A matchmaking app for the differently-abled highlights how marginalised the community is
To be differently-abled in India is to be invisible. Society considers you less than a person, despite any number of laws against discrimination or the PM declaring that one should use the term “divinely-abled”, in itself a contentious premise. Disability rights activist Nidhi Goyal, who is visually impaired, recalls a recent conversation with an acquaintance, who exclaimed over Goyal’s gang of four friends. “This person told me, ‘It’s fantastic, and all the girls from your gang are married’. I said, excuse me, who am I — not a girl or not from my own gang? Because I am not married. But this person responded by saying ‘oh but its you’.” The premise, Goyal says, is that you are not “worthy enough” to be in a relationship.
It’s not too surprising, then, that in an online survey conducted in 2011 by a matrimonial website close to 60% women and 50% men said they would not marry someone with a physical disability. While there are some matrimonial websites that have separate portals for the disabled, it was a 24-year-old who thought of creating a matchmaking app mainly for the disabled community, where others are also welcome. Launched in January 2016 by Kalyani Khona and her friend, Shankar Srinivasan, Inclovcurrently has 20,000 registered users across the country. The app is possibly one of the few in India that are accessible and can be used by the visually impaired. Since its launch, there have been 8,000 matches, say the founders (a match happens when a request is accepted by the recipient).
Inclov has also been organising accessible, offline meetups, called Social Spaces, across cities, ranging from sports meetups to events at nightclubs in five-star hotels. “We have had people who travelled 700 km to attend a three three-hour meetup, and they didn’t necessarily come to find a match,” says Srinivasan.
Matchmaking with a Difference
Khona says she wanted to do something in the matchmaking space. “But I wanted to do it for a community that needed it and also have a strategy in place to do it.” She then thought of a matrimonial service for the disabled. “They don’t have the opportunities you and I have,” she says. The first avatar of Inclov was offline, in an office in Mumbai, where parents would come with profiles that Khona would physically sift through and try to match. But after a yearlong survey, this was abandoned in favour of an app, which was crowd-funded and could be accessible to a lot more people.
“We were also conscious about not accepting a single rupee as a donation because we wanted to do it on our terms,” says Khona. Using the app is free but the meetups are charged, as is a personalised matchmaking service called Inclov Select. Inclov has also raised money from investors like Google’s Rajan Anandan.
There are many who welcome the initiative. Among them is Arpan Bhagat, a 31-year-old IIM-Lucknow graduate, working in an investment bank. Bhagat says he read about Inclov and signed up because he was finding it difficult to find a partner, as he is differently abled. “I was able to find my soulmate on Inclov and I am very thankful to Kalyani and Shankar,” says Bhagat, who uses crutches as cerebral palsy prevents him from bending his knees. When using other mainstream portals he found that people often failed to notice his disability and when he would tell them about it, they would withdraw. “It’s a natural reaction,” reasons Bhagat.
Inclov organises offline events across cities and venues, from beaches to night clubs
His prospective fiancee, Anjali Mehta, is not disabled and says she was attracted to Bhagat’s genuineness. Mehta, 31, had signed up with Inclov without knowing that it was targeting a specific community. “I used to be a bit scared of people with disabilities earlier but not anymore,” says Mehta. Though her family was initially concerned, she says they left the decision to her.
Still In Little Boxes
But is a separate app what the differently abled community needs? Payal Kapoor, a hotelier and freelance writer, who is visually impaired, questions this assumption.
“Why do we need specialised apps? The other mainstream appsshould be made accessible first. Why shouldn’t those have universality and some amount of accessibility?” asks Kapoor. While very appreciative of Inclov’s efforts, the 48-year-old adds, “We still get put into a box.” Disability rights activist Goyal, too, raises critical questions about the concept, drawing parallels with creating a dating app for dark-skinned women, a clear negative in the “marriage market”, which would cause a furore.
“When we create an app specifically for people with disabilities and then include everybody else, it’s like larger society — that people with disabilities should engage more with others with disabilities.”
There are people with disabilities who are happy with an initiative like Inclov. Investment banker Bhagat, for instance, told ET Magazine that he felt Inclov worked because “People there have compassion, and both sides have some shortcomings.” But Goyal explains how this notion might be skewed. “The disabled are so marginalised in society because of the prejudices others have that they would rather be in a space with other people with disabilities where they will be on an equal footing, and be treated with dignity.” That, she says, is not a social solution. “It is like choosing the less worse of two bad options — be in the mainstream and be excluded, or be ghettoised and get dignity.”
Inclov’s Srinivasan says the idea is not to segregate the differently abled as that would contradict what they had set out to do. “In fact, 40% of our users are not disabled,” he says. The offline meetups, too, are open to everyone, he says. Both Kapoor and Goyal were appreciative of the efforts to organise offline events which offer a rare platform for people with disabilities to socialise, something that is not very easy, not least because of the lack of physical infrastructure and family concerns. As with the app, the ideal solution, though, would be to make broader socialising events inclusive and accessible as a long-term social integration practice, says Goyal.
The Inclov founders are now looking at taking the app abroad, and to include speech recognition and video calling, as well as to make it multilingual. Users would also be able to access the features on a web portal, by next month. “When I talk about being inclusive, I want it to benefit as many people as people. Lives should change,” says Khona, confidently.
Источник: https://m.economictimes.com/magazines/panache/disabled-community-wonders-why-a-separate-matchmaking-app-is-needed-for-them/articleshow/61610259.cmsIt’s not too surprising, then, that in an online survey conducted in 2011 by a matrimonial website close to 60% women and 50% men said they would not marry someone with a physical disability. While there are some matrimonial websites that have separate portals for the disabled, it was a 24-year-old who thought of creating a matchmaking app mainly for the disabled community, where others are also welcome. Launched in January 2016 by Kalyani Khona and her friend, Shankar Srinivasan, Inclovcurrently has 20,000 registered users across the country. The app is possibly one of the few in India that are accessible and can be used by the visually impaired. Since its launch, there have been 8,000 matches, say the founders (a match happens when a request is accepted by the recipient).
Inclov has also been organising accessible, offline meetups, called Social Spaces, across cities, ranging from sports meetups to events at nightclubs in five-star hotels. “We have had people who travelled 700 km to attend a three three-hour meetup, and they didn’t necessarily come to find a match,” says Srinivasan.
Matchmaking with a Difference
Khona says she wanted to do something in the matchmaking space. “But I wanted to do it for a community that needed it and also have a strategy in place to do it.” She then thought of a matrimonial service for the disabled. “They don’t have the opportunities you and I have,” she says. The first avatar of Inclov was offline, in an office in Mumbai, where parents would come with profiles that Khona would physically sift through and try to match. But after a yearlong survey, this was abandoned in favour of an app, which was crowd-funded and could be accessible to a lot more people.
“We were also conscious about not accepting a single rupee as a donation because we wanted to do it on our terms,” says Khona. Using the app is free but the meetups are charged, as is a personalised matchmaking service called Inclov Select. Inclov has also raised money from investors like Google’s Rajan Anandan.
There are many who welcome the initiative. Among them is Arpan Bhagat, a 31-year-old IIM-Lucknow graduate, working in an investment bank. Bhagat says he read about Inclov and signed up because he was finding it difficult to find a partner, as he is differently abled. “I was able to find my soulmate on Inclov and I am very thankful to Kalyani and Shankar,” says Bhagat, who uses crutches as cerebral palsy prevents him from bending his knees. When using other mainstream portals he found that people often failed to notice his disability and when he would tell them about it, they would withdraw. “It’s a natural reaction,” reasons Bhagat.
Inclov organises offline events across cities and venues, from beaches to night clubs
His prospective fiancee, Anjali Mehta, is not disabled and says she was attracted to Bhagat’s genuineness. Mehta, 31, had signed up with Inclov without knowing that it was targeting a specific community. “I used to be a bit scared of people with disabilities earlier but not anymore,” says Mehta. Though her family was initially concerned, she says they left the decision to her.
Still In Little Boxes
But is a separate app what the differently abled community needs? Payal Kapoor, a hotelier and freelance writer, who is visually impaired, questions this assumption.
“Why do we need specialised apps? The other mainstream appsshould be made accessible first. Why shouldn’t those have universality and some amount of accessibility?” asks Kapoor. While very appreciative of Inclov’s efforts, the 48-year-old adds, “We still get put into a box.” Disability rights activist Goyal, too, raises critical questions about the concept, drawing parallels with creating a dating app for dark-skinned women, a clear negative in the “marriage market”, which would cause a furore.
“When we create an app specifically for people with disabilities and then include everybody else, it’s like larger society — that people with disabilities should engage more with others with disabilities.”
There are people with disabilities who are happy with an initiative like Inclov. Investment banker Bhagat, for instance, told ET Magazine that he felt Inclov worked because “People there have compassion, and both sides have some shortcomings.” But Goyal explains how this notion might be skewed. “The disabled are so marginalised in society because of the prejudices others have that they would rather be in a space with other people with disabilities where they will be on an equal footing, and be treated with dignity.” That, she says, is not a social solution. “It is like choosing the less worse of two bad options — be in the mainstream and be excluded, or be ghettoised and get dignity.”
Inclov’s Srinivasan says the idea is not to segregate the differently abled as that would contradict what they had set out to do. “In fact, 40% of our users are not disabled,” he says. The offline meetups, too, are open to everyone, he says. Both Kapoor and Goyal were appreciative of the efforts to organise offline events which offer a rare platform for people with disabilities to socialise, something that is not very easy, not least because of the lack of physical infrastructure and family concerns. As with the app, the ideal solution, though, would be to make broader socialising events inclusive and accessible as a long-term social integration practice, says Goyal.
The Inclov founders are now looking at taking the app abroad, and to include speech recognition and video calling, as well as to make it multilingual. Users would also be able to access the features on a web portal, by next month. “When I talk about being inclusive, I want it to benefit as many people as people. Lives should change,” says Khona, confidently.
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