Prateek Khandelwal’s existence took a significant flip in 2014 when he fell from an under-construction development. The twist of fate left the IT engineer paralyzed from the waist beneath and in a wheelchair.
On the time, Prateek was once an lively younger skilled with a a success profession and an energetic social existence, just like many others of their mid-20s. These days, he runs RampMyCity in Bengaluru, a startup that works to make stronger accessibility for other people with disabilities and the aged in India.
As he tailored to his new fact again then, he knew that he wasn’t going to let his wheelchair prevent him from residing absolutely. Despite the fact that public attitudes in opposition to him modified, with some buddies providing him sympathy whilst others turning into far-off, he dedicated himself to strenuous bodily treatment right through the primary 4 years after the twist of fate.
Faced with headaches equivalent to bladder problems and muscle atrophy from his spinal twine harm, Prateek selected to concentrate on his growth over residing at the demanding situations.
4 years of bodily coaching helped Prateek make vital growth, however he confronted a brand new drawback: he couldn’t cross out to devour at his favorite eating places or every other puts he loved prior to. This led him to create his startup as he understood simply how an important ramps had been in breaking obstacles and getting access to the arena outdoor.
Based in 2020, RampMyCity targets to supply entire infrastructure answers for each private and non-private sectors. This comprises ramps, accessibility audits, retrofitting, and extra. To this point, Prateek has helped set up over 530 ramps in towns like Bengaluru, Goa, Gurgaon, and Mumbai.
‘Why must I prevent residing my existence when my thoughts and spirit are unfastened?’
Prateek’s brother Nirbhik recollects that right through his remedy, his possibilities of survival had been narrow. On the other hand, Prateek vowed to his physician, “I’m going to return to you after two years and display you that my existence does no longer finish right here.”
This promise was once the start of Prateek’s adventure to restoration. To begin with, he noticed his buddies drifting away and a significant courting coming to an finish. “We noticed his social existence disappear and his state of affairs aggravate,” stocks Nirbhik.
However, coaching below his physiotherapist for 8-10 hours an afternoon, Prateek sparsely monitored how his bladder and abdomen reacted to each and every chunk of meals and sip of liquid. “Restoration concerned numerous trial and blunder. Through the years, I discovered that development comes slowly, however patience is vital,” he stocks.
Through 2017, he may stand with a walker and carry out duties like cooking, or even use crutches. It was once then that he questioned, “Why must I prevent residing my existence when my thoughts and spirit are unfastened regardless of my demanding situations? I’m bold, a big-time foodie, and love assembly my buddies. Why must a wheelchair put an finish to it?”
Made up our minds to not let his wheelchair restrict him, he started attaining out to his buddies after 4 years of isolation. “Even though they had been to start with not sure, they sooner or later realised I used to be nonetheless the similar individual and invited me again into their social circles,” he says.
However the circle of relatives struggled to search out available places for Prateek, so that they took it upon themselves to put in ramps. This fashion, he may sign up for them of their outings to eating places and theatres. “The function wasn’t to begin an enormous trade however to make stronger accessibility for other people like Prateek, serving to them experience a existence very similar to someone else,” says Nirbhik, including that with the ability to cross out for weekends and date nights boosted Prateek’s self belief.
“Giving him a regular existence was once the most important good fortune for us,” he remarks.
In his effort to reconnect with the group, Prateek confronted a harsh fact: the loss of accessibility in India. Regardless of residing in a prestigious development, he found out that neither the development itself nor public areas like banks, eating places, metro or police stations, theatres had been available to him.
“This realisation hit me laborious, making me really feel as though I had been in an everlasting lockdown,” he says.
Many of us with disabilities are compelled to stick indoors as a result of such infrastructural obstacles. The Global Financial institution experiences that about 15% of the worldwide inhabitants has some type of incapacity. Given India’s inhabitants of over 1.4 billion, this interprets to roughly 21 crore other people with disabilities.
This raises the query: The place are those people?
The disabled group is likely one of the greatest and maximum marginalised teams, ceaselessly unseen and confined to their properties. A very powerful query to believe then is what the federal government is doing about accessibility. The Rights of Individuals with Disabilities (RPwD) Act of 2016 mandates equivalent get right of entry to and common design requirements, however enforcement is ceaselessly insufficient within the nation.
“Executive initiatives ceaselessly characteristic substandard accessibility options, with ramps that don’t meet important requirements. There’s a notable loss of motion from startups, NGOs, and wheelchair advocates as smartly,” Prateek remarks. To fill this hole, he created RampMyCity.
“RampMyCity wasn’t created simply from my concepts by myself,” Prateek says. “It grew out of my real-life studies. We discuss with each and every location to determine the ramp necessities after which devise an answer that works with out disrupting the present setup. Our manner is at all times sensible and begins from the ground up.”
The initiative started with a marketing campaign to steer eating places to put in ramps, aiming to switch the view of accessibility from a charity factor to a well-liked purpose. Its first product was once a easy, crowd pleasing ramp designed to make accessibility extra visual and mainstream and put it on the market in standard places.
A key problem for Prateek was once the lack of know-how in regards to the want for ramps, making it difficult to draw sponsors. “Being convincing is an important when the desire isn’t transparent to others,” he displays.
“Ramps don’t want any cement or brickwork. We determined to fabricate metal and aluminium ramps in our workshop, which will also be briefly put in at any location with out a downtime,” he stocks. This makes it a easy and environment friendly resolution.
To begin with, RampMyCity fascinated by eateries as a result of they draw in numerous other people. Between 2018 and 2020, it had arrange ramps at 60 places. “As our paintings turned into extra visual, we started receiving requests from different sectors like banks, colleges, and hospitals,” says Prateek, including that despite the fact that COVID-19 slowed issues down slightly, the staff of 9 persevered to make growth and put in over 70 ramps at number one healthcare centres in Bengaluru.
Making Bengaluru one in all India’s maximum wheelchair-friendly towns
In Bengaluru, the startup has ramped Church Boulevard, over 100 eating places, 50+ police stations, shops, and ATMs, making it probably the most wheelchair-friendly towns in India.
“Despite the fact that our staff is small, we’re continuously operating within the box. Putting in a ramp isn’t so simple as it sounds; it calls for a number of rounds of audits and surveys because of the town’s unorganised expansion,” he unearths.
Whilst rules have outlined ramp requirements, the present infrastructure ceaselessly doesn’t meet those requirements because of area constraints and hindrances like parking and drainage. “We first habits a technical audit to resolve the most efficient form of ramp for each and every location, making sure that each and every ramp is customised to suit the web site’s wishes,” Prateek states.
In keeping with Ipsita Sarkar, who has recognized Prateek since school and has labored with RampMyCity since 2018, the important thing to the organisation’s good fortune is Prateek’s pressure to encourage himself and the ones round him. She describes how they began by means of inviting wheelchair customers to occasions to assist them escape in their shells.
The turning level for Prateek got here in 2022 when Lok Sabha MP Tejasvi Surya took realize of his paintings and requested him to put in ramps at 10 outstanding executive constructions in Bengaluru. The startup effectively put in ramps in a park, a health center, and at different websites.
“With Dunzo sponsoring the initiative, they added 10 ramps in simply 20 days. That second marked a brand new bankruptcy for us and gave us the visibility we wanted,” Prateek says.
These days, RampMyCity has expanded to quite a lot of towns, together with Delhi, Cyber Hub, Galleria Marketplace in Goa, and standard markets in Mumbai. Lately, it’s operating on ramping up police stations and eateries in Mumbai.
RampMyCity handles the entirety – from ramps and railings to furnishings and toilet equipment, elevators, wheelchairs, and emergency evacuation answers. As an example, the staff supplies particular wheelchairs that may navigate stairs right through emergencies when elevators can’t be used.
It resources those merchandise from throughout India, each in the community and centrally, to satisfy quite a lot of wishes. Via this, it has reinvigorated the business, expanding provide and opening the marketplace to new avid gamers fascinated by incapacity answers.
“We’ve been requested by means of a lot of organisations to create end-to-end accessibility answers for his or her offices, which come with the entirety from available parking and access routes to doorways and charging issues. We additionally deal with how workspaces, card-punch spaces, washrooms, and canteens are all designed to be inclusive and user-friendly,” he notes.
“Everybody talks about how India can be advanced by means of 2047, however we will have to needless to say true building begins with accessibility,” Prateek stocks, whilst remarking that international locations like Singapore and the ones in Europe are regarded as advanced as a result of they’re available. “For India to succeed in that stage, accessibility will have to come first. That is the imaginative and prescient we attempt for.”
Tapping into the company marketplace
“The truth is that many of us have restricted budgets for accessibility options,” states Prateek. Cafes would possibly best spend a couple of thousand on ramps, however correct ramps with the suitable period and gradient value extra.
This was once the problem for Prateek and his staff as a result of other people sought after ramps however weren’t keen to pay for high quality. “We had to give you the chance to scale up briefly, aiming for 1000’s of ramps consistent with yr, no longer simply dozens. Even massive companies with considerable revenues ceaselessly don’t price range for true accessibility. We noticed a possibility in CSR and philanthropic investment to assist us develop and meet our goals,” Prateek says.
In overall, 70% of the overall Company Social Duty (CSR) spending from 2018 thru 2021 went to schooling, healthcare, rural building, environmental sustainability, and poverty, in step with a Bain & Corporate record. RampMyCity approached those companies, proposing they spend money on public accessibility initiatives.
“We introduced to control installations in public puts, hospitals, and police stations, with the federal government offering the important permissions. This fashion has helped RampMyCity scale hastily, stocks Prateek, including that the startup is recently operating to faucet into this massive pool of CSR cash to make stronger public infrastructure.
When requested how he stayed motivated right through the early days of his startup whilst adjusting to existence in a wheelchair and an unclear trail forward, Prateek says it was once all about taking child steps. “When you’re constant in operating in opposition to your objectives, there’ll at all times be some way ahead,” he stocks, quoting his non-public mantra: Kismat ke bharose mat baithiye; kismat khud aapke bharose baithi hai (Don’t look forward to success/kismet; it’s ready so that you can make a transfer).
“My harm compelled me to stand myself. I may both develop into my biggest best friend or my largest enemy,” he stocks. Years after the twist of fate, when Prateek reviewed his existence, his previous achievements, and took word of the go-getting perspective he had at all times had, he was once in a position to piece in combination his identification. This ended in a renewed center of attention on his objectives.
For the ones dealing with an identical struggles, his recommendation is to accept as true with the method. “Through the years, you’ll see how the larger plan was once made for you.”
He additional provides, “I’ve by no means regretted my harm or my existence in a wheelchair. As a substitute, I see it as a fantastic alternative that I wouldn’t have had differently. It’s allowed me to look what number of people with disabilities can reside complete, customary lives; shuttle, paintings, and be a part of society.”
Edited by means of Padmashree Pande; Photos Courtesy: Prateek Khandelwal
Assets:
https://www.bain.com/globalassets/noindex/2022/bain_report_india_philanthropy_report-2022.pdf. Bain & Corporate India Philanthrophy File 2022
https://www.worldbank.org/en/subject/incapacity#:~:textual content=Onepercent20billionpercent20peoplepercent2Cpercent20orpercent2015,enjoypercent20somepercent20formpercent20ofpercent20disability. Incapacity Inclusion – Global Financial institution
https://www.indiacode.nic.in/bitstream/123456789/15939/1/the_rights_of_persons_with_disabilities_actpercent2C_2016.pdf. The Rights Of Individuals With Disabilities Act, 2016