Ms. Manita Kumari

Personal Details:

22 years
188, Sonia Gandhi Camp, Naraina, New Delhi

She Belongs to Muzaffarpur, Bihar. She had Studied upto class 7 from Nagar Nigam Palika Balika Vidyalaya, E-Block, Naraina, New Delhi. She had training in Sewing.

Ms. Manita has become disabled because of Paralysis of both lower limbs. She is disabled from when she was merely 2.5 years old. Medically it is defined as average muscle power around right hip, knee and ankle is grade 1, 2 and 3 respectively while on left side it is grade 1, 2 and 3 respectively. She received treatment for 6 months only. The economic status of her parents did not allow to continue her treatment more than this. Her poverty does not allow her to use any assistive devices and she walks without any aids. This limits her movement and she cannot go beyond her colony. But disability did not stop her working at a Brush factory as a brush making labour.

She is now a married woman, her husband is unemployed. She has one child (girl now 11 days old, healthy and no signs of disability is observed so far)

Her other family members are her three younger sisters & three younger brothers and her mother. Her sisters are working as maidservants in the nearby locality.

She left her job partially due to marriage, and partially because she could not work properly due to her disability.

She aspires to be a tailor or embroider and wants to open a STD/PCO booth also in the proximity of her home. Still now she did not receive any monetary help from anywhere.

Source: Personal Interview on 31st October, 2002