page
good piece here, yes, in fact
this 20+ lady proved
“Disability is not a liability”
Yes. History is filled with lot
of such courageous people
Thanks Shweta for sharing this incident
C U At A to Z pages
Happy Blogging
Philip
Thanks for reading Philip, as you rightly summarized, disability is not a liability. Looking forward for A to Z challenge, all the best.