Tag: Disability | Varta Trust

This graphic shows a colourful, roughly circular word cloud created with key words and phrases that appear in the accompanying article. The key words used in the graphic include disability, rare diseases, hope, potential, champion, possibilities, technology, accessibility and allyship. The word cloud, with a mix of colours like blue, green, magenta, purple and amber, appears on a white background. The shape, colours and the text of the graphic together seem to create a strong symbol of positivity and empowerment. Graphic credit: Pawan Dhall

Where there’s a will, there’s a champion!

By Shubhra Sinha

‘FebRAREuary2026’ was a month-long campaign on spreading awareness about rare diseases organized by World Without GNE Myopathy, Delhi. Shubhra Sinha shares her story written for the campaign

This image is a combination of a screengrab from ‘Wikipedia’ and text extracted from the accompanying article. The screengrab shows a sample of Bengali Braille alphabets as used in print in both India and Bangladesh. All the vowel alphabets and some of the consonant alphabets can be seen in the image displayed in four rows. In each row, the alphabets used by people with vision are presented in a sub-row on top, while the Braille version of each alphabet is provided below in a second sub-row. The extracted text says: “These hurdles deepen the already familiar link between poverty and disability in South Asia. Many visually disabled users rely entirely on limited mobile data, making the conversion of image PDFs an exhausting, sometimes impossible task. Students are particularly affected. A visually disabled undergraduate at Jadavpur University, educated in Bengali, told me she often has to depend on human readers for class materials. Her peers in English-medium programmes can download accessible texts immediately, while she faces a long and anxious wait.” Source: ‘Wikipedia’

Insight Jan '26

How language barriers create a privileged hierarchy for India’s disabled

By Dr. Ishan Chakraborty

With World Braille Day just gone past, Dr. Ishan Chakraborty highlights the challenges faced by Bengali-speaking visually disabled people in accessing digital content in their tongue

This illustration is a combination of a daytime indoor photograph and text extracted from the accompanying article. The photograph is a mid-range shot of a flooded landing of a small apartment building in Kolkata. The photograph has been taken from higher up on the stairs, with the banister on the left side of the stairs and a wall on the right side. Translucent brown water lit up by a tube light floods the landing up to the first step and the elevator shaft. The elevator gate is shut and the elevator itself has been switched off and stationed on a higher floor. A partially submerged bicycle stands at the bottom of the stairs. A grilled gate leading out of the landing is closed. The accompanying text says: “The elderly and the disabled who must live on the ground floor saw their rooms flooding, while those who live on the upper floors, found the elevators not working. I wonder how people with mobility issues would have managed, but the media outlets did not find it fit to cover these concerns. Instead, they showed visuals of Durga Puja pandals affected by the waters.” Photo credit: Pawan Dhall

Vartanama Sep '25

Flood of despair and indifference

By Shampa Sengupta

Shampa Sengupta writes about what the recent flooding in Kolkata meant for people with disabilities and the all-round disregard for their concerns

Quote: I am reminded of my training days where queerphobia, casteism, and ableism were so rampant that it was hard for me to gulp it down day after day and pretend as if there was nothing wrong. At this time, there was no singular event to signify the change I experienced. But it was life-changing for me in the sense that I stopped looking at the training curriculum as unbiased. I could zoom out and look at the curriculum critically, which is often difficult as we remain strongly enmeshed within the training system.

Commentary, Insight Sep '25

On queer self-determination (part 3)

By Meera, Aritra C.

Mental health professionals Meera Dhebar and Aritra C. continue their conversation on queer worldmaking across time periods and cultures

This is a mid-range photograph of a community dialogue on dementia awareness underway at Storyteller Bookstore in South Kolkata on August 23, 2025. The dialogue was organized by the mental health peer counsellors associated with Varta Trust. On the left, Nilanjana Maulik, Secretary of the Calcutta Chapter of the Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Society of India, is seated on a chair. She was the main speaker and can be seen smiling and talking to the participants in an animated manner. Around a dozen individuals, a mix of different genders and part of a larger audience not seen in the photograph, are seated in a semi-circle on chairs facing the speaker and listening attentively. A large TV screen can be seen behind the speaker displaying a slide from her presentation. An open laptop and some books can be seen placed on a low desk next to the speaker. Brightly coloured walls and book shelves of the bookstore make up the backdrop. The bookstore is lit up in a cheerful golden yellow light. Photo credit: Swati Das

Happenings, Vartanama Aug '25

From stigma to support: Talking dementia in queer and transgender communities

By Pawan Dhall, Sahil

Pawan Dhall and Sahil report on an interactive session on understanding and coping with dementia held recently in Kolkata

This illustration includes text extracted from the accompanying article superimposed on a vertically rectangular image of a musty grey wall, scarred and pockmarked in places. The image is symbolic of the wall described by the author in their article. The text extract says: "Together, the writings made a wall that refused erasure. Not aesthetic, but insurgent. Not decoration, but documentation. A manifesto of madness, queerness, resistance, and everything else the law school had no vocabulary for.” Background image credit P R on Unsplash

My Story Aug '25

The wall that held me

By Risha

Risha writes about their relationship with a scarred wall full of personal and political writings in their university hostel room

Quote: The value of oral histories is especially significant for socially marginalized communities whose stories are often silenced, distorted, or wiped out by the dominant groups. The very act of remembering and narrating can be seen as an act of defiance against silencing. We need to do more and more of oral histories – narrate, record, disseminate, and even re-narrate our stories far and wide. When a story becomes like a living organism, the task of silencing becomes more difficult for those who want only one narrative to survive.

Vartanama Mar '25

Memory works

By Pawan Dhall

Pawan Dhall on the many hues of remembering – personal, political, accepting imperfections and more

The photograph shows a close-up shot of a large collection of clocks with wooden casings in different shapes and sizes. There are large wall clocks, much smaller table clocks, and many sizes in between. Most clocks are round, while some are square or hexagonal. Some of the clocks have ornate hour and minute hands. The clock faces show different times, but all the clocks seem to be dysfunctional, discarded, and piled up in a container, which is not visible in the photograph. Photo credit: Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Poetry, Vartanama Feb '25

The 51st winter

By Rajib Chakrabarti

Rajib Chakrabarti has no qualms about accepting the severity of old age

The graphic shows a charcoal grey flag bisected diagonally from the top left corner to the lower right corner by five parallel stripes in red, pale gold, pale grey, light blue, and green, with each element symbolizing different aspects of the disability experience. All six standard flag colours imply that disability spans borders between states and nations; the black field stands for mourning for victims of ableist violence and abuse; the diagonal band implies cutting across the walls and barriers that separate disabled people from society; the red stripe stands for physical disabilities; the gold one for cognitive disabilities; the white stripe for invisible and undiagnosed disabilities; the blue stripe for psychiatric disabilities; and the green stripe for sensory disabilities. The graphic shows the visually safe Disability Pride Flag, an evolution of the ‘lightning bolt’ Disability Pride Flag. The redesigned flag is safer for people with visually-triggered disabilities and more accessible to people with colour blindness. Flag design credit: Ann Magill

Poetry Feb '25

On disabled resistance and community

By Nu Misra

Disabled persons do not need to be pathologized, patronized or pitied, says Nu Misra

This photograph shows a close-up shot of some of the books mentioned by the author in the accompanying article. One lot of five books are kept in a not-so-neat vertical pile on the author’s study table. These include T. J. Klune’s ‘In the Lives of Puppets’, ‘The House in the Cerulean Sea’ and ‘Somewhere Beyond the Sea’, Aiden Thomas’ ‘Cemetery Boys’, and Mason Deaver’s ‘Wish You All the Best’ right on top of the pile. Lex Croucher’s ‘Gwen & Art Are Not in Love’ is placed reclining on the pile on the right- hand side. To the pile’s left is the cover page of Andrew Joseph White’s ‘Hell Followed with Us’ visible on a Kindle e-reader. An open laptop, pen stand, and photo frame can be seen crowding the same study table as the books. In the background are two almirahs and a door ajar. Photo credit: Mihir Seth

Printed Word, Vartanama Jan '25

Notes on hoping taken from teenage queer fiction

By Mihir Seth

Mihir Seth finds the strength to go on in queer stories of trials, tribulations and hope

This illustration is a combination of a photograph and text extracted from the accompanying article. The photograph shows a scene from a media conference held at the Press Club Kolkata on December 3, 2024 to disseminate the findings of a survey of the one stop crisis centres running in the four states of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. The survey was conducted by the Women Gaining Ground consortium. The author and two other speakers Chitrita Bandpadhyay and Jhuma Sen can be seen sitting behind a table and addressing the audience. Behind the speakers, a flex banner mounted on the wall, reads “Sruti Disability Rights Centre invites you to sharing of survey report of one stop crisis centres from four states”. The event date and venue are mentioned below this text. The logos of Women Gaining Ground and Sruti Disability Rights Centre are placed at the lower right corner of the flex. The text extract says: “There are two major concerns that came forth from the survey. First, not a single OSCC addresses the concerns of women with disabilities. The buildings are not barrier-free, and no support persons like sign language interpreters or trauma-informed psychologists have been recruited. The staff of the centres seem completely unaware of the needs of women with disabilities. None of the centres is connected to the National Tele Mental Health Programme of India.” Photograph courtesy Sruti Disability Rights Centre

Insight Dec '24

Crisis in crisis intervention centres for women?

By Shampa Sengupta

How equipped are the government-run one stop crisis centres for women to carry out crisis intervention? Shampa Sengupta shares insight from a recent survey of the centres in four states...

Quote: It was said at the conference that sexual behaviour is ‘down there’, while sexual identity is ‘up there’. But the general perception seems to be: Never mind how much grey matter’s up there, down there it had better be big. Perhaps saying so is being unnecessarily pessimistic. Even so, in many minds the size fetish evokes a very real fear – a fear of inadequacy, of being unattractive, of being unwanted. This fear can only hinder the progress towards a healthier existence.

From the Archives, Vartanama Jan '24

Better fallible than supreme

By Pawan Dhall

There’s still time to make New Year resolutions that don’t celebrate excess, big size or Pyrrhic standards of perfection, says Pawan Dhall

This photograph shows a close-up daytime shot of dazzling white flowers growing on a slender stalk on the forest floor. The plant is surrounded with diverse green foliage growing on the wet soil. The whiteness of the flowers clearly stands out against the green and brown of the surroundings. The photograph was taken at the Karlapat Sanctuary Range near Bhawanipatna in Odisha in 2017. Photo credit: Pawan Dhall

Vartanama Dec '23

My anger narrative is white hot

By Pawan Dhall

Coming to terms with your anger can be a creative approach to welcoming the New Year, says Pawan Dhall

This photograph is an example of fine-art photography, consisting of several intersecting frames within an overall frame created by the unpainted red-brown brick walls of a poor household, lit up only with daylight from outside. To the left of the photograph is a woman dressed in a patterned cotton saree, worn in a style common in Bengal, wearing ‘shankha-pola’ in her hands, and leaning against a wall, which seems to be at the entrance of her house. She is looking down at the camera as the photographer seems to be seated on the floor. Her face is shrouded in half-light and she seems to have a grim demeanour. A younger person is seated on the floor next to her holding up a vertically rectangular frame that seems to be made of glass. The person is not visible, only a part of their head and hands holding up the frame are visible in the photograph. The frame shows the portion of an open window with an ornate grill design. Greenery is visible outside the window. Inside, just below the window and next to an unpainted brick wall, food is cooking in a pan placed on a mud ‘chulha’. A ladle is placed in the pan. Next to the ‘chulha’ seems to be a pile of twigs and wood shavings, possibly for use in the ‘chulha’. An interesting interplay of light, shadow and subdued colours dominates the photograph. Photo credit: Debalina

Insight, Policy Matters Nov '23

Domestic violence and disabled women – reflections from the field

By Dr. Nandini Ghosh

Domestic violence and lack of access to legal redress still pose serious challenges to the wellbeing of disabled women in India, says Dr. Nandini Ghosh

Quote: Somewhere amid all these positives, I also expect queer people with disabilities to be more visible, do well in life, and not be silenced in both queer and disability communities. Homophobic, transphobic and ableist people will still be around, but they may well be pushed to the fringes. A decade hence we may sit down and compare the predictions made by various authors on the pages of Varta and calculate the percentage of those that have come true.

My Story Aug '23

Cautious predictions for 2033 CE

By Rajib Chakrabarti

On ‘Varta’ webzine completing 10 years, Rajib Chakrabarti writes about the changes he expects to see for queer people and persons with disabilities a decade from now

Vartanama Jul '23

Tensions of the past and future

By Pawan Dhall

An imperfect digest of ‘Varta’ webzine’s journey through a decade of climaxes, anti-climaxes, and explorations for a social G-spot

Tagged Under: Disability

Where there’s a will, there’s a champion!

How language barriers create a privileged hierarchy for India’s disabled

Flood of despair and indifference

On queer self-determination (part 3)

From stigma to support: Talking dementia in queer and transgender communities

The wall that held me

Memory works

The 51st winter

On disabled resistance and community

Notes on hoping taken from teenage queer fiction

Crisis in crisis intervention centres for women?

Better fallible than supreme

My anger narrative is white hot

Domestic violence and disabled women – reflections from the field

Cautious predictions for 2033 CE

Tensions of the past and future

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