Unfold Yourself:Part2

Census 2011 data revealed that 2.21 percent of the population in India is suffering from one or the other kind of disability and it talks about eight types of disability. To look a decade ago, census 2001 has shown that 2.1% of the population in our country is affected by one of other disability and it mentioned about five types of disability. The population of persons with disabilities increasing day by day due to various factors and in most of the cases, disability is caused by road accident. For Looking at the unfriendly nature and infrastructure in the country and the perception of the society towards the PWDs make their life more miserable and difficult. Every one or other day, there are reports of discrimination towards the disabled people in their day to day life. 
The first ever world report on disability, published jointly by WHO and the World Bank, which suggests that more than a billion people in the world today experiment disability. People with disabilities have generally poorer heath, lower education achievements, fewer economic opportunities and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities and one of the major factors is non-availability of equal opportunities.
The report calls on governments to review and revise existing legislation and policies for consistency with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and to develop national disability strategies and action plans. WHO had also come up with its action for the 2014-2021 which envisage to have more just and equal society. 
The objectives of the WHO global disability action plan 2014-2021 are:

1. supporting the awareness and implementation of CRPD;
2. mainstreaming the rights of people with disabilities in the work of WHO;
3. Promoting the inclusion of disability and rehabilitation as a component in national health policies and programmes

From last few years we have been working on one aspect of 'Unfold Yourself' now taking it to the next level, we are taking it to the next level:

Unfold yourself, means to open, spread out and rediscover you. The statement itself communicates the core idea of the project. So the main agenda of this project is to providing space people to express their life journey using theatre as a medium.
Theatre is the one of the best available medium to express the powerful message to a larger audience, so the focus part of the project is an Inclusive Group working together in the theatre to express themselves and to show the real picture of the current situation in the society and how it affects the life of a human being mentally or emotionally. The inclusive theatre group actually believe that everyone have certain strength and capabilities which can be harness by giving proper guidance and space, theatre forum is the space where people can explore their talent as a team and also perform to bring awareness in the society about various issues matters to the society. 
I have had the opportunity to work and observe closely the journey of people with disabilities and their families to get the practical perspective and to understand their life style and experiences they go through, on the other hand as part of academics, I did my research on the Experience of Inclusive Education and how people/s struggle in making their own identity. One of the major outcomes of my research was people’s attitude toward PWDs; people want to work with PWDs not to explore their potential but to help them to live their life. Another outcome, general perception in the society is that PWDs are and cannot perform particular task and usually they considered as undeserving section of the lot. So, the need to work towards improving or changing the attitude of the public using theatre as a medium and also to communicate underlying idea that disabled people can also perform task if given proper guidance and opportunities. Hence, Inclusive forum will be right platform to bring people together and make them showcase their talent 
That’s why the model is designed in such a way where we can cater people from any age group and to provide space where they can think, rethink and discover their self and to provide them opportunity to empower themselves. The plan is to create awareness and promoting art and inclusive society using theatre as the medium of communication.
Objectives of the project:

1. Creating an inclusive structure where people with disability and non – disabled people can work together
2. Creating social awareness and to promote art and culture in the society
3. Explore strength / creativity which people have lost 
4. To remove stigma from the society and to work towards more equal